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TODAY

SCREENINGS

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INTERNATIONAL SALES: ODIN’S EYE ENTERTAINMENT COMING SOON TO A GALAXY NEAR YOU

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World falls for Frantz

BY JEREMY KAY

Tucker Tooley

Tooley widens global footprint

BY JEREMY KAY

Former Relativity Studios president Tucker Tooley’s nascent Tooley Productions has added two more key pieces to his expanding network of global partners. Tooley was expecting to close a first-look distribution deal today for CDC United Network to distribute Tooley Productions films throughout Latin America and South Africa. He has also signed a first-look pact with Italia Film for the Middle East, Greece and Turkey.

A previously announced deal with eOne covers co-financing and distribution in the UK, Canada, Australia/NZ, Benelux and Spain.

Francois Ozon’s Frantz, playing here again tonight, has continued to impress buyers and is now virtually sold out worldwide.

Partner and co-founder Nicolas Brigaud-Robert of Paris-based Films Distribution has reported brisk business on the post-First World War melodrama led by a UK deal with Curzon Artificial Eye. The film has also gone to Sweden,

Norway and Finland (Edge), Denmark (Camera Film) and Japan (Longride).

The acclaimed black-and-white film earned Paula Beer the Marcello Mastroianni award for best young actress at Venice Film Festival on Saturday. She plays a young German mourning the loss of her fiancé in combat who strikes up a friendship with a mysterious Frenchman (Pierre Niney) claim-

ing to be her lost love’s friend. As previously reported, Music Box holds US rights to Frantz and Films Distribution cut deals in Benelux (September), Argentina (Distribution Company), Greece (Feelgood), Italy (Academy Two), Portugal (Leopardo), former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Turkey (Bir Films), Brazil (California), Colombia (Cine Colombia) and South Korea (Challan).

Maudie producer knows his Rites

BY JEREMY KAY

Bob Cooper, one of the producers on TIFF Special Presentation Maudie, has disclosed details of a project through Storyscape Entertainment, the Los Angeles-based company he launched with Richard Saperstein in 2015. The partners have signed Giulio Ricciarelli, director of last season’s German

Oscar foreign-language submission Labyrinth Of Lies, to direct crime thriller Rites Of Man from a screenplay by Straight Outta Compton co-writer and Scarface remake writer Jonathan Herman.

Cooper, Saperstein and Anthony Jabre will produce the project about a man who will stop at nothing to find his 16-year-old son’s

killers and in the process finds the strength to forgive. Storyscape also has Entering Hades with Michael Fassbender set up through its firstlook deal at Broad Green Pictures.

Meanwhile Mongrel International’s Chantal Chateauneuf has closed a deal with Shochiku for Japan on Maudie, which has its Canadian premiere here tonight.

Hubert Boesl

TORONTO BRIEFS Wide release for Belko Orion and BH Tilt have taken North American rights to Midnight Madness selection The Belko Experiment. BH Tilt plans to release the genre film on more than 1,000 screens on March 17, 2017.

Magnolia joins Commune Magnolia Pictures has picked up Thomas Vinterberg’s The Commune.

TrustNordisk’s Susan Wendt negotiated the deal with Magnolia SVP of acquisitions Dori Begley.

Well Go courts Bovary Well Go USA Entertainment has North American rights to Feng Xiaogang’s I Am Not Madame Bovary, setting an October 7 release.

Soda has A Quiet Passion Double Dutch International has closed deals for Terence Davies’ A Quiet Passion, including Paname for France and Soda for UK, taking over from Metrodome, which went into administration in August.

Natalie Portman arrives at the Winter Garden Theatre for the Toronto premiere of Pablo Larrain’s Jackie, one of this year’s buzziest titles following its successful launch at Venice.

Screen to launch Arab Stars of Tomorrow at DIFF Screen International will launch an offshoot of highly respected UK and Ireland talent-spotting showcase Stars of Tomorrow at this year’s Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF, December 7-14). Arab Stars of

Tomorrow will spotlight emerging acting and film-making talent from across the Middle East region, with the inaugural selection presented at this year’s DIFF. Since Stars of Tomorrow

launched in 2004, acting alumni include Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch, Emily Blunt, John Boyega and Carey Mulligan. Filmmaker graduates include Andrea Arnold and Andrew Haigh.

TODAY

David Oyelowo

NEWS Oyelowo to give keynote UK actor to headline the BFI’s Black Star Symposium » Page 5

REVIEW Lion This highly moving crowdpleaser should enjoy a bright awards season » Page 6

SCREENINGS

» Page 12

Final print daily This is Screen’s final print edition for Toronto 2016. For continued coverage, see ScreenDaily.com

Wild Bunch takes Loznitsa around world

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

Wild Bunch has concluded a string of pre-sales on Sergei Loznitsa’s drama A Gentle Creature, which recently wrapped its shoot in Eastern Europe and is set for a 2017 release. The feature — loosely inspired by a Fyodor Dostoyevsky 1876 short story — charts the tale of a woman who travels to a mysterious prison to find out what has happened to her jailed husband.

Territories sold include Germany (Grand Film), Latin and Central America (Palmera International), Turkey (Fabula), Poland (Against Gravity), Greece (Seven), Portugal (Alambique), former Yugoslavia (MCF), Hungary (Vertigo), Czech Republic (Film Europe) and airlines (Encore). Haut Et Court will release in France following a deal with the film’s producers.

The cast, which combines professional and amateur actors, includes Vasilina Makovtseva as the female protagonist, Valeriu Andriuta, Sergey Kolesov and Liya Akhedzhakova. Paris-based Slot Machine is producing with Russia’s GP Cinema Company, Germany’s LOOKSFilm, Netherlands’ Wild at Art and Graniet Film, and Lithuania’s Studio Uljana Kim. Arte France Cinéma is on board as a coproducer.

The Ukrainian film-maker’s wellreceived documentary Austerlitz debuted in Venice last week and plays in TIFF’s Wavelengths strand.

NEWS

Hubert Boesl

TORONTO BRIEFS

Scarlett paints the town red

Protagonist ups trio Protagonist Pictures has promoted three executives within its sales team, which is headed up by Vanessa Saal. Jennifer Fattell has been promoted to international sales director, George Hamilton to international sales manager and Hashim Alsaraf to operations manager. Protagonist, which has titles at TIFF including Free Fire and Trespass Against Us, is also in the hunt for a head of development.

Reshuffle at Rotterdam International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has made changes to its festival team, with head of industry and co-production platform CineMart Marit van den Elshout taking on oversight of the Hubert Bals Fund from Iwana Chronis, who will move on after the next edition. Elsewhere, head of programme Chris Schouten will supervise IFFR’s distribution initiatives, and programmer Bianca Taal will take over IFFR’s talent development schemes.

Scarlett Johansson beams at the TIFF world premiere for Illumination Entertainment’s animated musical Sing. Garth Jennings wrote and directed the film, which co-stars Matthew McConaughey. Universal is distributing worldwide.

Oyelowo keynotes at Black Star

BY TOM GRATER

David Oyelowo will deliver the opening address at BFI London Film Festival’s Black Star Symposium. The headline industry event, taking place on October 6 at BFI Southbank, will explore the continuing challenges facing black talent in the film industry.

Oyelowo, who is in Toronto with Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom (this year’s London Film

Festival opener) and Mira Nair’s Queen Of Katwe (also at the LFF), will also take part in a panel discussion.

Other speakers confirmed for the symposium are film-makers Asante, Barry Jenkins, whose Moonlight plays in TIFF’s Platform strand, Noel Clarke (Brotherhood), Julie Dash (Daughters Of The Dust) and BFI Film Fund director Ben Roberts.

One of the two confirmed panels will focus on opportunities and obstacles for black actors in the US and UK. The second will focus on development and greenlighting barriers facing black talent, and how to stimulate change within funding bodies and production companies. “I’m really hopeful we’re about to segue from talking about diversity to actually doing it,” said Oyelowo.

Clemens hops to LevelK’s Rabbit

BY WENDY MITCHELL

Adelaide Clemens has taken on the lead role in Luke Shanahan’s dark thriller Rabbit, which starts shooting today. Clemens, whose credits include Parade’s End and The Great Gatsby, replaces the previously reported Abbey Lee. Shanahan will shoot for five weeks on location in and around Adelaide, Australia. David Ngo produces the co-production between A Longshot Film and Projector Films. LevelK handles international sales on Shanahan’s feature debut.

Clemens stars as a medical student haunted by visions of her twin sister’s abduction, who discovers a secret society that might be connected to the crime. Rabbit had been the winning pitch at the 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival’s 37° South Market and was later presented at London’s Production Finance Market.

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by Academy Award ® nominee Selma Vilhunen Press & Industry Screening: Friday, 16th: 11:15h Public Screening: Sunday, 18th: 15:00h

Visit us! www.medialuna.biz

Varpu is a child turned into adult by force. In a stolen car she goes on her quest for love. Imperfect people learning to be merciful towards the others and themselves.

From the Golden Globe ® nominated producers Kai Nordberg and Kaarle Aho.

media luna new films @ German Films Umbrella Stand Ida Martins • idamartins@medialuna.biz • mobile: +49 170 966 7900 Floriano Buono • floriano@medialuna.biz • mobile: +49 173 804 6153

4 Screen International at Toronto September 12, 2016

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Arrowhead flies to US, Canada

Maki’s One Two up Tree

BY TOM GRATER

BY WENDY MITCHELL

Australian sales outfit Odin’s Eye Entertainment has closed deals for sci-fi Arrowhead with Vertical Entertainment for the US and Mongrel Media for Canada.

The completed film from writer-director Jesse O’Brien stars Dan Mor, Aleisha Rose, Christopher Kirby and Shaun Micallef in the survival story of a prisoner of war from a futuristic conflict who, when offered a chance for freedom, becomes stranded on a desert moon.

The producers on the project are Ben Whimpey and Christian D’Alessi with director O’Brien.

The company has also clocked sales in Japan (New Select), Indonesia (Crystal Sky), China (Lemon Tree Media) and France (Condor), adding to previously announced deals for Germany (Capelight) and Australia (Studiocanal).

Sol Bondy and Jamila Wenske’s Berlin-based One Two Films, coproducers on Finnish hit The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki, has joined Iceland-PolandDenmark co-production Under The Tree. Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson directs the film, which is produced by Iceland’s Netop Films, Poland’s Madants and Denmark’s Profile. One Two Films joins the project alongside ZDF/ARTE.

cée and forced to move in with his parents. While he fights for custody of his four-year-old daughter, he is sucked into a dispute between his parents and their neighbours regarding an old and beautiful tree. Sales are being handled by New Europe Film Sales, which sold France to Bac Films Distribution. Scanbox has already acquired Scandinavia.

