TIFF 2017 Day 3

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 2017

AT TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL www.ScreenDaily.com

Editorial +1 416 599 843 ext 2440

TIFF DISCOVERY PRESS & INDUSTRY Saturday Sept 9 – 2:45PM Scotiabank 8

PUBLIC Sunday Sept 10 – 9:30PM Lightbox Cinema 3 Tuesday Sept 12 – 7:00PM Scotiabank 8 Friday Sept 15 – 12:15PM Scotiabank 10

CAST Sophie Henderson (Fantail), Mark Mitchinson (The Hobbit Series), Vinnie Bennett (Ghost in the Shell), Sara Wiseman (A Place to Call Home), Milo Cawthorne (Power Rangers R.P.M.)

DIRECTOR Nic Gorman

“…Human Traces comes into shape as a gripping, suspenseful study of human isolation and paranoia.”

New Zealand Herald Clay Epstein clay@filmmodeentertainment.com Mobile: +1 (818) 426-6359 www.filmmodeentertainment.com

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TODAY

SCREENINGS

» Page 24

BAC FILMS AT TIFF

THE LEISURE SEEKER

LET THE CORPSES TAN

UNA FAMIGLIA

THE BLESSED

4

AVA

THE TEACHER

LAND

FUNAN

HYATT REGENCY 1 ST FLOOR UNIFRANCE AREA BAC_DOUBLE_PAGE_SCREENING_TIFF.indd 1

Gilles Sousa g.sousa@bacfilms.fr l +33 6 26 98 85 59 Marie Garrett m.garrett@bacfilms.fr l +33 7 63 19 10 36 Juliette Béchu j.bechu@bacfilms.fr l +33 7 63 19 10 35

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THE CURED (Aka The Third Wave) A FILM BY

DAVID FREYNE

OFFICIAL PREMIERE

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

SEPT. 9 TH I 9:00 PM I RYERSON THEATER

PRESS AND INDUSTRY SEPT. 10TH I 11:45 AM SEPT. 13TH I 9:15 AM PUBLIC SCREENINGS SEPT. 10TH I 8:45 PM SEPT. 16TH I 9:00 PM

I I I I

SCOTIABANK 3 SCOTIABANK 3 SCOTIABANK 12 SCOTIABANK 1

01/09/2017 15:50

Our office @ TIFF

German Films Stand Hyatt Regency, King Ballroom (Mezzanine Level), 370 King St. West

From The Director of:

OFFICIAL SELECTION

AHLAAM (2003) SON OF BABYLON (2010) IN MY MOTHER’S ARMS (2010) IN THE SANDS OF BABYLON (2013)

“Middle East Filmmaker of the Year”

TORONTO SCREENING SCHEDULE Saturday / September 9th / 9:30 PM (Today) Scotiabank 13 / Public Screening (World Premiere) Tuesday / September 12th / 11:45 AM Scotiabank 9 / Press & Industry Screening Tuesday / September 12th / 2:30 PM TIFF Bell Lightbox 3 / Public Screening Wednesday / September 13th / 4:15 PM Scotiabank 13 / Public Screening

Sales Contact Yuanyuan Rothbauer I Phone: +49 151 5061 7388 yuan@picturetree-international.com I www. picturetree-international.com

Info and trailer:

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Buyers eye premium TIFF titles

BY JEREMY KAY

A pair of on-site acquisitions by Byron Allen of Entertainment Studios injected early buzz into the market ahead of Friday night’s screening of I, Tonya. Allen snapped up North American rights to Ted Kennedy drama Chappaquiddick starring Jason Clarke and Kate Mara on Friday for a reported $4m and a $16m P&A commitment, after paying $4m earlier in the day for out-offestival Keanu Reeves sci-fi Replicas.

Hurricane Irma makes presence felt in Toronto

Margot Robbie in the lead as disgraced US skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya was the main attraction heading into Friday night. It is understood nobody had seen Craig Gillespie’s film at time of writing.

Miramax acquired US rights last December in a deal believed to be in the region of $6m. Since Bill Block arrived as Miramax CEO earlier this year, he put the film back on the table and was hopeful of making his money back once all

the buyers were in the same theatre. UTA Independent Film Group and CAA represent US rights and Sierra/Affinity handles international. The back-up plan is for Miramax to partner with a distributor on I, Tonya, as it did with Roadside Attractions on Southside With You and Mr Holmes.

Saturday brings Richard Eyre’s The Children Act (CAA, FilmNation for North America; FilmNation for international), Haifaa al-Man-

Hubert Boesl

BY JEREMY KAY

Toronto-based boutique entertainment finance company Slate Worldwide has partnered with US-based Pilot Analytics to launch a databased service in Canada. Pilot uses machine learning to give clients box-office forecasts and audience analytics that enable producers, financiers and distributors to model production, distribution and marketing spend with greater accuracy.

Two platforms are being offered: Prophet forecasts North American and international box office from

mk2 unlocks The House

By The Sea GAGA REFLEX Lady Gaga descended on TIFF yesterday with her Netflix doc Gaga: Five Foot Two. The singer said she hopes Chris Moukarbel’s candid film “shows people who struggle with mental illness and physical pain that I struggle like them. We don’t have to hide it”.

PNP dresses for André, Miike Pacific Northwest Pictures (PNP) has picked up TIFF selection The Gospel According To André and Takashi Miike’s Cannes premiere Blade Of The Immortal from Magnolia International.

Kate Novack’s TIFF Docs entry The Gospel According To André follows former Vogue editor-atlarge André Leon Talley, who rose

Sweet Country, page 14

NEWS Keeping the faith Match Factory’s Michael Weber appraises the indie landscape » Page 8

REVIEWS Brad’s Status A marvellous dissection of one man’s midlife crisis » Page 10

Sweet Country This milestone for Australian indigenous cinema will travel » Page 14

FEATURES Northern soul Meet the Nordic female filmmakers making waves at TIFF » Page 20

Slate, Pilot shake up box office

BY TOM GRATER

Having already wreaked havoc across the Caribbean, the devastation and loss of life caused by Hurricane Irma has brought a sombre note to chatter here in Toronto.

While Torontonians and visiting industry remain far removed from the weather front, some of those yet to travel have been affected. Sergio & Sergei director Ernesto Daranas Serrano and actor Hector Noas are stranded in Cuba amid flight cancellations at Havana airport, and the pair are scrambling to make the film’s world premiere tomorrow.

After multiple setbacks, they are booked onto a Sunday morning flight, so could yet make an 11th hour entrance at the screening.

As it makes its way north, Irma is expected to hit Florida later today.

As a result, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, Film Florida and Miami Film Festival have cancelled their TIFF event tonight. In a statement, the organisations said that as the hurricane was predicted to hit Florida during the hours of the party, they had decided not to go ahead with the event due to “anxiety over the potential threat to human life and property on all our minds”. The statement also noted that as TIFF was a crucial gathering for Miami’s film industry, the organisations will be counting on the support of those at the festival “now, more than ever”.

sour’s English-language debut Mary Shelley (UTA Independent Film Group; HanWay Films), The Cured (WME Global, CAA; Bac Films), Mom And Dad (CAA, XYZ Films; XYZ Films) and Kodachrome (CAA, WME Global; The Solution).

Meanwhile YouTube Red was understood to be pursuing Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! represented by 30WEST.

TODAY

up through Andy Warhol’s Factory in the 1970s.

PNP will release both films theatrically in Canada in tandem with their US releases. Magnolia plans to launch André in spring 2018 and Miike’s fantasy-genre thriller on November 3 through its Magnet label.

Jeremy Kay

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

Paris-based sales company mk2 Films is reporting brisk business on Robert Guédiguian’s The House

By The Sea following its wellreceived premiere at Venice. The film, which has its North American premiere in TIFF Masters on Monday, has sold to Japan (Kino Films), Spain (Golem), Benelux (Cinéart), China (Hualu), Turkey (Filmarti), Brazil (Tag Cultural), Switzerland (Agora) and Greece (Weird Wave).

Diaphana is scheduled to release in France in November.

The film is set in a picturesque villa near Marseilles, where three siblings have gathered around their dying father. Ariane Ascaride and Jean-Pierre Darroussin star.

two years out and claims an average 70% accuracy, rising to 80% once a trailer has been released. Sentinel analyses data from social-media platforms to better understand audience behaviour and enable clients to build P&A models by targeting potential viewers based on taste and brand associations. The service launched earlier this year in the US. “We want the client to be able to see updates in real time,” says Pilot Analytics CEO Alan Xie. “We want to be Rentrak for users before the film opens.”

TORONTO BRIEFS Spotlight falls for Sevigny’s Look Away Los Angeles-based Spotlight Pictures has acquired international sales rights to romance Look Away starring Chloë Sevigny, Matthew Broderick and Shannon Tarbet. The film centres on a young woman who cannot see her mother due to a mental disorder known as selective perception. Lucy Barzun Donnelly, Alexis Alexanian and Alexandra Kerry produced Look Away through Locomotive, and retain US rights.

Reel Suspects locks Cage Paris-based Reel Suspects has scored an early TIFF deal for North American rights on Spanish sci-fi horror Black Hollow Cage. Torontobased distributor levelFILM has picked up the title and is planning a theatrical release in early 2018.

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RED JOAN CAST

DIRECTOR PRODUCER EXECUTIVE PRODUCER STATUS

DAME JUDI DENCH & SOPHIE COOKSON SIR TREVOR NUNN

DAVID PARFITT

IVAN MACTAGGART PRE-PRODUCTION

McQUEEN

F E AT U R E D O C U M E N TA R Y

DIRECTORS MUSIC BY

PRODUCERS STATUS

RIDE LIKE A GIRL CAST

DIRECTOR PRODUCER STATUS

TERESA PALMER, SAM NEILL & JACKI WEAVER RACHEL GRIFFITHS RICHARD KEDDIE

PRE-PRODUCTION

SUMMERL AND CAST

DIRECTOR PRODUCERS STATUS

GEMMA ARTERTON

JESSICA SWALE

GUY HEELEY & ADRIAN STURGES

PRE-PRODUCTION

IAN BONHÔTE & PETER ETTEDGUI MICHAEL NYMAN

ANDEE RYDER, NICK TAUSSIG & PAUL VAN CARTER

IN PRODUCTION

GALVESTON

CAST DIRECTOR PRODUCER STATUS

BEN FOSTER, ELLE FANNING MÉLANIE LAURENT T YLER DAVIDSON POST–PRODUCTION

PLEASE STAND BY CAST DIRECTOR PRODUCERS STATUS

DAKOTA FANNING, TONI COLLET TE & ALICE EVE

BEN LEWIN

DANIEL DUBIECKI & LARA ALAMEDDINE COMPLETED

DRIVEN CAST

DIRECTOR PRODUCER STATUS

JASON SUDEIKIS, LEE PACE, COREY STOLL & JUDY GREER NICK HAMM

PIERS TEMPEST

IN PRODUCTION

EMBANKMENT @ TIFF 2017 - UK FILM CENTRE Festival Room, 9th Floor, Hyatt Regency Hotel 370 King Street West, M5V 1J9, Toronto Phone +44 (0) 2071834739 (UK www.embankmentfilms.com

EMBANKMENT_TIFF17_SCREEN_DPS.indd 1

BREATH DIRECTOR

SIMON BAKER, ELIZABETH DEBICKI & RICHARD ROXBURGH SIMON BAKER

STATUS

WORLD PREMIERE AT TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL 2017

CAST

PRODUCERS SCREENING TIMES

SIMON BAKER, JAMIE HILTON & MARK JOHNSON

PUBLIC 1 – SUNDAY 10 TH , 4.30 PM AT SCOTIABANK 2 – PREMIERE P&I 1 – MONDAY 11TH , 8.45AM AT SCOTIABANK 14 PUBLIC 2 – TUESDAY 12 TH , 10 PM AT SCOTIABANK 12 P&I 2 – THURSDAY 14TH , 2.30 PM AT SCOTIABANK 12 PUBLIC 3 – SATURDAY 16TH , 12 PM AT SCOTIABANK 1

THE WIFE CAST

DIRECTOR PRODUCERS STATUS SCREENING TIMES

GLENN CLOSE, JONATHAN PRYCE, CHRISTIAN SLATER, ANNIE STARKE & MA X IRONS

BJÖRN RUNGE

META LOUISE FOLDAGER, ROSALIE SWEDLIN, PIERS TEMPEST, CLAUDIA BLUEMHUBER & PIODOR GUSTAFSSON

WORLD PREMIERE AT TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL 2017 PRIVATE SCREENING – SATURDAY 9TH, 11.45AM AT SCOTIABANK 13 P&I 1 – TUESDAY 12 TH , 8.45 AM AT SCOTIABANK 2 PUBLIC 1 – THURSDAY 14TH, 6.30PM AT ROY THOMSON HALL – PREMIERE PUBLIC 2 – FRIDAY 15 TH , 12 PM AT ELGIN THEATRE PUBLIC 3 – SATURDAY 16TH , 3 PM AT SCOTIABANK 1

SUBMERGENCE

CAST DIRECTOR PRODUCER STATUS

SCREENING TIMES

ALICIA VIK ANDER, JAMES MCAVOY WIM WENDERS CAMERON LAMB

WORLD PREMIERE AT TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL 2017 PUBLIC 1 – SUNDAY 10 TH , 6.15 PM AT ELGIN THEATRE – PREMIERE P&I 1 – MONDAY 11TH , 11.30AM AT SCOTIABANK 3 PUBLIC 2 – MONDAY 11TH , 3 PM AT TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX 1 P&I 2 – WEDNESDAY 13 TH , 7PM AT SCOTIABANK 12

BREATHE

CAST

DIRECTOR PRODUCER STATUS SCREENING TIMES

ANDREW GARFIELD, CLAIRE FOY, TOM HOLLANDER & HUGH BONNEVILLE ANDY SERKIS

JONATHAN CAVENDISH

WORLD PREMIERE AT TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL 2017 PUBLIC 1 – MONDAY 11TH, 6PM AT ROY THOMSON HALL – PREMIERE P&I 1 – TUESDAY 12 TH , 9.15 AM AT SCOTIABANK 1 PUBLIC 2 – TUESDAY 12 TH , 10AM AT WINTER GARDEN THEATRE P&I 2 – THURSDAY 14 TH , 5 PM AT SCOTIABANK 12

06/09/2017 14:00

NEWS

BY JEREMY KAY

Ryan Kampe’s US-based Visit Films is in Toronto with worldwide rights to festival selections Good Favour and Messi And Maud.

