In the aftermath of a hard-fought battle between Indigenous warriors in 1267, when many Iroquoians were killed on the "Isle of Death", an Iroquois prophet gives the massacre's lone survivor the name Asigny.

Baptiste struggles to pay rent and obtain research grants while studying under the Université de Montréal archaeology professor Antoine Morin.

Observing the development, Morin theorizes that the sinkhole may lead to evidence of Hochelaga, where French explorer Jacques Cartier contacted Indigenous peoples in Quebec in 1535.

At the end of the dig, Baptiste finds the cross of explorer Jacques Cartier, who arrived to Hochelaga in 1535, claiming the land for the Kingdom of France.

Director François Girard said that the project grew out of his "tremendous affection for Montreal" and a desire to portray it in greater depth than in his 1998 feature The Red Violin.

[3] Girard conceived of the story as "spatially extremely limited", and about "waves of immigration", beginning with depictions of Iroquois and Algonquins, and later the French, English and Irish.

[3] He stated: Historic episodes that inspired the story included the explorations of Jacques Cartier in 1535, the 1837 Lower Canada Rebellion and 1944 operations in the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital.

[7] Frappier cited the project as important, and as Girard's return to the form of The Red Violin and Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, but more locally based.

[10] In casting, artistic director André Dudemaine claimed that the Quebec film industry was skeptical of the project finding Indigenous actors, saying there were not enough in Montreal.

[1] A second screening that night at the Imperial theatre was attended by prominent Quebecois cultural figures Denis Villeneuve, Gilles Vigneault and Luc Plamondon, along with a speech by Ghislain Picard, the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec leader.

[18] While TIFF organizers would ordinarily wish to ensure a gala screening would be the premiere, Girard said president Piers Handling was sympathetic to Montreal seeing it first, given the subject matter.

[18] For Le Devoir, Odile Tremblay praised the film as beautiful and a story of reconciliation, giving fair weight to different sociological nations.

[21] Franco Nuovo of Radio-Canada described being overwhelmed by Hochelaga, comparing the cinematography to paintings and finding the abundant symbolism erased any dullness that the historic subject matter could have threatened.

[23] The Hollywood Reporter's John DeFore called the screenplay episodic and found hints the film suggests a vision of "all the region's inhabitants as a single human population".