Screen Toronto Day 3 by Media Business Insight

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SCREENINGS

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SCREENINGS

Sat 8 Sept - 16:00 - Scotiabank 2 + Q&A Wed 12 Sept - 11:15 - Scotiabank 11 - P&I Sun 16 Sept - 18:30 - Scotiabank 9

A 16-hour journey narrated by Tilda Swinton, Jane Fonda and others SCREENINGS - FIRST 4 HOURS

Tue 11 Sept - 20:00 - TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 5 - P&I Wed 12 Sept - 19:00 - Scotiabank 10 Sun 16 Sept - 19:45 - Scotiabank 4

SCREEN SCOTLAND Screen Scotland is the new dedicated partnership for screen in Scotland, delivering enhanced support for all aspects of Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s screen sector. Join us at Toronto International Film Festival at the UK Film Centre, 9th Floor, Hyatt Regency Hotel.

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MRC draws Knives at TIFF BY JEREMY KAY

Ben Wheatley

Ben Wheatley celebrates New Year in UK BY TOM GRATER

Free Fire director Ben Wheatley’s mysterious seventh feature, Happy New Year, Colin Burstead, which was shot under-the-radar in the UK earlier this year, has secured UK distribution and an international sales deal. The film will be released in partnership with BBC Films, BBC Comedy and BBC Two. Following its world premiere at BFI London Film Festival in October, it will screen around the UK with a limited run of Q&A sessions before being broadcast on BBC Two over Christmas. The BBC’s SVoD service will then stream it for 12 months. Separately, UK sales outfit Goalpost Film has picked up international rights and will be selling the film in Toronto.

XYZ plots course for The East

A $40m-plus commitment by Media Rights Capital (MRC) to the Daniel Craig-Rian Johnson murder mystery package Knives Out lit a fire under Toronto last night as several other titles were in play. MRC has come on board to finance the project that Johnson, producer Ram Bergman and Craig are preparing to shoot in November. CAA Media Finance brokered the deal and MRC will begin talks with distributors in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile Sony Pictures Classics was understood to be nearing

a deal with CAA and Sierra/Affinity for the US, Latin America and select territories on BFI London Film Festival closing night selection Stan & Ollie, which screened out of the festival this week, and a number of traditional distributors and streaming platforms were pursuing Thursday-night premiere Greta starring Isabelle Huppert and Chloë Grace Moretz. Heading into last night’s screenings, anticipation was mounting for a number of acquisition titles, among them TIFF Platform opener Donnybrook (UTA Independent

Film Group; Sierra/Affinity), Out Of Blue (CAA; Independent), Red Joan (Embankment), Teen Spirit (CAA; Mister Smith) and Vox Lux (CAA, Endeavor Content; Sierra/Affinity). Saturday brings Dev Patel thriller The Wedding Guest, which Sony has for the world and is working with UTA Independent Film Group to partner on a US distributor. Screenings include Farming (CAA, Endeavor Content; HanWay) and The Hummingbird Project (CAA; HanWay). Endeavor Content is screening Venice hit The Nightingale to buyers here.

Hubert Boesl

TODAY

Fahrenheit 11/9, review, page 6

REVIEWS Fahrenheit 11/9 Michael Moore’s anguished film will comfort some, frustrate others » Page 6

Greta Isabelle Huppert steals this enjoyably over-cooked potboiler » Page 6

FEATURE Border crossing Michael Winterbottom takes his latest shoot to India and Pakistan » Page 14

SCREENINGS

» Page 22

Coogan, Mitchell on board with Winterbottom BY TOM GRATER

Timothée Chalamet poses with fans at the TIFF premiere of Beautiful Boy. The Call Me By Your Name star plays a young drug addict opposite Steve Carell as his father in Felix Van Groeningen’s drama.

Steve Coogan and David Mitchell are attached to star in Michael Winterbottom’s untitled satire about a retail magnate. Sony Pictures and Film4 are backing the project ahead of shooting this autumn. The story focuses on the 60th birthday of a billionaire in Mykonos, Greece that goes horribly wrong. The film was previously announced as Greed, with Sacha Baron Cohen in the lead role. Winterbottom is in Toronto this weekend with his latest feature The Wedding Guest. » See page 14 for Screen International’s interview with the director.

BY JEREMY KAY

XYZ Films, New Amsterdam and writer/director Jim Taihuttu have reunited after crime drama Wolf on Indonesia-set period war thriller The East, which XYZ is introducing to international buyers in Toronto. Sander Verdonk and Julius Ponten are producing for the Netherlands’ New Amsterdam Film Company, alongside Benoit Roland for Belgium’s Wrong Men and Shanty Harmayn of Salto Films in Indonesia. XYZ Films serves as executive producer, international sales agent and jointly represent US rights with ICM Partners. Production on The East is set to start in November in Indonesia and the Netherlands.

Terra Willy flies with Logical blockchain platform French film production and financing outfit Logical Pictures has launched blockchain initiative Blockframes, signing up Bac Films as its first user to manage sales rights for upcoming animation Terra Willy. Paris-based Bac Films is handling international sales and French distribution on Terra Willy, the latest animation from TAT Productions. It launched sales on the feature, due for delivery in 2019, at Cannes. “Bac will register and secure into this blockchain the rights of all distributors buying the movie

during TIFF,” said the company’s sales chief Gilles Sousa. When revenue for Terra Willy, such as a minimum guarantee from a distributor, is injected into the Blockframes platform, a waterfall process will see each stakeholder instantaneously receive their legitimate share of revenue. Since raising a $23m (€20m) production war chest on the markets in 2017, Logical Pictures has invested in a number of third-party projects, including Adewale AkinnuoyeAgbaje’s Farming, which premieres

here today. Company president Frédéric Fiore said Logical had developed the Blockframes platform in response to the challenges it encountered with the productions it was financing or developing in-house. “We’re making Blockframes available on a non-profit basis to all industry participants for the purpose of spreading transparency and good practices widely,” he said. Fiore and the Logical Pictures team are at TIFF to launch the blockchain platform. Melanie Goodfellow

m-appeal takes The Third Wife BY SCREEN STAFF

Berlin-based sales outfit m-appeal has scored a US deal for Vietnamese drama The Third Wife ahead of its world premiere tonight in TIFF’s Discovery section. Film Movement has taken all North American rights and is planning a theatrical release in 2019. Vietnamese director Ash Mayfair’s film is set in 19th-century rural Vietnam, and follows 14-yearold May who becomes the third wife of a wealthy landowner. She learns she can only change her status by giving birth to a boy.

NEWS

TIFF BRIEFS YouTubers fly high Spotlight Pictures has launched worldwide sales at TIFF on adult comedy Airplane Mode starring YouTube superstar Logan Paul, who also wrote the script, and other social-media celebrities.

Hollow Child fills out UK genre outfit Devilworks has sealed deals on Jeremy Lutter’s horror The Hollow Child. Raven Banner Releasing will distribute in Canada for Halloween. Further deals include to China (Virtual Cinema), South Korea (Laon-I) and Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Lighthouse Home Entertainment).

Premiere scares up Afraid Premiere Entertainment Group has acquired international rights to Jason Goldberg’s thriller Afraid starring Alanna Masterson and George Byrne. Well Go USA holds North American rights and has scheduled an October 2 release.

Conquistador on track with D-Railed, Escape BY JEREMY KAY

Conquistador Entertainment is in Toronto talking up two new titles to worldwide buyers: Escape And Evasion and D-Railed. Bronte Pictures’ Escape And Evasion is in post-production in Sydney and delves into the psychosis of war veteran Seth. When the sister of one of his fallen comrades begins to question an official

report into the death, Seth is drawn into a world of collusion and government secrets. Escape And Evasion shot on the border of Myanmar and Thailand and in the Queensland rainforests of Australia and is being lined up for 2019 distribution. Storm Ashwood directs and producers are Blake Northfield and Jane Corden.

Pascal Borno and Alain Gillissen of Conquistador have teamed up with Suzanne DeLaurentiis of Suzanne DeLaurentiis Productions on thriller D-Railed. Lance Henriksen stars alongside Frank Lammers, Shae Smolik, Carter Scott and Everette Wallin on the story of passengers stuck on a train that has crashed into a river. Dale Fabrigar directs.

Filmax cheered by Happy Sad BY ELISABET CABEZA

Barcelona-based Spanish sales agent Filmax International has picked up worldwide rights to Ibon Cormenzana’s Happy Sad. Filmax is offering buyers a promo and private screenings of the film, which was produced

4 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

under Cormenzana’s banner Arcadia. The director’s Barcelonabased production company backed Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves and Mateo Gil’s Blackthorn. Happy Sad, which he also produced, stars Roberto Alamo, Manuela Velles and Carlos Bardem, and tells the story

of a fireman left to rebuild his life after a tragedy. “Loss is a process we all go through. Sometimes it takes years to get over,” said Cormenzana, adding that the film considers “those difficult moments from a perspective of acceptance and hope”.

Odin’s Eye builds Brothers’ Nest BY GEOFFREY MACNAB

Australian production, sales and distribution outfit Odin’s Eye has closed a UK deal at TIFF for its dramatic comedy Brothers’ Nest with Signature Entertainment. The film, which had its world premiere at SXSW, has also sold to the Middle East (Phoenicia) and China (Times Vision) with other territories under negotiation. It is the second film directed by Clayton Jacobson, who also costars alongside his brother Shane Jacobson, in the story of siblings intent on murdering their stepfather before their dying mother changes her will in his favour. “The appetite for high-end genre movies remains high,” said Signature Entertainment’s head of acquisitions Elizabeth Williams. “It is rewarding to see momentum build on this impressive thriller,” Odin’s Eye CEO Michael Favelle added.

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EXECUTIVE FOCUS GARY HAMILTON, ARCLIGHT FILMS Based in the US, Australia and China, Arclight Films is stepping up with the Toronto world premiere Hotel Mumbai, about the terror attacks in 2008, which Bleecker Street and ShivHans will distribute in the US. Rights have gone for Canada (VVS), France (TF1), Germany (SquareOne), Scandinavia (Sandrew Metronome) and Latin America (Imagem). Hamilton, who by a quirk of fate had booked a room at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel where the events took place but was unable to travel to Mumbai that day, arranged financing and brought on producer Thunder Road. Here he explains how he plans to stay in the big league.

How did Hotel Mumbai come about? Ten years ago my wife and I were invited to the Goa film festival and we stopped over to see a producer in Thailand. There was a military coup in Thailand so the airport was closed down for a week. The next day we were supposed to fly to Mumbai and stay at the Taj [Mahal Palace hotel, where the 2008 terror attacks that inspired the film took place].

you have a huge Indian community in Toronto, too.

So how is Arclight stepping up in its ambitions? We’re looking at getting more investors. I’m in China now because we’re in the midst of working on our next project Killer 10, also with Thunder Road, which Phillip Noyce will direct in February. It’s going to be the biggest-budget film we’ve ever done, probably in the $70m-$75m range. I think it will be the biggest Australia-China co-pro. It will shoot in Australia and China.

Gary Hamilton

We would have been there on the day of the event. The story stayed with me. We had been talking to Anthony [Maras, director] about other projects and he loved the idea.

Why Toronto for the world premiere? We want to create an event around this in Toronto. We could have gone to other festivals… Toronto audiences are great and

What does that film signify for Arclight?

‘We’re always looking at raising money out of China. There couldn’t be a better time for the films we want to do’ Gary Hamilton, Arclight Films

of China. People were a little negative on China-US co-productions but I’m very heartened by The Meg and Crazy Rich Asians and there couldn’t be a better time for the films we want to do.

What else have you got coming up?

Killer 10 is the first of a series of big coproductions we’re planning with China.

You sound bullish about collaborating with China. We’re very close to China — we have an office in Beijing and through Ying Ye, who runs our Asian division Easternlight, we’re always looking at raising money out

It doesn’t all have to be about the bigbudget titles. First Reformed [starring Ethan Hawke, directed by Paul Schrader] is being talked about as a possible awards contender. We financed and produced that film. [Through] our Easternlight division, [we] hope to premiere a great Vietnamese [action] film called Furie next year. It’s a female action film with Veronica Ngo from Stars Wars: The Last Jedi.

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Each year, Irish audiences vote for the most popular film at the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival. Winning filmmakers receive an exclusive travel and promotional bursary as part of the Audience Award. The 2018 Audience Award winners were Nora Twomey & Paul Young, director & producer of The Breadwinner. “You’ve got to go, it’s fantastic. It really is one of the best festivals around.” –Colin Firth”

September 8, 2018 Screen International at Toronto 5

REVIEWS

» Fahrenheit 11/9 p6 » Greta p6 » Outlaw King p8

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

» Hotel Mumbai p8 » In Fabric p10 » Mademoiselle De

» Donnybrook p12 » Gwen p12

Joncquières p10

Greta Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan

Fahrenheit 11/9 Reviewed by Tim Grierson America is beset with problems, and Michael Moore is determined to tackle them all at once. His latest, Fahrenheit 11/9, is a roving overview of the country’s ills — confronting everything from gun violence to racism to the presidential election of Donald Trump — and its anguished, scattershot technique may comfort those who feel similarly that the US has lost its way. But as is often the case with Moore’s impassioned documentaries, 11/9 frustrates as much as it rouses, bouncing from topic to topic without digging fully into any of them. Although Moore does not say so explicitly in 11/9, the film’s September 21 US release is clearly meant to encourage progressive Americans to vote in the November midterm election. 11/9 refers to November 9, the day in 2016 when the presidential election was officially called for Trump, who had been perceived as an underdog against Hillary Clinton. Moore’s film purports to get to the bottom of how Trump could have proved all the prognosticators wrong, first looking at how that election campaign unfolded but then segueing into tangential issues that are also plaguing the nation. This is standard operating procedure for Moore, who often uses an incendiary topic — the Columbine school shootings in Bowling For Columbine, George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq for Fahrenheit 9/11 — as a launch pad for humorous or sobering digressions about the US’s various hypocrisies. This time Moore’s outrage extends to both political parties, going into some detail about how Democratic leaders stifled Bernie Sanders’ bid for the nomination in favour of Clinton. Unfortunately, none of Moore’s observations are particularly trenchant — if anything, the movie feels like it is relitigating Democratic slip-ups that have already been exhaustively dissected and debated. 11/9 grows more confident when travelling to Flint, Michigan, Moore’s hometown and the site of his most searching film, 1989’s Roger & Me. 11/9 spotlights the city’s recent water crisis, which began in 2014 and remains catastrophic, leaving families without safe drinking water. For those unaware of the civic disaster, 11/9 will be shocking, but even for those familiar with the story, Moore’s clear empathy for the victims is far more specific and personal than 11/9’s otherwise more general indignations.