Rebecca Daly’s Contemporary World Cinema entry Good Favour follows inhabitants of a troubled central European Christian community who welcome into their midst a teenager who appears to have magical powers. The film marks Daly’s follow-up to her Sundance 2016 selection Mammal. The Irish Film Board financed with the support of the Cinema and Audiovisual Centre of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the Danish Film Institute and Netherlands Film Fund.

Visit also represents the world excluding Benelux and Germanspeaking Europe on Marleen Jonkman’s Discovery selection Messi And Maud. The story centres on a Dutch tourist in Chile who abandons her husband after a fight and embarks on a road trip with a local boy. Danielle Guirguis produced.

Unifrance at vanguard of TIFF’s French invasion

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

The French film industry is again out in force at TIFF with some 30 productions screening, ranging from world premieres C’est La Vie!, Kings and Revenge to Cannes hit BPM (Beats Per Minute) and Venice titles The House By The Sea and The Insult.

Unifrance will be celebrating its presence with the annual TIFF reception tonight. Former Cinemateque Francaise chief and Cahiers Du Cinéma journalist Serge Toubiana will be in attendance in his new role as president of the French export body. “It’s the first time I’m going to Toronto for the festival. The last time I was at TIFF was for the Cinematheque to prepare for our Tim Burton show,” says Toubiana.

Although Toubiana is wellknown in cinephile circles, his appointment as Unifrance president in July divided France’s

Serge Toubiana

export sector. Sales company Wild Bunch announced it was withdrawing from the body after company co-chief and sales veteran Vincent Maraval claimed Toubiana lacked the necessary knowledge of the film-export business to fulfil the role. Other sales professionals counter that Toubiana’s international profile and experience working at an institutional level in France will be of help both at home and abroad.

Toubiana says he knows he has

much to learn. “I’ve given myself three months to learn,” he says.

“I’ll be listening carefully to the needs of the industry.”

He will be drawing on his passion for cinema as well as his experience at the Cinematheque and France’s National Cinema Centre (CNC) where he was president of the commission overseeing advance-on-receipts funding from 2014-15. By chance, a number of the films his CNC commission supported will be playing at TIFF, including Joan Chemla’s If You Saw His Heart and Xavier Legrand’s Custody.

“I have arrived at a good time for French cinema,” he says.

“There is a good energy, lots of emerging female filmmakers, lots of first films and a wide range of genres. The big challenge is to make sure these films are exported and travel. It’s not getting any easier and there is lots of work to do.”

Beneath Us builds up Premiere slate Los Angeles-based Premiere Entertainment Group has bolstered its TIFF sales slate with worldwide rights to horror-thriller Beneath Us starring Lynn Collins and James Tupper. The film follows a group of undocumented workers hired by an affluent woman and her husband to work on their house. Before long the labourers have become prisoners inside the home.

Max Pachman directed from a screenplay he co-wrote with Mark Mavrothalasitis. Luis Guerrero and Chris Lemos produced for Vital Pictures, while Jay Hernandez served as executive producer. “We are excited to be teaming up with Luis and Chris on their unique and original elevated genre film,” Premiere president and CEO Elias Axume said. “The film intelligently deals with pertinent social issues in a suspenseful manner.”

Jeremy Kay

EXECUTIVE FOCUS MICHAEL WEBER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, THE MATCH FACTORY Overreaching can be the kiss of death for sales and distribution companies. German arthouse kingpin The Match Factory has avoided this fate by making an art of understanding its audience. Founded in 2006, the Cologne-based sales outfit has handled a steady stream of festival and award winners over the past decade including Palme d’Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Berlin Golden Bear winner Grbavica and Waltz With Bashir. Toronto titles this year include Foxtrot, Zama, Three Peaks, which sold to Ed Arentz’s US distributor Greenwich Films, and The Other Side Of Hope.

Where is The Match Factory today?

Exactly where we want to be. We started the year with wins at Sundance for Axolotl Overkill and The Nile Hilton Incident.

Then Aki Kaurismaki, the godfather of the company, won the best director prize in Berlin [for The Other Side Of Hope] and we had In The Fade and Jupiter’s Moon in Competition at Cannes. Now, we have all these wonderful films at autumn festivals.

How do you maintain relationships with the big arthouse directors?

Staying true and honest to yourself and

ments. However, fundamentally, the large amount of soft money in European films makes reaching profit for producers easier than on US movies.

What is the main challenge facing the independent business today?

Michael Weber

the partners you work with. Also, trying not to be over-ambitious. I never promise anybody a miracle.

You’re well-positioned in Europe. Would you like to take on more US films?

We’re discussing it. We had a nice outcome with Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves.

Prince Avalanche, too. But we haven’t had that big US movie. It’s a conversation, alongside trends we notice such as independent movies infusing more genre ele-

8 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

How we can gain back our audience. We’ve lost a whole generation of 20-30 year olds.

They are not curious about what cinema is and who the new directors are. It’s not only in the cinemas we need to win them over. If I have 2 million people watching a movie online, then that’s necessary. We have the challenge to make movies that those online audiences want to watch instead of the fifth series of such-and-such show.

Is cinema fighting a losing battle?

It’s a difficult time for foreign-language films in the US but it’s up to us to listen to audiences. That doesn’t mean directors need to change their style of filmmaking.

Toni Erdmann was two-hours, 40 minutes and audiences loved it.

Do you worry some of your buyers will be put out by you doing global deals with Netflix?

We’ve only done one [Felix van Groenin-

‘Independent film must gain back its audience.

We’ve lost a generation of 20-30 year olds’ Michael Weber, The Match Factory

gen’s Belgica]. At the end of the day it probably had a bigger audience on Netflix. Some distributors were not as keen on the film but that loyalty is important. That sense of loyalty is something we’ve lost a little in our world. There’s something to be said for sharing the losses as well as the successes.

You have recently started producing more. What’s coming up?

We are co-producing and selling Carlos Acosta biopic Yuli, which is due to shoot next month. We are also producing Ritesh Batra’s next film Photograph with different partners. The shoot is due to get underway in Mumbai next month. It’s a beautiful Hindi-language comedy-drama-romance that is tonally close to The Lunchbox, on which we had a great experience.

Andreas Wiseman

www.screendaily.com

AFP

Visit curries Favour, Messi

REVIEWS

» Brad’s Status p10 » The Death Of Stalin p10 » Youth p12

» Papillon p12 » Sweet Country p14 » The Escape p14

» You Disappear p16 » Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool p16

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

The Death Of Stalin Reviewed by Tim Grierson

Brad’s Status Reviewed by Tim Grierson A marvellous dissection of a midlife crisis that is far more self-aware than its protagonist, Brad’s Status features one of Ben Stiller’s richest performances as a man whose considerable obstacle to happiness is himself.

Writer-director Mike White has crafted a painfully funny and surprisingly moving character piece, but what’s most remarkable is how he and his star empathise with Brad’s feelings of inferiority while, at the same time, pinpointing the arrogance, privilege and callousness that often factor into such soul-searching.

The film, which opens Stateside on September 15, sees Brad (Stiller) about to take his son Troy (Austin Abrams), a talented musician, on a tour of prestigious east coast universities when he is hit with the enormity of how little he believes he has achieved in comparison to his impressive college classmates. When Troy accidentally misses his interview at Harvard, Brad has to swallow his pride and call ex-classmate Craig (Michael Sheen), who now teaches at the university, to see if he can pull some strings.

White’s work (Year Of The Dog, TV series Enlightened) often concerns the insecurities of everyday people seeking transcendence. A movie like Brad’s Status could easily open itself up to accusations of navel-gazing as it dramatises the mildly unhappy life of a relatively well-off neurotic. Yet White eschews such an easy reading of Brad, looking at the man’s hang-ups from the inside; specifically, through a deft use of voiceover in which our main character acknowledges how ridiculous his self-loathing is.

Stiller is critical to the film’s success, walking a fine line between letting us mock Brad’s intensive competitiveness and yet understand how his late 40s have triggered a wistfulness for the idealism and promise of his youth.

The supporting cast also navigates tricky emotional terrain. Sheen is terrific as an acclaimed political commentator who has not seen Brad for 10 years and, as a result, exists more as a symbol of Brad’s career disappointments than as an individual. Also strong is Abrams, playing a character who is not fully fleshed out. That’s by design: Troy, like everyone in Brad’s Status, is viewed from Brad’s jaundiced perspective, but the young actor hints at the sensitive, great son his own father is too blind to recognise.

10 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

PLATFORM US. 2017. 101mins Director/screenplay Mike White Production companies Amazon Studios, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Plan B Entertainment International sales Sierra/Affinity Producers Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Bernad, Sidney Kimmel Executive producers Brad Pitt, Carla Hacken, John Penotti, Mark Kamine, Sarah Esberg, Bruce Toll Cinematography Xavier Grobet Production design Richard Hoover Editor Heather Persons Music Mark Mothersbaugh Main cast Ben Stiller, Austin Abrams, Jenna Fischer, Luke Wilson, Jemaine Clement, Shazi Raja, Luisa Lee, Michael Sheen

Master satirist Armando Iannucci’s new film is ostensibly a comedy, but the laughs do not come easy and the jokes are often laced with malice and paranoia. The Death Of Stalin will feel familiar to fans of the writerdirector responsible for The Thick Of It, In The Loop and Veep, as Iannucci once again examines how people’s ugliness is exposed when grasping for political power.

Opening October 20 in the UK following its premiere in Toronto’s Platform strand, Stalin will cater to Iannucci aficionados, but a cast including Steve Buscemi and Jeffrey Tambor could also help commercial prospects.

The film takes place in Moscow in 1953, as ruthless dictator Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) has just dropped dead, leaving his closest advisers unsure who should succeed him. The vain, ineffectual Georgy Malenkov (Tambor) is selected as the new Communist party leader by an elite counsel that includes Nikita Khrushchev (Buscemi) and Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale), but quickly several party officials begin jockeying to forward their own agendas.

Based on a graphic novel by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, Stalin features a bleaker, less cathartic tone than previous Iannucci efforts. The film sports the same nasty characters that have been his speciality — a collision of conceited buffoons and razor-sharp tacticians — but the subject matter is inherently less funny this time around, as Iannucci illustrates how the Communist leaders’ petty squabbling comes at the expense of ordinary citizens, who are being oppressed by a cruel government.

This airless, despairing atmosphere is further emphasised by cinematographer Zac Nicholson, who frames these backbiting characters in large, empty rooms to suggest the moral vacuum in which they operate. Even Christopher Willis’s cheekily bombastic orchestral score cannot mitigate the suffocating contempt at Stalin’s core.

Some in the ensemble can be a bit broad but Beale is divine as Beria, a conniver who prides himself on being three moves ahead of his opponents. He is well-matched

by Buscemi, who plays Khrushchev as a self-pitying whiner who, slowly but surely, starts to see his opportunity to ensure Beria gets his comeuppance.

PLATFORM Fr-UK-Bel. 2017. 106mins Director Armando Iannucci Production companies Quad Productions, Main Journey, Gaumont International sales Gaumont Producers Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun, Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Kevin Loader Executive producer Jean-Christophe Colson Screenplay Armando Iannucci, David Schneider and Ian Martin, based on the comic books The Death Of Stalin by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, published by Dargaud, original screenplay by Fabien Nury Cinematography Zac Nicholson Production design Cristina Casali Editor Peter Lambert Music Christopher Willis Main cast Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Paul Chahidi, Dermot Crowley, Adrian McLoughlin, Paul Whitehouse, Jeffrey Tambor

www.screendaily.com

Discover Irish Film at TIFF Special Presentation

Special Presentation

— The Cured Director David Freyne

— The Breadwinner Director Nora Twomey

Contemporary World Cinema

— The Lodgers Director Brian O’Malley Special Presentation

— The Killing of a Sacred Deer Director Yorgos Lanthimos

Contemporary World Cinema

— Good Favour Director Rebecca Daly TIFF Docs

— Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami Director Sophie Fiennes

www.irishfilmboard.ie

Discovery

— Kissing Candice Director Aoife McArdle Gala Presentation

— Mary Shelley Director Haifaa Al-Mansour

REVIEWS

Papillon Reviewed by Tim Grierson

Youth Reviewed by Allan Hunter Director Feng Xiaogang’s nickname as “the Chinese Spielberg” has rarely seemed as apt as it does in the case of Youth (Fang Hua). This sweeping saga of a generation marked by political and social upheaval is told with a combination of virtuoso filmmaking and unrelenting schmaltz.

Engaging and pleasing to the eye, it has a populist emotional appeal that should attract vast local audiences following its premiere as a Special Presentation at TIFF, but probably not the same level of critical admiration that greeted Feng’s previous feature, I Am Madame Bovary.

Set in a military art troupe in 1970s China, Youth is a giddily ambitious mixture of backstage musical, bittersweet love story, coming-of-age drama, political commentary and blood-drenched war movie. Narrated by dancer Xiao Suizi (Zhong Chuxi), it begins on the day He Xiaoping (Miao Miao) joins the troupe from Beijing. Wide-eyed and eager to please, she is astonished that she will be able to shower every day and at no cost. The other girls mock her naivety and bully her. Only the kind and considerate Liu Feng (Huang Xuan) is sensitive to her situation.

There is a terrific energy to Youth, as the young performers dedicate themselves to perfecting the patriotic routines that will boost morale and extol the virtues of the People’s Republic of China. The restless camerawork of Luo Pan darts into every corner of the compound, hustling the viewer into the heart of a story peppered with rivalries, broken hearts and private anguish.

Chairman Mao’s death in 1976 is the catalyst for the most interesting passage of the film, as we gain a sense of old certainties crumbling away. Once obedient students start to answer back, respect for authority diminishes, forbidden items become available and materialism gains a foothold. Youth then journeys forward through a depiction of the Sino-Vietnamese war in 1979 filled with bloodshed and carnage, offering further updates on the fates of key characters well into the 21st century.

Galloping across the decades, Youth becomes increasingly sketchy and superficial. There is so much detail and substance in the 1970s stretch of this epic that the twists of fate and rueful reflections of later years inevitably feel less authentic and closer to soap opera.

The film does have its moving moments but it also plucks at those heartstrings with shameless vigour, with the syrupy, soaring musical score the biggest culprit.

