10 x 60 min
A dangerous virus begins to spread within a group of vulnerable homeless people in Montreal. How long will it take for Anne-Marie Leclerc, director of the Emergency Public Health Laboratory, to discover the existence of this highly contagious disease? Will she be too late to prevent the outbreak of a deadly epidemic in the wider population?
The Emergency Public Health Laboratory is responsible for dealing with viral and bacterial emergencies such as bioterrorism, epidemics, and mass poisonings. The lab is under the authority of government minister Laurent Demers, who doesn’t have as much faith in Anne-Marie as she deserves. But the two must now work together to defeat a ruthless, invisible adversary. They’re obliged to undertake an investigation as they seek to track the virus back to its origins. To limit the spread of the disease, they must impose sometimes unpopular measures, while doing their best to prevent a public panic. Will Laurent and Anne-Marie win their battle against this deadly virus, which doesn’t discriminate between old and young, between people of different races, or between homeless people and those who are close to government ministers and infectious disease specialists?
Infectious diseases play Russian roulette with our lives. They have been a source of terror to human beings since the dawn of time. When an epidemic takes hold in a population, the threat brings out the best and the worst in people, calling forth a blend of paranoia, credulity, greed, self-sacrifice and heroism. In Outbreak, the main characters must face fears and dilemmas that are very present in the real world. It’s through the eyes, ears and hearts of these characters – people very much like ourselves – that we get to experience the epidemic.
