French Film Showcase "'Hochelaga' is trickily structured, flamboyantly staged, and likewise rewards with a rich cinematic banquet." - Variety
When Montreal experiences a huge rainstorm, the tremendous downpour opens up a sinkhole in Percival Molson Stadium during a football game. When the stadium is evacuated, long-buried artifacts are discovered beneath the football field and it's declared a protected archaeological site.
Mohawk archaeologist Baptiste Asigny (Samian) begins investigating, and discovers centuries of history revealed under the field from the many generations who have occupied this land. Baptiste sets out to find what he has spent his career searching for: the traces of the village of Hochelaga, where in October 1535 his Iroquoian ancestors met French explorer Jacques Cartier (Vincent Perez).
We're taken back to that time, as well to 1267, centuries before the village was colonized. The film fast forwards to the deadly epidemic that hit in 1687, long after the village of Hochelaga no longer existed and the area was known as Montreal; the turmoil of the Lower Canada Rebellion in 1837; and a pioneering moment in neurology in 1944.