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TIFF DOCS US. 2018. 128mins Director/screenplay Michael Moore Production company Dog Eat Dog Films International sales A St ios, sales@ a cst ios.com Producers Carl Deal, Meghan O’Hara, Michael Moore Editing Doug Abel, Pablo Proenza Cinematography Jayme Roy, Luke Geissbühler

Just when you think you know a filmmaker — and a 35-year career does encourage a clearly misguided sense of familiarity — Neil Jordan throws the spice rack into the ludicrously, enjoyably over-cooked potboiler Greta. A game Isabelle Huppert gives audiences yet another reason to venerate her, as she raises arched eyebrows to new heights in this silly, funny, camp pulp thriller cowritten by Jordan and Ray Wright (The Crazies). With Chloë Grace Moretz in the lead and Maika Monroe in support — but Huppert stealing the show — Greta is a throwback to films like Les Diaboliques, or more accurately the 1996 remake with Sharon Stone. Yet it also has an unexpectedly snappy of-the-moment efficiency. This kitschy all-femme drama — Stephen Rea makes a brief appearance as a shambling private detective — is elevated by the long-refined cinematic sensibilities of Oscar winner Jordan (The Crying Game), always a help in a tight spot. And Greta is, literally, confined, with a few brief exceptions, to two apartments and a restaurant. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey lights with subtlety and precision, even in the gloomy Manhattan house belonging to the mysterious Greta Higed (Huppert). In a further warning never to talk to strangers in New York, Greta’s plot kicks off when a woman leaves a handbag on a subway carriage. The naïve young Frances McCullen (Moretz), recently moved to the city and equipped with only one friend Erika (Monroe), is quick to return it to its owner, Greta. Frances is estranged from her father and works night shifts in a fancy restaurant, making her easy prey for passing psychopaths and even when she is ostensibly being warm and friendly, French widow Greta has something of the night about her. The pair bond, but Greta is not what she seems. Questions abound, not least how she affords to live this spacious life, but Greta is not a film to get technical with. Having said that, this is not your average cheesy psychothriller either. There is Huppert, having fun with her role and her image. Jordan’s soundtrack melds classic chansons with Liszt and Vivaldi, bringing an edgy unpredictability. The appealing Moretz, as much of a lure to her audiences as Huppert is with cineastes, also proves game, while Monroe adds a Chloë Sevigny-sass to their scenes.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS US-Ire. 2018. 98mins Director Neil Jordan Production companies Metropolitan Films, Lawrence Bender Productions, Sidney Kimmel Productions International sales Sierra/Affinity, info@ sierra-affinity.com Producers James Flynn, Lawrence Bender, John Penotti, James Flynn, Karen Richards Screenplay Ray Wright, Neil Jordan Production design Anna Rackard Editor Nick Emerson Cinematography Seamus McGarvey Music Javier Navarrete Main cast Isabelle Huppert, Chloë Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe, Stephen Rea, Colm Feore, Zawe Ashton

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REVIEWS

Hotel Mumbai Reviewed by Sarah Ward

Outlaw King Reviewed by Wendy Ide Had the 2014 Scottish independence referendum campaign been able to deploy David Mackenzie’s bloodstirring Outlaw King as its secret weapon, the result might have been rather different. A historical epic following an eventful year in the life of Robert the Bruce (Chris Pine), which culminated in his being crowned king of Scots and defeating the mighty English army at Loudoun Hill, the film also works as a clarion call for Scottish nationalism. A fair bit of historical scene-setting at the beginning means the picture takes a while to hit its stride. But once it does, there is much to enjoy in this big, brawling ruck of an action movie. The backing of SVoD platform Netflix has permitted Mackenzie to approach the story on an ambitious scale that makes use of every available inch of the big screen. Most audiences, however, will encounter it on their television. Following Toronto, Outlaw King will play at the BFI London Film Festival followed by a limited release in some territories to coincide with the film’s debut on the streaming service on November 9. We join the story in 1304, with Robert forced to swear allegiance to Edward I (Stephen Dillane). As part of the ongoing peace accord, he finds himself betrothed to an English woman, Elizabeth (Florence Pugh, terrific). Their cautious courtship, and a will-they, won’t-they-consummate subplot is one of the unexpected joys of a film that is otherwise crafted almost entirely from testosterone. The English — as represented by Edward and his hotheaded son, Edward, Prince of Wales (Billy Howle) — do not come out of this period of history looking particularly good. The killing of William Wallace (who was portrayed by Mel Gibson in Braveheart) prompts Robert to reappraise his decision to submit to the will of the English. He amasses a small band of loyal supporters — of them, Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s James Douglas, with his crazed eyes and bared teeth in a mask of blood, is enjoyably demented. Barry Ackroyd’s cinematography makes striking use of the Scottish locations through which Robert and his men are constantly pursued. But it is at the moment when they finally stop running and stand their ground that the film reaches its bravura climax, with the kinetically edited, visceral blood, mud and guts depiction of the battle of Loudoun Hill.

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OPENING FILM, GALA PRESENTATIONS US-UK. 2018. 137mins Director David Mackenzie Production company Sigma Films Worldwide distribution et i Producers Gilliam Berrie, Richard Brown, Steve Golin Screenplay Mark Bomback, Bathsheba Doran, David Harrower, James MacInnes, David Mackenzie Production design Donald Graham Burt Editing Jake Roberts Cinematography Barry Ackroyd Cast Chris Pine, Florence Pugh, Aaron TaylorJohnson, Billy Howle, Stephen Dillane, Tony Curran, James Cosmo

Both a ripped-from-the-headlines recreation and an emotive vehicle for its high-profile cast, Hotel Mumbai takes an equally tense and touching approach to India’s devastating 2008 terrorist attacks — a highly co-ordinated four-day onslaught that left 164 people dead and hundreds more injured. Writer/director Anthony Maras sticks largely to the dramatisation playbook, but does so in an effective, affecting and empathetic fashion. Indeed, his first feature proves as reliable as the performances at its centre, with solid turns from Dev Patel, Armie Hammer and Jason Isaacs certain to give it a boost following its TIFF premiere. Early 2019 theatrical runs are slated in both the US and Australia. Patel leads the ensemble as Sikh concierge Arjun. Long before bombs start exploding around Mumbai, it is already an eventful day for the doting husband and father who unwittingly reports to the kitchen sans shoes. Initially told to go home, he begs stern head chef Hemant Oberoi (Anupam Kher) to let him stay. That said, Arjun’s luck does not extend to securing a hightipping post attending to the private party of Russian businessman Vasili (Isaacs). Maras juggles the tale’s various moving parts, jumping between characters before slowly bringing everyone together. In addition to the gruff Vasili, the wealthy Zahra (Nazanin Boniadi) checks into one of the hotel’s opulent suites with her American spouse David (Hammer), newborn baby and Australian nanny Sally (Tilda CobhamHervey) in tow. At a nearby café, Aussie backpackers Eddie (Angus McLaren) and Bree (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) witness early gunfire as attacks escalate across the city. Also sighted are the young jihadists, both as they prepare for and unleash their deadly campaign. Maras, an award-winning shorts director, knows how to wring the requisite tension from each moment. With cinematographer Nick Remy Matthews, he also knows how to make an impact with and without violence. The Taj Mahal Palace hotel’s gleaming surfaces are corrupted by bullets, blood and bodies, while the dark, busy streets of Mumbai are no less fraught. Both are framed with an exacting eye for space — sometimes stressing how near danger lurks, sometimes imparting a welcome sense of safety — though viewers are rarely given the comfort of the latter in this stirring effort.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS Aus. 2018. 125mins Director Anthony Maras Production companies Hamilton Entertainment, Thunder Road Films, Electric Pictures, Xeitgeist Entertainment Group, Cyan Films International sales Arclight Films, info@ arcli tfilms.com Producers Basil Iwanyk, Gary Hamilton, Mike Gabrawy, Julie Ryan, Andrew Ogilvie, Jomon Thomas Screenplay Anthony Maras, John Collee Production design Steven Jones-Evans Editing Peter McNulty, Anthony Maras Cinematography Nick Remy Matthews Music Volker Bertelmann Main cast Armie Hammer, Dev Patel, Nazanin Boniadi, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Anupam Kher, Jason Isaacs, Angus McLaren, Natasha Liu Bordizzo

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— Rosie Paddy Breathnach Contemporary World Cinema

— Papi Chulo John Butler Special Presentation

— Float Like a Butterfly Carmel Winters Discovery

— Greta Neil Jordan Special Presentation

— Black ’47 Lance Daly Contemporary World Cinema

— Vita & Virginia Chanya Button Special Presentation

Irish Film at TIFF ’18 www.screenireland.ie

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REVIEWS

Mademoiselle De Joncquières Reviewed by Wendy Ide

In Fabric Reviewed by Stephen Whitty Can you be nostalgic for an era you cannot really remember? Director Peter Strickland may be in his 40s, and his films shot through with modern ambiguity, but they are driven by a fond appreciation of retro pleasures such as early-1970s kitsch, sensationalist Euro horror and lostin-translation dubbing jobs. Premiering as part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness programme, In Fabric combines all those obsessions, and adds a few more. A perverse — and often perversely funny — genre film, it is sure to do well in similar festival berths, easily achieving cult status and delighting Strickland’s growing fan base. Set in a dreary post-Christmas suburban England, at its simplest the film is the story of a diabolical department store and a haunted dress. Red as hell and just as damned, the frock fits whoever buys it. But its flattery comes with a price, the toll ranging from scabrous skin conditions to exploding washing machines. Frankly, that is just enough material for a short story, but Strickland stretches it out with sideshows. Although we spend most of the running time with one owner — played by the long-suffering Marianne Jean-Baptiste — the dress then falls into the hands of slack-jawed Leo Bill, who takes it home to his wife (Hayley Squires). Strickland’s style expands this thin framework further, sometimes overloading the film with florid flourishes and surreal, standalone sequences. Several scenes consist solely of still-photograph montages; other, darkly gothic ones descend into the bloody baroque. Otherworldly sales clerks at the store speak their own, highly ornate English, and after the last customers leave, they join the manager for magical invocations and bizarre orgies. Mostly, though, In Fabric feels like some rediscovered, 40-year-old Italian giallo, missing an expository scene or two and inexpertly redubbed — which seems to be Strickland’s intention. If his erotic The Duke Of Burgundy channelled feverish Jess Franco, and the murderous Berberian Sound Studio evoked delirious Dario Argento, In Fabric combines both, while adding the cold Canadian detachment of David Cronenberg — and, maybe, sneaking a nod to one of Strickland’s first loves, Franz Kafka. This is a film with the logic of a dream, which is to say, no logic at all. But it also has the power of a nightmare. And, like some of them, it lingers.

10 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

MIDNIGHT MADNESS UK. 2018. 118mins Director/screenplay Peter Strickland Production companies Rook Films, Head Gear Films, Metrol Technology International sales Bankside Films, films@ an si e-films.com Producer Andrew Starke Production design Paki Smith Editing Matyas Fekete Cinematography Ari Wegner Music Cavern of Anti- atter Main cast Marianne ean- a tiste, eo ill, Hayley Squires, Julian Barrett, Steve Oram, Gwendoline Christie

The courtship between noted philanderer Marquis des Arcis (Edouard Baer) and Madame de la Pommeraye (Cécile de France), a widowed beauty, is a leisurely affair. She parries his attentions for months on end, before finally inviting a kiss. But the Marquis is fickle, and after a couple of years of assurances of undying passion, his attention starts to wander. Wounded, and wealthy enough to bring real dedication to her vengeance, Madame de la Pommeraye recruits a mother and daughter prostitute double act, Madame and Mademoiselle de Joncquières, to teach her former lover the error of his ways. Crisply cruel, and lavish in its use of sweeping, manicured landscapes and elegant interiors, this adaptation of an 18-century story by Denis Diderot does not quite deliver the proto-feminist air-punch of retribution that some audience members might have hoped for. The sympathies of the film ultimately lie with the male protagonist, who, deeply flawed narcissist windbag that he is, finds unexpected redemption in the final act. The 18th-century trappings of Mademoiselle De Joncquières draw obvious comparisons to the likes of Dangerous Liaisons and Valmont. Yet while the story of Mademoiselle De Joncquières does not lack for elegant treachery, it misses an equivalent star power that could propel this handsome but languid arthouse title to breakout commercial success. The film tells a simple story garnished with the kind of flamboyantly ornate dialogue that captures the era’s propensity for verbose self-examination and verbal jousting, but slows the pace of the picture to a languorous promenade. The exquisitely pretty Mademoiselle de Joncquières (Alice Isaaz) gives the film its title but is a muted presence in the story until the final act. It is only when Madame de la Pommeraye’s nefarious scheme looks set to come to fruition that the Mademoiselle reveals herself to be the only honourable character in the story, forced by unfortunate circumstance into a dishonourable life. In contrast to the grubby machinations of the story, the look of the film is as crisp and bright as freshly laundered linen. A delicately subdued colour palette perfectly co-ordinates Madame’s china-blue dress with the upholstery of her chair as she sips her tea and plots to destroy her former lover. And the score, fussy with Vivaldi and string quartets, is equally polite and tasteful.