Principal photography wrapped in late August, with the film set for delivery in summer 2017.

Chechik a hit for Goldove’s Mizz

BY JEREMY KAY

Toronto and Los Angeles-based Goldove Entertainment has brought on Jeremiah Chechik to direct thriller Little Mizz Innocent.

Goldove and Chechik are finalising the cast ahead of an anticipated

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Backing also comes from the Nordisk TV & Film Fond, Icelandic Film Centre, Danish Film Institute and Polish Film Institute. “We are happy to have found strong partners in Germany,” said producer Grimar Jonsson, whose credits include Rams. “One Two Films has been part of some very interesting European co-productions and ZDF/ARTE is a great stamp of approval for our project.”

The story is about a man who is accused of adultery by his ex-fian-

2017 shoot; Christopher Plummer is signed to play the antagonist.

The story centres on a seemingly innocent UN interpreter caught up in a war between the FBI and a criminal dynasty. Chechik, who has worked extensively

in TV in recent years on the likes of Criminal Minds, Gossip Girl and Helix, directed 2013 romcom The Right Kind Of Wrong with Ryan Kwanten. Goldove chief Lynda McKoy is also lining up sci-fi horror Lumina.

Despite The Falling Snow

ET homes in on Falling Snow Parkland Pictures has sold Cold War thriller Despite The Falling Snow, starring Rebecca Ferguson, to ET Pictures for North America.

Jim Cardwell and April Russell negotiated the deal for ET Pictures with Louis Feola and John Cairns for Parkland.

Rebecca Ferguson, Charles Dance and Sam Reid star in Shamim Sarif’s romantic thriller about a female spy who steals secrets from an idealistic politician but falls in love with him. The film is produced by Hanan Kattan for Enlightenment Productions.

Andreas Wiseman

05/09/2016 16:07

September 12, 2016 Screen International at Toronto 5

REVIEWS Reviews edited by Fionnuala Halligan finn.halligan@screendaily.com

Lion Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan It is the kind of astonishing story only true life can deliver: Saroo Brierley, lost at the age of five, found on the streets of Kolkata and adopted by an Australian family. Decades later, with only the vaguest memories of his village, he used Google Earth to find his way home. This is the kind of overwhelming story that cinema often does not distil well, but Lion becomes a dignified, highly moving crowdpleaser in the hands of Garth Davis. With knockout performances from Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and the young Sunny Pawar, Lion should straddle both commercial and awards play, welcome news for backer The Weinstein Company.

Comparisons will be drawn to Slumdog Millionaire, but this is a far grittier pearl. Probing insistently at the tangled ideas of family and brotherhood, Lion proves to be a powerful and distressing reminder of how disposable a child’s life can be. Yet its most Dickensian scenes are played out calmly, meaning this is a film that engages consistently. It is only at the end that this 120-minute feature bows to inevitability and the score begins to overstate its case — but, by then, Lion has earned an indulgence.

Although Dev Patel headlines, Sunny Pawar leads the way. Most of the film is set in a parched India, where train tracks frame the story. And if Lion isn’t in India, the country is in

6 Screen International at Toronto September 12, 2016

SPECIAL PRESENTATION Aus. 2016. 120mins Director Garth Davis Production company See-Saw Films International sales The Weinstein Company, international@ weinsteinco.com Producers Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Angie Fielder Screenplay Luke Davies, from Saroo Brierley’s A Long Way Home Cinematography Greig Fraser Production design Chris Kennedy Editor Alexandre de Franceschi Music Dustin O’Halloran, Hauschka Main cast Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Sunny Pawar, Abhishek Bharate, Divian Ladwa, Priyanka Bose, Pallavi Sharda

the heads of the leading characters. Starting out on a steam engine in the northern province of Khandwa in 1986, Davis gives us the brothers Gaddu (Abhishek Bharate) and Saroo (Pawar), who steal coal in exchange for milk to bring to their labourer mother (Priyanka Bose).

One night Saroo begs to be brought along when Gaddu goes to find work, and the two become separated when Saroo falls asleep on a station platform. He is trapped in a locomotive travelling 1,600 miles to Kolkata and, in short order, his very existence — let alone survival — becomes tenuous. He speaks Hindi, not Bengali, making him even more isolated. He watches as street kids are rousted; he meets a woman who sets him up with a dangerous man; he ends up with the police but does not know his mother’s name or where his village is — he calls it “Ganestelay”, but that is an approximation.

But Saroo is lucky. He is adopted by a loving couple from Tasmania, John and Sue Brierley (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman). They also take in a second child from India, who is far more troubled than Saroo.

If India is dust and orange and vast spaces in which to frame a tiny child, Tasmania is wild and beautiful. The Australian sequences are more difficult to stage, with Davis forced to shut down one chapter and move into an entirely different arena with brand new players. He is helped by the quality of his cast. Patel more than holds the

centre as the adult Saroo, the lost boy who finds it impossible to become a man. Nicole Kidman is magnetic as his forceful adoptive mother Sue, and Rooney Mara helps as his girlfriend.

Davis, making his much-anticipated debut here after the admired TV series Top Of The Lake, which he co-helmed with Jane Campion, never seems to struggle. When Saroo becomes haunted by Gaddu, it seems like a natural thing, mirrored by his struggles with his adoptive brother. The story dictates that Saroo should spend a lot of time on Google Earth, of course, but Davis does not allow the search to weigh down the film’s themes. By this time, anyway, much of the audience will be reaching for their handkerchiefs.

A word for Lion’s technical team: Davis’s achievement in capturing Saroo’s trek across India is notable. While Greig Fraser’s beautiful camerawork is clearly a star, production design

by Chris Kennedy is also spot-on, giving a redolent sense of space without resorting to the usual colour-splash sub-continent clichés. And the noise of India fades in and out as it might to a child; silence at crucial moments returns to a deafening clamour.

If Saroo’s story seems out-of-this world, the team behind this film has risen to meet the challenge it sets. There may be a sense of inevitability about Saroo’s ultimate destination, but what counts here is the journey.

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» Lion p6 » Katie Says Goodbye p7

» My Entire High School »

Sinking Into The Sea p7 The Levelling p8

» Mascots p8 » I Am Not Madame Bovary p9 » Barry p9

My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea Reviewed by Tim Grierson

Katie Says Goodbye Reviewed by Allan Hunter A luminous, heartbreaking performance from Olivia Cooke shines through every frame of Katie Says Goodbye.

The debut feature from writer/director Wayne Roberts is a surefooted, discreetly handled tale of a young woman struggling to bridge the gap between her sweet dreams and the hard-knock realities of life. A plaintive character study with a big heart, it has the emotional kick to connect with an audience hungry for distinctive US indie features.

Critical acclaim, the buzz generated by a star-making performance and possible awards attention should all enhance theatrical prospects, especially internationally.

Katie is a naïve young woman who says her prayers at night and has become the household breadwinner in the absence of any contribution from her feckless mother (Mireille Enos). Katie also harbours dreams of leaving her dusty New Mexico backwater, heading to San Francisco and studying to become a beautician. In order to fund those dreams, she has turned to prostitution but seems to attract the nicest, gentlest clientele, including kindly truck driver Bear (Jim Belushi).

Katie appears to be protected by her guileless innocence but there is a constant sense that a day of reckoning will arrive. She thinks she may have found her Prince Charming in taciturn, ex-con mechanic Bruno (Christopher Abbott), but pinning her hopes on him is the start of a change in fortunes that threatens her future.

Cinematographer Paula Huidobro gives the film a sense of the vast spaces in the US heartland, where empty roads stretch clear towards the horizon and sunset comes with a blush of crimson. Editor Sabine Emiliani maintains a tightly controlled sense of pace.

Director Roberts does not lessen the dramatic impact of key scenes by choosing to let a violent attack and a sexual assault happen largely off camera.

The casting throughout works a treat, but Cooke is just terrific as she captures all the facets of the waif-like Katie.

Her decision to always show the world a happy face becomes increasingly heartrending as she is assaulted by waves of disappointment and betrayal. Katie is so trusting, recklessly romantic and optimistic that she constantly lives on the edge of tragedy. You could image her life as the early years of the future Blanche DuBois.

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DISCOVERY US. 2016. 88mins Director/screenplay Wayne Roberts Production companies Parallel Cinema, Relic Pictures, Unknown Subject International sales Cercamon World Sales, sebastian@cercamon.biz North American sales CAA, tristen.tuckfield@ caa.com Producers Eric Schultz , Carlo Sirtori, Jacob Wasserman, Max Born, Kimberly Parker, Benjamin Steiner, David Steiner Cinematography Paula Huidobro Editor Sabine Emiliani Production designer Tania Bijlani Music Dan Romer Main cast Olivia Cooke, Mary Steenburgen, Jim Belushi, Mireille Enos, Christopher Abbott

For many sufferers, teenage angst can feel as urgent and cataclysmic as a post-apocalyptic event. Writer-director Dash Shaw makes that dilemma literal in his amusing feature debut, a lively animated film that mixes highschool insecurity with the death toll of a disaster film.

My Entire High School Sinking Into The Sea is slight and uneven but its quirky, handmade aesthetic conveys nicely its characters’ adolescent vulnerability and restless spirit. Premiering in Toronto’s Vanguard section, My Entire High School will court buyers via a hip voice cast that includes Jason Schwartzman, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph, Lena Dunham and Susan Sarandon.

Shaw’s background as a celebrated graphic novelist will also serve as a selling point.

As the story begins, teen best friends Dash (Schwartzman) and Assaf (Watts) are dorky outcasts at Tides High, putting together their high school newspaper, when a wedge is driven between them. Their editor Verti (Rudolph) has developed feelings for Assaf, making Dash feel like the third wheel. But Dash’s jealousy is soon replaced by terror when an earthquake hits their California school, tumbling the building into the Pacific Ocean.

Drawn over six years, My Entire High School is more visually impressive than it is narratively arresting, with little new to say about first love, male rivalry, cliques or the drudgery of high school. But even when the jokes fall a bit flat or the storytelling falters, the animation contains enough drama and surprises to compensate.

The movie varies its look, occasionally aspiring to the dark contours of a graphic novel while at other times evoking the wistfulness of a watercolour painting or the kaleidoscopic, hypnotic pleasures of a cartoon acid trip.

Throughout, the characters’ twitchy, hand-drawn primitivism suggests their feelings of inadequacy and incompleteness.