12 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

SPECIAL PRESENTATION/ NEXT WAVE China. 2017. 148mins Director Feng Xiaogang Production companies Huayi Brothers International sales IM Global Producers Wang Zhonglei, Wang Zhongjun, Yu Gong, Ge Song, Qi Jianhong, Zhang Fangjun Screenplay Yan Geling Cinematography Luo Pan Editor Qi Zhang Production design Shi Haiying Music Zhao Lin, Dai Xiaofei Main cast Huang Xuan, Miao Miao, Zhong Chuxi

The remake of Papillon does not lack for potential metaphorical riches, yet this brutal film never quite connects with its deeper themes. While director Michael Noer emphasises the physical and emotional toll of a yearslong incarceration, many viewers may wonder why they should endure this beautifully shot, occasionally affecting ordeal.

Premiering at TIFF, Papillon may have a difficult commercial road ahead of it. Outside of Pacific Rim, Charlie Hunnam has failed to ignite the box office, and the subject matter does not inherently guarantee major grosses.

Those familiar with the 1973 movie might be intrigued, but tempered reviews will not help drive interest.

Taking over the roles once played by Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, Hunnam and Rami Malek exude a wary bond that soon grows closer. Hunnam plays Henri Charriere, whom everyone calls Papillon and on whose memoir the film is based. Living in Paris in the early 1930s, he is a charming thief wrongly convicted in the murder of a pimp. Sent to a penal colony in French Guiana for a life sentence, he befriends fellow prisoner Louis Dega (Malek), who wants to help him escape.

Several iconic scenes from Franklin J Schaffner’s original film are duplicated in the remake, and Noer similarly bludgeons the audience with the sheer misery of these characters’ lives. Prison movies are often heavily symbolic, speaking to the resilience of the human spirit and serving as a metaphor for the inner obstacles that leave us all shackled in some form. This Papillon touches on those themes intellectually, but rarely are they felt on a visceral level.

Unintentionally, the remake works best as an unexpected companion piece to Hunnam’s superb work in The Lost City Of Z, a very different true story about a man who goes on a gruelling quest and is reborn in the process. But Hunnam has not been given as engaging a character in Papillon, reduced to a sympathetic but unknowable cipher.

Malek’s tenderness is touching, and he develops a warm rapport with Hunnam. As time passes, and the characters struggle to accept that escape is probably impossible, the film builds to a finale that strives for emotional catharsis. But because we have never really gotten to know these men, the impact is merely superficial.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION Serb-Mont-Malta. 2017.

133mins Director Michael Noer Production companies Papillon Movie LLC, Joey McFarland Productions, Ram Bergman Productions, Fishcorb Films US sales CAA International sales Capstone Pictures Producers Joey McFarland, David Koplan, Ram Bergman, Roger Corbi Executive producers Martin Hellstern, Yan Fisher-Romanovsky, Joshua D Maurer, Kevan Van Thompson, Danny Dimbort, Christian Mercuri, Terence Chang, Samuel Hadida Screenplay Aaron Guzikowski, based on the books Papillon and Banco

by Henri Charriere; based on the 1973 screenplay Papillon by Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr Cinematography Hagen Bogdanski Production design Tom Meyer Editors John Axelrad, Lee Haugen Music David Buckley Main cast Charlie Hunnam, Rami Malek, Yorick Van Wageningen, Roland Moller, Tommy Flanagan, Eve Hewson

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Supporting Voices in Cinema Worldwide Doha Film Institute continues its commitment to nurturing emerging filmmakers through its Grants Programme. Firstand second-time filmmakers from around the world, as well as established directors from the MENA region, are invited to apply for funding, subject to eligibility criteria.

For complete information regarding eligibility and guidelines, please visit: www.dohafilminstitute.com/ financing/grants/guidelines DohaFilm @DohaFilm DohaFilm

‘Looking for Oum Kulthum’ by Shirin Neshat

Doha Film Institute congratulates its funding recipients selected for the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival Contemporary World Cinema ‘Looking for Oum Kulthum’

by Shirin Neshat

TIFF Docs ‘Of Sheep and Men’

by Karim Sayad

‘The Journey’

by Mohamed Jabarah Al Daradji

‘The Other Side of Everything’

by Mila Turajlic

‘Wajib’

by Annemarie Jacir

Platform ‘The Seen and Unseen’

by Kamila Andini

Wavelengths ‘Cocote’

by Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias ‘Madmen’s Fort’

by Narimane Mari ‘Turtles Are Always Home’

by Rawane Nassif

DFI 2017 Screen Ad.indd 1

Discovery ‘Ava’

by Sadaf Foroughi ‘Disappearance’

by Ali Asgari Short Cuts ‘The President’s Visit’

by Cyril Aris

8/30/17 12:08 PM

REVIEWS

The Escape Reviewed by Wendy Ide

Sweet Country Reviewed by Lee Marshall Warwick Thornton’s long-awaited follow-up to Samson & Delilah, his 2009 Cannes Camera d’Or winning debut, is a resonant, ravishingly shot indigenous 1920s western that explores issues of Australian identity and the disenfranchisement of the country’s native peoples. Beneath its quiet surface, Sweet Country is a milestone for Australian indigenous cinema that will travel extensively after its Venice and Toronto screenings.

Sam Neill plays Fred Smith, a devout Christian rancher who has a paternal relationship with his Aboriginal head stockman Sam Kelly (Hamilton Morris) and the latter’s young wife Lizzie (Natassia Gorey-Furber). On a neighbouring station, the lonely Mick Kennedy (Thomas M Wright) is more of a despot with his own indigenous workers although he is a pussycat compared to brutal new rancher Harry March (Ewen Leslie), a hard drinker still traumatised by his combat experiences in the First World War, who without any “blackstock” of his own is reduced to borrowing stockmen from his neighbours.

Harry’s racist, sadistic treatment of these native workers culminates in an incident in which Sam kills the rancher in self-defence and goes on the run with Lizzie.

We never quite work out where the three ranches are in relation to each other; this disorientation is stoked by the sudden introduction, after Sam and Lizzie’s flight, of a frontier town straight out of the American west. From there weathered police chief Sergeant Fletcher (Bryan Brown) sets out to track down Sam. Far from diluting the uniquely Australian setting and issues, this western genre game serves as a kind of sounding board. The tension between free movement and homestead roots is a key western theme, and Thornton and his scriptwriters overlay this with a mood of insecurity: none of his white settlers seem quite at home in this harsh landscape.

While on enforced walkabout, Sam and Lizzie, on the other hand, simply inhabit the landscape, which is shot by Thornton with clear-eyed poetry. But even they are in a land that is no longer quite theirs. They dress in western clothes, they speak a pidgin language shot through with English terms, and they are utterly foreign to the tribal native Australians they meet along the way — yet rejected also by a white community that is gradually stripping away their land, health and rights.

14 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

PLATFORM Australia. 2017. 112mins Director/ cinematography Warwick Thornton Production company Bunya Productions International sales Memento Films International Producers Greer Simpkin, David Jowsey Screenplay David Tranter, Steven McGregor Production design Tony Cronin Editor Nick Meyers Main cast Bryan Brown, Sam Neill, Hamilton Morris, Thomas M Wright, Ewen Leslie, Gibson John, Natassia Gorey-Furber, Matt Day, Anni Finsterer, Tremayne Doolan, Trevon Doolan

A woman is slowly crushed under the weight of a life she is no longer sure she wants in Dominic Savage’s study of a disintegrating marriage. Gemma Arterton walks the line between self-possession and self-harm in the central role of a woman who, for much of the film, is not dignified with a christian name — she is ‘babe’, ‘mummy’ or, on one occasion, ‘stupid mummy’. It is only when her quiet desperation boils over into action that we finally learn she is called Tara. Arterton will be a key selling points for a film that should not lack festival interest after its TIFF premiere and which, despite the downbeat material, is also likely to connect with an emotionally mature arthouse audience.

Savage’s success at getting under the skin of the kind of cancerous depression that gnaws away at the soul means this is not always the easiest watch. But, despite a low-key approach, this is a compelling, sometimes wrenching drama. Arterton flexes dramatic muscles that lighter roles have hitherto concealed, while Dominic Cooper is well cast as the handsome, shallow husband who can barely comprehend, let alone articulate, the anguish that is taking the shine off his trophy wife.

Arterton brings a guarded physicality to her performance. Going through the domestic motions as stay-athome mother to two children and wife to Mark (Cooper), she carries her shoulders stiffly, her face a neutral mask. Tara longs for something more — and she is near breaking point. A seismic score that rumbles ominously and kitchen knife holders placed prominently in the centre of the frame subliminally suggest a violence simmering under Tara’s sadness.

The escape itself comes after one squabble too many.

Tara gets into the car, leaving her husband and children amid the wreckage of breakfast, and takes a train to Paris. The abrasive sound design is smoothed, the lighting becomes less harsh, and the score finds harmony where before it was all angles and discord.

But if it seems like a romanticised view of the city, that is exactly the point. While an encounter with a serene older French woman (Marthe Keller) finally offers Tara some perspective on her home life, this social realist spin on a Shirley Valentine-style voyage of self-discovery does not let its central character off without more tears shed.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION UK. 2017. 101mins Director/screenplay Dominic Savage Production company Shoebox Films International sales Independent Film Sales Producer Guy Heeley Executive producers Gemma Arterton, Paul Webster, Julian Bird, Joseph Berry Jr Cinematographer Laurie Rose Editor David Charap Music Alexandra Harwood, Anthony John Cast Gemma Arterton, Dominic Cooper, Jalil Lespert, Frances Barber, Marthe Keller

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Norwegian Films Special Presentation

THELMA

DIRECTOR Joachim Trier SALES Memento 09/09/17 09/10/17 09/12/17 09/14/17 09/15/17

11:15AM 9:00PM 12:45PM 1:30PM 3:45PM

SCOTIABANK 14 (P & I) SCOTIABANK 1 SCOTIABANK 3 SCOTIABANK 4 (P & I) SCOTIABANK 3

Norwegian Films in Toronto Minority productions Contemporary World Cinema DISAPPEARANCE DIRECTOR Boudewijn Koole

SAMUI SONG DIRECTOR Pen-ek Ratanaruang

WAJIB DIRECTOR Annemarie Jacir

REVIEWS

Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool Reviewed by Wendy Ide

You Disappear Reviewed by Allan Hunter Truth lies in the eye of the beholder in You Disappear (Du Forsvinder), director Peter Schonau Fog’s first feature since The Art Of Crying in 2006, in which the initial promise of a guilty-pleasure thriller is gradually overshadowed by a philosophical exploration of identity, individuality and moral responsibility.

Christian Jungersen’s novel of the same name spent more than a year on the Danish bestseller list, and has been widely translated. The film captures the material’s elegant twists and cerebral drive, but cannot quite shake the feeling it is leading viewers up the garden path.

The opening sequences are especially arresting. School principal Frederik (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) drives his wife Mia (Trine Dyrholm) and son Niklas (Sofus Ronnov) along a snaking coastal road during a holiday in Spain. Asked to go faster, he responds gleefully by accelerating to a speed that places everyone in danger. He subsequently collapses and is diagnosed with a brain tumour, which might explain why his behaviour has been so erratic.

This beginning certainly has the audience hooked, and that continues as the story develops into a courtroom drama. Frederik is now on trial for embezzling 12 million kroner from the private school where he is employed, and defence lawyer Bergmann (Michael Nyqvist) argues the brain tumour left him suffering from orbitofrontal syndrome and acted completely out of character.

Structured around the trial and testimony of those who knew Frederik best, You Disappear has all the trappings of a conventional mystery as it judges the question of guilt or innocence. It also attempts something loftier, following events through the eyes of Mia as she wrestles with the possibility that the best years of her marriage may have been when her husband was least like himself.

Extensive voiceover narration from Mia grows ponderous, however, and reflections on neuroscience become repetitive, resulting in a loss of narrative momentum.

You Disappear is certainly clever in the way it conceals nothing from the viewer but presents everything from one particular, potentially unreliable perspective. The eventual reveal of the bigger picture makes sense, and provides plenty of food for post-screening discussion. Credibility throughout is sustained by a classy cast, including the late Michael Nyqvist in a role with more dimension than the raging baddies that raised his international profile.

16 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

SPECIAL PRESENTATION Den. 2017. 117mins Director Peter Schonau Fog Production company Zentropa International sales TrustNordisk Producer Louise Vesth Executive producer Peter Aalbaek Jensen Screenplay Peter Schonau Fog based on the novel by Christian Jungersen Cinematography Laust Trier-Mork Editors Morten Hojbjerg, Peter Winther, Olivia Neergaard-Holm Production design Gitte Malling, Soren Gam Music Mikkel Maltha Main cast Trine Dyrholm, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Michael Nyqvist, Mikkel Boe Folsgaard, Sofus Ronnov

This sympathetic adaptation of a memoir by Peter Turner (played here by Jamie Bell) tells of the lateblooming romance between movie star Gloria Grahame (Annette Bening) — in her mid-fifties — and Turner, a hungry, sporadically employed actor in his twenties.

The film covers a period from their initial meeting in 1979 to her death from cancer in 1981 and, while their real-life May-December relationship is persuasively fullblooded and vital, the terminal-disease narrative is — perhaps appropriately in this case — given a flattering Hollywood gloss. While the balance between the two sections might have benefitted from being skewed slightly more to the former than the latter, the first-rate performances confirm this as an awards-season contender.

We are introduced to Gloria in 1981 as she pieces together her somewhat tattered Hollywood persona. She is backstage at a provincial UK theatre, minutes away from her entrance in a production of The Glass Menagerie. From a cassette player next to her mirror, a tinny approximation of Elton John’s ‘Funeral For A Friend’ — a recurring musical motif in the film — plays out.

The song fleshes out onto the score proper at the same moment when, lashes glued and lipstick applied, Gloria Grahame, movie star, delivers a screen-melting pout to the mirror. But the star-power flickers, and she collapses. Discharging herself from hospital, her best chance for recuperation, she decides, will be at the terraced Liverpool home of her former lover Peter.

There, the timeline of her decline is woven elegantly, through edits laced into 360° panning shots, with the start of her relationship with Peter in 1979.

It is in the flashbacks that the fun is to be found. In the forthright physicality of Bell’s performance (a well-toned torso is deployed, perhaps more frequently than is strictly necessary); in Bening’s crackling sass and sizzle — it is abundantly clear these are lovers who enjoy each other.