PLATFORM Fr. 2018. 110mins Director/screenplay Emmanuel Mouret Production company Moby Dick Films International sales Indie Sales, info@indiesales.eu Producer Frédéric Niedermayer Production design David Faivre Editing Martial Salomon Cinematography Laurent Desmet Main cast Cécile de France, Edouard Baer, Alice Isaaz, Laure Calamy, Natalia Dontcheva

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Doha Film Institute congratulates its funding recipients selected for the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival Discovery

Masters

TIFF Docs

‘The Load’ by Ognjen Glavonić

‘Divine Wind’ by Merzak Allouache

‘Freedom Fields’ by Naziha Arebi Short Cuts

‘Screwdriver’ by Bassam Jarbawi

‘The Wild Pear Tree’ by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

‘Brotherhood’ by Meryam Joobeur

Special Presentations

Supporting Voices in Cinema Worldwide Doha Film Institute Grants Programme Film, TV and Web Series ‘A Kasha’ by hajooj kuka

‘Capernaum’ by Nadine Labaki Wavelengths

Doha Film Institute continues its commitment to nurturing emerging filmmakers through its Grants Programme. First- and second-time filmmakers from around the world, alongside established directors from the MENA region, are invited to apply for funding. Consideration for funding is now open to TV and Web series from the MENA region, as well as short and feature-length films in development, production and post-production, subject to eligibility criteria. Since 2010, Doha Film Institute supported more than 400 filmmakers across the world. For more information www.dohafilminstitute.com/financing/grants/guidelines

‘The Day I Lost My Shadow’ by Soudade Kaadan

‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ by Gan Bi Contemporary World Cinema

‘Too Late To Die Young’ by Dominga Sotomayor

DFI 2018 TIFF Screen Ad.indd 1

‘Look at Me’ by Nejib Belkadhi

9/5/18 4:14 PM

REVIEWS

Gwen Reviewed by Wendy Ide

Donnybrook Reviewed by Tim Grierson A raw drama about desperate individuals fighting to keep their heads above water, Donnybrook examines the underbelly of the American Rust Belt, expressing a tempered respect for those surviving on the margins. Filmmaker Tim Sutton elicits pitiless performances from Frank Grillo and Jamie Bell playing two very different criminals on a collision course, and the film exudes a grungy B-movie ethos in keeping with its scrappy, resourceful characters. Donnybrook premieres in Toronto’s Platform, courting buyers who no doubt admire Sutton’s Memphis (2013) and Dark Night (2016). His latest is a slightly more commercial proposition thanks to its stars and passing similarities to other blue-collar indie thrillers such as Blue Ruin. Strong reviews would help buoy box-office interest. Set in an economically depressed Ohio town, the film stars Bell as Jarhead Earl, a military veteran trying to raise two kids while helping his ailing wife who is addicted to pain medication. Drugs are a scourge across Donnybrook’s battered rural landscape, which is ruled by ruthless dealer Chainsaw Angus (Grillo) and his much younger sister Delia (Margaret Qualley), who have no problem resorting to violence to maintain their empire. Sutton presents Earl with one beacon of hope amid the desolation around him: a no-holds-barred underground boxing competition known as the Donnybrook that will net the winner $100,000. But the steps Earl takes — some of them illegal — to get to the Donnybrook prove to be far more important dramatically than the big finale, although what awaits him in the ring turns out to be powerfully affecting as well. Grillo projects silent menace, delivering a typically imposing physical performance. In comparison to Angus’s coiled evil, Bell is more nuanced portraying a father and husband who has done bad things for what he considers honourable reasons. Going on the road with his son to reach the Donnybrook, Earl represents a more complicated version of manhood, alternating between tenderness and aggression. Phil Mossman’s mournful orchestral score gives the proceedings a doomed grandeur, although much of Donnybrook is as direct and visceral as a punch to the jaw. Even if Sutton occasionally overdoes the toxic masculinity and red-state seediness, the movie becomes increasingly gripping as it draws us into this brutal reality.

12 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

PLATFORM US. 2018. 101mins Director Tim Sutton Production companies Backup Media, Rumble Films, Sierra/Affinity International sales Sierra/Affinity, info@sierra-affinity.com Producers David Lancaster, Stephanie Wilcox Screenplay Tim Sutton, based on the book by Frank Bill Production design Michael T Perry Editing Scott Cummings Cinematography David Ungaro Music Phil Mossman Main cast Frank Grillo, Margaret Qualley, James Badge Dale, Jamie Bell

A brief opening glimpse of the savage, 19th-century beauty of Wales’ mountainous Snowdonia is soon obscured, as a curtain of darkness and suspicion is drawn across the lives of a teenager, her mother and younger sister. With her father away at war and her mother hollowed out by grief and ill health, teenager Gwen (Eleanor Worthington Cox) begins to comprehend the precarious position of her family. The lighting — or more accurately the lack of it — and arresting use of horror tropes makes for a period piece that is heavy on brooding atmospherics, but lighter on plot. The feature debut of 2012 Screen International Star of Tomorrow William McGregor, Gwen confirms the director’s talent for evocative use of landscape. But the picture’s grim trajectory — there is no Lady Macbeth-style feminist kick back at the relentless crushing boots of the patriarchy — means the film may struggle to resonate outside of the festival circuit and the arthouse audience at its most austere. In the role of the beleaguered mother, Elen, Maxine Peake is effective but slightly underused. It is only towards the second half of the picture, when Elen starts to lose her grasp on the threads that keep her subsistence-level scrabble of survival together, that the role allows the actress to flex her considerable dramatic muscles. But it is through Gwen’s eyes that this story unfolds, and it is her journey — a coming of age of sorts — that we follow. Adrift in the hinterland between childhood innocence and the responsibilities of adulthood that grind down her mother, Gwen starts out as a playmate for her little sister and ends the film as the child’s de facto parent. Worthington Cox is terrific; the mounting uncertainty in her eyes seeds the suspicion of wrongdoing throughout the film. McGregor has a particularly keen eye for the macabre paganistic rituals that linger in the murkiest corners of Victorian Britain. And, by the third act, the director has fully embraced the horror devices — jump scares and thunder crashes abound — that he flirts with earlier in the picture. But, in fact, it is the more subtle suggestions of discord, rather than the overt shock techniques, that most effectively create the film’s lingering sense of unease.

DISCOVERY UK. 2018. 84mins Director/screenplay William McGregor Production company Endor Film International sales Great Point Media, info@ greatpointmedia.com Producers Tom Nash, Hilary Bevan Jones Production design Laura Ellis Cricks Editing Mark Towns Cinematography Adam Etherington Music James Edward Barker Main cast Maxine Peake, Eleanor Worthington Cox, Richard Harrington, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Jodie Innes, Mark Lewis Jones

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LUXEMBOURG COPRODUCTIONS @ TIFF2018 MEET FILM FUND LUXEMBOURG AT EFP EUROPE! UMBRELLA #24 Discovery

TEL AVIV ON FIRE DIRECTED BY Sameh Zoabi Luxembourg, France, Israel, Belgium COPRODUCED BY Samsa Film WORLD SALES: Indie Sales

www. indiesales.eu

Platform - in Competition

ANGELO Markus Schleinzer Austria, Luxembourg COPRODUCED BY Amour Fou Luxembourg WORLD SALES: Playtime DIRECTED BY

www.playtime.group

Contemporary World Cinema

SIBEL Ã&#x2021;agla Zencirci, Guillaume Giovanetti France, Germany, Luxembourg, Turkey COPRODUCED BY Bidibul Productions WORLD SALES: Pyramide International

www.pyramidefilms.com

Contemporary World Cinema

BLACK 47 DIRECTED BY Lance Daly

Ireland, Luxembourg COPRODUCED BY Samsa Film WORLD SALES: Altitude Film Sales

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04/09/2018 09:35

SPOTLIGHT THE WEDDING GUEST

he Wedding Guest, the new film from prolific UK director Michael Winterbottom, playing here in Special Presentations, combines the filmmaker’s passion for road movies with plot twists and plenty of suspense. Set in Pakistan and India, the film stars Dev Patel and Indian actor Radhika Apte, with Patel as a young British Muslim man who travels to Pakistan ostensibly to attend a wedding. Winterbottom wanted to play around with his protagonist’s ambiguous motives and also with the western motif of a stranger who enters a town. “The idea is that audiences have no idea what it is, other than a guy going back to Pakistan,” the director explains. “Maybe [the audience] has certain preconceptions about what the story might be. The film is a bit of a puzzle. Ideally for every little development of the story, you’re trying to work out what’s happening and the motives for the characters and what’s going to happen next.” The $5m film is produced by Winterbottom and Melissa Parmenter at Winterbottom’s Revolution Films. Patel also produced the project and backing came from Riverstone Pictures’ Nik Bower and Deepak Nayar. Sony Pictures is distributing worldwide.

Inspired by the Punjab Winterbottom says the idea for The Wedding Guest has been swirling around his head for more than 10 years, ever since he made The Road To Guantanamo, the Berlin Silver Bear-winning documentary he co-directed with Mat Whitecross in 2006. “When I was in the Punjab [filming The Road To Guantanamo], I thought the village we were in would be a good place for a western,” Winterbottom says. “I wrote [The Wedding Guest] a long time ago and for various reasons never made it.” After Winterbottom saw Patel in Lion, he sent the actor his sparse script. “Dev called me in October 2017 and said he liked it and that he had a little gap in January and February 2018. He asked if we were financed,” says Winterbottom. “We told him no, to be honest, we just sent you the script.” Patel, a producer in his own right, told Winterbottom he thought he could raise the money and three weeks later they were in preproduction with backing from Riverstone. Set in Pakistan and India, The Wedding Guest shot for six weeks from midJanuary to March 2018 with everything bar one day filmed on location in the two countries. However, only a small amount of

Michael Winterbottom on the set of The Wedding Guest

Guest of honour UK director Michael Winterbottom talks to Stuart Kemp about making The Wedding Guest with Dev Patel, shooting on location in India and Pakistan, and branching out on his own at Revolution Films second-unit work was shot in Pakistan due to the difficulties of filming what would be considered a contentious film in the country coupled with tensions between the two countries running high. “I went across the border from Lahore to Amritsar to do the journey Dev does in the film,” Winterbottom says. “But we would not have been able to get any of the small crew from one side to the other. Even getting access from one to another is complicated. So given we could recreate Pakistan in the Punjab in India, we did that.” Winterbottom admits having to conceive a Pakistani village in India was frustrating. “The texture

14 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

Dev Patel heads the cast

‘The idea is that audiences have no idea what it is, other than a guy going back to Pakistan. The film is a bit of a puzzle’ Michael Winterbottom

of the place in Pakistan is really great. It’s always quite frustrating trying to recreate a specific environment somewhere else,” he explains. The Wedding Guest marks the first feature from Winterbottom since the filmmaker’s long-standing producer partner Andrew Eaton exited Revolution at the end of 2016. The pair founded the company more than 20 years ago. “For me [with Revolution], it’s the same old thing. We will just be trying to make films I want to make and try and keep our heads above water,” Winterbottom says. “Andrew wanted to do his own

thing. There’s no animosity, we just don’t work together anymore.” Through Revolution, Winterbottom is now developing a 10-part TV series with Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures about UK and US journalists and non-governmental organisations involved in the war in Syria. He is also about to start filming an untitled satirical comedy (formerly called Greed) starring Steve Coogan for Sony Pictures and Film4, about a retail fashion billionaire who throws a 60th birthday party in Mykonos where everything goes horribly wrong. When Winterbottom checks into Toronto with The Wedding Guest, it will mark his 16th time at the film festival. “It’s an enjoyable festival,” Winterbottom says. “You get good audiences and s Toronto is a fun place.” ■ The Wedding Guest plays in Special Presentations today (public, Elgin Theatre, 13:00), September 9 (P&I, Scotiabank 4, 11:30), September 10 (public, Lightbox 1, 09:00), September 12 (P&I, Scotiabank 10, 14:15), September 14 (public, Elgin Theatre, 13:00)

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Discovery

Screenings

Phoenix

09/07/18

9:15PM

Scotiabank 11

09/08/18

2:15PM

Scotiabank 5 (Press & Industry)

09/09/18

9:00AM

TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 4

09/12/18

12:00PM

Scotiabank 5 (Press & Industry)

09/15/18

12:30PM

Scotiabank 9

Director Camilla Strøm Henriksen Contact: Hummelfilm

Norwegian films in Toronto MARIA

BONNEVIE

SVERRIR

GUDNASON

YLVA

BJØRKAAS THEDIN

Minority Co-Productions Platform The River / Director Emir Baigazin Special Presentations 22. juli * / Director Paul Greengrass

