Synopsis

Nineteen sixty-three will be the year that changes the life of thirteen-year-old Hanna (Karine Vanasse). It's in a darkened movie theatre in Montreal's Mile End that she first discovers Nana, played by Anna Karina in Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre sa vie. Fascinated by this character, Hanna finds a certain sililarity between Nana and one of her teachers (Nancy Huston) with whom she hopes to develop a special relationship.

Hanna is at a difficult age, attempting to become a woman in a household where she comes into conflict with parents who both love and hate one another. Her Jewish father (Miki Manojiovic) is a man without a country, an unknown poet whose soul is tormented and who finds it difficult to express love. Her young Catholic Québécois mother (Pascale Bussiéres) is fragile and overworked. Fortunately she has her older brother (Alexandre Mérineau) whom she adores, and her only friend, Laura (Charlotte Christeler), who attracts Hanna because she is so different and so sensual.

At the end of this trying year Hanna comes to understand the message of the sensuous and bewiching Nana. She is free to live her life as she wishes, but with this freedom comes the responsibility to live it well.