The low-cost production design is the kind that proclaims itself through wallpaper that is every bit as dramatic as the temperamental movie star it surrounds. The cinematography also tends towards showy flourishes.

But although there is a lot going on on screen, our attention is on Bening. Even when Gloria is bedbound, there are a some knockout moments when, through sheer force of will, she tries to muster what remains of her faltering star wattage.

GALA PRESENTATION UK. 2016. 105mins Director Paul McGuigan Production company Bad & Beautiful Productions International sales IM Global Producers Barbara Broccoli, Colin Vaines Screenplay Matt Greenhalgh Cinematographer Urszula Pontikos Editor Nick Emerson Production design Eve Stewart Music J Ralph Main cast Annette Bening, Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Vanessa Redgrave, Stephen Graham, Frances Barber

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Peter Searle

SPOTLIGHT LEAN ON PETE

(From left) Andrew Haigh and Tristan Goligher

Racing certs

Andrew Haigh and Tristan Goligher follow the Oscar-nominated 45 Years with Lean On Pete, the Oregon-set story of a teenage lad and a race horse. Tom Grater talks to the director-producer duo

F

ilmmaker Andrew Haigh was on a plane while touring with his microbudget hit Weekend in 2012 when he first read Willy Vlautin’s novel Lean On Pete, on the recommendation of his partner. He immediately saw the feature film possibilities in this story of a teenage lad who takes a summer job with a washed-up horse trainer, forming a bond with a failing race horse, the titular Lean On Pete.

However, deciding with his regular producer partner Tristan Goligher (The Bureau) that the US-set story would be too big a leap in scale for his third feature (Haigh’s debut was little-seen 2009 docudrama Greek Pete), he initially developed the project in parallel with 45 Years. That acclaimed drama went on to premiere at the Berlinale in 2015, where it won its two leads the Silver Bear acting prizes and eventually garnered an Oscar nomination for Charlotte Rampling.

In the process of adapting Vlautin’s text, Haigh went to stay with the author in Oregon, who took him around the local race tracks that had inspired the novel, introducing him to personalities in that community. Vlautin was initially nervous about assigning the film rights, and insisted that Haigh needed to understand the world if he was going to direct the film. “I knew nothing about horse racing,” Haigh recalls. “It wasn’t glamorous, highstakes horse racing, it was country fairs. I couldn’t write anything unless I experienced some elements of that world.”

‘It wasn’t glamorous, high-stakes horse racing. I couldn’t write anything unless I experienced some elements of that world’ Andrew Haigh, director

Seeking further inspiration, the director set off on a three-month road trip across the Pacific Northwest, retracing the journey that the protagonist Charley takes in the novel. Haigh stayed in many of the same motels and camped in locations from the novel, writing along the way. He encountered a tight-knit working-class community that had, for generations, been working in the horse-racing business. “There’s a real sense of community that exists there but it’s not an easy life. These aren’t people that make a lot of money,” Haigh adds.

Leading boy Casting began in earnest in early 2016 when Los Angelesbased casting director Carmen Cuba was enlisted to begin searching for the lead role of (Right) Lean On Pete

18 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

Charley. She whittled down the field to a pool of around 200 actors who were shown to Haigh.

Charlie Plummer, an emerging US actor whose roles included HBO series Boardwalk Empire, was one of the first tapes shown to the director, and he instantly caught the eye. Haigh was further impressed when Plummer sent him a letter detailing his connection to the story and the character.

“He’d moved around a lot as a child and ultimately Lean On Pete is about a boy searching for a home,” says Haigh.

“He was able to identify with the idea of somebody transient who is reaching for stability in life.” It was a major decision but Haigh says they felt confident “pinning the entire movie” on Plummer, whose character appears in every scene of the film.

Steve Buscemi and Chloë Sevigny, who Haigh calls “the king and queen of American independent cinema”, were cast in other key roles, as the washed-up trainer and one of his jockeys respectively. The majority of the $8m budget came from the British Film Institute and Film4, which were

both involved in the development process. Financing was completed by Oregon Film Office’s tax credit, the UK tax credit and a US presale to A24, which Goligher secured himself at TIFF in 2015, where 45 Years screened. “A lot of it came together because of the momentum of 45 Years,” the producer recalls.

The production shot in the US for eight weeks in summer 2016, often filming at locations detailed in the novel. The major production challenge was working with horses, which Haigh admits “scare the shit” out of him. As a producer, Goligher was also acutely aware of the dangers of working with animals and actors at the same time. The pair agree that one showpiece scene filmed at a race track, which involved multiple horses and hundreds of actors, was the most demanding sequence they have shot in their careers to date.

Since wrapping, The Bureau’s sales wing took on international rights jointly with French outfit Celluloid Dreams. By Cannes 2017, the project had sold out all major territories, including deals for the UK (Curzon Artificial Eye), France (Ad Vitam) and Focus Features, which picked up German-speaking territories, Scandinavia and most of Asia and Eastern Europe. The film’s release is scheduled for the first quarter of 2018 in most s territories. ■ Lean On Pete: press & industry screenings from Sept 10; public from Sept 11

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SCREENINGS: Fri Sep 8th 09:45 am Tue Sep 12th 09:30 pm Thu Sep 14th 08:45 am Sun Sep 17th 09:45 pm

Scotiabank 8 (Press & Industry) Scotiabank 13 (Internat. Premiere, Q&A) TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 3 (Q& A) Scotiabank 11

WORLD SALES: PLUTO FILM / Attending: Margot Haibรถck, margot@plutofilm.de, M: +49 157 510 19 543 DISAP_screen_210x285.indd 1

21.08.17 16:48

SPOTLIGHT NORDIC FEMALE DIRECTORS

Northern soul

The crop of Nordic films at TIFF 2017 includes impressive work by female directors. Wendy Mitchell talks to Finland’s Zaida Bergroth, Norway’s Iram Haq and Iceland’s Asa Helga Hjorleifsdottir

Marie Sjovold

Iram Haq What Will People Say (public screenings from Sept 9, P&I from Sept 10) Iram Haq draws on her own personal history for her second feature, What Will People Say. The film follows 15-year-old Nisha (Maria Mojdeh), a girl living in Oslo who obeys her family’s Pakistani traditions at home but lives a more modern life with her friends. When she is caught with her boyfriend, her father (Adil Hussain) kidnaps her to send her to live with relatives in Pakistan.

Haq went through a similar experience when she was 14. She finally felt the time was right to tell this story, in fictionalised form.

“I started to write this script many years ago; at that point I wrote it as an angry teenager,” she says. “I had to rewrite it again and again. I waited a long time to tell this story so I could tell it in a wiser way. I wanted to tell the story in a way that’s not black and white, [where] I can also understand the parents.”

The film is a Norway-Germany-Sweden co-production that will have its world premiere today in TIFF’s Platform programme (Haq’s debut feature I Am Yours launched at the festival in 2013). Beta Cinema handles world sales.

Haq’s father died before she shot the film but she is thankful she got his blessing. “He said to me, ‘This is an important story. I want you to tell this story,’” says the filmmaker, who feels it is natural for her to tell women’s stories. “Sometimes women have stories that are filled with shame that never come out, that feel like a secret. I want to know those stories.”

What Will People Say

The Swan

Asa Helga Hjorleifsdottir The Swan (P&I screenings from Sept 9; public from Sept 10) Icelandic writer-director Asa Helga Hjorleifsdottir, who earned an MFA in film from Columbia University, makes her feature directorial debut with Discovery title The Swan, after previously making the award-winning short films Love Story and You And Me. The story, adapted from the influential 1991 Icelandic novel by Gudbergur Bergsson, is about a nine-year-old girl sent to spend the summer with distant relatives in the countryside. There she befriends a mysterious farmhand even though she does not fully understand the adult world.

Young actress Grima Valsdottir was just 11 years old when they shot the film. “She has this emotional depth and she has so many faces,” says Hjorleifsdottir. “I spent a long time editing, but I never got tired of looking at her. She’s deeply perceptive and, as an actress, she never does anything she doesn’t believe.”

The film also showcases some stunning Icelandic landscapes. “The landscape certainly is a character in the film,” Hjorleifsdottir adds. “I tried to not use the landscape gratuitously, and only in connection to the story and mood of the characters.”

The filmmaker says she is interested in “how our emotional life is a wilderness…

I want to explore how the camera can be a witness to these emotions, and how — like the child in this movie — the camera doesn’t judge.” Birgitta Bjornsdottir and Hlin Johannesdottir produce for Iceland’s Vintage Pictures; m-appeal handles international sales.

Zaida Bergroth Miami (public screenings from Sept 12, P&I from Sept 10) Finnish director Zaida Bergroth returns to Toronto after 2011’s The Good Son with her third feature, Contemporary World Cinema title Miami. The story follows two estranged sisters who reunite when the older sister, an exotic dancer, hits the road to raise money to pay her debts.

The film is not a stereotypical portrayal of exotic dancing, as Bergroth tried to avoid the usual male gaze. “These women are working on their own terms,” she says. “There was nothing moralistic about this. I have no problems with women dancing in tiny clothes… [The character of] Angela is happy with herself and believes in herself and doesn’t need anyone’s permission. She’s not a victim.” Well-known Finnish actress Krista Kosonen had the right “ability to electrify a room” as Angela, and newcomer Sonja Kuittinen “had that mystery that I needed” as the younger sister.

Miami blends family drama, thriller, road trip and crime story. “We knew there is a risk to mix genres but we wanted to take it,” says Bergroth. “It liberated me.”

Miia Haavisto produces for Helsinki Filmi; LevelK handles international sales.

20 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

Miami

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Norwegian Films Platform/Next Wave

WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY DIRECTOR Iram Haq SALES Beta Cinema GmbH 09/09/17 09/10/17 09/11/17 09/14/17 09/15/17 09/16/17

2:00PM 4:45PM 4:45PM 4:15PM 3:00PM 10:00AM

WINTER GARDEN THEATRE SCOTIABANK 9 (P & I) TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4 SCOTIABANK 9 (P & I) SCOTIABANK 5 (P & I) TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX CINEMA 2

Norwegian Films in Toronto Minority productions Contemporary World Cinema DISAPPEARANCE DIRECTOR Boudewijn Koole

SAMUI SONG DIRECTOR Pen-ek Ratanaruang

WAJIB DIRECTOR Annemarie Jacir

ON SET BEAST

and that doesn’t disqualify it from engaging with an audience.”

Because the Channel Islands have no film tax credit, the production could not afford to shoot the whole picture on Jersey. Beast shot for four weeks in Surrey, because that “home counties look” is similar to the look of the island’s homes, before finishing the shoot with eight days on Jersey. “It’s challenging because there’s not a precedent for film shooting here,” Lauren Dark explains, while keeping an eye on her iPhone for minute-to-minute weather updates that will determine their outdoor shooting on beaches and cliffs.

Jessie Buckley with director Michael Pearce on the set of Beast

Animal magnetism Michael Pearce’s debut feature Beast, set on his native Jersey in the Channel Islands, will premiere today in Platform. Wendy Mitchell reports from the set

I

t is not often you see a British director donning a wetsuit, and even more rare that he looks comfortable in it, striding across a rainy beach. It is August 2016, and Michael Pearce is on a Jersey beach about to shoot a love scene in cold water. Pearce grew up surfing on the island — which is in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy, France — so he is very much in his element, desperate to show off the seaside caves he used to explore as a boy.

Now based in London, the writerdirector can more easily see the island’s contradictions. “It’s idyllic,” he says. “I had a great childhood, there’s something almost fairytale about the landscapes, and the freedom you have as a kid. The other side of it is that on any island you can feel suffocation. You want to escape from it.”

Both sides of Jersey are on display in Pearce’s debut feature Beast, which is about an emotionally stifled young woman who falls in love with a mysterious man who is later suspected of a series of murders. It flips the usual serial-killer story, focusing on the woman falling in love. “There are so many great procedurals in film and TV, and studies of psychopaths, but you’d only have one scene about the woman involved with them,”

Pearce explains. “This is about the psychology of doubting [your partner] and also doubting yourself.”

Pearce has been living with the story for many years. He studied at the Arts Institute in Bournemouth then the National Film and Television School, and made a series of award-winning shorts including Rite and Keeping Up With The Joneses; he was chosen as a 2011 Screen Star of Tomorrow. All the while he had been thinking about Beast, which came to life with the support of the BFI Film Fund, Film4 and producers Kristian Brodie of Agile Films and Ivana Mackinnon and Lauren Dark of Stray Bear Films. Beast will premiere in Toronto’s buzzy Platform section; Protagonist Pictures handles international sales.

Beast rises Brodie met Pearce about six years ago and immediately t h o u g h t , “ H e ’s clearly a very serious director with a clear idea of what (Right) Johnny Flynn

22 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

‘A film can have psychological complexity, and that doesn’t disqualify it from engaging with an audience’ Michael Pearce, director

he wants to do.” He was impressed that Pearce had an ambition to do a project that, while retaining integrity, would also appeal to an audience: “He wasn’t going down the social-realism route.” The pair took the project through TorinoFilmLab and then brought the other partners on board.

The team describes Beast as a “dark fairytale” — a tense drama with romance as well as genre elements.

As Mackinnon says: “Michael’s reference points are films like Martha Marcy May Marlene and Animal Kingdom, authored but incredibly engaging movies.” Pearce agrees: “A film can have psychological complexity,

Dangerous minds Casting director Julie Harkin helped them find two up-and-coming actors, Jessie Buckley (TV’s War & Peace and Taboo) and Johnny Flynn (TV’s Genius, Clouds Of Sils Maria); the pair came with Pearce to Jersey to explore the island ahead of rehearsals in London.

Mackinnon explains the actors and key creatives met with psychoanalysts during development and pre-production to understand the psychology behind these characters. “As a writer and director, Michael has a genuine interest in human psychology,” she says. “He’s interested in female characters in a way a lot of men are not.”

Buckley was hooked by her multi-layered character. “It’s so rare for a female character like that to come along. I was moved by it, I was scared by it, I was excited by it,” says the actress, who describes Moll as “27 but stuck at 14, living in a prison-like existence… Her vulnerability makes her strong. She faces up to what she’s afraid of.”

Flynn was similarly intrigued by his character, Pascal: “Sometimes he’s a bit mysterious and we’re not sure where our allegiances are with him.”