CASPER

FALCK-LØVÅS

PHOENIX

Discovery Rafiki / Director Wanuri Kahiu TIFF Docs Angels Are Made Of Light / Director James Longley

HUMMELFILM PRESENTS ”PHOENIX” A FILM BY CAMILLA STRØM HENRIKSEN STARRING YLVA BJØRKAAS THEDIN, MARIA BONNEVIE, SVERRIR GUDNASON AND CASPER FALCK-LØVÅS CASTING CELINE ENGEBRIGTSEN COSTUME DESIGN ELLEN YSTEHEDE POST PRODUCER ELEONORE ANSELME COMPOSER PATRIK ANDRÉN SCORE PRODUCER JOHAN SÖDERQVIST SOUND DESIGN BENT HOLM LINE PRODUCER TESSA EGGESBØ PRODUCTION DESIGN EVA NORÉN EDITOR SVERRIR KRISTJÁNSSON DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY RAGNA JORMING FSF CO-PRODUCERS ANNIKA HELLSTRÖM, ERIKA MALMGREN AND RAMUNAS ŠKIKAS EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS DAVID YATES, YVONNE WALCOTT-YATES AND PAULINA RIDER WILHELMSEN PRODUCER GUDNY HUMMELVOLL WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY CAMILLA STRØM HENRIKSEN PRODUCED BY HUMMELFILM CO-PRODUCED BY CINENIC FILM, RIDER FILM AND THE WYCHWOOD MOVING PICTURE COMPANY IN COOPERATION WITH UAB AHIL, SHORTCUT OSLO, C-MORE W/SUZANNE GLANSBORG AND SVT W/AGNETA PERMAN PRODUCED WITH THE SUPPORT OF NORWEGIAN FILM INSTITUTE W/WIBECKE RØDSETH AND SWEDISH FILM INSTITUTE W/YABA HOLST

*support from the Norwegian Incentive Programme

SPOTLIGHT ELEMENT PICTURES

Small beginnings Element is rooted in the early teenage friendships of three Dubliners. Guiney met Abrahamson when he was “13 or 14” and briefly dated his sister. Bonding over a love of film, the pair went on to create a filmmaking society at Dublin’s Trinity College. Andrew Lowe, who launched Element with Guiney in 2001, was also in the same loose friendship group. Today, Guiney and Lowe are seated in Element’s London office, an outpost with five permanent staff that both men visit frequently. That was especially the case in 2017, since Element had three films shooting in the UK that year, all with Film4: The Little Stranger, which they produced

Patrick O’Leary

or Element Pictures, the breakthrough to international success came in 2015. That was the year the Dublin-headquartered company premiered Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster in Cannes, followed a few months later by Lenny Abrahamson’s Room at Telluride and Toronto. While The Lobster went on to pick up an original screenplay Oscar nomination, Room made even bigger waves, earning four Oscar nods and a best actress win for Brie Larson, while grossing $35m at the global box office. “Room was transformative for us, and that made a big difference to how we go about as a business, and what the opportunities are,” says Element joint director Ed Guiney. Now with 30 full-time staff spread across offices in Dublin, Belfast and London, plus another 55 to 60 full- and parttime at its two arthouse cinemas, Element is gearing up for what could prove to be another transitional moment. Abrahamson’s The Little Stranger — adapted from the Sarah Waters supernatural mystery novel — started its international theatrical rollout on August 30. The same day, Lanthimos’s absurd comedy The Favourite premiered at Venice Film Festival and will go on to open New York Film Festival. Oscar buzz is building on this Fox Searchlight US release. The Favourite tells the story of the relationship between early-18th-century British monarch Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) and her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz), who — the film suggests — effectively ruled in her stead. At $15m, it is significantly the biggestbudget film in the director’s canon, and the biggest ever for Element. It has the potential to give Lanthimos, erstwhile leading light in the so-called Greek ‘weird wave’, his biggest hit yet. “I think it will delight fans of Yorgos and bring a new audience to his films,” says Guiney. “Until it gets out there, it’s presumptuous to say that. But it’s all to play for, and we’re very proud of the film.”

(From left) Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe

The partners

Ireland and UK company Element Pictures is building on what could be its biggest year ever, with awards buzz around its Yorgos Lanthimos film The Favourite. Co-heads Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe talk to Charles Gant ahead of the TIFF premiere of Contemporary World Cinema title Rosie with Potboiler’s Andrea Calderwood and Gail Egan, who originated the project with screenwriter Lucinda Coxon; The Favourite, with Scarlet Films’ Ceci Dempsey and former Element staffer Lee Magiday; and Sebastian Lelio’s Disobedience, with Braven Films’ Frida Torresblanco and Rachel Weisz. These are the kind of titles that increasingly define Element’s brand: in the words of Guiney, “auteur director-driven films of a certain scale for the international market”. The Favourite originated as a screenplay (then titled Balance Of Power)) by Deborah Davis, which Dempsey began developing around 20 years ago. “There’s a history to this project that predates our involvement,” says Guiney. “There were different directors attached who then fell away.” Magiday, who was head of development and in-house producer at Element for 10 years, brought the film into the company in 2008. Two

16 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

years later, they attached Lanthimos. Explains Guiney, “We all saw Dogtooth and loved it.” The partners developed the screenplay with Lanthimos, eventually calling in Australian screenwriter Tony McNamara. “When Tony and Yorgos worked together on it, it developed its own identity, and came into sharp focus,” says Lowe. While The Lobster was a famously complicated coproduction pulling in finance from the UK, Ireland, France, Greece and the Netherlands, The Favourite has been more straightforward, financed by Film4, Fox Searchlight and Ken Kao’s US-based Waypoint Entertainment. Magiday departed Element in 2016. The team now sees Emma Norton and Chelsea Morgan (Left Lenny Abrahamson’s The Little Stranger

‘We want our producers to develop their own talent relationships. That’s not just about doing stuff in Ireland. It’s about doing stuff in the UK and internationally’ Ed Guiney, Element Pictures

Hoffmann running development in Dublin, with Ina Remme in London. Norton also serves as an in-house producer alongside Rory Gilmartin and Rosanne Flynn. “We recognise that, to grow as a production company, we need more producer power,” says Guiney. “We have these relationships with these amazing filmmakers, but there’s a limit to how many people you can work with and properly look after. Hence growing our own producer capacity.” Gilmartin and Norton have just produced Irish drama Rosie, written by »

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The Rabinovich Foundation Congratulates the Israeli attendants of the 43rd annual Toronto International Film Festival and the participating films produced with the support of The Rabinovich Foundation

Fig Tree

The Dive

Public Screenings Sep 08 .......19:00 Scotiabank 10 Sep 09........16:45 TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 4 Sep 15 .......13:00 Scotiabank 10

Public Screenings Sep 12 .......19:15, Scotiabank 4 Sep 14 .......09:30, Scotiabank 3 Sep 16 .......21:30, Scotiabank 11

Director: Alamork Davidian Producers: Naomi Levari, Saar Yogev

Press & Industry Screenings Sep 07........11:45 Scotiabank 6 Sep 12 .......12:00 TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 5

Redemption

Directors: Joseph Madmony Boaz Yehonatan Yacov Producers: Marek Rozenbaum Michael Rozenbaum Jonathan Rozenbaum Public Screenings Sep 11 ......21:00, Scotiabank 2 Sep 13 ......12:30, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2 Sep 15 ......21:30, Scotiabank 4

Director: Yona Rozenkier Producers: Efrat Cohen, Kobi Mizrahi

Press & Industry Screenings Sep 10 .......09:15, Scotiabank 8

The Other Story

Director: Avi Nesher Producers: David Silber, Avi Nesher Moshe Edery, Leon Edery David Milch Public Screenings Sep 08 .......21:45 Scotiabank 4 Sep 10 .......15:15 TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 2 Sep 16 .......18:45 Scotiabank 3 Press & Industry Screenings Sep 07........13:00 Scotiabank 11 Sep 12 .......11:45 Scotiabank 10

Working Woman

Director: Michal Aviad Producers: Ayelet Kait, Amir Harel Moshe Edery, Leon Edery Public Screenings Sep 11 ......18:15 Scotiabank 2 Sep 13 ......09:30 TIFF Bell Lightbox 1 Sep 16 ......09:15 Scotiabank 1 Press & Industry Screenings Sep 07 ......11:30 Scotiabank 9

Press & Industry Screenings Sep 9.........09:15, Scotiabank 9

The Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts With the support of Israel Ministry of Culture & Sport and The Israel Film Council

The Rabinovich Foundation 90 Ha'Hashmonaim St. Tel Aviv 6120301, Israel Tel: 972-3-5255020 | Fax: 972-3-5255130 www.cinemaproject.org.il | info@cinemaproject.org.il

SPOTLIGHT ELEMENT PICTURES

Steady growth Element has no deep-pocketed backers, and has grown organically under Guiney and Lowe’s ownership. It has benefited from slate funding from the Irish Film Board (“they no longer do it,” notes Guiney) and also various forms of support from the Creative Europe MEDIA programme, but the diversification into traditionally less-risky areas seems rational. The most recent accounts filing for Element, covering the 2016 calendar year, reported staff costs of $1.7m (¤1.5m) and profits of $860,700 (¤756,000). There is a further upside to the expansion. “It does give you a different perspective when it comes back to what we are producing and developing, and it has definitely informed how we do our business,” says Lowe. “When you are focused on the end user, day in, day out, it just brings another perspective to the whole process of filmmaking.”

Rosie, directed by Paddy Breathnach

Peter Rowen

Roddy Doyle and directed by Paddy Breathnach (I Went Down), which premiered here yesterday. But the Element co-heads reject the notion that the inhouse producers will stick with comparatively low-budget local films, while Guiney and Lowe forge ahead with their international auteurs. “We want the producers to develop their own talent relationships,” says Guiney. “That’s not just about doing stuff in Ireland. It’s about doing stuff here [in the UK] and internationally.” Element moved into the distribution business in 2007 with Abrahamson’s second film Garage. “We had been involved as co-producers in a number of Irish films including The Wind That Shakes The Barley and The Magdalene Sisters, which we saw being distributed back into Ireland from the UK and doing incredibly well,” says Guiney. “We thought, ‘We should be doing that ourselves, and holding on to these rights.’ Irish films can do really well in Ireland, for the size of the population. It’s also a relatively cheaper market to get attention. You can have everyone know about it without spending as much money as in the UK.” The distribution arm, overseen by Lowe, hit the jackpot in 2011 with John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard, grossing more than $4.5m (¤4m) in Ireland. “It’s still the most successful Irish film in Ireland,” says Guiney. “It was a very important film for us financially.” Element is now also an exhibitor, having acquired the Light House in Dublin and the newly opened Palas Galway in February 2018. For Lowe, it is about balancing risk. “It’s a big responsibility running a production company with 30 people, and production is a precarious business,” he says. “We are diversifying.”

Emma Stone in The Favourite

‘When you are focused on the end user, it brings another perspective to the process of filmmaking’ Andrew Lowe, Element Pictures

Element remains headquartered in Dublin, and the partners acknowledge the upsides of making films there, including a 32% tax credit, strong crew base and the fact that, says Lowe, “Screen Ireland, formerly the Irish Film Board, is starting to restore funding to pre-crash levels.” On the downside, says Guiney, “There’s very little going on with Irish broadcasters.” Element’s ambition is increasingly international. When discussing how it came to be involved in Disobedience, which originated with Weisz and Torresblanco in New York, Guiney says: “They

18 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

needed a UK partner and they came to us — and of course we knew Rachel from The Lobster.” Guiney confirms that Element’s outposts in London and Belfast qualify it as a UK company. However, he explains: “[UK qualification] is just a facet of it. It’s not our motivation. We see ourselves as a company making films for the international marketplace which happens to be based in London, Dublin and Belfast. And Ina [Remme] has a particular focus on looking at new films from across Europe, and trying to find new talent.” One new relationship is with Rams director Grimur Hakonarson, with whom Element is developing a new feature, The Fence, with Film4. Another is Martha Marcy May Marlene director Sean Durkin, for whom it is producing The Nest, developed with BBC Films. Also in the pipeline are new films with Lanthimos and Abrahamson, with an intention to shoot one with each director in 2019. One strong option for Abrahamson is

A Man’s World — based on Don McRae’s book about boxer Emile Griffith, whose knockout blow proved fatal to his opponent in a 1962 title match. The director is co-writing a draft with frequent Kelly Reichardt co-writer Jon Raymond, developed by Film4. In television, Element’s output has so far been principally for the Irish market, but its next production is for the BBC: The Dublin Murders, co-produced with Kate Harwood at Euston Films and US company Veritas, and based on the crime novel series by Tana French. Element has just hired Anna Ferguson, formerly an executive producer at Sky, as its new head of TV drama, and has “around 10” projects in development. The company views the push into television as important for its existing filmmaker relationships — Abrahamson’s Normal People, based on Sally Rooney’s upcoming novel, is in the pipeline for BBC Three. “You want to be able to offer the people you work with the opportunity of doing things in all ways,” says Guiney. “So if they have something that they feel is better suited to television, they can stay with us.” Those filmmaker relationships remain vital to Element’s future. “If you have a filmmaker that attracts cast, that attracts finance,” says Guiney. “There’s a lot of interest in signature filmmakers. We try and go about making things that stick out, and pop. You have to make films that s make you go, ‘Oh wow.’” ■ Rosie plays in Contemporary World Cinema on September 8 (public, Scotiabank 14, 16:15), September 13 (P&I, Scotiabank 6, 11:15), September 15 (public, Scotiabank 11, 09:00)

