The Satanic Fish
2021 · 17m · Canada
Directed by André Desrochers
Genres: dark comedy, drama, fantasy
Tones: absurdist, contemplative, mythic
A fisherman named Crapaud Cornu, heir to a line of celebrated local anglers, has still not landed the legendary devil fish said to appear in the rapids only once in a generation.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A fishing fable about generational burden and the one that got away—except the catch is literally mythological and the tone refuses to commit to comedy or tragedy, which should be annoying but somehow isn't; Desrochers is doing something weirder than the premise lets on.
Desrochers positions this squarely in the lineage of folkloric cinema—Vigo, early Egoyan—where landscape and family obligation become the real subject; the film's formal restraint and deliberate pacing elevate what could be a tall tale into something genuinely contemplative about inheritance and failure.
The entire film turns on a single compositional choice: how Desrochers frames Crapaud against the rapids, small and fixed while the water moves—that one decision, repeated across the runtime, transforms what's essentially a slim premise into a meditation on helplessness that a bigger budget would only dilute.