Despite wry scenes of sharks devouring teenagers and people falling from the sky to their doom, there is not much sense of stakes. But from its cheeky Peanuts homage to its unpredictable visual palette, Shaw’s film ends up as peculiar and oddly winning as its misfit characters.

VANGUARD US. 2016. 77mins Director/screenplay Dash Shaw Production companies Electric Chinoland, Low Spark Films, Washington Square Films International sales Cinetic Media, info@ cineticmedia.com Producers Kyle Martin, Craig Zobel, Dash Shaw Editors Lance Edmands, Alex Abrahams Music Rani Sharone Main voice cast Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham, Reggie Watts, Maya Rudolph, Susan Sarandon

September 12, 2016 Screen International at Toronto 7

REVIEWS

Mascots Reviewed by Tim Grierson

The Levelling Reviewed by Allan Hunter An unexpected suicide forces a father and daughter to confront past grievances and festering resentments in The Levelling, a poised and highly promising first feature from writer/director Hope Dickson Leach. It may be modest in scale but the film is assured in both intention and execution, building towards a quietly moving climax.

The Levelling should log festival appearances following its world premiere at Toronto, garnering attention for Dickson Leach and for a strong lead performance from Game Of Thrones cast member Ellie Kendrick. The mournful subject matter suggests the need for realistic expectations over the film’s commercial fate but this is a significant calling card and has already been bought by Peccadillo Pictures for UK and Irish release.

Kendrick is a compelling screen presence as Clover, a young vet who returns to the family farm in Somerset after the death of her brother. Her gruff father Aubrey (David Troughton) blithely carries on with business as usual, claiming the death was a tragic accident. Neither seems inclined to share their feelings or address their sense of guilt. It quickly becomes apparent the death was a suicide and the farm is struggling in the wake of devastating floods the previous winter.

Dickson Leach grounds the film in a very clear sense that the life of a farm must continue regardless of what has happened. There is nothing romantic about the setting or overly melodramatic about a daughter/father relationship that teeters between angry little stabs of conversation and the greater things that go unsaid.

The script allows us to see there are faults on both sides of this relationship. Aubrey is not the kind of man to share his vulnerability and Clover is a young woman clinging to hurt pride. The performances in a look, a gesture or a hesitation show there is a clear affection between them if only they could find a way to acknowledge it.

There is a fragile intensity to Kendrick’s performance, conveying someone striving to keep control of her emotions in a situation where she is expected to fall to bits. As Aubrey, veteran UK actor Troughton brings a sense of someone bone weary of a daughter who always seems inclined to think the worst of him. The sensitivity of the performances, the attention to detail and economical storytelling all help to mark out Dickson Leach as a talent to watch. The Levelling may not arrive with guns blazing and an attention-grabbing bag of tricks but it has a calm assurance and brooding tension that are just as noteworthy.

8 Screen International at Toronto September 12, 2016

DISCOVERY UK. 2016. 83mins Director/screenplay Hope Dickson Leach Production companies Wellington Films, iFeatures International sales Mongrel International, international@ mongrelmedia.com Producer Rachel Robey Cinematography Nanu Segal Editor Tom Hemmings Production designer Sarah Finlay Music Hutch Demouilpied Main cast Ellie Kendrick, David Troughton, Jack Holden, Joe Blakemore

Amusing without ever being uproarious, director Christopher Guest’s latest mockumentary is full of reliable pleasures, but also shows signs of a formula that is not as fresh as it once was. Looking at some predictably kooky characters who are all angling for the top prize at a mascot competition, Mascots will mostly remind viewers of Guest’s earlier, funnier film about a similar milieu, Best In Show.

Mascots will stream on Netflix starting October 13, concurrent with a theatrical release. Guest’s fans will want to tune in, but polite reviews may not be enough to attract the uninitiated to his brand of dry, improv-heavy comedy.

The film takes place as the eighth annual mascot competition is about to get underway in Anaheim, California.

Guest introduces us to some of the finalists, including a bickering married couple (Zach Woods and Sarah Baker), a brawling Canadian named Zook (Chris O’Dowd) and Cindi (Parker Posey), a pretentious modern-dance aficionado. All of them converge on Anaheim, where a panel of judges (highlighted by a born-again former mascot, played by Jane Lynch) will select the winner.

There is an undeniable comfort in watching Mascots, which brings back many of Guest’s acting troupe to perform their usual antics. From its structure to its mixture of mocking humour and gentle sweetness, the film travels a recognisable path, never quite catching us off-guard.

Not surprisingly, then, the comedy tends to be lightweight and somewhat hemmed in by the audience’s familiarity with Guest’s well-worn style. As is often the case with the film-maker’s comedies, Mascots does good work in pinpointing what is most fragile about its protagonists and then finding a way to turn it into humour.

One of the competition’s celebrity judges, played with trademark fussiness by Ed Begley Jr, becomes annoyed when he learns he is actually not the most famous of the judges — that honour going to Lynch’s Gabby Monkhouse — and the movie exploits his slow-burn humiliation in nice, small ways.

There are solid laughs in Mascots but it is disappointing there is not a great overriding idea that ties all the gags together. In movies such as Best In Show, Guest tapped into the clever notion that dog owners relate to their pets on a profound level, practically sharing the same personality. Mascots capitalises on the inherent goofiness of watching adults in big, ridiculous costumes, but Guest does not have any deeper comedic insight. As a result, his latest feels especially episodic and hit-or-miss.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION US. 2016. 94mins Director Christopher Guest Production companies Ra Ra Productions Worldwide distribution Netflix, ccolmenero@ netflix.com Producers Karen Murphy, Ted Sarandos Screenplay Christopher Guest, Jim Piddock Cinematography Kris Kachikis Production design Kristian Kachikis Editor Andrew Dickler Music CJ Vanston Main cast Carrie Aizley, Sarah Baker, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley Jr, Tom Bennett, Maria Blasucci, Jennifer Coolidge, Matt Greisser, Christopher Guest, Kerry Godliman, John Michael Higgins, Michael Hitchcock, Don Lake, Jane Lynch, Christopher Moynihan, Chris O’Dowd, Parker Posey, Jim Piddock, Fred Willard, Brad Williams, Zach Woods, Susan Yeagley

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Barry

SPECIAL PRESENTATION

Reviewed by Tim Grierson

I Am Not Madame Bovary Reviewed by David D’Arcy A woman’s campaign to restore her honour after a fake divorce and charges of sexual misdeeds fuels Feng Xiaogang’s relentless satire of Chinese corruption and hypocrisy. With Fan Bingbing as the intrepid plaintiff, I Am Not Madame Bovary is also a j’accuse on the plight of women who dare question authority in that country.

This moral tale with no promise of a happy ending should ride on Fan’s stardom to reach Chinese audiences globally. The comedy of Chinese bureaucracy may seem arcane to a non-local public, yet the story of a woman wronged will help pave the way. Cinephiles from the other end of the spectrum will also be drawn to the refinement of Feng’s aesthetic experiment —the use of a circular frame — that needs to be seen on a big screen.

I Am Not Madame Bovary is Feng’s adaptation of Liu Zhenyun’s 2012 novel I Am Not Pan Jinlian — the Chinese term for a promiscuous woman. Here, she is Li Xuelian (Fan), a villager accused of being an adulteress. She also petitions a local court to void her divorce from her husband, which she claims was a fake contrived to get a second residence. As the court rejects her claim, her remarried ex-husband, Qin Yule (Li Zonghan), repeats the charge of adultery, and Li aims up the judicial ladder toward Beijing.

Chinese audiences are likely to recognise their government here as layers of careerists and opportunists in dark suits. Other will see the story as a fable about an ordinary person who pays for overstepping her position.

As Li, Fan is a tempest on a mission here, humourless as she threatens to shame any official in her way. Guo Tao, as her accomplice Datou, plays to his comic strengths.

The laughs are anything but politically correct, complete with Datou’s violent consummation of his love for her, a rape she then says she enjoyed. Women’s empowerment is a rocky road that gets rockier.

The film’s look is as striking as Fan’s performance. The circular frame puts action and its setting in sharp focus, like a miniature Chinese painting, suggesting that corruption is as rooted in the culture as art. Besides having the splendour of stage designs, these stunning and serene tableaux provide breathing room in a lurching pursuit of the powerful that can be exhausting.

At times, English subtitles were difficult to read against these backgrounds, a problem given Liu’s script twists the plot in a matter of seconds. Feng may have sacrificed part of his frame, but he has expanded the political vocabulary of mainstream Chinese films.

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SPECIAL PRESENTATION China. 2016. 128mins Director Feng Xiaogang Production companies Beijing Sparkles Roll Media Corporation, Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, Beijing Skywheel Entertainment Co Ltd, Huayi Brothers Pictures Ltd, Zhejiang Dongyang Mayla Media Co Ltd International sales Wild Bunch, obarbier@ wildbunch.eu Producer Hu Xiaofeng Screenwriter Liu Zhenyun Cinematography Luo Pan Production designer Han Zhong Music Du Wei Editor William Chang Suk Ping Main cast Fan Bingbing, Guo Tao, Da Peng, Zhang Jiayi, Yu Hewei, Li Zonghan

College is a time for young people to find themselves, even the future leader of the free world. In Barry, director Vikram Gandhi looks at a pivotal year in Barack Obama’s life as he transfers to New York’s Columbia University. But in presenting its story as a portrait of a budding statesman discovering his destiny, it is neither insightful nor poetic enough to justify its increasingly didactic approach.

Newcomer Devon Terrell’s agreeably prickly performance as Obama will be among Barry’s biggest selling points. With the US president leaving office early next year, there ought to be sufficient interest in another biopic, even if it follows quickly on the heels of this summer’s indie success Southside With You. Still, Barry may be only a niche performer, with many prospective viewers likely seeking it out on VoD and cable.

In August 1981, Barack Obama (Terrell) lands in New York to attend school, adjusting to life in a major US metropolis after bouncing around from Hawaii to Jakarta. Consistently uncomfortable because of his mixed race, he begins dating a white co-ed named Charlotte (Anya Taylor-Joy), which only complicates his uncertainty about his identity. Anyone familiar with Obama’s biography will recognise certain iconic character details in Barry, although Charlotte is a fictionalised composite of different real girlfriends. Initially, the movie’s insistence on depicting its main character as just another college kid gives the story a voyeuristic thrill, as we look for clues to the future Obama. As played by Terrell, he is a restless young man who is wary of entering new situations because he feels like an outsider. That lack of polish can make this Obama awfully appealing and human, even when his selfishness hurts those closest to him.

