On Quebec’s Lower North Shore, one of the most remote and unforgiving regions of Canada, an irreducible people has endured: the coasters. Descendants of Basque fishermen, Inuit, and European settlers, they have survived thanks to a vital lifeline — the White Road. Each winter, this unique ice highway stretches over 500 km, connecting isolated villages from Kegaska to Blanc-Sablon.
Today, climate change threatens its very existence. Without it, daily life, celebrations, community ties, and the economy collapse. More than a road, it is a thread of survival and memory.
The film follows the anxious wait for the ice to form and its inevitable spring thaw, tracing the rhythm of snowmobiles, carnivals, hockey tournaments, weddings, and communal feasts. Behind the joy lurks the shadow of a final season, signaling the possible end of a four-century-old tradition.
La Route Blanche tells of human warmth in the heart of the blizzard, but also of the looming loss of collective memory and the threat to a free people — forgotten by the rest of the country yet determined to endure.
The disappearance of the White Road is more than a logistical drama: it symbolizes the erasure of a culture, a way of life, and a chapter of Canadian history. Entire communities — Innu, anglophone, francophone — face a precarious future as the ice grows thinner each year.