Insular and close-knit communities are great at keeping unwanted problems (or people) at bay, but want happens when social woes mushroom from within? Passive finger-pointing and a town collectively wearing blinders provide the perfect decoy for a teen’s pregnancy shrouded in secrecy and doubt. When we think we’ve got gossip kindling that’ll make ripples into waves, the tide subsides and injustice prevails when an a quick outcome is preferred over dealing with the actual root of the problem.

An Oscilloscope Laboratories release, Jeanne Leblanc‘s sophomore feature Our Own (Les nôtres) plays like an unaccelerated thriller — think an abandoned game of Clue where the towns participants exercise one form of justice while the film’s young female protagonist takes ownership of her own free will. I got to speak with the filmmaker right after the film’s lead Émilie Bierre won Best Actress at the Gala Québec Cinéma (Quebec Oscars) and just prior to getting it’s release Stateside.