Unfortunately, as Gandhi begins to introduce the external obstacles that will test Obama’s sense of self, Barry becomes progressively dour. The film tries so hard to give his inner crisis towering significance that it turns a modest hero into a mythic, far-less-interesting character, and sails unconvincingly into cause-and-effect melodrama.

Still, Adam Newport-Berra’s cinematography and Scott Kuzio’s production design illustrate ably the gritty, crime-infested New York in which Obama arrived. And among the supporting cast, Ashley Judd nicely sketches out Obama’s mother Ann Dunham in only a few scenes.

Ann may embarrass her uptight son with her outspoken liberal politics, but she nonetheless exudes a compassionate temperament that will soon grow within him.

US. 2016. 104mins Director Vikram Gandhi Production companies Elevation Pictures, Black Bear Pictures International sales Cinetic Media, emily@ cineticmedia.com Producers Dana O’Keefe, Teddy Schwarzman, Ben Stillman, Vikram Gandhi Screenplay Adam Mansbach Cinematography Adam Newport-Berra Production design Scott Kuzio Editor Jacob Craycroft Music Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans Main cast Devon Terrell, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jason Mitchell, Ellar Coltrane, Jenna Elfman, Linus Roache, Avi Nash, John Benjamin Hickey, Ashley Judd

September 12, 2016 Screen International at Toronto 9

PRODUCTION FOCUS THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS

The bringer of Gifts Director Colm McCarthy speaks to Andreas Wiseman about this unusual UK package, starring Glenn Close, Gemma Arterton and newcomer Sennia Nanua

Q&A COLM McCARTHY, DIRECTOR Sennia Nanua (centre) as Melanie

C

olm McCarthy’s survival thriller The Girl With All The Gifts, written by DC and Marvel comics writer Mike Carey and screening here in Midnight Madness on Wednesday, is an unusual UK package that has been generating buzz for some time. And it’s easy to see why.

Glenn Close, Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine and newcomer Sennia Nanua lead the cast of the high-end zombie feature in which a scientist and a teacher living in a dystopian future embark on a journey of survival with a special young girl named Melanie (Nanua).

Shot in and around Birmingham, UK, on a budget of around $5.2m (£4m), the film was backed by the BFI and Creative England. Each of the UK funding organisations put in more than $1.3m (£1m), marking Creative England’s biggest film investment to date and one of the largest for the BFI. The film’s proShadow ducers are Camille Gatin (Shadow ).

Dancer) and Angus Lamont (’71).

“It was something of a gamble,” one of the film’s execs admits in light of the genre and relative inexperience of McCarthy, Carey and Gatin, who met less than three years ago. Altitude Film Entertainment boarded sales early and, in an unusual and promising move, Warner Bros bought UK rights to the post-apocalyptic thriller three weeks prior to the shoot.

A US deal followed, with Saban Films announcing its acquisition at Cannes in May with a 2017 release in mind.

‘We wanted to surprise people rather than have people expect a studio-level film’ Colm McCarthy, director

Having debuted at Locarno before landing at TIFF, The Girl With All The Gifts is being released in the UK in late September and the project is already propelling some of its key players. Next up, McCarthy — who had previously directed episodes of Doctor Who and Sherlock — will direct the US pilot for the Superman prequel TV series Krypton and he is also in development on several feature ideas with Gatin and Carey, including the latter’s latest novel Fellside, in development with the BFI.

10 Screen International at Toronto September 12, 2016

Glenn Close and Colm McCarthy on set

) To what extent did you deviate from Mike Carey’s source material?

The film wasn’t actually based on the novel. The opening of the film is inspired by Mike’s short story but I’ve never actually read the novel as it was written alongside our script. ) Considering the film’s subject, had you initially envisioned it on an even bigger scale and with a bigger budget?

Quite the opposite with regards to the budget. I was interested in post-apocalyptic imagery and urban exploration.

We wanted to surprise people rather than have people coming in expecting a studio-level film. I spoke to Gareth Edwards about Monsters ahead of the shoot. That film was a reference point. ) Was it a conscious decision to have several central, strong female characters?

Yes, we wanted to develop a story that started with strong female characters who aren’t defined by their male relationships. Both Mike and I have teenage daughters. We thought about how pathetic the Bechdel test is. ) It’s an unusual role for Glenn Close.

It’s true, I’m not sure she has ever done a British, social-realist, sci-fi horror.

She was super cool to work with and very amazing with

Sennia and the other actors. She was very focused and everyone brought their games up working with Glenn. ) How did you cast Sennia Nanua?

The casting of Melanie was always going to be the most important creative decision. We met 500 girls for the role. Sennia was the last one we met.

She is a working-class girl from Nottingham who was 12 at the time. We wanted the casting process to be as colour blind as possible and made a point of not referencing skin colour in the script. It was a fairytale end to our casting process. ) She is inspired in the role. Can she become a star?

My advice to her has been to be careful and not to push immediately for a career in acting. There are an awful lot of child stars who have gone off the rails but I think we managed to give Sennia a grounded experience. That’s more important to me than whether she can become a movie star, although she definitely has that in her if she wants it. Hopefully this experience will show her she can do anything. ) Now you’re on to the pilot for US TV series Krypton for David S Goyer.

We are shooting in October. It’s a huge world-building exercise. It will be an expansive new world and an unexpected journey for the audience. The cast will be international but that’s s about all I can say at this stage. ■

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SCREENINGS

FURTHER COVERAGE, SEE SCREENDAILY.COM

Edited by Jamie McLeish » Screening times and venues are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration

12:45PM

PUBLIC

TRAMPS

(US) 82mins. WestEnd Films (int’l). United Talent Agency (UTA) (US). Dir: Adam Leon.

Cast: Callum Turner, Grace Van Patten, Mike Birbiglia.

A young man and woman find love in an unlikely place while carrying out a shady deal, in this charming romantic adventure.

SCREENINGS

9:00AM HUNTING FLIES

(Norway) 106mins.

LevelK ApS (int’l). Dir: Izer Aliu. Cast: Burhan Amiti.

A junior high school teacher in rural Macedonia finds the ethnic rivalries of his homeland are replicated among his unruly student body, in this satirical fable.

Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

1:15PM

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

IN EXILE

MIMOSAS

(Spain/Morocco/France/ Qatar) 93mins. Luxbox (int’l). Dir: Oliver Laxe.

Cast: Ahmed Hammoud, Shakib Ben Omar, Said Aagli.

Oliver Laxe’s minimalist ‘eastern western’ follows a caravan transporting the body of a sheik to his resting place in Morocco.

Wavelengths Jackman Hall (AGO)

THE IVORY GAME

(Austria/US) 116mins.

Dir: Kief Davidson.

Wildlife activists and investigators put their lives on the line to battle the illegal African ivory trade, in this documentary.

TIFF Docs Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

9:15AM BOUNDARIES

(Canada) 100mins. Indie Sales (int’l). Dir: Chloe Robichaud. Cast: Macha Grenon, Emily VanCamp, Nathalie Doummar.

A tiny island nation off Canada’s east coast enters the global arena when its natural resources become the focal point for international wheeling and dealing, in this energetic political satire.

Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

9:30AM DAGUERROTYPE

(France/Japan/Belgium) 131mins. Celluloid Dreams (int’l). Dir:

PUBLIC SCREENING 12:15PM LAYLA M.

(Netherlands/Belgium/ Germany/Jordan) 98mins. Beta Cinema (int’l). Dir: Mijke de Jong. Cast: Nora El Koussour, Ilias Addab.

A Dutch-Moroccan teenager marries a Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Cast: Tahar Rahim, Constance Rousseau, Olivier Gourmet.

An ageing photographer’s obsession with an archaic technique draws his assistant and daughter into a mysterious world.

Platform TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

10:30AM DENIAL

(US/UK) 110mins.

Cornerstone Films (int’l).

Dir: Mick Jackson. Cast: Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Spall.

A riveting, true-life drama about the courtroom showdown between historian Deborah Lipstadt and Holocaust denier David Irving.

Special Presentations Winter Garden Theatre

IN BETWEEN

(Israel/France) 96mins.

12 Screen International at Toronto September 12, 2016

devout jihadist and leaves Amsterdam to join an Islamist cell in the Middle East — only to discover that her new community has its own restrictions and prejudices.

Platform, Next Wave TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

Alma Cinema (int’l).

Dir: Maysaloun Hamoud.

Cast: Mouna Hawa, Sana Jammelieh, Shaden Kanboura.

Three Palestinian women share an apartment in the vibrant heart of Tel Aviv.

Contemporary World Cinema, Contemporary World Speakers TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

11:00AM NOCTURNAL ANIMALS

(US/UK) 116mins.

Universal Pictures International (int’l). Dir: Tom Ford. Cast: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon.

A woman is forced to confront the demons of her past as she is drawn into the world of a thriller novel written by her ex-husband.

Special Presentations VISA Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)

11:45AM KEKSZAKALLU

(Argentina) 72mins.

Dir: Gaston Solnicki.

Cast: Laila Maltz, Katia Szechtman, Lara Tarlowski.

This beguiling feature takes inspiration from Bela Bartok’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle, for a charming tale about several young women attempting to make their way into adulthood.

Wavelengths Jackman Hall (AGO)

UNLESS

(Canada/Ireland) 93mins. Subotica Limited (US). Dir: Alan Gilsenan.

Cast: Catherine Keener, Matt Craven, Hannah Gross.

A writer discovers her runaway daughter begging in the street.

Special Presentations Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

12:00PM LOVING

(US) 123mins. Dir: Jeff Nichols. Cast: Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga, Marton Csokas.

The true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, who waged a decade-long legal battle that led to the overturning of Virginia

state law prohibiting interracial marriage.

Gala Presentations Ryerson Theatre

(Germany/Myanmar) 72mins. Dir: Tin Win Naing.

Tin Win Naing documents the plight of migrants who have fled the civil war in Myanmar for supposed refuge in Thailand.

TIFF Docs TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

1:45PM

THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV

PARIS CAN WAIT

(France/Portugal/Spain) 115mins. Capricci Films (int’l). Dir: Albert Serra.

Cast: José Wallenstein, Filipe Duarte, Jean-Pierre Léaud.

Jean-Pierre Léaud takes the title role as the expiring French monarch in the stylistically rigorous and strangely transcendent film from visionary Spanish auteur Albert Serra.

(US) 92mins. Protagonist Pictures (int’l). ICM Partners (US). Dir: Eleanor Coppola. Cast: Diane Lane, Arnaud Viard, Alec Baldwin.

Eleanor Coppola directs this sexy and charming road movie, about a fiftysomething emptynester (Diane Lane) with a workaholic husband (Alec Baldwin) who embarks on an impromptu, two-day journey through the French countryside with a rakish bon vivant (Arnaud Viard).