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SPOTLIGHT THAT TIME OF YEAR

(From left) Soﬁe Grabol and Paprika Steen on the set of That Time Of Year

Nightmare before Christmas Paprika Steen is back behind the camera for a seasonal — though not exactly harmonious — family gathering. She tells Wendy Mitchell how to handle a big ensemble cast and household taboos

ndy Williams sang that Christmas was “the most wonderful time of the year”. But actress/ director Paprika Steen knows better. Her third feature as a director, That Time Of Year (which premiered here yesterday, sold by TrustNordisk), is set in one family house from Christmas Eve into Christmas Day, when an extended family gets together for yuletide bonding: criticising each other’s recipes, re-opening old wounds and confronting looming disasters. So it’s not a Christmas film about Santa Claus. “It could have been midsummer or Thanksgiving, it’s not really about Christmas itself, it’s about that day of the year when family comes together,” Steen explains of her motivation. “I am interested in psychology, in how we interact with each other. There are no taboos left in the world, but in the family there are taboos. We compete, we let our children compete. I don’t know where we get this brain from,” she says with a laugh. Steen came up with the shape of the film, and some specific ideas (not all

autobiographical, she insists) and then hired playwright Jakob Weis to pen the script. Steen also stars as Katrine, a wife and mother who is hosting the annual gathering, simultaneously coping with a mentally absent father, an overbearing mother, attention-seeking sisters and a looming crisis with one of her children. All while juggling the Christmas Eve traditions. People across many cultures will recognise the family chaos. “I wanted to make a real picture, to hold a mirror up, to cry and to laugh,” says Steen. “I am always after the truth, the hard truth and the funny truth.” Ensemble inspiration That Time Of Year shot for five weeks starting in November 2017 in Funen, an island on Denmark’s east coast. The experienced ensemble cast includes Sofie Grabol, Patricia Schumann, Lars Knutzon, Lars Brygmann, Karen-Lise Mynster, Jacob Lohmann and Fanny Leander Bornedal. Steen wrote the parts for each of the

20 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

actors and respected that they had different processes. “Sofie Grabol is more mathematic and still. Lars Brygmann uses the Stanislavski method. And KarenLise Mynster, who plays my mother, is a theatre actress who works all the time.” Directing an ensemble film was new to her — trying to “make it look effortless” while blocking 14 actors and a dog was a fresh challenge. She drew some inspiration from her own role in Thomas Vinterberg’s ensemble family story Festen (1998), as well as the likes of Robert Altman’s Nashville, George Lucas’s American Graffiti and the wedding scene in The Godfather. Steen first directed 2004’s Aftermath, then 2007’s With Your Permission, before entering a long fallow period that only ended when she had the idea for That Time Of Year. It was producer Mikael Rieks of Nordisk Film (also her ex-husband) who encouraged her to direct again, saying she was “wasting her talent”. Steen is already thinking about her next script, a story about parenting. Meanwhile, she is taking this film to

‘I wanted to make a real picture, to hold a mirror up, to cry and to laugh… I am always after the truth, the hard truth and the funny truth’ Paprika Steen

international festivals — Toronto then BFI London Film Festival — a sign that this is not a typical local Christmas comedy. “It’s nice to go outside your own country,” she says, as a household name in Denmark (Nordisk releases the film there on November 8). “There is another seriousness for who you are, there is a s distance I like, your work comes first.” ■ That Time Of Year plays in Contemporary World Cinema on September 8 (P&I, Scotiabank 10, 11:30), September 9 (public, Lightbox 3, 22:30), September 12 (P&I, Scotiabank 7, 18:30), September 16 (public, Scotiabank 14, 16:00)

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CALEB LANDRY JONES JANA MCKINNON

ELÉONORE HENDRICKS

CHRISTOS HAAS

AND ABBEY LEE

A FILM BY PETER BRUNNER «… wonderfully executed … looks, at times, like an elaborate Nine Inch Nails video» Rory O’Connor, The Film Stage «a psychological acid trip of a movie … a striking and fully committed performance from Jones.» Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter «It’s a grim film that doesn’t gloss over grief or depression, and one that sees Jones going to some very dark places.» Kate Erbland, Indiewire «an operatically brutal drama» Matt Fagerholm, rogerebert.com «a powerful attempt to use film as art» Will Tizard, Variety

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SCREENINGS

JURY GRID, PAGE 34

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

PUBLIC SCREENINGS

09:00 CORE OF THE WORLD

(Russia-Lithuania) 124mins. Indie Sales. Dir: Natalia Meshchaninova. Cast: Dmitriy Podnozov, Ekaterina Vasilyeva, Elena Papanova, Evgeniy Sytyy, Jana Sekste, Stepan Devonin, Vitya Ovodkov. Terrified of human intimacy but longing to join a pack, a hardworking countryman hopes to gain the respect of a man and his daughter at any cost. Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 — Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema

THE ACCUSED

(Argentina-Mexico) 108mins. Film Factory. Dir: Gonzalo Tobal. Cast: Daniel Fanego, Gael Garcia Bernal, Gerardo Romano, Ines Estevez, Lali Esposito, Leonardo Sbaraglia. Director Gonzalo Tobal is less concerned with guilt than with the ways media scrutiny can hijack the truth, in this understated crime story about a 20-year-old woman accused of her best friend’s death. Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 3 — Piers Handling Cinema

09:15

PUBLIC SCREENING 09:30 RAY & LIZ

BEAUTIFUL BOY

(UK) 108mins. Luxbox. Dir: Richard Billingham. Cast: Deirdre Kelly, Ella Smith, Joshua MillardLloyd, Justin Salinger, Patrick Romer, Sam Gittins, Tony Way. Renowned photographer Richard Billingham makes his feature-film debut with this intricate family portrait, inspired in part by his own memories and shot on stunning 16mm.

(US) 111mins. FilmNation Entertainment. Dir: Felix van Groeningen. Cast: Amy Ryan, Maura Tierney, Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet. Based on the bestselling pair of memoirs by father and son David and Nic Sheff, Felix van Groeningen’s film chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse and recovery in a family coping with addiction.

Wavelengths Jackman Hall

10:00 GLORIA BELL

(France) 115mins. Elle Driver. Dir: Eva Husson. Cast: Emmanuelle Bercot, Golshifteh Farahani. Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) director Eva Husson returns to TIFF with a timely war film about survival and sisterhood centred on the Girls of the Sun, a battalion of women fighting to take back their homes from Isis extremists in Iraqi Kurdistan.

(US-Chile) 102mins. FilmNation Entertainment. Dir: Sebastian Lelio. Cast: Brad Garrett, Caren Pistorius, Holland Taylor, Jeanne Tripplehorn, John Turturro, Julianne Moore, Michael Cera, Rita Wilson. Academy award winner Sebastian Lelio’s Englishlanguage remake of his 2013 film about a freespirited, middle-aged divorcee (Julianne Moore) hoping to find love on the dance floor.

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

Special Presentations Elgin Theatre

GIRLS OF THE SUN

10:45

22 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

Gala Presentations Ryerson Theatre

11:00 SKIN See box, above

Angie Thomas follows a promising student whose life is upended, then galvanised, when a friend is senselessly shot dead by police. Gala Presentations Princess of Wales

11:45 THE GRAND BIZARRE (preceded by short film THOSE WHO DESIRE)

(Switzerland-Spain, US) 85mins. Dir: Jodie Mack. A fast-paced examination of the global circulation of textiles and patterns, The Grand Bizarre is the dazzling debut feature by experimental animator Jodie Mack. Wavelengths TIFF Bell Lightbox 3 — Piers Handling Cinema

12:15

11:00 SKIN

(US) 110mins. ICM Partners. Dir: Guy Nattiv. Cast: Bill Camp, Danielle Macdonald, Jamie Bell, Mike Colter, Vera Farmiga. Jamie Bell stars in the true life story of Bryon Widner, a young man raised by skinheads, for

12:30 MONROVIA, INDIANA

(US) 143mins. Doc & Film International. Dir: Frederick Wiseman. A study of small-town Midwesterners who tilted the 2016 US election. TIFF Docs Jackman Hall

THE HATE U GIVE

BELMONTE

SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS

(Uruguay-Spain-Mexico) 75mins. Meikincine Entertainment. Dir: Federico Veiroj. Cast: Gonzalo Delgado, Olivia Molinaro Eijo, Tomas Wahrmann. A single dad and acclaimed artist must learn to balance family life with creativity.

(US) 120mins. Facebook Watch. Dir: Allison Anders, James Ponsoldt, Jessica Yu. Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Janet McTeer, Jovan Adepo, Kelly Marie Tran, Mamoudou Athie. A young woman shattered by the sudden death of her husband falls into a downward social spiral with the rest of her family, in this honest and devastating consideration

Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 — Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema

whom turning his back on hatred and violence meant undergoing painful and expensive operations to remove the tattoos that signified his terrible past life — a process only possible with the support of a black activist. Special Presentations Winter Garden Theatre

of grief, mental illness, and the courage to move on. Primetime TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING

(US) 97mins. ICM Partners. Dir: Tom Donahue. Cast: Alan Alda, Amandla Stenberg, Anita Hill, Cate Blanchett, Chloë Grace Moretz, Geena Davis, Jessica Chastain, Jill Soloway, Judd Apatow, Maria Geise, Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Reese Witherspoon, Rosario Dawson, Rose McGowan, Sandra Oh, Shonda Rhimes. Tom Donahue explores insidious and systemic sexism in Hollywood. TIFF Docs Roy Thomson Hall

www.screendaily.com

Norwegian Films in Toronto Discovery Blind Spot Director Tuva Novotny Discovery Phoenix Director Camilla Strøm Henriksen Short Cuts To Plant a Flag Director Bobbie Peers

MARIA

BONNEVIE

SVERRIR

GUDNASON

YLVA

BJØRKAAS THEDIN

CASPER

FALCK-LØVÅS

PHOENIX

SCREENINGS

out a mass shooting at a leadership camp for teens.

12:45 THE ELEPHANT QUEEN

Special Presentations Elgin Theatre

(UK-Kenya) 96mins. Mister Smith Entertainment. Dir: Mark Deeble, Victoria Stone. Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor. A majestic female elephant leads her herd in search of a new place to call home.

MAIDEN

(UK) 93mins. Dogwoof. Dir: Alex Holmes. Cast: Tracy Edwards. In a moving portrait of resilience, Alex Holmes chronicles the unprecedented journey of 24-year-old Tracy Edwards and the first all-female sailing crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race.

TIFF Docs TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

13:00 THE WEDDING GUEST

(UK) 94mins. United Talent Agency (UTA), Endeavor Content. Dir: Michael Winterbottom. Cast: Dev Patel, Jim Sarbh, Radhika Apte. A mysterious British man (Dev Patel) journeys across Pakistan and India. Special Presentations Elgin Theatre

14:00

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 2

THE STONE SPEAKERS

PUBLIC SCREENING 16:15

NEVER LOOK AWAY

FREEDOM FIELDS

(Germany) 188mins. Beta Cinema. Dir: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Cast: Oliver Masucci, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl, Sebastian Koch, Tom Schilling. Set in post-war East Germany, this drama follows the lives of a doctor and an artist, both struggling to reconcile their personal aspirations with their country’s politics.