Pearce gave him a “detailed backstory” for the character and also guided him to look at films with enigmatic male characters — Michael Shannon in Take Shelter, Oscar Isaac in A Most Violent Year and Chris Cooper in Adaptation.

Pearce’s homegrown passion for his story created an inspired and relaxed atmosphere on set, as not even the junior crew are grumbling as they lug equipment down 100 steep steps to the beach, sometimes in the rain. As Dark says: “He’s so clear about what he wants, he has a real clarity of vision… it’s a very special world he’s created.”

Buckley discovered another bonus of filming in Jersey. “You break for lunch and everybody goes for a swim,” she says s with a grin. ■ Beast : public screenings from Sept 9; press & industry from Sept 10

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SCREENINGS

JURY GRID, PAGE 38

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

12:15

PUBLIC

I KILL GIANTS

SCREENINGS

(UK) 104mins. XYZ Films (US & int’l). Dir: Anders Walter. Cast: Imogen Poots, Madison Wolfe, Zoe Saldana.

Based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura, I Kill Giants tells the story of a teenager who struggles through school and family life by escaping into a fantasy world of magic and monsters.

09:00 ANA, MON AMOUR

(Romania/Germany/ France) 127mins. Beta Cinema (int’l). Dir: Calin Peter Netzer. Cast: Adrian Titieni, Diana Cavallioti, Mircea Postelnicu, Vasile Muraru.

Romanian filmmaker Calin Peter Netzer (Child’s Pose) won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for this captivating study of a passionate romance that is threatened by both the spectre of mental illness, and the sufferer’s subsequent journey from dependence to self-reliance.

Contemporary World Cinema Jackman Hall

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

THE CHINA HUSTLE

PUBLIC SCREENING 12:30 WHO WE ARE NOW

SIGHTED EYES/FEELING HEART

(US) 118mins. Dir: Tracy Heather Strain.

Cast: Alexandria King, Anika Noni Rose, Glynn Turman, Harry Belafonte, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Louis Gossett Jr, Mamie Hansberry, Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier.

Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain delivers a moving account of the life of Black playwright, communist, feminist, lesbian and outspoken trailblazer Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin in the Sun).

TIFF Docs TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 — Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema

09:15 THE PRICE OF SUCCESS

(France) 92mins. Indie Sales (int’l). Dir: Teddy Lussi-Modeste. Cast: Maïwenn, Roschdy Zem, Tahar Rahim.

A popular stand-up comic from a working-class French family balances fame, ambition and expectations while feeling his loyalties pulled between his manager-brother and artistic-director girlfriend.

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

(US) 99mins. United Talent Agency (US).

Dir: Matthew Newton.

Cast: Emma Roberts, Jason Biggs, Jess Weixler, Jimmy Smits, Julianne Nicholson, Lea 09:45 EUTHANIZER

(Finland) 85mins. Wide (int’l). Dir: Teemu Nikki. Cast: Hannamaija Nikander, Heikki Nousiainen, Jari Virman, Matti Onnismaa, Pihla Penttinen.

The carefully balanced (albeit deranged) life of a freelance, black-market pet euthaniser begins to come apart at the seams in this loopy exploitation-movie throwback from Finland.

Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

10:00 OUTSIDE IN

(US) 109mins. ICM Partners (US & int’l).

Dir: Lynn Shelton.

Cast: Ben Schwartz, Edie Falco, Jay Duplass, Kaitlyn Dever.

An ex-con (Jay Duplass) struggling to readjust to life in his small town forms an intense bond

24 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

Thompson, Zachary Quinto.

An ex-con forms an unlikely alliance with an idealistic lawyer (Emma Roberts) to regain custody of her young son.

Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

with his former highschool teacher.

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

10:45

Sorkin. Cast: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera.

Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut stars Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba in the true story of Molly Bloom, proprietor of Hollywood’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being shut down by the FBI. Special Presentations Elgin Theatre

11:30 I, TONYA

(US) 119mins. Lionsgate (int’l). Dir: David Gordon Green. Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Tatiana Maslany, Carlos Sanz, Clancy Brown, Danny McCarthy, Frankie Shaw, Lenny Clarke, Miranda Richardson.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany star in this adaptation of the memoir by Jeff Bauman, recounting his struggles to adjust after losing his legs in the Boston Marathon bombing.

(US) 121mins. Creative Artists Agency, United Talent Agency (US).

Sierra/Affinity (int’l).

Dir: Craig Gillespie. Cast: Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, Bobby Cannavale, Julianne Nicholson, Paul Walter Hauser, Sebastian Stan.

Margot Robbie stars as controversial Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in this alternately tragic, hilarious and absurd look at one of the biggest scandals in US sports history.

Gala Presentations Winter Garden Theatre

Special Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

STRONGER

Grayson Moore. Cast: Grace Glowicki, Katie Boland, Noah Reid, Peter MacNeill, Peter Spence, Sheila McCarthy.

When Valerie (Sheila McCarthy) returns home from prison years after killing her neighbour in an apparent drunkdriving accident, she wants nothing more than to move on — until the deceased’s son shows up at her door and it becomes clear the past is not easily forgotten.

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 — Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema

THE DEATH OF STALIN

MOLLY’S GAME

CARDINALS

(France/UK/Belgium) 107mins. Gaumont (US & int’l). Dir: Armando Iannucci. Cast: Adrian McLoughlin, Andrea Riseborough, Dermot Crowley, Jason Isaacs, Jeffrey Tambor, Michael Palin, Olga Kurylenko, Paddy Considine, Paul Chahidi, Paul Whitehouse, Rupert Friend, Simon Russell Beale, Steve Buscemi.

An acerbic send-up of the Soviet dictator and the bootlick ministers who vie for power after his sudden demise.

(US) 140mins. Sierra/ Affinity (int’l). Dir: Aaron

(Canada) 84mins.

Dir: Aidan Shipley,

Platform TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

11:00

12:00

(US) 84mins. United Talent Agency (US).

Dir: Jed Rothstein.

An unsettling and eyeopening Wall Street horror story about Chinese companies, the US stock market, and the opportunistic greed behind the biggest heist you’ve never heard of.

TIFF Docs Jackman Hall

THE UPSIDE

(US) 120mins. The Weinstein Company (int’l). Dir: Neil Burger.

Cast: Aja Naomi King, Bryan Cranston, Golshifteh Farahani, Julianna Margulies, Kevin Hart, Nicole Kidman.

Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart star in this remake of the French hit Intouchables, a dramatic buddy comedy about the unlikely friendship between a rich quadriplegic and his working-class caregiver.

Gala Presentations Princess of Wales

12:30 WHO WE ARE NOW See box, above

12:45 NEVER STEADY, NEVER STILL

(Canada) 110mins. Dir: Kathleen Hepburn.

Cast: Jared Abrahamson, Jonathan Whitesell, Lorne Cardinal, Mary » Galloway, Nicholas www.screendaily.com

THE FARTHEST

2017 AUDI-ENCE AWARD WINNER: THE FARTHEST

22nd Feb – 4th Mar 2018 —

Each year, Irish audiences vote for the most popular film at the Audi Dublin International Film Festival. The winning film makers receive an exclusive travel and promotional bursary as part of the Audi-ence Award.

— Submit your film through FILM FREEWAY — WWW.DIFF.IE

SCREENINGS

Campbell, Shirley Henderson, Theodore Pellerin.

Shirley Henderson stars in the latest by Kathleen Hepburn, about a woman who, in the wake of her husband’s death, struggles to remain independent despite the advance of Parkinson’s disease.

Set in rural Ireland in 1920, this gothic chiller sees teenage twins living in a haunted manor under the shadow of a family curse.

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

(US) 89mins. Dir: Jason Kohn.

Infamous and influential tennis coach Nick Bollettieri has trained generations of champions, but that greatness comes at a personal price.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 3

16:30 LOVE MEANS ZERO

13:45 BODIED

(US) 121mins. ICM Partners (US & int’l).

Dir: Joseph Kahn.

Cast: Anthony Michael Hall, Calum Worthy, Charlamagne Tha God, Debra Wilson, Dizaster, Dumbfoundead, Jackie Long, Loaded Lux, Rory Uphold, Shoniqua Shandai, Walter Perez.

A satirical exploration of the world’s most artistically brutal sport — battle rapping — from music video director Joseph Kahn, based on a script

by Toronto rapper Alex Larsen (Kid Twist) and produced by Eminem.

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 4

14:00 WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY See box, above

14:30 I’VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING

(Canada) 83mins.

Vos Productions (US & int’l). Dir: Patricia Rozema. Cast: AnnMarie MacDonald, Paule Baillargeon, Sheila McCarthy.

Patricia Rozema’s internationally acclaimed debut feature was a watershed moment in Canadian film.

TIFF Cinematheque TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 — Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema

OCCIDENTAL

(France) 73mins. MPM Film (int’l). Dir: Neil Beloufa. Cast: Anna Ivacheff, Brahim Tekfa, Hamza Meziani, Idir Chender, Louise OrryDiquéro, Paul Hamy.

The arrival of a gay couple at a retro-1970s Parisian hotel sparks a series of absurd anecdotal actions involving homophobia,

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 2

16:45 PUBLIC SCREENING

racism, misogyny, terrorist threats and political manipulations, in artist-filmmaker Neil Beloufa’s clever, hyperstylised critique of today’s xenophobic ideologies.

Wavelengths Jackman Hall

THE CHILDREN ACT

(UK) 105mins. FilmNation Entertainment, Creative Artists Agency (US). FilmNation Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Richard Eyre. Cast: Emma Thompson, Fionn Whitehead, Stanley Tucci.

An adaptation of the novel by Ian McEwan, about a high-court judge (Thompson) who finds personal and professional crises colliding when she is asked to rule in the case of a brilliant 18-year-old boy who is refusing the blood transfusion that would save his life.

Special Presentations Elgin Theatre

15:00 KODACHROME

MARY GOES ROUND

(Canada) 84mins. Dir: Molly McGlynn. Cast: Aya Cash, John Ralston, Melanie Nicholls-King, Sara Waisglass.

When a substance-abuse counsellor is arrested for a DUI and returns to her hometown of Niagara Falls, she learns her estranged father is dying of cancer and wants her to form a bond with her teenage half-sister who she’s never met.

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

THE LEISURE SEEKER

(Italy) 112mins. Bac Films (US & int’l).

Dir: Paolo Virzi. Cast: Christian Mckay, Dana Ivey, Donald Sutherland, Helen Mirren, Janel Moloney.

Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland star as an elderly couple looking for adventure on one boisterous and bittersweet final road trip.

Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

(Canada/US) 105mins.

Creative Artists Agency, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

The Solution (int’l). Dir: Mark Raso. Cast: Ed Harris, Elizabeth Olsen, Jason Sudeikis.

Jason Sudeikis, Elizabeth Olsen and Ed Harris star in this touching road movie that doubles as an elegy for analogue in the digital age.

(Germany/France/ Poland) 118mins.

Alfama Films, Paulo Branco (int’l). Dir: Robert Schwentke. Cast: Alexander Fehling, Frederick Lau, Max Hubacher, Milan Peschel.

A German deserter tries to survive in the final days of the Third Reich.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

26 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

15:15 THE CAPTAIN

14:00 WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY

(Norway/Germany/ Sweden) 106mins. Beta Cinema (int’l). Dir: Iram Haq. Cast: Adil Hussain, Ali Arfan, Lalit Parimoo, Maria Mozhdah, Rohit Saraf, Sheeba Chaddha.

Nisha’s double life — obedient to her traditional

A FISH OUT OF WATER

Pakistani upbringing at home, typical Norwegian teenager to her friends — comes crashing down when her concerned parents kidnap her and send her to Pakistan, in Iram Haq’s empathetic story of family, community and culture.

Platform Winter Garden Theatre

(Taiwan) 90mins.

Charades (int’l). Dir: Lai Kuo-An. Cast: Jen Shuo Cheng, Peggy Tseng, Runyin Bai. A young boy becomes obsessed with finding his past parents who fished in a small village by the sea.

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 — Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema

OUR PEOPLE WILL BE HEALED 15:45 THE CARTER EFFECT

(Canada/US) 60mins.

Dir: Sean Menard. Cast: David Stern, Drake, Michelle Carter-Scott, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter.

An unprecedented look at Vince Carter: the sixfoot-six, eight-time NBA All-Star from Daytona Beach who made waves in the Canadian basketball scene when he joined the Raptors in 1998.

TIFF Docs Princess of Wales

THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE: SEASON 2

(US) 110mins. Dir: Amy Seimetz, Lodge Kerrigan.

Cast: Anna Friel, Carmen Ejogo, Louisa Krause.

The second season of Starz’s chilling drama — about highly paid sex workers who provide their clients with the full sexual and emotional girlfriend experience — focuses on the lives of Anna, caught up in the corrupt world of Washington politics, and

Bria, an ex-sex worker in hiding who cannot escape her past.

Primetime TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

16:15 THE BIG BAD FOX & OTHER TALES

(France) 80mins.

Studiocanal (int’l). Dir: Benjamin Renner, Patrick Imbert. Cast: Boris Rehlinger, Céline Ronté, Elise Noiraud, Guillaume Bouchede, Guillaume Darnault, Jules Bienvenu, Magali Rosenzweig.

Filmmaker, animator and cartoonist Benjamin Renner (Ernest & Celestine) adapts his own comic strips for this trio of laugh-out-loud animal adventures.

(Canada) 97mins.

National Film Board of Canada (int’l). Dir: Alanis Obomsawin.

A glimpse of what actiondriven decolonisation looks like in Norway House, one of Manitoba’s largest First Nations communities.

Masters Jackman Hall

THE FINAL YEAR

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 13

(US) 89mins. Passion Pictures, Motto Pictures (int’l). Dir: Greg Barker.

Cast: Barack Obama, Ben Rhodes, John Kerry, Samantha Power, Susan Rice.

Greg Barker gives an unprecedented look at the shaping of US foreign policy by following key members of outgoing US president Barack Obama’s administration.

THE LODGERS

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 4

(Ireland) 93mins. Epic Pictures Group (int’l).

Dir: Brian O’Malley. Cast: Bill Milner, Charlotte Vega, David Bradley, Deirdre O’Kane, Eugene Simon, Moe Dunford.

17:00 BEAST

(UK) 107mins.

