French Canadian actress and singer Carole Laure makes her directorial debut with the comedy drama Les Fils de Marie (Marie's Sons). Assisting cinematographer Pascal Arnold with writing, directing, and producing, Laure also assumes the lead role as Marie, a woman dealing with the death of her husband and teenage son in a car accident. In order to cope with her grief, she places an ad in the paper in search of a surrogate son who is in need of a mother. She offers care to the four motherless men who respond to her ad: performance artist Alex (Danny Gilmore), abused teenager Martin (Felix Lajeunesse-Guy), overweight recluse Victor (Daniel Desjardins), and married father Paul (Jean-Marc Barr). A co-production of France and Canada, Les Fils de Marie was shot on digital video and premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.