(Libya-UK-NetherlandsUS-Qatar-LebanonCanada) 99mins. Wide House. Dir: Naziha Arebi. An intimate look at postrevolution Libya seen

Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

14:15 CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

(US) 107mins. Fox Searchlight Pictures. Dir: Marielle Heller. Cast: Anna Deavere Smith, Ben Falcone, Dolly Wells, Jane Curtin, Melissa McCarthy, Richard E Grant, Stephen Spinella. A jaded biographer resorts to selling forged historical letters on the black market, and grapples with the ethical complications that arise, in this biopic about bestselling writer Lee Israel. Special Presentations Winter Garden Theatre

Doupe, Hilda Fay, Johnny Collins, Lalor Roddy. An Irish Traveller has to contend with her recently released from prison father in order to pursue her dreams of being a boxer. Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 3 — Piers Handling Cinema

14:45 RETROSPEKT

(Netherlands-Belgium) 101mins. Dir: Esther Rots. Cast: Circé Lethem, Lien Wildemeersch, Martijn van der Veen. Esther Rots’ second feature pieces together a timeline-jumping narrative as Mette’s relationship to work, life, and motherhood change and evolve, culminating in catastrophic events. Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 — Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema

15:00

FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY

DOGMAN

(Ireland) 101mins. WestEnd Films. Dir: Carmel Winters. Cast: Dara Devaney, Hazel

(Italy-France) 103mins. Rai Com, HanWay Films. Dir: Matteo Garrone. Cast: Adamo Dionisi,

24 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

through the eyes of an aspiring all-female soccer team, whose struggle to gain mainstream acceptance mirrors the broader challenges facing women in Libyan society. TIFF Docs Scotiabank 10

Alida Baldari Calabria, Edoardo Pesce, Francesco Acquaroli, Gianluca Gobbi, Marcello Fonte, Nunzia Schiano. Mild-mannered Marcello spends his days grooming dogs, hanging out with his daughter and, like most of his neighbourhood, trying to avoid bully Simoncino — until a double-crossing prompts an ugly act of vengeance. Special Presentations Scotiabank 1

THE HUMMINGBIRD PROJECT

(Canada-Belgium) 111mins. HanWay Films. Dir: Kim Nguyen. Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Mando, Salma Hayek. In the hopes of striking it rich, two scheming cousins try to build a thousandmile-long, four-inch-wide tunnel from Kansas to New Jersey that will give them a one-millisecond edge on transactions at the New York Stock Exchange. Special Presentations Princess of Wales

15:15 TITO AND THE BIRDS

(Brazil) 73mins. Indie Sales. Dir: Andre Catoto, Gabriel Bitar, Gustavo Steinberg. Cast: Denise Fraga, Mateus Solano, Matheus Nachtergaele, Otavio Augusto, Pedro Henrique. In this vibrant fantasy created using oil paintings, digital drawings and graphic animation, a boy and his two friends set out on a mission to find his father’s missing research on bird songs — the one thing that just might save their world from an epidemic where being afraid makes you ill. Discovery Scotiabank 3

15:30 EVERYBODY KNOWS

(France-Spain-Italy) 133mins. Memento Films International. Dir: Asghar Farhadi. Cast: Barbara Lennie, Eduard Fernandez, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Ricardo Darin. A layered psychological drama about a family wedding interrupted by a shocking crime and some long-buried secrets. Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

GIRL

(Belgium) 106mins. The Match Factory. Dir: Lukas Dhont. Cast: Arieh

Worthalter, Victor Polster. A young girl, assigned male at birth, struggles to realise her dreams of becoming a ballerina, all the while desperate for her body to reflect her true identity. Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

15:45 MANTO

(India) 112mins. Radiant Films International. Dir: Nandita Das. Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rasika Dugal, Tahir Raj Bhasin. Nandita Das’s biopic follows the most tumultuous years in the life of iconoclastic writer Saadat Hasan Manto and the countries — India and Pakistan — Manto inhabited and chronicled. Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

16:00 22 JULY

(Norway-Iceland) 143mins. Netflix. Dir: Paul Greengrass. Cast: Anders Danielsen Lie, Isak Bakli Aglen, Jon Oigarden, Jonas Strand Gravli, Maria Bock, Ola G Furuseth, Seda Witt, Thorbjorn Harr. The true story of Norway’s deadliest terrorist attack on July 22, 2011, when 77 people were killed after a far-right extremist detonated a car bomb in Oslo before carrying

(Canada-Bosnia & Herzegovina) 92mins. Dir: Igor Drljaca. TIFF veteran Igor Drljaca returns with his first documentary feature, a visually sumptuous piece that oscillates between sly humour and trenchant analysis while exploring unusual tourism-related attempts to rescusitate economies in Bosnia & Herzogovina and the surrounding Balkans. Wavelengths Jackman Hall

16:15 FREEDOM FIELDS See box, above

HEARTBOUND

(Denmark-NetherlandsSweden) 90mins. Autlook Filmsales. Dir: Janus Metz, Sine Plambech. Cast: Frank Andersen, Jarinya Andersen, John Nielsen, Kjeld B Andersen, Niels Jorgen Molbaek, Nuntawat Tantiang, Prasoet Navoram, Saengrawi Ainchan-Saa, Saowalak Nielsen, Sommai Molbaek, Titakorn Phoothanonnok. This dual effort from Janus Metz and Sine Plambech chronicles the lives of several women who leave their home countries in order to find husbands and provide for their families. TIFF Docs Scotiabank 4

ROSIE

(Ireland) 86mins. Protagonist Pictures. Dir: Paddy Breathnach. Cast: Darragh McKenzie, Ellie

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O’Halloran, Moe Dunford, Molly McCann, Ruby Dunne, Sarah Greene. A mother strives to shield her young family from their new reality when their landlord sells the property and renders them homeless. Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 14

16:30 FLORIANOPOLIS DREAM

(Argentina-BrazilFrance) 106mins. Film Factory. Dir: Ana Katz. Cast: Andrea Beltrao, Caio Horowicz, Gustavo Garzon, Joaquin Garzon, Manuela Martinez, Marco Ricca, Mercedes Moran. When a family growing apart decides to take a road trip from Argentina to Brazil in the hope of fixing a broken marriage, what begins as an awkward experience soon turns into a vacation that opens up each member

www.screendaily.com

to new and exciting experiences. Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 13

ONE LAST DEAL

(Finland) 95mins. LevelK. Dir: Klaus Haro. Cast: Amos Brotherus, Heikki Nousiainen, Pertti Sveholm, Pirjo Lonka, Stefan Sauk. An ageing art dealer — left behind by the corporatisation of his industry and estranged from his family — hopes an undervalued icon will turn around his fortunes. Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 11

17:00 TWIN FLOWER

(Italy) 96mins. Fandango. Dir: Laura Luchetti. Cast: Alessandro Pani, Anastasyia Bogach, Aniello Arena, Giorgio Colangeli, Kalill Kone, Mauro Addis. Two teenagers — one

on the run from the immigrant trafficker her father worked for, the other an illegal migrant from the Ivory Coast — form an unlikely but powerful bond as they travel across the harsh and beautiful Sardinian landscape. Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 3 — Piers Handling Cinema

17:30 MADEMOISELLE DE JONCQUIERES

(France) 110mins. Indie Sales. Dir: Emmanuel Mouret. Cast: Alice Isaaz, Cécile De France, Edouard Baer, Laure Calamy, Natalia Dontcheva. When a romance between a widow and a notorious libertine takes an unexpected turn, Mademoiselle de Joncquieres becomes instrumental to one lover’s plans for revenge. Platform Winter Garden Theatre

17:45 FAHRENHEIT 11/9

(US) 120mins. AGC Studios. Dir: Michael Moore. Documentarian Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11) turns his attention to another significant date, examining the legacy of Trump’s ascension to the US presidency on November 9, 2016. TIFF Docs Scotiabank 3

18:00 FARMING

(UK) 107mins. HanWay Films. Dir: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Cast: Damson Idris, Genevieve Nnaji, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jaime Winstone, John Dagleish, Kate Beckinsale, Zephan Amissah. A London-born Nigerian child is voluntarily placed in a white workingclass home as part of a 1960s social experiment,

stranding him between cultures and sending him on a journey from destructive self-loathing to perseverance. Discovery Scotiabank 1

18:30 BEN IS BACK

(US) 103mins. Sierra/ Affinity. Dir: Peter Hedges. Cast: Courtney B Vance, Julia Roberts, Kathryn Newton, Lucas Hedges. The unexpected homecoming of a mother’s charming yet troubled prodigal son forces her into a situation where she must do all she can to prevent her family’s downfall. Special Presentations Princess of Wales

LIFE ITSELF

(US-Spain) 118mins. FilmNation Entertainment. Dir: Dan Fogelman. Cast: Alex Monner, Annette Bening,

Antonio Banderas, Jean Smart, Laia Costa, Mandy Patinkin, Olivia Cooke, Olivia Wilde, Oscar Isaac, Sergio Peris-Mencheta. Writer-director Dan Fogelman (This Is Us) presents an affecting drama about life, love and loss, ambitiously set across years and continents. Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

LIONHEART

(Nigeria) 95mins. MPM Premium. Dir: Genevieve Nnaji. Cast: Genevieve Nnaji, Nkem Owoh, Onyeka Onwenu, Pete Edochie. To save her father’s ailing bus company, competent but overlooked Adaeze must work alongside feckless uncle Godswill, in the sharp and comically observed directorial debut from Nollywood star Genevieve Nnaji. Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

September 8, 2018 Screen International at Toronto 25

SCREENINGS

to realise the mammoth and logistically complex installation, The Floating Piers, on Italy’s Lake Iseo, seven years after the death of Christo’s collaborator wife, Jeanne-Claude.

THE FRONT RUNNER

(US) 113mins. Sony Pictures Releasing. Dir: Jason Reitman. Cast: Alfred Molina, Hugh Jackman, JK Simmons, Vera Farmiga. A biopic about US senator Gary Hart’s 1988 presidential campaign and his scandalous affair that derailed it.

TIFF Docs TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

21:30 CITIES OF LAST THINGS

Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

18:45 FIRECRACKERS

(Canada) 93mins. Séville International. Dir: Jasmin Mozaffari. Cast: Karena Evans, Michaela Kurimsky. An intense drama about two women desperate to escape their repressive small town, whose friendship is challenged after a night of debauchery threatens to undo their grand plans for freedom. Discovery Scotiabank 2

PAPI CHULO

(Ireland) 98mins. Bankside Films. Dir: John Butler. Cast: Alejandro Patiño, Matt Bomer. A solitary and alienated television weatherman hires a middle-aged Latino migrant worker to be his friend, in this darkly comic reflection on class, ethnicity and companionship in contemporary Los Angeles.

PUBLIC SCREENING 19:00

18:45

FIG TREE

REASON

(Israel-Germany-FranceEthiopia) 93mins. Films Boutique. Dir: AalamWarqe Davidian. Cast: Betalehem Asmamawe, Kidest G/Selasse, Mareta Getachew, Mitiku Haylu, Rodas Gizaw, Tilahune Asagere, Weyenshiet Belachew, Yohanes Muse. Aalam-Warqe Davidian’s unflinching feature debut, set at the end of the Ethiopian Civil War, follows a Jewish Ethiopian teenage girl as she attempts to save her Christian boyfriend from being drafted, even as she and her family are poised to flee the country.

(India) 260mins. Dir: Anand Patwardhan. In what is perhaps his most urgent and thorough exploration of Indian society yet, documentarian Anand

Discovery Scotiabank 10

Sweden) 102mins. Dir: Selma Vilhunen. Cast: Abshir Sheikh Nur, Jere Ristseppa, Pihla Viitala, Rosa Honkonen, Ville Haapasalo. When carefree Lenni and his girlfriend find themselves expecting a child, he ends up looking for a role model in all the wrong places as he becomes involved with local right-wing activists.

THE FACTORY

GHOST FLEET

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 11

(Russia-France-Armenia) 109mins. Wild Bunch. Dir: Yury Bykov. Cast: Alexander Bukharov, Alexander Vorobiev, Alexey Komashko, Andrey Smolyakov, Denis Shvedov, Dmitry Kulichkov, Ivan Yankovsky, Kirill Polukhin, Petr Barancheev, Vladislav Abashin, Yury Tarasov. After a local oligarch purchases a factory in a small Russian town and announces its closure, the blue-collar workers decide to kidnap him in order to get what’s theirs.

(US) 90mins. Endeavor Content. Dir: Jeffrey Waldron, Shannon Service. Cast: Chutima Oi Sidasathian, Patima Tungpuchayakul, Tun Lin. The global fishing industry is cast under a harsh light in this documentary following Thai humanrights activist Patima Tungpuchayakul as she and her team seek to bring home workers essentially enslaved at sea.

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

REASON See box, above

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 14

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 4

19:15 STUPID YOUNG HEART

(Finland-Netherlands-

26 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

20:00 LIFE ITSELF

(US-Spain) 118mins. FilmNation Entertainment. Dir: Dan Fogelman. Cast: Alex Monner, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Jean Smart, Laia Costa, Mandy Patinkin, Olivia Cooke, Olivia Wilde, Oscar Isaac, Sergio Peris-Mencheta. Writer, director and producer Dan Fogelman’s affecting drama about life, love and loss, ambitiously set across years and continents. Gala Presentations Elgin Theatre

Patwardhan charts his country’s slide from secular democracy and toward divisions of power, caste and religious belief — and the violence that has followed. TIFF Docs Jackman Hall

20:15 ATANARJUAT: THE FAST RUNNER

(Canada) 174mins. Dir: Zacharias Kunuk. Zacharias Kunuk’s mythically grand and earthily funny epic tells an archetypal tale of ambition, jealousy, betrayal and murder on the frozen plains of northern Canada. TIFF Cinematheque TIFF Bell Lightbox 4 — Paul & Leah Atkinson Family Cinema

20:45 THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE

(Canada) 111mins. Serendipity Point Films, Distant Horizon. Dir: Don McKellar. Cast: Brandon Oakes, Graham Greene, Kiowa Gordon, Tanaya Beatty, Tantoo Cardinal, Tina Keeper. Don McKellar and his cast explore the way a young Cree woman’s disappearance traumatises her family and triggers events in two worlds: in Moosonee, the remote Northern Ontario community she fled years

ago, and Toronto, where she modelled before vanishing. Special Presentations Winter Garden Theatre

(Taiwan-China-USFrance) 107mins. Dir: Ho Wi Ding. Cast: Jack Kao, Li Hong-Chi, Louise Grinberg, Ding Ning, Stone, Huang Lu, Liu Rui-Chi, Hsin Yin, Liu Juei-Chi, Shin Yin. This arresting tale from Ho Wi Ding, told in reverse-chronological order, reveals one man’s fraught inner world and the circumstances that led to a life-altering decision. Platform TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

FREAKS

(Argentina) 120mins. Wild Bunch. Dir: Pablo Trapero. Cast: Berenice Bejo, Edgar Ramirez, Graciela Borges, Joaquin Furriel, Martina Gusman. Against the backdrop of a military dictatorship, Eugenia is reunited with her estranged family following her father’s stroke and is forced to confront dark secrets.