Protagonist Pictures (US & int’l). Dir: Michael Pearce. Cast: Jessie »

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TIFF_2016_UKF_Screenad_FP_335x245_SATURDAY.indd 2

04/09/2017 17:54

SCREENINGS

Buckley, Johnny Flynn, Charley Palmer Rothwell, Geraldine James, Trystan Gravelle.

A troubled woman living in an isolated community finds herself pulled between the control of her oppressive family and the allure of a secretive outsider.

rousing family drama from Annemarie Jacir.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 4

19:30 OF SHEEP AND MEN

(Switzerland/France/ Qatar) 78mins. Dir: Karim Sayad.

Sixteen-year-old Habib dreams of training his prized sheep to become a fighting champion, and middle-aged Samir just wants to sell enough sheep before Eid to make ends meet, in this emotive profile of an impoverished Algerian community.

Platform Winter Garden Theatre

17:30 I LOVE YOU, DADDY See box, right

18:00 A SEASON IN FRANCE

(France) 100mins. MK2 (int’l). Dir: MahamatSaleh Haroun. Cast: Aalayna Lys, Bibi Tanga, Eriq Ebouaney, Ibrahim Burama Darboe, Sandrine Bonnaire.

An African high-school teacher flees his war-torn country for France, where he falls in love with a Frenchwoman who offers a roof for him and his family.

Special Presentations Elgin Theatre

THE MOTIVE

(Spain) 112mins. Filmax International (int’l). Dir: Manuel Martin Cuenca.

Cast: Adelfa Calvo, Adriana Paz, Antonio de la Torre, Javier Gutierrez, Maria Leon, Rafael Tellez, Tenoch Huerta.

Searching for literary inspiration, an aspiring novelist in Seville insinuates himself into the lives of his neighbours and attempts to instigate drama.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1

18:15 THE GUARDIANS

(France/Switzerland) 134mins. Pathé International (int’l). Dir: Xavier Beauvois. Cast: Cyril Descours, Gilbert Bonneau, Iris Bry, Laura Smet, Mathilde ViseuxEly, Nathalie Baye, Nicolas Giraud, Olivier Rabourdin.

An intimate drama exploring the lives of women who are left behind to work a family farm during the Great War. Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

TIFF Docs TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 — Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema

20:30

PUBLIC SCREENING 17:30 I LOVE YOU, DADDY

(US) 123mins. 3 Arts Entertainment, APA (US). Dir: Louis CK. Cast: Charlie Day, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ebonee Noel, Edie Falco, Helen Hunt, John Malkovich, Louis CK, Pamela Adlon, Rose Byrne.

18:30 MARY SHELLEY

(Ireland/UK/ Luxembourg/US) 120mins. United Talent Agency (US). HanWay Films (int’l). Dir: Haifaa Al Mansour.

Cast: Bel Powley, Ben Hardy, Douglas Booth, Elle Fanning, Joanne Froggatt, Maisie Williams, Stephen Dillane, Tom Sturridge.

Elle Fanning stars in this scintillating biopic of the Frankenstein author, chronicling her tempestuous marriage to dissolute poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and the fateful night at a Swiss chateau that inspired her most famous creation.

Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

SUBURBICON

(US) 105mins. Bloom (int’l). Dir: George Clooney. Cast: Julianne Moore, Matt Damon, Noah Jupe, Oscar Isaac.

Director George Clooney teams with co-writers Joel

28 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

Louis CK’s I Love You, Daddy was filmed entirely in secret. It is an edgy comedy pitched partway between the sharp social observation of his Horace and Pete series and the gaspinducing laughs of his stand-up.

Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

and Ethan Coen and an all-star ensemble for this complex tale of very flawed people making very bad choices in a seemingly idyllic 1950s community.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales

18:45 GOOD FAVOUR

(Ireland/Belgium/ Denmark/Netherlands) 101mins. Visit Films (US & int’l). Dir: Rebecca Daly. Cast: Alexandre Willaume, Clara Rugaard, Helena Coppejans, Lars Brygmann, Victoria Mayer, Vincent Romeo.

A teenage stranger welcomed into a household in a devout Christian village gradually reveals his mysterious motives — and what seem to be magical powers.

Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

Andrew Bleechington, Regina Williams, Robert Williams, Ry’nesia Chambers.

Antonio Mendez Esparza sensitively chronicles the everyday life of an African American family in northern Florida and their struggle to stay afloat in a society that marginalises them.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 3

RAVENS

(Sweden) 107mins.

Dir: Jens Assur. Cast: Jacob Nordström, Maria Heiskanen, Reine Brynolfsson.

A hardworking farmer begins to crack under the weight of his harsh daily existence and the indifference of his son to their traditional way of life.

Discovery Scotiabank 13

19:00 BEYOND WORDS

(Netherlands/Poland) 85mins. Global Screen (int’l). Dir: Urszula Antoniak. Cast: Andrzej Chyra, Christian Löber, Jakub Gierszal.

A Poland-born, Berlinbased lawyer working on refugee cases is unexpectedly reunited with his long-lost father.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 14

LIFE AND NOTHING MORE

(Spain/US) 113mins.

Film Constellation (int’l). Dir: Antonio Mendez Esparza. Cast:

LADY BIRD

(US) 94mins. A24 (int’l).

Dir: Greta Gerwig. Cast: Beanie Feldstein, Laurie

Metcalf, Lucas Hedges, Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet, Tracy Letts.

A rebellious young woman navigates the pressures and constraints of Catholic school and life in Sacramento.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 2

19:15 PUBLIC SCHOOLED

(Canada) 86mins.

Kaleidoscope Film Distribution, XYZ Films (US). Kaleidoscope Film Distribution (int’l). Dir: Kyle Rideout. Cast: Alex Barima, Andrea Bang, Andrew Herr, Andrew McNee, Daniel Doheny, Eva Day, Grace Park, Josh Epstein, Judy Greer, Maxine Miller, Russell Peters, Siobhan Williams.

After being homeschooled his whole life, wannabe physicist Liam enrolls in public school to chase the girl of his dreams.

Contemporary World Cinema Jackman Hall

WAJIB

(Palestine/France/ Germany/Colombia/ Norway/Qatar/United Arab Emirates) 96mins.

Pyramide International (int’l). Dir: Annemarie Jacir. Cast: Maria Zreik, Mohammad Bakri, Rana Alamuddin, Saleh Bakri.

A father and his estranged son must come together to hand-deliver his daughter’s wedding invitations to each guest as per local Palestinian custom, in this

BRAD’S STATUS

(US) 101mins. Sierra/ Affinity (int’l). Dir: Mike White. Cast: Austin Abrams, Ben Stiller, Jenna Fischer, Jermaine Clement, Luke Wilson, Michael Sheen.

While touring colleges with his teenage son, an introspective, middle-aged family man cannot help but compare himself to his more successful cohort of old friends.

Platform Winter Garden Theatre

DARK

(Germany) 90mins.

Dir: Baran bo Odar.

Cast: Anatole Taubman, Andreas Pietschmann, Angela Winkler, Anne Ratte-Polle, Jördis Triebel, Karoline Eichhorn, Lisa Vicari, Louis Hofmann, Maja Schöne, Mark Waschke, Michael Mendl, Oliver Masucci, Sebastian Rudolph, Stephan Kampwirth.

The strange disappearance of a child is only the beginning of the mystery in this chilling supernatural family drama.

Primetime TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

21:00 RAINBOW — A PRIVATE AFFAIR

(Italy/France) 84mins.

Pyramide International (int’l). Dir: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani. Cast: Lorenzo Richelmy, Luca Marinelli, Valentina Belle.

A doomed love-triangle »

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TIFF 2017

Canada Lounge #3 TIFF Industry Centre Hyatt Regency Toronto 370 King Street West

SEE BIG.

COPRODUCTION, IT’S A

BIG

DEAL FOR CANADA. ASK US!

CANADA-TIFF17.CA

SCREENINGS

Lilly Jandreau, Tim Jandreau.

Chloé Zhao’s impressionistic drama casts real-life wrangler Brady Jandreau as a South Dakota cowboy struggling to chart a new course.

is caught up in the tumultous upheaval of the Second World War and the partisan resistance in Italy.

Masters Scotiabank 1

THE CURED

(Ireland/UK/France) 95mins. William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, Creative Artists Agency (US). Bac Films (int’l).

Dir: David Freyne. Cast: Ellen Page, Sam Keeley, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor.

Ellen Page stars in this gloriously terrifying yet thought-provoking horror thriller about the fraught process of reintegrating formerly infected flesheaters into society in the aftermath of a zombie plague.

Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER

(Ireland/UK) 120mins.

HanWay Films (int’l).

Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos.

Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone, Barry Keoghan, Bill Camp, Raffey Cassidy.

The strange relationship between a cardiac surgeon and a 16-year-old boy portends a terrifying sacrifice.

Special Presentations Elgin Theatre

THE TRUMAN SHOW (preceded by short film LOG DRIVER’S WALTZ)

(US) 105mins. Dir: Peter Weir. Cast: Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Peter Krause.

Jim Carrey was known for his slapstick performances long before starring as insurance salesman Truman Burbank in Peter Weir’s award-winning satire.

Festival Street Slaight Music Stage

21:15 KILLING JESUS

(Colombia/Argentina) 100mins. Latido Films (int’l). Dir: Laura Mora.

Cast: Camilo Escobar, Carmenza Cossio, Giovanny Rodriguez, Jose David Medina, Juan Camilo Cardenas, Juan Pablo Trujillo, Natasha Jaramillo.

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

THE ROYAL HIBISCUS HOTEL

PUBLIC SCREENING 21:30 THE CURRENT WAR

(US) 107mins. The Weinstein Company (int’l). Dir: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Katherine Waterston, Matthew Macfadyen, Michael Shannon,

A few months after witnessing the murder of her father, a woman crosses paths with a man she believes to be his killer.

Discovery Scotiabank 10

21:30 HOCHELAGA, LAND OF SOULS

(Canada) 100mins.

Seville International (int’l). Dir: Francois Girard. Cast: Emmanuel Schwartz, Gilles Renaud, Linus Roache, Naïade Aoun, Raoul Trujillo, Samian, Sébastien Ricard, Sian Phillips, Tanaya Beatty, Tony Nardi, Vincent Perez, Wahiakeron Gilbert.

Mohawk archaeologist Baptiste Asigny engages in a search for his ancestors following a tragic terrain slump in the Percival Molson Stadium.

Nicholas Hoult, Tom Holland, Tuppence Middleton.

Biopic chronicling the race for marketable electricity in the US between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales

THE GREAT BUDDHA+

(Taiwan) 104mins.

MandarinVision (int’l).

Dir: Huang Hsin-Yao. Cast: Bamboo Chen, Cres Chuang, Leon Dai. A security guard and his best friend become entangled in a web of dark secrets after stumbling on videos that document the promiscuous meetings of a wealthy factory owner.

Discovery Scotiabank 11

THE JOURNEY

(Iraq/UK/France/Qatar/ Netherlands) 82mins.

Dir: Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji. Cast: Ameer Ali Jabarah, Zahraa Ghandour.

A tense and provocative political meditation about a would-be suicide bomber and the fast-talking trainstation attendant she takes hostage.

Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 13

THE CURRENT WAR

WESTERN

See box, above

(Germany/Bulgaria/

30 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

Austria) 119mins. Films Boutique (int’l). Dir: Valeska Grisebach. Cast: Meinhard Neumann, Reinhardt Wetrek, Syuleyman Alilov Letifov, Veneta Frangova, Vyara Borisova.

Cultural difference, masculine bravado and national pride lead to high tensions in the story of German construction workers labouring in the Bulgarian countryside.

Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

21:45 3/4

(Germany/Bulgaria) 82mins. Memento Films International (US & int’l). Dir: Ilian Metev.

Cast: Mila Mihova, Nikolay Mashalov, Simona Genkova, Todor Veltchev.

Two talented siblings struggle with the idea of being separated while their astrophysicist father seems incapable of dealing with his children’s anxieties, in Ilian Metev’s touching portrait of a family during their last summer together.

Discovery Jackman Hall

Filipino director Adolfo Alix Jr returns to TIFF with this timely story of a couple caught up in Rodrigo Duterte’s violent war on drugs when their son goes missing.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 4

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 3

22:00

FIVE FINGERS FOR MARSEILLES

SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD

(South Africa) 120mins.

XYZ Films (US).

Game 7 Films (int’l).

Dir: Michael Matthews.

Cast: Anthony Oseyemi, Aubrey Poolo, Brendon Daniels, Dean Fourie, Hamilton Dhlamini, Jerry Mofokeng, Kenneth Fok, Kenneth Nkosi, Lizwi Vilakazi, Mduduzi Mabaso, Vuyo Dabula, Warren Masemola, Zethu Dlomo.

Twenty years after fleeing from brutal police aggression in the colonial town of Marseilles in South Africa, a member of the Five Fingers returns seeking peace, but with the town under new threat, he must reluctantly fight to free it, in this thriller from Michael Matthews.

(US) 98mins. Submarine (US & int’l). Dir: Matt Tyrnauer. Cast: Scotty Bowers.

A deliciously scandalous portrait of unsung Hollywood legend Scotty Bowers, whose bestselling memoir chronicled his decades spent as sexual procurer to the stars.

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 — Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema

DARK IS THE NIGHT

(Philippines) 106mins.

Swift Productions (int’l).

Dir: Adolfo Alix Jr. Cast: Bembol Roco, Felix Roco, Gina Alajar, Phillip Salvador.

(Nigeria) 90mins.

Film One Distribution (int’l). Dir: Ishaya Bako.

Cast: Akah Nnani, Charles Inojie, Deyemi Okanlawon, Ini DimaOkojie, Jide Kosoko, Joke Silva, Kemi ‘Lala’ Akindoju, Kenneth Okolie, OC Ukeje, Olu Jacobs, Rachel Oniga, Toni Tones.

In this spritely Nollywood romcom, an aspiring restaurateur returns to her home in Lagos to try to refine the fare at her family’s little hotel, only to find her parents are planning on selling out to a rich (and devilishly attractive) buyer.

THE RIDER

(US) 103mins.

Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Chloé Zhao.

Cast: Brady Jandreau, Cat Clifford, Lane Scott,

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 2

23:59 MOM AND DAD (preceded by short film GREAT CHOICE)

(US) 90mins. XYZ Films, Creative Artists Agency (US). XYZ Films (int’l).

Dir: Brian Taylor. Cast: Nicolas Cage, Selma Blair, Anne Winters, Carrie Coon, Jordan Gelber, Lance Henriksen, Morgan Spector.