Wavelengths TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

THE PROMISE

(US/Spain) 130mins.

William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME) (US). Dir: Terry George.

Cast: Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, Christian Bale.

An Armenian medical student (Oscar Isaac), an artist (Charlotte Le Bon) and a worldly US journalist (Christian Bale) form a love triangle during the First World War. Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

12:15PM LAYLA M. See box, above

Special Presentations Winter Garden Theatre

2:00PM WHITE SUN

(Nepal/US/Qatar/ Netherlands) 87mins.

The Match Factory (int’l and US). Dir: Deepak Rauniyar. Cast: Dayahang Rai, Asha Magrati, Rabindra Singh Baniya.

A former Maoist rebel struggles to reintegrate with his unwelcoming community and move beyond a painful past.

Contemporary World Cinema » Jackman Hall (AGO)

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F IL M IN D U S T R Y N A IC R E M A IN T T H E LA C O N N E C T IN G W IT H

3 0 C E D / NOV 29

SCREENINGS

2:15PM KATIE SAYS GOODBYE

(US) 88mins. Creative Artists Agency (CAA) (US). Dir: Wayne Roberts.

Cast: Olivia Cooke, Mary Steenburgen, Jim Belushi.

A truck-stop waitress believes she has found a way out of her dead end when she falls in love with a handsome young mechanic.

Discovery Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

2:30PM JACKIE

(UK) 91mins. IMR (int’l). Creative Artists Agency (CAA) (US).

Dir: Pablo Larrain.

Cast: Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig.

Depiction of the events leading up to and following the assassination of JFK through the eyes of Jacqueline Kennedy.

Platform VISA Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)

3:00PM PAST LIFE

(Israel) 110mins. Bleiberg Entertainment (int’l and US). Dir: Avi Nesher.

Cast: Joy Rieger, Nelly Tagar, Doron Tavory.

Two Israeli sisters delve into the dark mystery of their father’s former life in Poland during the Second World War. Contemporary World Cinema, Contemporary World Speakers TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

THEIR FINEST

(UK) 110mins. HanWay Films (int’l). HanWay Films, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) (US).

Dir: Lone Scherfig.

Cast: Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy.

A period comedy-drama about a group of filmmakers struggling to make an inspirational film to boost morale during the Blitz of London in the Second World War. Gala Presentations Princess of Wales Theatre

3:15PM PATERSON

(US) 118mins. K5 International (int’l).

Dir: Jim Jarmusch.

PUBLIC SCREENING 4:15PM THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MAKI

(Finland/Germany/ Sweden) 92mins. Les Films du Losange (int’l). Dir: Juho Kuosmanen. Cast: Jarkko Lahti, Oona Airola, Eero Milonoff.

Cast: Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani, Barry Shabaka Henley.

A working-class poet in a New Jersey town practises his craft amid the quiet magic of everyday life.

Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

THE DREAMED ONES

(Austria) 89mins.

Dir: Ruth Beckermann.

Cast: Anja Plaschg, Laurence Rupp.

Austrian film-maker Ruth Beckermann recreates the amorous correspondence between poets Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan through the voices and bodies of two young actors creating an audio recording of the letters.

Wavelengths TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

3:30PM I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO

(US/France/Belgium/

14 Screen International at Toronto September 12, 2016

This charming debut feature is a funny and forlorn comedy-drama inspired by the reallife showdown between Finnish boxer Olli Maki and US champion Davey Moore in 1962.

Discovery Scotiabank 13

Switzerland) 93mins.

Wide House (int’l).

ICM Partners (US).

Dir: Raoul Peck. Cast: Samuel L Jackson.

Working from James Baldwin’s unfinished final novel, Raoul Peck creates a stunning meditation on what it means to be black in America.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 3

Joakim Cohen, Anisia Uzeyman, Jaures Andris A magical neorealist fable set in Haiti five years after a devastating earthquake.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 14

FOREVER PURE

(Israel/UK/Ireland/ Norway) 87mins.

Dogwoof (int’l and US).

Dir: Maya Zinshtein.

A documentary about Beitar Jerusalem football club, which became a flashpoint for controversy in 2012 when the signing of two Muslim players brought down the racist wrath of the team’s fans.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 10

I AM THE PRETTY THING THAT LIVES IN THE HOUSE

(Canada/US) 87mins.

Paris Film (int’l and US).

Dir: Osgood Perkins.

Cast: Ruth Wilson, Paula Prentiss, Lucy Boynton.

A young nurse caring for an ageing, reclusive horror novelist begins to believe her patient’s new novel contains clues about her own fate.

Dir: Marco Bellocchio.

Cast: Bérénice Bejo, Valerio Mastandrea.

A journalist is haunted by the memory of the mother who died in his childhood.

THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MAKI

Masters TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

(Austria/Italy) 90mins.

Be for Films (int’l). Dir: Tizza Covi. Cast: Tairo Caroli, Wendy Weber, Arthur Robin.

After a lion tamer loses his good-luck charm, he sets out on a magical odyssey across Italy to find the circus strongman who gifted it to him.

4:00PM THE ANIMAL’S WIFE

(Colombia) 116mins.

Fandango (int’l). Dir: Victor Gaviria. Cast: Natalia Polo, Tito Alexander Gomez.

A teenage girl is kidnapped and forced into marriage with a ferocious shantytown thug.

Contemporary World Cinema, Contemporary World Speakers Scotiabank 11

4:15PM SOUVENIR

AYITI MON AMOUR

SWEET DREAMS

(Belgium/Luxembourg/ France) 90mins. Pathé International (int’l).

Dir: Bavo Defurne.

Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Kevin Azais, Johan Leysen.

Isabelle Huppert plays a middle-aged factory worker whose long-ago brush with fame comes to the fore again when she begins a romance with a young aspiring boxer.

(Haiti/US) 88mins.

Dir: Guetty Felin. Cast:

(Italy) 134mins. The Match Factory (int’l).

Special Presentations Scotiabank 2

ONCE AGAIN

(India) 121mins. Dir: Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

Cast: Dileep, Kavya Madhavan.

A man hatches a desperate plan that draws his middle-class family into a vortex of crime.

Masters TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

3:45PM

Vanguard Scotiabank 9

See box, left

4:30PM MISTER UNIVERSO

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

4:45PM SAFARI

(Austria) 90mins.

Coproduction Office (int’l). Dir: Ulrich Seidl.

Cast: Gerald Eichinger, Eva Hofmann, Manuel Eichinger.

Ulrich Seidl returns to Africa for this raw, grimly humorous portrait of European tourists hunting animals for sport.

Masters Jackman Hall (AGO)

WITHOUT NAME

(Ireland) 93mins. XYZ Films (US). Dir: Lorcan Finnegan. Cast: Alan McKenna, Niamh Algar, James Browne.

A land surveyor discovers

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a dark secret deep within a dense forest.

Vanguard Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

5:00PM GOLDSTONE

(Australia) 110mins.

Arclight Films (int’l).

Dir: Ivan Sen. Cast: Aaron Pedersen, Alex Russell, Pei Pei Cheng.

Laconic indigenous detective Jay Swan uncovers some shady dealings in the Outback while investigating the disappearance of a Chinese migrant worker.

Platform Winter Garden Theatre

5:15PM A QUIET PASSION

(UK/Belgium) 124mins. Double Dutch International (int’l).

United Talent Agency (UTA), Indomitable Entertainment (US).

Dir: Terence Davies.

Cast: Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle, Keith Carradine.

Cynthia Nixon stars as the legendary poet Emily Dickinson in this biopic from Terence Davies.

Masters Scotiabank 1

5:30PM MAUDIE

(Canada/Ireland) 115mins. Mongrel International Creative Artists Agency (CAA) (US). Dir: Aisling Walsh.

Cast: Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke, Kate Ross.

The true story of Maud Lewis, who overcame the challenge of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis to become one of Canada’s premier folk artists.

Special Presentations VISA Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)

ORPHAN

(France) 111mins.

Le Pacte (int’l and US). Dir: Arnaud des Pallieres. Cast: Adele Exarchopoulos, Gemma Arterton, Adele Haenel.

A narratively fractured portrait of a young woman who is played by a succession of different actors through the course of the film.

Special Presentations Isabel Bader Theatre

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THE PATRIARCH

(New Zealand) 103mins.

Wild Bunch (int’l).

Dir: Lee Tamahori.

Cast: Temuera Morrison, Akuhata Keefe, Nancy Brunning.

A family saga about a multi-generational Maori clan farming in New Zealand’s North Island in the 1960s.

Contemporary World Cinema, Contemporary World Speakers Scotiabank 4

6:15PM BLUE JAY

(US) 85mins. ICM Partners (int’l and US).

Dir: Alex Lehmann.

Cast: Mark Duplass, Sarah Paulson.

Two former high-school sweethearts reflect on their shared past through the lens of their differently dissatisfied presents, in this tender, wise and affecting chamber drama.

Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

BUSTER’S MAL HEART

(US) 96mins. The Film Sales Company (int’l and US). Dir: Sarah Adina Smith. Cast: Rami Malek, Kate Lyn Sheil, DJ Qualls.

A troubled man on the run recalls the mysterious events that brought him to his present fugitive state, in this enigmatic, elliptical and moving feature.

Vanguard Scotiabank 9

LA LA LAND

(US) 126mins. Lionsgate International Sales (int’l).

Dir: Damien Chazelle.

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend.

An ambitious jazz pianist and an aspiring actress fall in love while pursuing their dreams of stardom, in this dazzlingly stylised homage to the classic Hollywood musical.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales Theatre

PARK

(Greece/Poland) 100mins. Stray Dogs (int’l). Dir: Sofia Exarchou. Cast: Dimitris Kitsos, Dimitra Valgkopoulou, Enuki Gvenatadze.

Young love blossoms among a group of Athenian teenagers during a boisterous summertime idyll, in this raw, romantic and anarchic feature.

Discovery Scotiabank 10

THE FURY OF A PATIENT MAN

(Spain) 92mins. Film Factory Entertainment (int’l). Dir: Raul Arevalo.

Cast: Antonio de la Torre, Luis Callejo, Ruth Diaz.

The romance between a labourer and a single mother becomes a struggle for survival when the woman’s violent boyfriend returns from prison.

Discovery Scotiabank 3

6:30PM NORMAN: THE MODERATE RISE AND TRAGIC FALL OF A NEW YORK FIXER

stumbles into a shady line of employment.

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

SHORT CUTS PROGRAMME 07

91mins.