(Canada) 104mins. Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Gersh Agency. Dir: Adam Stein, Zach Lipovsky. Cast: Amanda Crew, Bruce Dern, Emile Hirsch, Grace Park, Lexy Kolker. In this genre-bending psychological sci-fi thriller, a bold girl discovers a bizarre, threatening and mysterious new world beyond her front door after she escapes her paranoid father’s control.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1

Discovery Scotiabank 2

21:00 LA QUIETUD

21:15

THE SISTERS BROTHERS

Discovery Scotiabank 3

(US-France-RomaniaSpain) 120mins. IMR International. Dir: Jacques Audiard. Cast: Carole Kane, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, John C Reilly, Rebecca Root, Riz Ahmed, Rutger Hauer. The picaresque adventures of two brothers sent to kill a prospector accused of stealing from a tyrannical crime boss.

WALKING ON WATER

Special Presentations Princess of Wales

THE DIG

(UK) 97mins. Dir: Andy Tohill, Ryan Tohill. Cast: Emily Taaffe, Francis Magee, Lorcan Cranitch, Moe Dunford. A paroled, amnesiac killer is confronted by his victim’s father, in this gripping debut feature from Irish directors Andy and Ryan Tohill.

(Italy-US) 100mins. Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Dir: Andrey Paounov. Cast: Christo. Bulgarian filmmaker Andrey Paounov follows internationally renowned artist Christo on his quest

WIDOWS

(UK-US) 128mins. 20th Century Fox. Dir: Steve McQueen. Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Daniel Kaluuya, Elizabeth Debicki, Jacki Weaver, Liam Neeson,

www.screendaily.com

Michelle Rodriguez, Robert Duvall, Viola Davis. A heavyweight cast propels Steve McQueen’s white-knuckle thriller (co-written by Gone Girl’s Gillian Flynn) about four women left in a deadly lurch when their criminally connected husbands are all killed. Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

WILD ROSE

(UK) 101mins. Sierra/ Affinity. Dir: Tom Harper. Cast: Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters, Sophie Okonedo. Jessie Buckley, Sophie Okonedo, and Julie Walters star in this inspiring comedy drama about a would-be country singer who dreams of leaving her dreary, workaday Glasgow life for the bright lights of Nashville. Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

21:45 SEW THE WINTER TO MY SKIN

(South Africa-Germany) 118mins. Rushlake Media. Dir: Jahmil XT Qubeka. Cast: Bok van Blerk, Ezra Mabengeza, Kandyse McClure, Mandisa Nduna, Peter Kurth, Zolisa Xaluva. Provocative South African filmmaker Jahmil XT Qubeka (Of Good Report) returns to TIFF with this rousing reimagining of the hunt for John Kepe, an outlaw in 1950s South Africa who robbed from white colonist farmers and gave to the impoverished Indigenous poor, becoming a threat to the foundations of Apartheid society. Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 14

THE OTHER STORY

(Israel) 117mins. Foresight Unlimited. Dir: Avi Nesher. Cast:

Joy Rieger, Maya Dagan, Nathan Goshen, Sasson Gabai, Yuval Segal. Two rebellious young women, one fleeing the chaos of secular hedonism for the disciplined comforts of faith, the other desperate to transcend her oppressive religious upbringing for sexual and spiritual freedom, cross paths unexpectedly in Jerusalem — with startling consequences — in this empowering drama from Avi Nesher (Past Life). Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 4

THE THIRD WIFE

(Vietnam) 96mins. m-appeal. Dir: Ash Mayfair. Cast: Mai Thu Huong Maya, Nhu Quynh Nguyen, Nu Yen Khe Tran, Phuong Tra My Nguyen, Vu Long Le. A 14-year-old girl struggles with family politics, her own agency, and the prospect of

motherhood after she becomes the third wife of a wealthy landowner, in director Ash Mayfair’s elegant and purposeful debut feature set in 19th century rural Vietnam. Discovery Scotiabank 10

22:00 BEFORE THE FROST

(Denmark) 104mins. TrustNordisk. Dir: Michael Noer. Cast: Bertil de Lorenzi, Clara Rosager, Elliott Crosset Hove, Ghita Norby, Gustav Giese, Jesper Christensen, Magnus Krepper, Oscar Dyekjær Giese, Rasmus Hammerich. Michael Noer’s fifth feature tells the heartwrenching story of a struggling farmer in 19th-century Denmark who must go against his morals and make a deal with a wealthy neighbour in order to secure his

family’s survival over a harsh winter. Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 11

RAFIKI

(Kenya-South AfricaFrance-Lebanon-NorwayNetherlands-GermanyUS) 82mins. MPM Premium. Dir: Wanuri Kahiu. Cast: Dennis Musyoka, Jimmi Gathu, Nini Wacera, Samantha Mugatsia, Sheila Munyiva. The latest from Wanuri Kahiu charts a precarious love story between two young Kenyan women in a society where homosexuality is banned. Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 3 — Piers Handling Cinema

23:30 HALLOWEEN

(US) 109mins. Dir: David Gordon Green. Cast: Andi Matichak, Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Nick

Castle, Virginia Gardner, Will Patton. Scarred by the events that took place 40 years ago, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her family are once again forced to face off with the escaped serial killer Michael Myers, in David Gordon Green electrifying follow-up to John Carpenter’s 1978 classic. Midnight Madness Elgin Theatre

MIDNIGHT HALLOWEEN

(US) 109mins. Dir: David Gordon Green. Cast: Andi Matichak, Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Nick Castle, Virginia Gardner, Will Patton. Scarred by the events that took place 40 years ago, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her family once again face off with serial killer Michael Myers. Midnight Madness Winter Garden Theatre

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Official Collaborator

Associated Institutions

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September 8, 2018 Screen International at Toronto 27

SCREENINGS

Dir: Daniel Schmidt, Gabriel Abrantes. Cast: Anabela Moreira, Carloto Cotta, Cleo Tavares, Margarida Moreira. When the world’s leading soccer star loses his touch and ends his career in disgrace, he goes on a delirious journey where he confronts neo-fascism, the refugee crisis and genetic modification, in this bonkers first feature from avant-garde iconoclasts Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt.

PRESS & INDUSTRY 08:30 THE GRIZZLIES

(Canada) 104mins. Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Dir: Miranda de Pencier. Cast: Ben Schnetzer, Booboo Stewart, Emerald MacDonald, Paul Nutarariaq, Ricky MartyPahtaykan, Tantoo Cardinal. Inuit youth in a small community gain a powerful sense of pride and purpose through the sport of lacrosse, in this true-story account of tenacity, renewal and inspiring resilience. Special Presentations Scotiabank 13

08:45 QUIEN TE CANTARA

(Spain-France) 124mins. Film Factory. Dir: Carlos Vermut. Cast: Carmen Elias, Eva Llorach, Najwa Nimri, Natalia de Molina. When Lila, a celebrated but fame-weary and amnesiac singer forgets how to perform, super-fan Violeta steps in to teach Lila how to be herself once again. Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 10

SEW THE WINTER TO MY SKIN

SUNSET See box, above

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 4

09:45 PARADE

PRESS & INDUSTRY 08:45 SUNSET

(Hungary-France) 144mins. Playtime. Dir: Laszlo Nemes. Cast: Evelin Dobos, Juli Jakab, Marcin Czarnik, Vlad Ivanov. Shot in 35mm, the latest from Laszlo Nemes (Son Of Saul) focuses on a

young woman eager to work as a milliner at the legendary hat store that belonged to her late parents. When she is turned away by the new owner, she embarks on a quest to uncover her lost past. Special Presentations Scotiabank 14

Atoms & Void. Dir: Sergei Loznitsa. Sergei Loznitsa (Donbass) returns with this archival chronicle of one of the infamous Moscow Trials — at the time, an operatic affair serving to legitimise Stalin’s government, now a timely reminder of the consequences of total authority. Wavelengths Scotiabank 6

THE HATE U GIVE

(US) 129mins. 20th Century Fox. Dir: George Tillman Jr. Cast: Algee Smith, Amandla Stenberg, Anthony Mackie, Common, Issa Rae, KJ Apa, Lamar Johnson, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Sabrina Carpenter. A timely commentary in the Black Lives Matter era, George Tillman Jr’s adaptation of the novel by Angie Thomas follows Starr, a promising student and cherished daughter whose life is upended, then galvanised, when a friend is senselessly shot dead by police. Gala Presentations Scotiabank 1

09:00 GLORIA BELL

(US-Chile) 102mins. FilmNation Entertainment. Dir: Sebastian Lelio. Cast: Brad Garrett, Caren Pistorius, Holland Taylor, Jeanne Tripplehorn, John Turturro, Julianne Moore,

28 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

Michael Cera, Rita Wilson. Academy award winner Sebastian Lelio (A Fantastic Woman) directs Julianne Moore in this English-language remake of his 2013 film about a free-spirited, middle-aged divorcee hoping to find love on the dance floor. Special Presentations Scotiabank 2

JINPA

(China) 86mins. Block 2 Distribution. Dir: Pema Tseden. Cast: Jinpa, Phuntsok Genden, Wangmo Sonam. Blurring the boundaries between reality and dreams, Pema Tseden’s breathtaking feature tells the story of a chance encounter between a delivery driver and a mysterious man on a journey to avenge his father’s death. Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 9

THE TRIAL

(Netherlands) 127mins.

09:15 SCREWBALL

(US) 105mins. 30WEST. Dir: Billy Corben. Cast: Anthony Bosch, Porter Fischer, Tim Elfrink. Billy Corben’s true-crime dramedy investigates Major League Baseball’s infamous doping scandal involving a nefarious clinician and his most famous client: the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez. TIFF Docs Scotiabank 11

VOX LUX

(US) 112mins. Sierra/ Affinity. Dir: Brady Corbet. Cast: Jennifer Ehle, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin. Natalie Portman gives a bravura performance in the second feature from actor/director Brady Corbet, which spans decades in the life of a young woman juggling a scandal-ridden music career, a teenage daughter

and an overbearing if doting manager. Special Presentations Scotiabank 3

09:30 A STAR IS BORN

(US) 135mins. Warner Bros Pictures. Dir: Bradley Cooper. Cast: Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Dave Chappelle, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay. Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut tells the story of a seasoned musician who discovers — and falls in love with — a struggling artist. As her career takes off, he battles his own demons. Gala Presentations Cinema 2

BEAUTIFUL BOY

(Georgia-Russia) 87mins. Dir: Nino Zhvania. Cast: Archil Kikodze, Goga Pipinashvili, Guga Kotetishvili, Nikoloz Abramashvili. Three downtrodden friends reunite by chance after years apart and strike out on one last adventure in an attempt to recreate the halcyon days of their youth. Discovery Scotiabank 7

10:45 OUT OF BLUE

(UK) 110mins. Independent. Dir: Carol Morley. Cast: Aaron Tveit, Devyn Tyler, Jacki Weaver, James Caan, Jonathan Majors, Mamie Gummer, Patricia Clarkson, Toby Jones, Yolonda Ross. A homicide detective’s investigation into the shooting of a leading astrophysicist and blackhole expert destabilises her view of the universe and herself. Platform Scotiabank 13

11:15 HOTEL MUMBAI

DIAMANTINO

(Australia) 125mins. Arclight Films. Dir: Anthony Maras. Cast: Anupam Kher, Armie Hammer, Dev Patel, Jason Isaacs, Nazanin Boniadi, Tilda CobhamHervey. Anthony Maras’s debut feature, about the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks and its survivors.

(Portugal-France-Brazil) 92mins. Charades.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 2

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 12

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THE DIG

(UK) 97mins. Dir: Andy Tohill, Ryan Tohill. Cast: Emily Taaffe, Francis Magee, Lorcan Cranitch, Moe Dunford. A paroled, amnesiac killer is confronted by his victim’s father, in this gripping, circuitous debut feature from awardwinning Irish directors Andy and Ryan Tohill. Discovery Scotiabank 9

11:30 EXT. NIGHT

(Egypt-United Arab Emirates) 98mins. Dir: Ahmad Abdalla. Cast: Ahmad Magdy, Ahmed Malek, Aly Kassem, Amr Abed, Basma, Donia Maher, Karim Kassem, Magdy Ahmed Aly, Mona Hala, Sabry Abdel Moniem, Sherief El Desouky. When a day in the life of a beleaguered Egyptian filmmaker goes sideways,

he witnesses anew issues such as class and gender relations, in this touching social satire.

grand ambitions of a hard-working young chambermaid at a highend Mexican hotel.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

Discovery Scotiabank 5

THAT TIME OF YEAR

(Denmark) 101mins. TrustNordisk. Dir: Paprika Steen. Cast: Fanny Leander Bornedal, Jacob Lohmann, Karen-Lise Mynster, Lars Brygmann, Lars Knutzon, Paprika Steen, Patricia Schumann, Sofie Grabol. A caustic comedy about the deep-rooted grievances that can rip families apart — and the ties that bind them together. Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 10

THE CHAMBERMAID

(Mexico) 102mins. Alpha Violet. Dir: Lila Aviles. Cast: Gabriela Cartol, Teresa Sanchez. The daily routine and

11:45 KILLING

(Japan) 80mins. Nikkatsu Corporation. Dir: Shinya Tsukamoto. Cast: Sosuke Ikematsu, Yu Aoi. A restless ronin is eager to leave his quiet countryside life behind when the winds of war begin to blow, in visionary Japanese genre director Shinya Tsukamoto’s mesmerising take on the samurai genre.

with sensitivity and startling acuteness in writer/director Rosanne Pel’s debut feature, about a small-town teen fumbling for emotional connections outside of his stiflingly codependent relationship with his single mother. Discovery Scotiabank 7

MARIA BY CALLAS

Masters Scotiabank 14

(France) 113mins. mk2 Films. Dir: Tom Volf. Cast: Joyce DiDonato. Director Tom Volf offers fresh insights into one of the great talents of the 20th century via recently rediscovered writings and interviews with the GreekAmerican soprano.

