Character List	Alphonse Lamoureux:  Felicite Lemieux: Alphonse's daughter  Giuseppe Moschella: Alphonse's tailor and friend Ninetta Moschella: Giuseppe's wife Pasquale Lopinto: the musician who has an argument with Theo, Felicite's husband.
Director  and his words	Paul Tana--born in Italy in 1947; came to Quebec in 1958 Tana not only subscribed to the aesthetic of daily life so characteristic of Quebec cinema, he also made it his own by using immigrant characters. [Tana's words] For the Italians of Quebec, the growing of fig trees is one way to tame a country which is still not entirely theirs--appropriate this land by transplanting here something familiar to them... We have placed Ninetta Morchella, our Saracen, in the blinding white snow of this land; she seems but a black stain--on herself, on us.
Story	set in Montreal, 1904 based on a real story What has the story to do with the story within the story; What does the title of the film mean? story within the story--the puppet play Trancred, battled against Saracen warrior, fatally wounding him. In raising the warrior's helmet, Tancred discovered Clorinda, the woman he loved.
Issues for iscussion	The presentation of Montreal at the turn of the century: with a bar, muddy and unpaved road, some houses, called a cesspool Race relations:  between Alphonse and Giuseppe: business relationship, friendship, jokes, letters. between Pasquale and Theo: lack of understanding of the customs,  racial stereotypes: "from Sing Sing to Canada"; the habit of keeping guns, music in the wedding ceremony, "macaroni" institutionalized racism: the court trial; ten witnesses on the victim's side   the Italian as a minority group then--their customs (the puppet show, pignolata), different sorts of Italians the general(?)  the boarders--who cannot speak French Giuseppe's brother the places they appear: e.g. Giuseppe's house Gender relations between Ninetta and Giuseppe --  before the tragedy -- about the boarders, the joke and after between Felicite and the Catholic father between Felicite and Ninetta -- survival
	Related Links:  An interview with Paul Tana