Short Cuts Scotiabank 14

THE B-SIDE: ELSA DORFMAN’S PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

(US) 76mins. Submarine (US). Dir: Errol Morris.

Cast: Elsa Dorfman.

Errol Morris profiles legendary photographer Elsa Dorfman, whose subjects have included Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan and Jonathan Richman.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 2

7:00PM ANATOMY OF VIOLENCE

(US/Israel) 117mins. The Solution Entertainment Group (int’l). Dir: Joseph Cedar. Cast: Richard Gere, Lior Ashkenazi, Hank Azaria.

A veteran ‘fixer’ in New York’s Jewish community gets in over his head when he sets out to impress a visiting Israeli dignitary.

(Canada/India) 93mins.

Noble Nomad (US). Dir: Deepa Mehta. Cast: Janki Bisht, Vansh Bhardwaj, Davinder Singh.

Celebrated film-maker Deepa Mehta investigates one of India’s most notorious crimes — the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a Delhi bus.

Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

Masters TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

THE RED TURTLE

JOE CINQUE’S CONSOLATION

(France/Belgium/Japan) 80mins. Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Michael Dudok de Wit. A wondrous animated tale about the unlikely friendship between a castaway on a deserted island and an enormous sea turtle.

(Australia) 102mins. UDI — Urban Distribution International (int’l). Dir: Sotiris Dounoukos. Cast: Maggie Naouri, Jerome Meyer, Gia Carides.

A riveting drama that chronicles how the relationship between two Australian law students turns deadly when devotion and delusion become fatally mixed.

7:15PM BEAUTIES OF THE NIGHT

(Mexico) 91mins. Dir: Maria Jose Cuevas. Cast: Olga Breeskin, Lyn May, Rossy Mendoza.

A captivating group portrait of the showgirls who enthralled thousands during the disco-era heyday of Mexico’s burlesque culture.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 8

PREVENGE

(UK) 88mins. XYZ Films, ICM Partners (US). Dir: Alice Lowe. Cast: Alice Lowe, Gemma Whelan, Kate Dickie.

A pitch-black comedy about a pregnant woman whose unborn child spurs her on to murder.

Vanguard Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

THE WOMAN WHO LEFT

(Philippines) 227mins.

Films Boutique (int’l).

Dir: Lav Diaz. Cast: Charo Santos-Concio, John Lloyd Cruz.

Director Lav Diaz’s drama examines economic disparity in modern Filipino society through the eyes of a woman released from prison 30 years after being framed and wrongly convicted.

Wavelengths Jackman Hall (AGO)

8:15PM THE BEAUTIFUL DAYS OF ARANJUEZ

71mins.

Discovery Scotiabank 13

(France/Germany) 97mins. Alfama Films Production — France (int’l). Dir: Wim Wenders. Cast: Reda Kateb, Sophie Semin, Jens Harzer.

A dialogue between a man and a woman frames Win Wenders’ reverie on love, freedom and beauty.

Wavelengths TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

TRANSPARENT SEASON 3

Masters Scotiabank 4

Discovery Scotiabank 12

WAVELENGTHS 4: INDEFINITE

6:45PM MARIJA

(Germany/Switzerland) 101mins. Luxbox (int’l).

Dir: Michael Koch. Cast: Margarita Breitkreiz, Georg Friedrich, Olga Dinnikova.

Struggling to survive in an unfamiliar city after losing her job, a young Ukrainian migrant

(US) 88mins. Dir: Jill Soloway. Cast: Anjelica Huston, Jeffrey Tambor, Gaby Hoffmann.

The premiere of the first three episodes from the new season of Jill Soloway’s comedy-drama, starring Jeffrey Tambor as transgender retiree Maura Pfefferman.

Primetime Scotiabank 11

8:30PM I, DANIEL BLAKE

(UK/France/Belgium) 105mins. Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Ken Loach.

Cast: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires British master Ken Loach won his second Palme d’Or at Cannes for this timely drama about an aged, ailing handyman’s battle

to survive after being denied his government sickness benefits.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1

MALIGLUTIT (SEARCHERS)

(Canada) 94mins. Dir: Zacharias Kunuk. Cast: Benjamin Kunuk, Karen Ivalu, Jonah Qunaq.

Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner) returns with this Arctic epic inspired by the John Ford western of the same name, about a husband who sets off in pursuit of the violent men who kidnapped his wife and destroyed his home.

Platform Winter Garden Theatre

8:45PM BLACK MIRROR: SAN JUNIPERO AND NOSEDIVE

(UK/South Africa) 123mins. Dir: Owen Harris. Cast: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mackenzie Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard.

A look at the third season of Charlie Brooker’s UK anthology series, with two episodes of eerie dystopian social satire and very dark humour.

Primetime Ryerson Theatre

HELLO DESTROYER

(Canada) 110mins.

Dir: Kevan Funk.

Cast: Jared Abrahamson, Kurt Max Runte, Joe Dion Buffalo.

A painfully shy but ruggedly capable enforcer on a minor-league hockey team discovers the cutthroat nature of his locker-room ‘family’.

Discovery Scotiabank 3

OKAFOR’S LAW

(Nigeria) 110mins. Dir: Omoni Oboli. Cast: Omoni Oboli, Blossom Chukwujekwu, Ufuoma McDermott.

A slick serial seducer bets his friends that he can bed three old flames in six weeks, in this risqué comedy.

City to City Isabel Bader Theatre

9:00PM AMERICAN HONEY

(UK/US) 158mins.

Protagonist Pictures

September 12, 2016 Screen International at Toronto 15

»

SCREENINGS

(int’l). Dir: Andrea Arnold. Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Sasha Lane, Riley Keough.

A crew of hard-partying teenagers criss-crosses the Midwest while working as travelling magazine salesmen.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

BOYS IN THE TREES

(Australia) 112mins.

Mushroom Pictures Pty (int’l). Paradigm (US).

Dir: Nicholas Verso.

Cast: Toby Wallace, Gulliver McGrath, Mitzi Ruhlmann.

A unique coming-ofage tale about teenage former friends whose all-night trek one fateful Halloween night becomes half descent into old fears and nightmares, half reckoning with the future.

Discovery Scotiabank 9

BRIMSTONE

(Netherlands/France/ Germany/Sweden/UK) 148mins. Embankment Films (int’l). Creative Artists Agency (CAA) (US). Dir: Martin Koolhoven. Cast: Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Emilia Jones.

A gritty revenge western, about a young woman in a frontier community who must go on the run when she is targeted by a diabolical preacher.

Special Presentations VISA Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)

PUBLIC SCREENING

investigates his own roots as the love child of a holiday romance in Tunisia, part of a wider phenomenon in the 1970s wherein young, impoverished Muslim men would seduce European women on vacation.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 14

SHORT CUTS PROGRAMME 08 Short Cuts TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

WULU

(Kenya/Germany) 75mins. Rushlake Media (int’l). Dir: Mbithi Masya. Cast: Sarika Hemi Lakhani, Siobhain ‘Ginger’ Wilson, Tom Tykwer.

A new arrival in the afterlife struggles to recover the past, in this poetic fantasy.

Discovery Scotiabank 10

Discovery Scotiabank 2

9:15PM

FRANTZ

(France/Germany) 113mins. Films Distribution (int’l).

Dir: Francois Ozon.

Cast: Paula Beer, Pierre

9:30PM

BEZNESS AS USUAL

ARRIVAL

(Netherlands) 92mins.

Selfmade Films (int’l).

Dir: Alex Pitstra. Cast: Alex Pitstra, Jasmin Ameera, Mohsen Ben Hassen.

Film-maker Alex Pitstra

(US) 116mins. FilmNation Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Denis Villeneuve.

Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker.

A sci-fi drama about the panic that follows a wave

16 Screen International at Toronto September 12, 2016

Niney, Marie Gruber.

An elegiac tale of love and remembrance set in a German town in the aftermath of the First World War, where a woman mourning her

fiancé forms a bond with a mysterious Frenchman who has arrived to lay flowers on her beloved’s grave.

Schanelec’s bisected narrative is a quietly beautiful meditation on love, loneliness and happiness just out of reach.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 13

Wavelengths TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

THE WEDDING RING

FRANTZ

(Niger/Burkina Faso/ France) 96mins. Dir: Rahmatou Keita. Cast: Magaajyia Silberfeld, Aichatou Moussa, Aichatou Lamine Fofana.

Recently returned to her home in the Sultanate of Zinder after studying abroad, a woman suffering the pain of a lost love finds renewal while awaiting the mystical promise of a new moon.

See box, above

THE STAIRS

of mysterious spacecraft landings across the globe.

Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

93mins

(France/Senegal) 95mins. Indie Sales (int’l). Dir: Daouda Coulibaly. Cast: Ibrahim Koma, Inna Modja, Ismael N’Diaye.

A political thriller about a transit worker turned drug trafficker, whose rapid ascent in Bamako’s criminal underworld entangles him with the military, the government and eventually al-Qaeda.

KATI KATI

9:45PM

BLEED FOR THIS

(US) 116mins. The Solution Entertainment Group (int’l). Dir: Ben Younger. Cast: Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart, Katey Sagal.

A biopic of former world champion boxer Vinny Paz, who struggles to return to the ring after an accident leaves him severely injured.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales Theatre

Contemporary World Cinema, Next Wave Scotiabank 11

9:45PM APPRENTICE

(Chile/Argentina/Spain/ France) 108mins. Funny Balloons (int’l). Dir: Pablo Larrain. Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Mercedes Morin.

Pablo Larrain weaves an engrossing metafictional fable around the 1948 manhunt for poet and politician Pablo Neruda.

(Singapore/Germany/ France/Hong Kong/ Qatar) 96mins. Luxbox (int’l). Dir: Boo Junfeng.

Cast: Fir Rahman, Wan Hanafi Su, Mastura Ahmad.

A young correctional officer in a Singaporean prison becomes morbidly fascinated with the region’s top executioner.

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

NERUDA

SAMI BLOOD

(Sweden/Denmark/ Norway) 110mins. The Swedish Film Institute, LevelK ApS (int’l). Dir: Amanda Kernell. Cast: Lene Cecilia Sparrok, Mia Erika Sparrok, Maj Doris Rimpi.

This powerful feature debut follows a teenage Sami girl in the 1930s who is forcibly removed from her family and sent to a state boarding school that is intended to raise its indigenous charges to a level ‘acceptable’ to the rest of Swedish society.

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

THE DREAMED PATH

(Germany) 86mins.

Filmgalerie 451 (int’l).

Dir: Angela Schanelec.

Cast: Miriam Jakob, Maren Eggert.

