salvia synopsis

FEY, a young woman with a biting wit is released from a Montreal hospital after surviving an attempted suicide. She is picked up by her best friend MIDORI who passes on the news that Fey has been fired. Desperate to get back on her feet Fey goes to a late-night coffee shop in search of work. There she meets the angel, GABRIEL, who appears as nothing more than a handsome middle-aged man.

Gabriel stands at the counter with the manager, TONY, who is pouring him a coffee as Fey walks in. Fey cuts in on their conversation and asks her old friend, Tony, for a job. Gabriel is immediately captivated by her presence. Tony explains his reservations about hiring Fey in her post-suicidal state. However, Fey makes light of the situation and jokingly promises not to kill herself in Tony’s café, after which he laughingly agrees to give her a job. Fey casts a final questioning glance at Gabriel before departing.

Strolling through the park at night, Fey is suddenly terrified by a rustle in the trees. The rustling comes nearer as a strange voice, which seems to come from inside her mind, cuts the silence asking “Are you scared?” Fey is horrified. She thinks she is about to be killed by an “unseen force”, but little does she know it is the angel Gabriel. Using his powers to alter reality, Gabriel tests Fey’s desire to live. Faced with her own mortality Fey realizes that as much as she thought she wanted to die, she does not want to go like this. Fey pleads for her life, and suddenly, as if in a dream, everything goes quiet and she is left alone. Back in her apartment, Fey wakes with a gasp.

Gabriel comes into Fey’s work the next evening. Unaware that Gabriel was the “unseen force” from the night before, Fey invites him to sit down for coffee. They chat. Fey tells Gabriel that she tried hanging herself because of her lack of faith in humanity, and how she failed because the light fixture broke from the ceiling. In a somewhat eerie response, Gabriel asks Fey “What makes you so sure you failed?” Unable to answer, Fey bursts into laughter. Impressed by Gabriel’s “refreshing weirdness”, the two become fast friends. As they grow to understand each other more over the days, Fey’s feelings of despair melt away, until it seems that she is truly happy for the first time.

Later, Gabriel receives a visit from his friend PAUL, who is attempting to break a world record by going the longest period of time without sleep. Paul’s nerves are frayed from his insomnia and his constant intake of amphetamines, which keep him in a dreamy altered state. Paul believes that by resisting sleep he can access knowledge from the “Dream World” which he believes is more real than waking life.

While leaving Gabriel’s in the soft light of the rising sun Paul steps off the curb into the deserted street and is suddenly pasted by Midori’s car. Paul lands broken on the pavement as the frantic Midori speeds away from the scene and goes to Fey’s for help. Fey calms Midori down and the two go back to where the accident happened, but the body is gone.

Shaken the two girls take refuge in a nearby diner where they discuss the situation over breakfast. Despite their decision that “if there is no body, there is no problem” fear clings to the air as the conversation turns to Gabriel. Midori’s paranoia about Gabriel’s secretive existence raises fears in Fey, until she agrees with Midori’s plan to spy on him.

As Fey stalks Gabriel, he uses his powers to alter reality and cause her worst fears come true; the darker her image of him grows, the more of a monster he becomes, until finally, he comes for her.