Black Robe (film)

Black Robe
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bruce Beresford
Produced by	Robert Lantos Sue Milliken Stéphane Reichel
Written by	Brian Moore
Starring	Lothaire Bluteau Aden Young Sandrine Holt Tantoo Cardinal Gordon Tootoosis August Schellenberg
Music by	Georges Delerue
Cinematography	Peter James
Edited by	Tim Wellburn
Distributed by	Samuel Goldwyn Company
Release date	5 September 1991 (premiere at Toronto Festival of Festivals) 4 October 1991 (USA) 27 February 1992 (Australia)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	Canada Australia
Language	English Latin Cree Mohawk Algonquin
Budget	A$11 million
Box office	$8,211,952

Black Robe is a 1991 film directed by Bruce Beresford. The screenplay was written by Irish Canadian author Brian Moore, who adapted it from his novel of the same name.

The film's main character, Father LaForgue, is played by Lothaire Bluteau, with other cast members including Aden Young, Sandrine Holt, Tantoo Cardinal, August Schellenberg, Gordon Tootoosis and Raoul Trujillo. It was the first official co-production between a Canadian film team and an Australian one. It was shot entirely in the Canadian province of Quebec.

Set in New France in 1634 (in the period of conflicts known as the Beaver Wars), the film begins in the settlement that will one day become Quebec City. Jesuit missionaries are trying to encourage the local Algonquin Indians to embrace Christianity, with thus far only limited results. Samuel de Champlain, founder of the settlement, sends Father LaForgue, a young Jesuit priest, to find a distant Catholic mission in a Huron village.

LaForgue is accompanied on his journey by a non-Jesuit assistant, Daniel, and a group of Algonquin Indians whom Champlain has charged with guiding him to the Huron village. This group includes Chomina (August Schellenberg) - an older, experienced traveller who has clairvoyant dreams; his wife (Tantoo Cardinal); and Annuka (Sandrine Holt), their daughter. As they journey across the lakes and forests, Daniel and Annuka fall in love, to the discomfort of the celibate LaForgue.