Two couples suffer the failure of their relationships 30 years apart. Director Angela

(Canada) 95mins. Dir: Hugh Gibson. Cast: Martin Thompson, Roxanne Smith, Greg Bell.

Shot over several years, Hugh Gibson’s profoundly affecting and compassionate documentary examines the lives of habitual drug users in Toronto’s Regent Park.

TIFF Docs Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

11:59PM RAW

(France/Belgium) 98mins. Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Julia Ducournau. Cast: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella.

A shy vegetarian student at a veterinary college develops an insatiable lust for flesh as the result of a gruesome hazing ritual, in this grisly and gory tale of a cannibalistic coming of age.

Midnight Madness Ryerson Theatre

www.screendaily.com

PRESS AND INDUSTRY 8:30AM

law wife Helen, who murdered him in a New York bar in 1972.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 11

150 MILLIGRAMS

IT’S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD

(France) 128mins.

Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Emmanuelle Bercot. Cast: Sidse Babett Knudsen, Benoit Magimel.

A dedicated doctor’s investigation into recent patient deaths leads to a crusade against a powerful drug company.

(Canada/France) 95mins.

Seville International (int’l). Creative Artists Agency (CAA) (US).

Dir: Xavier Dolan. Cast: Gaspard Ulliel, Nathalie Baye, Léa Seydoux.

A tempestuous tale about the fraught reunion of a fractured family.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 14

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

I CALLED HIM MORGAN

(Sweden/US) 91mins.

Submarine (int’l and US). Dir: Kasper Collin.

Cast: Lee Morgan, Helen Morgan, Wayne Shorter.

Part jazz history, part truecrime tale, Kasper Collin’s doc tells the tragic story of the talented trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-

www.screendaily.com

8:45AM THE PROMISE

(US/Spain) 130mins.

William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME) (US). Dir: Terry George.

Cast: Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, Christian Bale.

An Armenian medical student, an artist and

a worldly American journalist form a love triangle amid the chaos of the First World War. Gala Presentations Scotiabank 2

THE RIVER OF MY DREAMS: A PORTRAIT OF GORDON PINSENT

(Canada) 104mins. Dir: Brigitte Berman. Cast: Gordon Pinsent, Norman Jewison, Christopher Plummer A profile of Gordon Pinsent, who left Newfoundland in the late 1940s to launch a seven-decade career as one of the leading figures in Canadian film and television.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 8

9:00AM BLAIR WITCH

(US) 89mins. Lionsgate (int’l). Dir: Adam Wingard. Cast: James Allen McCune, Callie

Hernandez, Brandon Scott.

A man seeks answers to the disappearance of his sister by venturing into an ominous, potentially haunted forest, in this found-footage thriller.

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 3

Two Israeli sisters delve into the dark mystery of their father’s former life in Poland during the Second World War. Contemporary World Cinema, Contemporary World Speakers Scotiabank 9

9:15AM

Wolff, Selena Gomez.

James Franco directs and stars alongside a fine cast in this adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel about two labour organisers trying to unionise exploited California fruit pickers.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 4

CITY OF TINY LIGHTS FOREVER PURE

(Israel/UK/Ireland/ Norway) 87mins.

Dogwoof (int’l and US).

Dir: Maya Zinshtein.

Doc about Beitar Jerusalem football club, which hit the news in 2012 when the signing of two Muslim players brought down the racist wrath of the team’s long-time fans.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 10

(UK) 107mins.

Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Pete Travis.

Cast: Riz Ahmed, Cush Jumbo, James Floyd.

In the metropolis of London, a seemingly straightforward missingperson case launches a down-at-heel private eye into a dangerous world of religious fanaticism and political intrigue.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 13

PAST LIFE

(Israel) 110mins. Bleiberg Entertainment (int’l and US). Dir: Avi Nesher.

Cast: Joy Rieger, Nelly Tagar, Doron Tavory.

IN DUBIOUS BATTLE

(US) 114mins. AMBI Distribution (int’l and US). Dir: James Franco.

Cast: James Franco, Nat

THE EAGLE HUNTRESS

(US) 87mins. Celluloid Dreams (int’l). Dir: Otto Bell. Cast: Aisholpan Nurgaiv, Nurgaiv Rys, Almagul Kuksyegyen.

A visually stunning documentary about a girl in western Mongolia who challenges tradition by becoming the first female to take on the sacred role of capturing and training wild mountain eagles.

TIFF Kids Scotiabank 7

9:30AM DENIAL

(US/UK) 110mins.

Cornerstone Films (int’l). »

September 12, 2016 Screen International at Toronto 17

SCREENINGS

Dir: Mick Jackson. Cast: Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Spall.

True-life drama about the courtroom showdown between historian Deborah Lipstadt and Holocaust denier David Irving.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales Theatre

SHORT CUTS PROGRAMME 05

92mins.

Short Cuts Scotiabank 5

10:00AM GRINGO: THE DANGEROUS LIFE OF JOHN MCAFEE

(US) 100mins. Dir: Nanette Burstein.

The strange story of John McAfee, who went from millionaire software mogul to yogi, Kurtz-like jungle recluse to murder suspect.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 1

X500

108mins. Dir: Juan Andres Arango. Cast: Jembie Almazan, Jonathan Diaz Angulo, Bernardo Garnica Cruz.

Set in Mexico, Colombia and Canada, this film follows the stories of three unrelated migrants who each experience the death of a loved one.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 6

10:30AM THE ANIMAL’S WIFE

(Colombia) 116mins.

Fandango (int’l). Dir: Victor Gaviria. Cast: Natalia Polo, Tito Alexander Gomez.

A teenage girl is kidnapped and forced into marriage with a shantytown thug.

Contemporary World Cinema, Contemporary World Speakers Scotiabank 11

11:00AM ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL

(US) 90mins. Motto Pictures (int’l and US).

Dir: Steve James.

The legal struggles of a small, family-run Manhattan bank that was the only financial institution to be criminally indicted in the wake of the 2008 mortgage crisis.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 14

SALT AND FIRE

(France/US/Germany/ Mexico) 93mins.

International Film Trust (int’l). Creative Artists Agency (CAA) (US).

Dir: Werner Herzog.

Cast: Michael Shannon, Veronica Ferres, Gael Garcia Bernal.

A scientist and a corporate CEO must overcome their ideological differences to avert potential disaster from a volcano on the verge of eruption.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3

SOUL ON A STRING

(China) 142mins. Asian Shadows (int’l). Dir: Zhang Yang. Cast: Kimba, Quni Ciren, Siano Dudiom Zahi.

Zhang Yang adapts two novels by Tibetan writer Tashi Dawa for this mystical epic about a killer on the run who is entrusted with a sacred mission.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

11:15AM HANDSOME DEVIL

(Ireland) 95mins.

Radiant Films International (int’l).

ICM Partners (US).

Dir: John Butler. Cast: Fionn O’Shea, Nicholas Galitzine, Andrew Scott.

A music-mad 16-year-old outcast at a rugby-mad boarding school forms an unlikely friendship with his dashing roommate.

Contemporary World Cinema, Next Wave Scotiabank 10

11:30AM 93 DAYS

(Nigeria) 124mins.

FilmOne Distribution (int’l). Dir: Steve Gukas.

Cast: Danny Glover, Bimbo Akintola, Somkele Idhalama.

A riveting real-life thriller about courageous healthcare workers in Lagos battling the Ebola outbreak of 2014.

City to City Scotiabank 5

HEMA HEMA: SING ME A SONG WHILE I WAIT

(Bhutan/Hong Kong) 95mins. HanWay Films (int’l and US). Dir: Khyentse Norbu. Cast: Tshering Dorji, Sadon

18 Screen International at Toronto September 12, 2016

PRESS AND INDUSTRY Lhamo, Thinley Dorji, Xun Zhou.

Film-maker Khyentse Norbu chronicles a sacred jungle ritual whose masked, anonymous participants seek complete self-knowledge — but sometimes descend into theft and murder.

Platform Scotiabank 9

MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING INTO THE SEA

(US) 72mins. Cinetic Media (US). Dir: Dash Shaw. Cast: John Cameron Mitchell, Reggie Watts, Jason Schwartzman.

The title tells the tale in this inventive animated feature from graphic novelist Dash Shaw, featuring the voices of Jason Schwartzman and Lena Dunham.

Vanguard, Next Wave Scotiabank 12

12:30PM ANATOMY OF VIOLENCE

(Canada/India) 93mins.

Noble Nomad (US).

Dir: Deepa Mehta.

Cast: Janki Bisht, Vansh Bhardwaj, Davinder Singh.

Celebrated filmmaker Deepa Mehta

12:30PM

investigates one of India’s most notorious crimes — the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a Delhi bus — in her angry, impassioned new film.

Masters Scotiabank 4

ANATOMY OF VIOLENCE See box, left

SHORT CUTS PROGRAMME 06

90mins.

Short Cuts Scotiabank 6

1:00PM ASURA: THE CITY OF MADNESS

SING

12:00PM

(US/France) 110mins.

Dir: Garth Jennings. Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane.

A showbiz impresario who happens to be a koala attracts a menagerie of musical hopefuls when he holds a singing contest to try to save his theatre, in this animated musical comedy.

(US) 126mins. Lionsgate International Sales (int’l).

Dir: Damien Chazelle.

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone.

An ambitious jazz pianist and an aspiring actress fall in love while pursuing their dreams of stardom, in this dazzling homage to the classic Hollywood musical.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 2

Special Presentations Princess of Wales Theatre

11:45AM

LA LA LAND

12:15PM

SADAKO VS. KAYAKO

IN THE RADIANT CITY

(Japan) 98mins. Dir: Koji Shiraishi. Cast: Mizuki Yamamoto, Tina Tamashiro, Aimi Satsukawa.

Two classic J-horror franchises face off in this monster mash-up that pits the phantoms of The Grudge (Ju-on) against the analogue-to-digital demon of The Ring (Ringu).

(US) 95mins. ICM Partners (US). Dir: Rachel Lambert. Cast: Michael Abbott Jr, Marin Ireland, Paul Sparks.

Rachel Lambert makes a striking debut with this enigmatic family drama about a prodigal son’s return to his home town, and the demons stirred by his arrival.

(US/Israel) 117mins. The Solution Entertainment Group (int’l). Dir: Joseph Cedar. Cast: Richard Gere, Lior Ashkenazi.

A veteran ‘fixer’ in New York’s Jewish community gets in over his head when he sets out to impress a visiting Israeli dignitary.

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 7

Discovery Scotiabank 13

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 1

NORMAN: THE MODERATE RISE AND TRAGIC FALL OF A NEW YORK FIXER

(South Korea) 136mins.

