This movie has won an Academy Award. The director is a celebrated talent. The characters in the movie are from an earlier, feted oeuvre (The Decline of the American Empire, 1986). So when I sat down to review The barbarian invasions the daggers were drawn. A few minutes into the movie, however, all this has changed. In fluid tracking shots I am whooshed through a long line of beds with patients hooked to saline bottles and assorted beeping medical contraptions. It took a while for it to hit me. This is the corridor of the hospital where the rooms are literally overflowing with patients. And it is in Quebec in Canada, where according to Michael Moore's Sicko, you get the best medical care in the world! Clearly, director Denis Arcand has chosen shock therapy.