Drama from French Canada. The film has been marketed in English as “After the Ashes,” but “oraison” means prayer, from the Latin verb “orare” (to pray). If you’re Catholic, you may recognize the phrase “ora pro nobis” (pray for us) from the Latin version of “Hail, Mary.” Many centuries ago, the word “orison” (with various spellings) was also used as a synonym for prayer in English, but the usage is now archaic. You Shakespeare lovers know that it appears in Romeo and Juliet, and is in a very famous line from Hamlet: “Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered.” The word was already well weathered when Shakespeare used it. OED dates it back to the year 1175.
Leonor joins a contemporary dance company to unravel the mystery of Oraison, a mythical piece performed by her mother thirty years ago, in the hope of understanding what shattered her. She discovers a ritual in which every gesture summons up the ghosts of the past and reopens the wounds of a lineage.