CJ Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Kim Sung-soo. Cast: Jung Woo-sung, Hwang Jung-min, Ju Ji-hoon.

A shady cop finds himself in over his head when he is caught between Internal Affairs and the city’s corrupt mayor.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 11

DAGUERROTYPE

(France/Japan/Belgium) 131mins. Celluloid Dreams (int’l). Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Cast: Tahar Rahim, Constance Rousseau, Olivier Gourmet.

An ageing photographer’s obsession with an archaic technique draws his young assistant and beautiful daughter into a dark and mysterious world.

Platform Scotiabank 14

1:15PM BLEED FOR THIS

(US) 116mins. The

www.screendaily.com

Solution Entertainment Group (int’l). Dir: Ben Younger. Cast: Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart, Katey Sagal.

Biopic of former world champion boxer Vinny Paz, who struggles to return to the ring after an accident leaves him severely injured.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

CATFIGHT

(US) 96mins. MPI Media Group (int’l). Dir: Onur Tukel. Cast: Sandra Oh, Anne Heche, Alicia Silverstone.

A reunion between two old school friends sparks a no-holds-barred war of attrition, in this madcap black comedy.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3

1:30PM THE WAR SHOW

(Denmark/Finland/Syria) 100mins. DR Sales (int’l and US). Dir: Andreas Dalsgaard. Cast: Obaidah Zytoon, Amr Kheito, Hisham Issa.

A Syrian radio DJ documents the experiences of herself and her friends as their dreams of hope and liberation in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring give way to the grim realities of repression and extremism.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 10

1:45PM NEVER EVER

(France/Portugal) 86mins. Alfama Films Production — France (int’l). Dir: Benoit Jacquot. Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Julia Roy, Jeanne Balibar.

Benoit Jacquot adapts a novella by Don DeLillo for this tale of amour fou between a selfcentred film-maker and a beautiful body artist.

Masters Scotiabank 9

2:00PM THE BAIT

(India) 88mins. Dir: Buddhadeb Dasgupta.

Cast: Sudipto Chatterjee, Kajal Kumari, Ananya Chatterjee.

A lyrical and at times comic three-part portrait

www.screendaily.com

of rural Indian life.

Masters Scotiabank 7

THE EXCEPTION

(UK) 107mins. Lotus (int’l). United Talent Agency (UTA) (US). Dir: David Leveaux. Cast: Lily James, Christopher Plummer, Jai Courtney.

German Kaiser Wilhelm II’s post-First World War exile in the Netherlands.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 2

THE IVORY GAME

(Austria/US) 116mins.

Dir: Kief Davidson.

Wildlife activists and investigators put their lives on the line to battle the illegal African ivory trade.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 8

YOURSELF AND YOURS

(South Korea) 86mins.

Finecut Co (int’l). Dir: Hong Sang-soo. Cast: Kim Joo-hyuck, Lee Youyoung.

An ingenious spin on Luis Bunuel’s final masterpiece That Obscure Object of Desire.

Masters Scotiabank 13

2:15PM INDIVISIBLE

(Italy) 104mins. True Colours Glorious Films (int’l). Dir: Edoardo de Angelis. Cast: Angela Fontana, Marianna Fontana, Antonia Truppo.

Two teenage Siamese twins face an emotional decision when a doctor claims that he can separate them, in this offbeat drama.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 5

2:45PM GIRL UNBOUND

(Pakistan/Canada/Hong Kong/South Korea) 80mins. United Talent Agency (UTA) (US). Dir: Erin Heidenreich. Cast: Maria Toorpakai Wazir, Shamsul Qayyum Wazir, Ayesha Gulalai Wazir.

An intimate portrait of Maria Toorpakai, who defies threats to herself and her family from Islamic fundamentalists in order to represent Pakistan as a competitive squash player.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 6

3:00PM JACKIE

(UK) 91mins. IMR (int’l). Creative Artists Agency (CAA) (US).

Dir: Pablo Larrain. Cast: Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig.

The events leading up to and following the assassination of JFK through the eyes of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy.

Platform Scotiabank 1

3:15PM UNLESS

(Canada/Ireland) 93mins.

Subotica Limited (US).

Dir: Alan Gilsenan. Cast: Catherine Keener, Matt Craven, Hannah Gross.

A writer discovers her daughter panhandling on the street and seemingly deprived of speech.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 4

4:00PM KING OF THE DANCEHALL

(US/Jamaica) 100mins.

ICM Partners (int’l and US). Dir: Nick Cannon.

Cast: Nick Cannon, Whoopi Goldberg, Busta Rhymes.

A young man from Brooklyn is caught up in the vibrant Kingston music scene in Jamaica.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

4:15PM

in this beautiful social drama from Nepali filmmaker and TIFF Talent Lab alumnus Deepak Rauniyar.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 5

5:00PM PRANK

(Canada) 78mins.

FunFilm Distribution (int’l and US). Dir: Vincent Biron. Cast: Etienne Galloy, Alexandre Lavigne, Constance Massicotte.

A lovelorn teenage outcast is drawn into the world of ‘professional’ pranksters, in the hilarious feature debut from acclaimed Quebecois short filmmaker Vincent Biron.

Discovery Scotiabank 6

6:30PM IN BETWEEN

(Israel/France) 96mins.

Alma Cinema (int’l). Dir: Maysaloun Hamoud.

Cast: Mouna Hawa, Sana Jammelieh, Shaden Kanboura.

Three Palestinian women sharing an apartment in vibrant Tel Aviv find themselves balancing tradition and modernity, citizenship and culture, fealty and freedom.

Contemporary World Cinema, Contemporary World Speakers Scotiabank 7

6:45PM

frequently funny look at Lagos’s new generation.

City to City Scotiabank 6

8:45PM BEZNESS AS USUAL

(Netherlands) 92mins.

Selfmade Films (int’l).

Dir: Alex Pitstra. Cast: Alex Pitstra, Jasmin Ameera, Mohsen Ben Hassen.

Alex Pitstra investigates his own roots as the love child of a holiday romance in Tunisia, part of a wider phenomenon in the 1970s wherein young, impoverished Muslim men would seduce European women on vacation.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 7

9:15PM THE DREAMED PATH

(Germany) 86mins.

Filmgalerie 451 (int’l).

Dir: Angela Schanelec.

Cast: Miriam Jakob, Thorbjorn Bjornsson, Maren Eggert.

Two couples suffer the failure of their relationships 30 years apart. Director Angela Schanelec’s bisected narrative is a quietly beautiful meditation on love, loneliness and happiness just out of reach.

Wavelengths Scotiabank 5

9:30PM THE STAIRS

BUSTER’S MAL HEART

IN EXILE

(US) 96mins. The Film Sales Company (int’l and US). Dir: Sarah Adina Smith. Cast: Rami Malek, Kate Lyn Sheil, DJ Qualls.

A troubled man on the run recalls the mysterious events that brought him to his present fugitive state.

(Germany/Myanmar) 72mins. Dir: Tin Win Naing.

Documents the plight of migrants who have fled the civil war in Myanmar to find refuge in Thailand, and now toil as plantation workers in conditions tantamount to slavery.

(Canada) 95mins. Dir: Hugh Gibson. Cast: Martin Thompson, Roxanne Smith, Greg Bell.

Shot over the course of several years, Hugh Gibson’s affecting and compassionate documentary examines the lives of habitual drug users in Toronto’s Regent Park.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 5

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 6

Vanguard Scotiabank 7

4:30PM WHITE SUN

(Nepal/US/Qatar/ Netherlands) 87mins.

The Match Factory (int’l and US). Dir: Deepak Rauniyar. Cast: Dayahang Rai, Asha Magrati, Rabindra Singh Baniya.

A former Maoist rebel struggles to reintegrate with his unwelcoming community and move beyond a painful past,

7:00PM GREEN WHITE GREEN

(Nigeria) 102mins.

Dir: Abba Makama.

Cast: Ifeanyi Dike, Jamal Ibrahim, Samuel Robinson.

A group of young artists search for direction in their lives in the stagnant months leading up to their university studies, in this richly textured and

10:15PM VOYAGE OF TIME: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE

(Germany) 45mins.

Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Terrence Malick.

Visionary filmmaker Terrence Malick directs this IMAX documentary, which chronicles nothing less than the history of the universe.

Screen office Meeting room 12, fifth floor, TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King Street West, Toronto, ON, M5V 3X5 Editorial Tel +1 416 599 8433 ext 2512 Editor Matt Mueller, matt.mueller@screendaily.com, +44 7880 526 547 US editor Jeremy Kay, jeremykay67@gmail.com, +1 310 922 5908 Chief critic & reviews editor Finn Halligan, finn.halligan@ screendaily.com, +44 7798 571 270 Group head of production & art Mark Mowbray, mark.mowbray@screendaily.com, +44 7710 124 065 Reporter Tom Grater, tom.grater@screendaily.com, +44 7436 096 420 Sid Adilman mentorship programme Aaditya Aggarwal, aadiaggarwal@gmail.com Advertising and publishing Publishing director Nadia Romdhani, nadia. romdhani@screendaily.com Senior sales manager Scott Benfold, scott.benfold@ screendaily.com, +44 7765 257 260 International account managers Ingrid Hammond +39 05 7829 8768, ingridhammond@mac.com Pierre-Louis Manes, pierre-louis. manes@screendaily.com, +44 7768 237 487 Gunter Zerbich, gunter.zerbich@ screendaily.com, +44 7768 237 487 VP business development, North America Nigel Daly, nigeldalymail@gmail.com, +1 213 447 5120 US sales and business development executive Nikki Tilmouth, nikki.screeninternational@gmail. com +1 323 868 7633 Production manager Jonathon Cooke, jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com, +44 7584 335 148 Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam Printer Big Bark Graphics, S/B — 68 Healey Road, Units 1-3, Bolton, ON L7E 5A4 Screen International, London MBI, Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ, United Kingdom Subscription enquiries help.subscribe@screendaily.com +44 (0) 330 333 9414

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

September 12, 2016 Screen International at Toronto 19

FILM IN SCOTLAND

FOR THE PERFECT LOCATION For a fast, free, confidential location-finding service, award-winning production companies, experienced crew and great facilities, contact us today.

Join us at this year’s Festival 10-15 September, UK Film Centre, Festival Room, 9th Floor, Hyatt Regency Hotel, 370 King Street West www.creativescotlandlocations.com E locations@creativescotland.com T +44 (0) 141 302 1723/35 North Uist, Outer Hebrides Photo: Allan Wright/Scottish Viewpoint