Contours of Nature traces the unique journey of a man whose entire life has been shaped by a simple yet profound passion: fly fishing. Through intimate memories, the film explores the evolution of his relationship with nature, with patience, and with himself. 

It all begins in the 1940s, on the stormy shores of the Irish Sea, where a ten-year-old boy joins his father for his first fishing trip. Sick and scared, he returns nonetheless enchanted, forever marked by a newfound passion. This bond only deepens over time, flowing through the crystalline rivers of his youth. 

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As the story unfolds in step with his life, it becomes a human and poetic odyssey. Over the decades—between coal mines and the icy waters of the Canadian Rockies—the protagonist hones his craft: the delicate art of fooling a wild trout with a handmade imitation of an insect. But it’s never really the fish he’s after—it’s the perfect, suspended moment, when man and nature become one. 

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Told with elegant narration, enriched by literary quotations and touching anecdotes, the film also questions our relationship with the land. Once wild and generous, Canada’s rivers grow increasingly fragile. Faced with logging, development, and human greed, the aging fisherman becomes a clear-eyed witness to a world in flux. 

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Now in his eighties, equipped with a carbon fiber rod but still young at heart, he continues to walk the riverbanks alongside lifelong friends. Together, they share silence, beauty, and a quiet wisdom that only comes from time spent in the water. 

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Contours of Nature is a moving tribute to the natural world, to the passing of knowledge between generations, and to what it truly means to live a passion—not to conquer, but to understand, to feel, and to protect. 

They call him Lou. In the 1960s, in the heart of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the kingdom of walleye, jigs, and bottom-feeders, he became a fly fisherman. Introduced to the art of casting by a neighbor and forced to make his own flies, unable to find any in the merchants' stalls, he became the region's first fly-fishing guide. Sixty years later, he has accumulated one of the most extensive collections of knowledge about the region's waterways and fish populations. Among the archives of his memory lies a brilliant nugget of intrigue: he supposedly knows the location of a place that is only mentioned half-heartedly: Price Pond. According to legend, this remote lake was the preserve of William Price, patriarch of the Price forestry dynasty, who reserved the monumental trout of this hidden lake for himself.

It's on the trail of this exciting premise that a crew of Swiss Army knives embarks, composed of the convincing Émile David, the master paddler Guillaume Rivest, the multi-passionate Marc-André Corriveau, and the terrified, but still game, Alexia Laberge-Gagnon. Another promising project of ugly portages, black flies, and mythical lakes narrated by a spectacular character.

In the unexplored depths of the Northwest Territory, five passionate fly fishermen venture in search of a secret that the elders still whisper over the waters: the Inconnu, a legendary and elusive fish that almost no one has ever seen, but that some swear they once caught. To carry out this extraordinary expedition, they will be guided by Paul and Mathieu of Black Jack Fishing, two seasoned experts in this mythical and unforgiving territory. Together, they embark on an adventure spanning several hundred kilometers through the most remote areas of Slave Lake. Under the prospector tents, lulled by the breath of the northern wind and the glow of the Northern Lights, the days stretch out and their landmarks fade. Far from everything, immersed in a raw fauna, the fishermen realize that this quest goes beyond simple capture. Over time, the line between legend and reality blurs. Does the Unknown really exist…