The Canadian domestic drama “Who By Fire” has received wide critical praise–Steve Dollar has named it as his favorite film of 2025 so far. Quebecois director Philippe Lesage’s third feature, which screened at last fall’s New York Film Festival, opens at Film at Lincoln Center this Friday, March 14. Go here for show times and ticket information.

The opening scene of “Who By Fire” (the title was inspired by the Leonard Cohen song of the same name) is an unusually long (in time) shot of a car going down a road. Inside the car is filmmaker Albert Gary (Paul Ahmarani), who is accompanied by his daughter Aliocha (Aurélia Arandi-Longpré), his son Max (Antoine Marchand-Gagnon) and Max’s friend, Jeff (Noah Parker). They are on their way to visit Abert’s one-time collaborator, filmmaker Blake Cadieux (Arieh Worthalter), who is living in a remote cabin with his current documentary crew. The unusual length of the scene suggests the tedium of being in a car journey with a parent. The three teenagers sit in the rear seat (why not one in the front?) and we can already see there is a nervous tension between Jeff and the very attractive Aliocha. Then, when Aliocha leaves the car at one point to urinate in the woods, Albert teases her by speeding off repeatedly when she returns–this adult is a bit immature in his own way.

There is some unresolved tension between Albert and Blake that gradually grows during communal dinners from passive aggression until it explodes, requiring an intervention from other adults such as Blake’s cook. Meanwhile, Jeff makes an awkward pass at Aliocha that unsettles him so much he goes off into the woods and gets lost, breaking into an empty cabin to sleep. Blake (who flies a small-engine seaplane) rescues Jeff, who reveres the once famous filmmaker. (Blake has a nickname for aspiring filmmaker Jeff–”Spielberg!”)

Jeff is considered a hero for his survival but we know that he is just a petulant, mixed up kid who cares only about his own unsatisfied desires. And even his friend Max picks up on this. Jeff’s also not particularly smart or witty. He’s played by a popular Canadian actor; Parker gets top billing and guarantees a youthful audience for this film. When he discovers that his hero Blake may have slept with the much younger Aliocha he is so jealous he lies to Albert to further incense him against his former artistic collaborator. The possibility of real violence is what animates the story and Lesage does a great job of rolling out the tension gradually over the course of 160 minutes.

This tension has to let up at times, especially for a long film; when an actor, Hélène (the great Irène Jacob) and her partner Eddy (Laurent Lucas) arrive the mood becomes more festive including a joyful bout of group dancing to the B-52’s “Rock Lobster.” But even that scene has intimations of conflict as the dancers pair off and gesticulate with wild abandon.

This not quite a cabin-fever scenario; the vacationers spend a lot of time outdoors, they go on a hunting trip and ride canoes down a quickly-moving stream. Cinematographer Balthazar Lab captures the natural beauty vividly, as well as the more constrained but tense interior scenes. The performances by the multi-generational cast are all equally effective and Lesage has given us a masterful film that keeps up on the edge of our seats as a group of characters with only minor flaws (with the exception of Jeff, whose conduct some will chalk up to the usual male coming-of-age mistakes, but whom I wanted to slap!) slowly suffer the consequences of pride and misguided desire.