New Quebec drama Gagne ton ciel opens in theatres this week
Posted January 22, 2026 2:02 pm.
Last Updated January 22, 2026 5:34 pm.
A new Quebec film inspired by real events is hitting theatres across the province this week. Gagne ton ciel, directed by filmmaker Mathieu Denis, opens Jan. 23.
“There are thriller elements to it, but it’s also a social drama,” said Mathieu Denis, film director of Gagne ton ciel. “And that’s not the easiest kind of film to finance.”
The film stars Samir Guesmi as Nacer, a Montreal engineer whose carefully built life begins to unravel under mounting financial pressure, pushing him toward a drastic decision. Denis says the story was written in part as a response to what he describes as a troubling and, at times, biased public reaction to socio-economic insecurity.
The script was loosely inspired by a real-life incident involving a Montreal-based engineer arrested after an attempted kidnapping of the grandson of a prominent Quebec billionaire.
“It’s not very important where you come from,” said Samir Guesmi, French Algerian actor in Gagne ton ciel. “I think the most important for me is what you do right now, here and now.”
“The discussion around immigration that has gone, I will say that has gone, as far as I’m concerned, a bit sour in the last I think this conversation has sort of devolved in the wrong direction. And the film is talking about that really,” Denis said.
The film explores themes of identity, pressure and moral collapse, which Denis says feel even more relevant today than when he first began writing the script. Gagne ton ciel premiered at TIFF, screened at CINEMANIA and won Best French-Language Feature at Cinéfest Sudbury.
