GABRIELLE World Cinema

Gabrielle (winningly played by upbeat first-timer Gabrielle Marion-Rivard) is a 22-year-old woman with Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder that often slows cognitive skills while increasing outgoingness and musical talent. She sings in a Montreal choir for other disabled adults, where she’s met and fallen in love with the dashingly handsome Martin. The bliss of first love is interrupted, however, by Martin’s interfering mother, who worries that special needs individuals aren’t sufficiently fit for romantic relationships, and by Gabrielle’s beloved sister, who is planning a move abroad to live with her fiancé. What emerges in Louise Archambault’s sweet, unassuming and confidently directed film is a portrait of a young woman fighting, in her own way, for acceptance and freedom, and for her right to experience life’s highs and lows as anyone else would – with joy, pain, confusion and eventual understanding.