This bold documentary provides a humorous perspective on the threat of the Québec/Canada split. Taking a comment from the revered Québec premier ministre, René Lévesque to heart–”If two partners can’t learn to sleep together, then they must certainly get separate beds.”–The QuébeCanada Complex examines the neurotic notion of a nation on the couch.
The “complex” is a strange disorder, particularly pathogenic to the political scene in which two self-centered “patients” (Canada and Québec) refuse to identify the distinct identity of the other. Les deux nations are literally and figuratively put on the couch, and the question is referred to a full spectrum of professionals–psychoanalysts, therapists, social and political psychologists. Beyond the personal partisan politics, they analyze “the complex” and suggest possible cures.
In ironic parallel short dramatic sequences feature a symbolic couple on the verge of separation, going through the allegorical stages of a simulated therapy. These sequences are intercut with commentary from residents of Québec on how they have overcome the destructive intolerance that is a major symptom of the QuébeCanada complex.