Directed by Pierre Falardeau, it is about the incarceration at the Pied-du-Courant Prison and the execution by hanging there of Patriote participants of the Lower Canada Rebellion.
The film opens on February 14, 1839, the day when leader Marie Thomas Chevalier De Lorimier (Luc Picard) and his comrade-in-arms (Frédéric Gilles) are told they will be hanged in 24 hours.
Director Pierre Falardeau makes no doubt about where his sympathies lie, but the film is as much about human beings confronting death as it is polemic, and there are tender scenes when De Lorimier's wife (Sylvie Drapeau) visits him one last time.
Pierre Falardeau said that Telefilm Canada approved Michel Brault's 1999 movie Quand je serai parti... vous vivrez encore as an excuse to initially deny funds for 15 février 1839.
It won four Prix Jutra for Actor (Luc Picard), Supporting Actress (Sylvie Drapeau), Art Direction and Sound.