Out Standing

Raised in a military family, Sandra Perron pursued her own dream of serving her country with great determination after joining the Canadian Forces in 1984. But when she began her training to become Canada’s first woman infantry officer and then in her career as a member of the Royal 22e Régiment (more popularly known as “the Van Doos”), Perron faced challenges far beyond the gruelling physical demands and ugly instances of harassment and abuse. As she recounted in her 2017 memoir, Out Standing in the Field, it was the institutional sexism that surrounded her in the Canadian military that arguably became her most relentless adversary.

Like Perron’s acclaimed book, director Mélanie Charbonneau’s film adaptation pulls no punches when it comes to depicting a system that paid lip service to change yet remained an inequitable and frequently hostile environment for women. Yet for all of the film’s power as a broader critique, Out Standing succeeds first and foremost as a riveting portrait of a person whose outward tenacity masks deeper reservoirs of anger and vulnerability, all of which are brought to the screen with remarkable force by Nina Kiri. Moreover, Charbonneau eschews simpler readings for more complex takes. That’s especially true in Out Standing’s key event, when Perron, newly retired from service, faces a controversy over a photo taken during a training exercise, a shocking image that may only convey a fraction of the truth about her experience and her dynamic with Captain Pritchett (Vincent Leclerc), a seemingly brutal military instructor.

Together with Kiri and the rest of her team, Charbonneau honours its subject — and all the soldiers she has inspired — with a drama that’s never less than convincing or compelling.

JASON ANDERSON

Content advisory: violence, coarse language, mature themes, sexual violence