A pitch-black horrorcomedy about a worldwide mass hysteria where, for 24 brutal hours, parents turn violently against their own children.

Midnight Madness Ryerson Theatre

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»

BIFF_170901_245x335.pdf 1 2017. 8. 28. 오전 1:08

SCREENINGS

that includes Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, Laura Dern, Jason Sudeikis, Alec Baldwin and Neil Patrick Harris in Alexander Payne’s sci-fi social satire about a man who chooses to shrink himself (literally) to simplify his life.

Ryerson Theatre

PRESS & INDUSTRY

08:30 STRONGER

(US) 119mins. Lionsgate (int’l). Dir: David Gordon Green. Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Tatiana Maslany, Carlos Sanz, Clancy Brown, Danny McCarthy, Frankie Shaw, Lenny Clarke, Miranda Richardson.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany star in this adaptation of the memoir by Jeff Bauman, recounting his struggles to adjust after losing his legs in the Boston Marathon bombing.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 1 and 4

08:45 I, TONYA

(US) 121mins. Creative Artists Agency, United Talent Agency (US).

Sierra/Affinity (int’l).

Dir: Craig Gillespie.

Cast: Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, Bobby Cannavale, Julianne Nicholson, Paul Walter Hauser, Sebastian Stan.

Margot Robbie stars as controversial Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in this alternately tragic, hilarious and absurd look at one of the biggest scandals in US sports history.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 2

09:00 A CIAMBRA

(Italy/France/US/ Germany) 117mins.

Luxbox (int’l). Dir: Jonas Carpignano.

Cast: Damiano Amato, Francesco Pio Amato, Iolanda Amato, Koudous Seihon, Patrizia Amato, Pio Amato, Rocco Amato, Susanna Amato.

Jonas Carpignano’s coming-of-age story about a 14-year-old boy in a Romani community in southern Italy who is eager to prove he can be a man and is thrust into adulthood when his brother goes missing.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 10

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1 and 4

LOTS OF KIDS, A MONKEY AND A CASTLE

PRESS & INDUSTRY PLONGER

(France) 102mins.

WTFilms (int’l). Dir: Mélanie Laurent. Cast: Gilles Lellouche, Maria Valverde.

A restless photographer leaves her family to find herself and takes up deep-sea diving, in this emotional drama from Mélanie Laurent.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 14

PROTOTYPE (preceded by short film FLORENCE)

(Canada, Finland) 72mins. BM Films, AV-arkki (int’l). Dir: Blake Williams, Erkki Kurenniemi.

In his feature debut, experimental short filmmaker Blake Williams transforms images of the aftermath of the catastrophic 1900 Galveston Hurricane into a sci-fi landscape.

Florence is a dazzling, abstract travelogue shot between Italy, Switzerland, and director Erkki Kurenniemi’s home in Finland. One of several experimental films shot in the late 1960s and early ’70s by the recently deceased computer music pioneer Kurenniemi.

Wavelengths Scotiabank 6

THE CHINA HUSTLE

(US) 84mins. United Talent Agency (US). Dir: Jed Rothstein.

An unsettling and eyeopening Wall Street horror story about

32 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

Chinese companies, the US stock market, and the opportunistic greed behind the biggest heist you’ve never heard of.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 9

THE DEATH OF STALIN

(France/UK/Belgium) 107mins. Gaumont (US & int’l). Dir: Armando Iannucci. Cast: Adrian McLoughlin, Andrea Riseborough, Dermot Crowley, Jason Isaacs, Jeffrey Tambor, Michael Palin, Olga Kurylenko, Paddy Considine, Paul Chahidi, Paul Whitehouse, Rupert Friend, Simon Russell Beale, Steve Buscemi.

Armando Iannucci (Veep) directs Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi and Andrea Riseborough in this acerbic send-up of the Soviet dictator and the bootlick ministers who vie for power after his sudden demise.

Platform Scotiabank 3

09:15 A SORT OF FAMILY

(Argentina/Brazil/ France/Poland) 95mins. Film Factory Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Diego Lerman. Cast: Barbara Lennie, Claudio Tolcachir, Daniel Araoz.

Director Diego Lerman’s latest feature follows a determined woman as she navigates the legally complex and morally dubious labyrinth of child adoption in the

09:15 LADY BIRD

(US) 94mins. A24 (int’l). Dir: Greta Gerwig. Cast: Beanie Feldstein, Laurie Metcalf, Lucas Hedges, Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet, Tracy Letts.

rural, disadvantaged communities of Argentina’s north.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 11

LADY BIRD See box, above

SUPER SIZE ME 2: HOLY CHICKEN!

(US) 93mins. Tristen Tuckfield, Cinetic Media (US). Dir: Morgan Spurlock. Cast: Jonathan Buttram, Morgan Spurlock.

Muckraking filmmaker Morgan Spurlock reignites his battle with the food industry — this time from behind the register — as he opens his own fast-food restaurant.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 13

09:30 ARRHYTHMIA

(Russia/Finland/ Germany) 116mins.

Indie Sales (int’l). Dir: Boris Khlebnikov. Cast: Alexander Yatsenko, Irina Gorbacheva.

Russian filmmaker Boris Khlebnikov reflects on his homeland’s contemporary

A rebellious young woman (Saoirse Ronan) navigates the pressures and constraints of Catholic school and life in Sacramento, in Greta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

societal breakdown in this story of a professionally impeccable but personally irresponsible paramedic, whose already strained relationship with his doctor wife is pushed to breaking point when the healthcare bureaucracy institutes new regulations favouring ‘efficiency’ over compassionate care.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

09:45 VILLAGE ROCKSTARS

(India) 87mins. Dir: Rima Das. Cast: Basanti Das, Bhanita Das. A 10-year-old girl living in a remote village in northeast India fights against stereotypes and poverty to pursue her dream of owning a guitar and forming a rock band.

Discovery Scotiabank 7

11:00 DOWNSIZING

(US) 135mins. Paramount Pictures. Dir: Alexander Payne. Cast: Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau.

Matt Damon leads a cast

(Spain) 88mins.

Dogwoof (US & int’l).

Dir: Gustavo Salmeron.

Cast: Antonio Garcia Cabanes, David Garcia Salmeron, Gustavo Salmeron, Julia Salmeron, Julita Salmeron, Mariam Garcés Correa, Nacho Salmeron, Paloma Garcia-Cabanes Salmeron, Ramon Garcia Salmeron.

Spanish actor Gustavo Salmeron steps behind the camera to capture the winsome eccentricities of his extraordinary mother Julita, who had three dreams: having lots of kids, owning a monkey and living in a castle.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 6

MAKALA

(France) 96mins. Les Films du Losange (int’l).

Dir: Emmanuel Gras.

Cast: Kabwita Kasongo, Lydie Kasongo.

Director Emmanuel Gras won the Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week for this sensitive portrait of an independent Congolese labourer struggling to support his family.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 9

11:15 KODACHROME

(Canada/US) 105mins.

Creative Artists Agency, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

The Solution (int’l). Dir: Mark Raso. Cast: Ed Harris, Elizabeth Olsen, Jason Sudeikis.

Jason Sudeikis, Elizabeth Olsen and Ed Harris star in this touching road movie that doubles as an elegy for analogue in the digital age.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 2

www.screendaily.com

PROFESSOR MARSTON & THE WONDER WOMEN

(US) 108mins. Dir: Angela Robinson. Cast: Bella Heathcote, Connie Britton, Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall.

Luke Evans (High-Rise, Beauty And The Beast), Rebecca Hall (Christine), and Bella Heathcote (Fifty Shades Darker) star in this biopic of William Moulton Marston, the US psychologist who put his progressive ideals about female liberation into practice by creating the DC superhero Wonder Woman and living in an ‘extended relationship’ with his wife and another woman.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3

THELMA

(Norway/Sweden/ France/Denmark) 116mins. Memento Films International (US & int’l). Dir: Joachim Trier.

Cast: Eili Harboe, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Henrik Rafaelsen, Kaya Wilkins.

Recently moved to Oslo to attend school, a young woman falls in love and discovers she possesses terrifying powers, in this supernatural thriller from acclaimed director Joachim Trier.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 14

11:30 BEYOND THE ONE (preceded by short film STRANGELY ORDINARY THIS DEVOTION)

(France/Italy/Germany) 80mins. Dir: Anna Marziano, Dani Restack, Sheilah Restack.

By turns affecting and unsettling, Dani Restack and Sheilah Restack’s Strangely Ordinary This Devotion connects associative threads (including rocks, blood, motherhood and queer representation) into a

dazzling, web-like whole: a defacto treatise on radical intimacy.

Anna Marziano’s Beyond the One is an essayistic exploration of love’s various guises, considering different attempts at courtship, living together, and sustaining connections with people once they have died.

Wavelengths Scotiabank 5

THE FINAL YEAR

(US) 89mins. Passion Pictures, Motto Pictures (int’l). Dir: Greg Barker.

Cast: Barack Obama, Ben Rhodes, John Kerry, Samantha Power, Susan Rice.

Greg Barker gives an unprecedented look at the shaping of US foreign policy by following key members of outgoing US president Barack Obama’s administration.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 10

11:45 RAZZIA

(France/Morocco/ Belgium) 109mins. Films Distribution (int’l).

Dir: Nabil Ayouch.

Cast: Abdelilah Rachid, Abdellah Didane, Amine Ennaji, Arieh Worthalter, Dounia Binebine, Maryam Touzani.

Director Nabil Ayouch weaves together five separate narrative threads, all tied to one tumultuous event on the streets of Casablanca.

Platform Scotiabank 11

THE UPSIDE

(US) 120mins. The Weinstein Company (int’l). Dir: Neil Burger.

Cast: Bryan Cranston, Kevin Hart, Aja Naomi King, Golshifteh Farahani, Julianna Margulies, Nicole Kidman.

Bryan Cranston and

Kevin Hart star in this remake of the French hit Intouchables, a dramatic buddy comedy about the unlikely friendship between a rich quadriplegic and his working-class caregiver.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 12

12:00 1%

(Australia) 92mins.

United Talent Agency (US). Celluloid Dreams (int’l). Dir: Stephen McCallum. Cast: Aaron Pedersen, Abbey Lee, Josh McConville, Matt Nable, Ryan Corr, Simone Kessell.

Two men square off over control of a motorcycle gang in this violent drama about fraternity, loyalty and betrayal from firsttime director Stephen McCallum.

Discovery Scotiabank 7

12:15 HOCHELAGA, LAND OF SOULS

(Canada) 100mins.

Seville International (int’l). Dir: Francois Girard. Cast: Emmanuel Schwartz, Gilles Renaud, Linus Roache, Naiade Aoun, Raoul Trujillo, Samian, Sébastien Ricard, Sian Phillips, Tanaya Beatty, Tony Nardi, Vincent Perez, Wahiakeron Gilbert.

Mohawk archaeologist Baptiste Asigny engages in a search for his ancestors following a tragic terrain slump in the Percival Molson Stadium, in Francois Girard’s multifaceted portrait of Montreal’s rich history.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 8

13:15 APOSTASY

(UK) 95mins.

Cornerstone Films

GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL 2018 www.screendaily.com

September 9, 2017 Screen International at Toronto 33

»

SCREENINGS

Limited (int’l). Dir: Daniel Kokotajlo. Cast: Molly Wright, Robert Emms, Sacha Parkinson, Siobhan Finneran.

Family and faith come into conflict for two Jehovah’s Witness sisters in Manchester, when one is condemned for fornication and the other pressured to shun her sibling.

The mind-blowing debut feature of renowned Chinese artist Xu Bing is a fictional feature created entirely from surveillancecamera recordings, about a young woman whose life takes a series of unexpected turns after she leaves the Buddhist temple where she has lived most of her adult life.

Discovery Scotiabank 9

Wavelengths Scotiabank 5

THE SWAN

HIGH FANTASY

(Iceland) 91mins. m-appeal (int’l). Dir: Asa Helga Hjörleifsdottir.

Cast: Blær Johannsdottir, Grima Valsdottir, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Katla Porgeirsdottir, Thor Kristjansson.

When young Sol is sent to live with her distant countryside relatives for a summer, she becomes entangled in a dramatic rite of passage with a mysterious farmhand, Jon, and the farmer’s daughter, Asta.

(South Africa) 71mins.

Bridge Independent (US). Dir: Jenna Bass.

Cast: Francesca Varrie Michel, Liza Scholtz, Loren Loubser, Nala Khumalo, Qondiswa James.

Four friends on a camping trip at an isolated farm wake up to discover they have all swapped bodies, in the second feature from director Jenna Bass.

Discovery Scotiabank 6

13:30 MOLLY’S GAME

(US) 140mins. Sierra/ Affinity (int’l). Dir: Aaron Sorkin. Cast: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera.

Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut stars Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba in the true story of Molly Bloom, proprietor of Hollywood’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being shut down by the FBI. Special Presentations Scotiabank 2 and 3

13:45 THREE PEAKS

(Germany/Italy) 94mins.

The Match Factory (int’l).

Dir: Jan Zabeil. Cast: Alexander Fehling, Arian Montgomery, Bérénice Bejo.

Bérénice Bejo stars in this slow-burning study of a couple whose log-cabin vacation with their young son takes on ominous tones as the boy’s subtle acts of rebellion gradually escalate toward a chilling climax.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 14

14:00 CUSTODY

(France) 90mins.

Celluloid Dreams (US & int’l). Dir: Xavier Legrand. Cast: Denis Ménochet, Léa Drucker, Mathilde Auneveux, Thomas Gioria.

A broken marriage leads to a bitter custody battle with an embattled son at the centre, in this intense family drama from director Xavier Legrand (Just Before Losing Everything).

Platform Scotiabank 10

MONTANA

(Israel) 74mins. Dir: Limor Shmila. Cast: Avi Malka, Netta Shpigelman, Noa Biron.

When a young woman returns to her hometown in Israel following the death of her grandfather, she falls in love with a married teacher despite the looming figure of her fractured past, in the feature debut by Limor Schmilla.

Discovery Scotiabank 5

REDOUBTABLE

(France) 107mins. Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Michel Hazanavicius. Cast: Bérénice Bejo, Felix Kysyl, Grégory Gadebois, Louis Garrel, Micha Lescot, Stacy Martin.

Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) returns to TIFF with this fictionalised glimpse into the life of iconoclastic filmmaking

34 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

legend Jean-Luc Godard and his search for inspiration in late 1960s Paris.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 13

14:15 ANGELS WEAR WHITE See box, right

FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL

(UK) 105mins. IM Global (int’l). Dir: Paul McGuigan. Cast: Annette Bening, Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Vanessa Redgrave.

Annette Bening and Jamie Bell star in this adaptation of the memoir

by British actor Peter Turner, recounting his romance with the legendary (and legendarily eccentric) Hollywood star Gloria Grahame during the last years of her life.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 12

14:45 BOOM FOR REAL: THE LATE TEENAGE YEARS OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

(US) 78mins. ICM Partners (US & int’l).

Dir: Sara Driver. Cast: Alexis Adler, Carlo McCormick, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Felice Rosser, Fred Brathwaite aka Fab 5 Freddy, Glenn O’Brien, James Nares, Jennifer Jazz, Jim Jarmusch, Lee Quiñones, Luc Sante, Mary-Ann Monforton, Michael Holman, Patricia Field, Sur Rodney (Sur).

Sara Driver explores the pre-fame years of the

PRESS & INDUSTRY 14:15 ANGELS WEAR WHITE

(China/France) 107mins. Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Vivian Qu. Cast: Geng Le, Li Mengnan, Liu Weiwei, Peng Jing, Shi Ke, Wang Yuexin, Wen Qi, Zhou Meijun.

Chinese writer-director Vivian Qu (Trap

Street) creates a moody modern-day noir with this thriller set in a sleepy seaside village, where a teenage motel receptionist and the young victim of a brutal assault are caught in an ever-tightening net of danger and violence.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 11

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 7

Ekeli, John Olav Nilsen, Katherine Fagerland.

A young boy ventures into the forest in search of mysterious creatures that eat sheep, in this creepy Scandinavian gothic fable from Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen.

HUMAN TRACES

Discovery Scotiabank 6

celebrated American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and how New York City, its people and the tectonically shifting arts culture of the late 1970s and ’80s shaped his vision.

(New Zealand) 86mins. Film Mode Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Nic Gorman. Cast: Mark Mitchinson, Sophie Henderson, Vinnie Bennett.

A husband-and-wife research team stationed on a remote island find the delicate ecosystem of their relationship challenged by the arrival of a mysterious young man, in this densely atmospheric feature debut

by Nic Gorman.

Discovery Scotiabank 8

15:45 VALLEY OF SHADOWS

(Norway) 91mins.

Celluloid Dreams (US & int’l). Dir: Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen. Cast: Adam

16:15 MADEMOISELLE PARADIS

(Austria/Germany) 94mins. Films Distribution (int’l).

Dir: Barbara Albert.

Cast: Devid Striesow, Katja Kolm, Lukas Miko, Maresi Riegner, Maria Dragus.

The true story of the relationship between a blind 18th-century Viennese pianist and the controversial physician who worked to restore her sight, Dr Franz Mesmer.

Discovery Scotiabank 9

NUMBER ONE

(France) 110mins.

Pyramide International (int’l). Dir: Tonie Marshall. Cast: Benjamin Biolay, Emmanuelle Devos, Richard Berry, Suzanne Clément.

In this whip-smart drama about corporate sexism, French star Emmanuelle Devos plays a highranking female executive who is forced to consider her options and marshal her forces when she realises the glass ceiling is fast approaching.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 11

17:00 BLACK KITE

DRAGONFLY EYES

(Canada/Afghanistan) 82mins. Dir: Tarique Qayumi. Cast: Hadi Delsoz, Haji Gul, Hamid Noorzay, Kaka Nabi, Leena Alam, Masoud Fanayee, Sameer Nasim, Sin Mim Alavi, Zahra Nasim.

Against oppression, change and seismic political shifts, a father and his daughter find solace in the seemingly clandestine act of kite flying, in the latest

by Afghan filmmaker Tarique Qayumi.

(China/US) 81mins.

Dir: Xu Bing.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 7 »

Platform Scotiabank 10

16:30

www.screendaily.com

SCREENINGS

LET THE CORPSES TAN

21:00

See box, right

ALANIS

18:15

(Argentina) 82mins.

Fandango (int’l). Dir: Anahi Berneri. Cast: Dante Della Paolera, Sofia Gala Castaglione.

A Buenos Aires mother and sex worker suffers the hypocrisy of the laws that are supposed to protect her.

SOLDIERS. STORY FROM FERENTARI

(Romania/Serbia/ Belgium) 119mins. Beta Cinema (int’l). Dir: Ivana Mladenovic. Cast: Adrian Schiop, Vasile PavelDigudai.

Set in Bucharest’s impoverished ghetto Ferentari, Ivana Mladenovic’s intimate narrative debut navigates the unexpected relationship that blossoms between a young anthropologist named Adi and Roma guide Alberto.

Discovery Scotiabank 6

18:30

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 9

WINTER BROTHERS

PRESS & INDUSTRY 17:00

AVA

LET THE CORPSES TAN

(Iran/Canada/Qatar) 103mins. Mongrel International (US & int’l). Dir: Sadaf Foroughi. Cast: Bahar Nouhian, Houman Hoursan, Leili Rashidi, Mahour Jabbari, Sarah Alimoradi, Shayesteh Sajadi, Vahid Aghapour.

A 16-year-old girl’s relationship with her family is challenged after her mother takes her to a gynaecologist in order to ensure she is still a virgin.

(Belgium/France) 92mins. Bac Films (int’l). Dir: Bruno Forzani, Hélene Cattet.

Cast: Bernie Bonvoisin, Elina Löwensohn, Hervé Sogne, Marc Barbé, Marine Sainsily, Michelangelo Marchese,

Discovery Scotiabank 5

KISSING CANDICE

(Ireland) 102mins. Film Constellation (int’l).

Dir: Aoife McArdle.

Cast: Ann Skelly, Caitriona Ennis, Conall Keating, John Lynch, Ryan Lincoln, Ryan McParland.

Candice longs to escape the boredom of her seaside town, but when a boy she dreams about turns up in real life, she becomes involved with a dangerous local gang, in Irish music-video director Aoife McArdle’s feature debut.

Discovery Scotiabank 9

18:45

Juliette Navis.

Trapped inside her house in a city under siege, a mother of three turns her flat into a safe harbour for her family and neighbours in an attempt to protect them from the war raging on the streets of Damascus.

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 8

Cast: Arsher Ali, Rafe Spall, Robert JamesCollier, Sam Troughton.

Venturing into the wilderness of the Swedish highlands to perform a remembrance for a dearly departed friend, four men

are subjected to a night of terror when they take refuge in a derelict house.

by a machete-wielding band of motorcyclists intent on killing them all.

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 12

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

19:15

19:30

MOTORRAD

NINA

(Brazil) 92mins. Dir: Vicente Amorim. Cast: Alex Nader, Carla Salle, Emilio Dantas, Guilherme Prates, Jayme Del Cueto, Juliana Lohmann, Pablo Sanabio.

In director Vicente Amorim’s wild and weird allegorical thriller, a gang of young dirt-bikers on a ride across an isolated region of Brazil find themselves being hunted

(Slovakia/Czech Republic) 82mins.

Alpha Violet (int’l).

Dir: Juraj Lehotsky. Cast: Bibiana Novakova, Petra Fornayova, Robert Roth.

A 12-year-old swimming star becomes the emotional casualty of her parents’ acrimonious separation, in this powerful coming-ofage story.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 7

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 10

19:00 FOXTROT

(Israel/Germany/France/ Switzerland) 114mins.

The Match Factory (int’l).

Dir: Samuel Maoz. Cast: Lior Ashkenazi, Sarah Adler, Yonatan Shiray.

A grieving father experiences the absurd circumstances around the death of his son, in this latest critical reflection on military culture from Israeli filmmaker Samuel Maoz (Lebanon).

Special Presentations Scotiabank 11

THE RITUAL

(UK) 95mins. William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

Sierra/Affinity (int’l).

Dir: David Bruckner.

36 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

Discovery Scotiabank 6

21:15 SCAFFOLDING See box, below

21:30 THE BRAWLER

(India) 159mins. Stray Dogs (int’l). Dir: Anurag Kashyap. Cast: Jimmy Shergill, Zoya Hussain, Ravi Kissan, Sadhana Singh, Vineet Kumar Singh.

A lower-caste boxer struggles to make his mark on the boxing world, in this vital, insightful and thoroughly cinematic film from Anurag Kashyap.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 7

THE LODGERS

PRESS & INDUSTRY 21:15 SCAFFOLDING

INSYRIATED

(Belgium/France/ Lebanon) 86mins. Films Boutique (int’l). Dir: Philippe Van Leeuw.

Cast: Hiam Abbass, Diamand Abou Abboud,

Stéphane Ferrara.

Absconding with a truckload of stolen gold, a gang of thieves engages in a firefight with cops through the ruins of a remote Mediterranean hamlet, in this deliriously stylish thriller.

(Denmark/Iceland) 94mins. New Europe Film Sales (US & int’l).

Dir: Hlynur Palmason.

Cast: Elliott Crosset Hove, Lars Mikkelsen, Michael Brostrup, Peter Plaugborg, Simon Sears, Victoria Carmen Sonne.

Hlynur Palmason’s feature debut examines the lives of Johan and his younger brother Emil, two miners whose routines, habits and rituals are ruptured by a violent feud with a neighbouring family.

(Israel/Poland) 95mins.

New Europe Film Sales (US & int’l). Dir: Matan Yair. Cast: Ami Smolarchik, Asher Lax,

Keren Berger, Yaacov Cohen.

Torn between the teachings of his charismatic literature teacher and the expectations of his brash,

workman father, 17-yearold Asher must decide what sort of man he will become, in Matan Yair’s feature debut.

Discovery Scotiabank 8

(Ireland) 93mins. Epic Pictures Group (int’l).

Dir: Brian O’Malley. Cast: Bill Milner, Charlotte Vega, David Bradley, Deirdre O’Kane, Eugene Simon, Moe Dunford.

Set in rural Ireland in 1920, this gothic chiller evokes the spooky stories of Shirley Jackson and Oscar Wilde in its tale of teenage twins living in a haunted manor.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 9

www.screendaily.com

EVENTS ARE MADE HERE.

4 6 1 K I N G S T R E E T W E S T, T O R O N T O 416.598.4730 | INFO@BRASSAII.COM

SWEET COUNTRY (Australia) Warwick Thornton

★ ★★

MADEMOISELLE PARADIS (Austria-Ger) Barbara Albert

★ ★★

THE DEATH OF STALIN (Fr-UK-Bel) Armando Iannucci

★★

★ ★★

★★

★★ ★★

★★

★ ★★

★ ★★

★★

★★ ★★

★★ ★★

★ ★★

★★ ★★

★★★

Good

AVERAGE

Excellent

SCREEN INTERNATIONAL

The Globe And Mail, Canada

KATE TAYLOR

IndieWire, US

ERIC KOHN

AV Club, US

AA DOWD

Toronto Star, Canada

★★★★

PETER HOWELL

Los Angeles Times, US

THE SCREEN JURY — PLATFORM

JUSTIN CHANG

JURY GRID

3.5

★ ★★

2.5

★ ★★

3

RAZZIA (Fr-Mor-Bel) Nabil Ayouch

Morocco’s Nabil Ayouch (Whatever Lola Wants) tackles the theme of social injustice in Razzia, which weaves ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ together five narrative threads, all connected to one tumultuous event on the streets of Casablanca. The film stars ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ Maryam Touzani, Belgium’s Ariel Worthalter, Abdelilah Rachid, Dounia Binebine and Amine Ennaji.

CUSTODY (Fr) Xavier Legrand

A broken marriage leads to a bitter custody battle with an embattled son at the centre, in this intense family ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ drama from France’s Xavier Legrand (Oscar-nominated in 2014 for short Just Before Losing Everything). ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ Custody stars Denis Ménochet, Léa Drucker and newcomer Thomas Gioria.

WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY (Nor-Ger-Swe) Iram Haq

Nisha’s double life — obedient to her traditional Pakistani upbringing at home, typical Norwegian teenager to her ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ friends — comes crashing down when her concerned parents kidnap her and send her to Pakistan, in Iram Haq’s ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ story of family, community and culture. Maria Mozhdah stars as Nisha, alongside Adil Hussain as her father.

BEAST (UK) Michael Pearce

0.0

0.0

0.0

UK filmmaker Michael Pearce makes his feature debut with a drama set in a small island community. Jessie ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ Buckley (TV’s Taboo and War & Peace) stars as a troubled woman who falls in love with a free-spirited stranger ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ (Johnny Flynn) who she learns is a suspect in a string of brutal murders.

0.0

BRAD’S STATUS (US) Mike White

Ben Stiller stars as a highly competitive father who is forced to re-evaluate his life choices when he takes his ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ teenage son (Austin Abrams) on a tour of prestigious east-coast universities. This comedy drama is the second ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ feature directed by Mike White whose screenwriting credits include Richard Linklater’s School Of Rock.

IF YOU SAW HIS HEART (Fr) Joan Chemla

A young man (Gael Garcia Bernal), expelled from his gypsy community after the death of his best friend, ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ is tempted by a life of crime before falling for a mysterious stranger (Marine Vacth). This adaptation of the ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ Guillermo Rosales novel The Halfway House marks French filmmaker Joan Chemla’s feature directorial debut.

DARK RIVER (UK) Clio Barnard

The UK’s Clio Barnard makes her Toronto debut with a drama about a woman (Ruth Wilson) returning to her ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ hometown for the first time in 15 years following the death of her farmer father. There, she is confronted by her ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ brother (Mark Stanley) who contests her claim to the tenancy of the family farm.

THE SEEN AND UNSEEN (Indo-Neth-Australia-Qat) Kamila Andini

Indonesian director Kamila Andini’s second feature follows a 10-year-old girl’s dream-like journey to come to ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ terms with the imminent death of her twin brother. After leaving her bedside vigil, the girl begins to re-engage with ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ her twin in her mind. Andini gives expression to these visions, articulated through dance and costume.

EUPHORIA (Swe-UK-Ger) Lisa Langseth

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Sweden’s Lisa Langseth reteams with her frequent collaborator Alicia Vikander for the filmmaker’s English★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ language debut. Vikander stars with Eva Green as estranged sisters who meet after many years apart and embark ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ on a journey together. The cast also includes Charlotte Rampling, Charles Dance and Adrian Lester.

38 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2017

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