LIGHT AS FEATHERS

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 11

(Netherlands) 85mins. Wide. Dir: Rosanne Pel. Cast: Eryk Walny, Ewa Makula, Klaudia Przybylska. The confusion of adolescence is captured

to live in harmony with nature on a farm outside Los Angeles are lovingly chronicled by filmmaking farmer John Chester.

former Australian soldier returns to Afghanistan to face his demons, in Benjamin Gilmour’s affecting drama.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 4

Discovery Scotiabank 6

12:00 BOY ERASED

WHITE BOY RICK

(US) 114mins. Focus Features. Dir: Joel Edgerton. Cast: Joel Edgerton, Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe. The teenage son of a Baptist pastor is forced into a gay-conversion programme by his parents, in actor/director Joel Edgerton’s emotive drama.

(US) 110mins. Sony Pictures Releasing. Dir: Yann Demange. Cast: Bel Powley, Brian Tyree Henry, Bruce Dern, Eddie Marsan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jonathan Majors, Matthew McConaughey, Piper Laurie, Richie Merritt, RJ Cyler, Rory Cochrane. Matthew McConaughey, Bruce Dern, Eddie Marsan, and Jennifer Jason Leigh star in this fact-based crime drama about a 1980s-era petty hustler who became a drug boss, then FBI informant, before the age of 16.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1 and 3

JIRGA THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM

(US) 91mins. United Talent Agency (UTA). Dir: John Chester. The successes and failures of a couple determined

12:45

(Australia) 78mins. Dir: Benjamin Gilmour. Cast: Sam Smith. After finding the family of a civilian he accidentally killed during the war, a

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

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September 8, 2018 Screen International at Toronto 29

SCREENINGS

13:15 HUSBAND MATERIAL See box, right

13:45 ANGELO

(Austria-Luxembourg) 111mins. Playtime. Dir: Markus Schleinzer. Cast: Alba Rohrwacher, Larisa Faber, Makita Samba. A young African boy is abducted, sold and forced into 18th-century Viennese court life where he must wrestle with the restrictions placed on him by society. Platform Scotiabank 14

THE GREAT DARKENED DAYS

(Canada) 94mins. Séville International. Dir: Maxime Giroux. Cast: Buddy Duress, Cody Fern, Luzer Twersky, Martin Dubreuil, Reda Kateb, Romain Duris, Sarah Gadon, Soko. Maxime Giroux’s absurdist allegory about a Quebecois would-be actor stuck in a wildly disordered society dominated by an unseen fascistic leader eerily conjures the idea of ‘the other’ currently playing out in the real world. Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 9

14:00 DIVINE WIND

(Algeria-France-QatarLebanon) 96mins. Les Asphofilms. Dir: Merzak Allouache. Cast: Abdelatif Benahmed, Hacene Benzerari, Mohamed Oughlis, Sarah Layssac. A young man and woman form an intense bond when they are assigned to launch an armed action against an oil-refinery in the North African desert, in the latest from veteran Algerian director Merzak Allouache.

look at a devoted but underappreciated housewife whose brief taste of autonomy as a mall cleaner — where she is a popular, model employee — is threatened by impending layoffs. Discovery Scotiabank 6

NEKROTRONIC

(Australia) 99mins. Sierra/Affinity. Dir: Kiah Roache-Turner. Cast: Ben O’Toole, Caroline Ford, David Wenham, Epine Bob Savea, Monica Bellucci, Tess Haubrich. A group of hunters known as Nekromancers do battle with evil forces that use social-media apps to demonically possess the masses, in this riotous supernatural romp from Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood). Midnight Madness Scotiabank 10

13:15 THE IMAGE BOOK

(Switzerland-France) 84mins. Wild Bunch. Dir: Jean-Luc Godard. The legendary JeanLuc Godard adds to his influential, iconoclastic legacy with this provocative collage film essay, a vast ontological inquiry into the history of the moving image and a commentary on the contemporary world. Masters Scotiabank 2

14:15 GWEN

Masters Scotiabank 8

(UK) 84mins. Great Point Media. Dir: William McGregor. Cast: Eleanor WorthingtonCox, Maxine Peake. A mysterious — and suspicious — run of ill fortune plagues a teenage girl (Eleanor Worthington-Cox), her mother and sister on their farm, in this atmospheric, Wales-set period piece from writer/director William McGregor.

HER JOB

Discovery Scotiabank 4

(Greece-France-Serbia) 90mins. Jour2Fête. Dir: Nikos Labot. Cast: Dimitris Imellos, Marisha Triantafyllidou. Nikos Labot’s feature debut offers a compassionate

PRESS & INDUSTRY

PHOENIX

(Norway-Sweden) 86mins. Hummelfilm. Dir: Camilla Strom Henriksen. Cast: Casper Falck-Lovas, Maria Bonnevie, Sverrir

30 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

HUSBAND MATERIAL

(India) 150mins. Eros International USA. Dir: Anurag Kashyap. Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal. A spirited girl finds herself caught in a Gudnason, Ylva Thedin Bjorkaas. In Camilla Strom Henriksen’s startling first feature, a young girl struggles to keep her family together in the aftermath of a tragedy. Discovery Scotiabank 5

THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF CELESTE GARCIA

(Cuba-Germany) 92mins. The Match Factory. Dir: Arturo Infante. Cast: Maria Isabel Diaz, Nestor Jimenez, Omar Franco, Yerlin Perez. Cuban director Arturo Infante’s film mixes absurd humour and wry political commentary as it follows a kindly planetarium worker who accepts a very special invitation from her neighbour, an extraterrestrial. Discovery Scotiabank 7

complicated love triangle while burdened with societal and familial pressures, in the latest from prolific Indian director Anurag Kashyap (Gangs Of Wasseypur, The Brawler). Gala Presentations Scotiabank 13

14:30 HELMET HEADS

(Costa Rica-Chile) 84mins. Visit Films. Dir: Neto Villalobos. Cast: Arturo Pardo, Charly Mora, Daniela Mora, Gabriel Rojas, Harvey Monestel, Janko Navarro, William Quiros. A Costa Rican motorcycle messenger leads a simple life of hanging out with his delivery crew and meeting up with his girlfriend, but life takes a comic turn when they lose their jobs and must find a new way to stay together, in the latest from Neto Villalobos (All About The Feathers). Discovery Scotiabank 11

16:00 DONNYBROOK

(US) 101mins. Sierra/ Affinity. Dir: Tim Sutton. Cast: Frank Grillo, James Badge Dale, Jamie Bell,

Margaret Qualley. The fourth feature from writer/director Tim Sutton, this hardhitting drama tells the story of two men — an ex-marine who struggles to provide for his family and a violent drug dealer with an undefeated fight record — who are determined to compete in the Donnybrook, a legendary, bare-knuckle brawl with a cash prize of $100,000. Platform Scotiabank 12

16:15 BELMONTE

(Uruguay-Spain-Mexico) 75mins. Meikincine Entertainment. Dir: Federico Veiroj. Cast: Gonzalo Delgado, Olivia Molinaro Eijo, Tomas Wahrmann. Federico Veiroj’s fourth feature examines the many, often contradictory layers that make up one’s persona – in this case, a single dad and acclaimed artist who must learn to balance family life with creativity. Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 9

FALLS AROUND HER

(Canada) 98mins. Dir: Darlene Naponse. Cast: Gail Maurice, Hope McGregor, JD Nicholsen, Johnny Issaluk, Rob

Stewart, Tantoo Cardinal, Tina Keeper. Tantoo Cardinal shines as a world-famous Anishinaabe musician who returns to the reserve to rest and recharge — only to discover that fame, and the outside world, are not easily left behind, in writer/director Darlene Naponse’s riveting portrait of resilience set among a northern First Nation. Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 6

16:30 CONSEQUENCES

(Slovenia-Austria) 95mins. Wide. Dir: Darko Stante. Cast: Blaz Setnikar, Gasper Markun, Lea Cok, Lovro Zafred, Matej Zemljic, Rosana Hribar, Timon Sturbej. A troubled teen must adapt to the harsh hierarchy of a youth detention centre and come to terms with his sense of self and developing masculinity in Slovenian filmmaker Darko Stante’s debut feature, based on his own experiences working with youths in a correctional facility. Discovery Scotiabank 5

16:45 LES SALOPES OR THE NATURALLY WANTON PLEASURE OF SKIN

(Canada) 97mins.

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SCREENINGS

Filmoption International. Dir: Renée Beaulieu. Cast: Brigitte Poupart, Charlotte Aubin, Guillaume Gauthier, Hubert Proulx, JeanMarie Coudou, Joseph Delorey, Louise Portal, Nathalie Cavezzali, Normand D’Amour, Paul Ahmarani, Pierre Kwenders, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Romane Denis, Sophie Clément, Vincent Lecler. A happily married wife and mother with a promiscuous secret life must confront the consequences her choices have for her family and career when a scandal threatens to shed light on her affairs, in this introspective drama about the nature, limits and consequences of desire. Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 7

THE TRUTH ABOUT KILLER ROBOTS

(US) 83mins. Dir: Maxim Pozdorovkin. Robots are great... except when they kill people and steal jobs. That’s the conclusion of filmmaker Maxim Pozdorovkin’s eyeopening work of science non-fiction. TIFF Docs Scotiabank 8

Maja Lehrer, Trine Dyrholm. Carolina Hellsgard’s chilling second feature follows two women fighting for their lives in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies — a future Hellsgard presents as both horrific and hopeful. Discovery Scotiabank 6

18:45

Dir: Max Minghella. Cast: Elle Fanning, Rebecca Hall, Zlatko Buric. A shy teenager dreams of pop stardom and enters an international singing competition as an escape from her small town and difficult family life, in The Handmaid’s Tale actor Max Minghella’s directorial feature debut. Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

Al Kassar, Samer Ismael, Sawsan Ercheid. Despite the surrounding chaos of war, Syrian mother Sana desperately wants to provide a normal life for her son. When a seemingly simple errand goes awry, Sana is dragged deeper into the conflict in documentarian Soudade Kaadan’s assured shift to fiction.

3 FACES

ULYSSES & MONA

NEVER LOOK AWAY

(Iran) 100mins. Celluloid Dreams. Dir: Jafar Panahi. Cast: Behnaz Jafari, Jafar Panahi, Maedeh Erteghaei, Marziyeh Rezaei, Narges Del Aram. Iranian master filmmaker Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon, This Is Not A Film) is one of three main characters in his own gently paced metamockumentary, as he and film star Behnaz Jafari drive to northwest Iran on a quest to thwart the suicide of a young, aspiring actor desperate to escape her constrained, provincial life.

(Romania-Czech Republic-FranceBulgaria-Germany) 140mins. Beta Cinema. Dir: Radu Jude. Cast: Alex Bogdan, Alexandru Dabija, Ilinca Manolache, Ioana Iacob, Serban Pavlu. Radu Jude’s resonant feature chronicles a young theatre director’s efforts to stage an accurate re-enactment of the Odessa Massacre — in which Romanian soldiers slaughtered tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews — despite the municipal government’s attempts to censor her.

(France) 82mins. Cercamon. Dir: Sébastien Betbeder. Cast: Eric Cantona, Jean-Luc Vincent, Manal Issa, Marie Vialle, Micha Lescot, Quentin Dolmaire. An art student (Manal Issa) sets out to revive the prospects of a jaded famous artist (Eric Cantona) retired from his life as an artist years ago, in this understated comedy from French director Sébastien Betbeder.

(Germany) 188mins. Beta Cinema. Dir: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Cast: Oliver Masucci, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl, Sebastian Koch, Tom Schilling. Set in post-war East Germany, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s drama follows the lives of a doctor and an artist, both struggling to reconcile their personal aspirations with their country’s politics.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

Special Presentations Scotiabank 9

Masters Scotiabank 9

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 5

THE DAY I LOST MY SHADOW

ENDZEIT — EVER AFTER

(Germany) 90mins. Dir: Carolina Hellsgard. Cast: Gro Swantje Kohlhof,

19:00 TEEN SPIRIT

(UK) 92mins. Mister Smith Entertainment.

32 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

19:15

(Syria-France-QatarLebanon) 95mins. Stray Dogs. Dir: Soudade Kaadan. Cast: Oweiss Moukhallalati, Reham

21:15 THE MERCY OF THE JUNGLE

(Belgium-France) 91mins. Urban Distribution International. Dir: Joël Karekezi. Cast: Marc Zinga, Stéphane Bak. Set in 1998 at the outset of the Second Congo

War, Rwandan director Joël Karekezi’s second feature is a propulsive odyssey about a pair of Rwandan soldiers navigating both the wilderness and personal existential crises while lost behind enemy lines. Discovery Scotiabank 8

Discovery Scotiabank 7

I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS

18:30

PRESS & INDUSTRY

21:00

TEL AVIV ON FIRE

(Luxembourg-FranceIsrael-Belgium) 97mins. Indie Sales. Dir: Sameh Zoabi. Cast: Kais Nashef, Lubna Azabal, Maisa Abd Elhadi, Yaniv Biton. A middle-aged slacker

fails upwards in his job on the set of a popular Palestinian soap opera only to end up fielding script notes from a disgruntled Israeli military officer, in this satire from writer/director Sameh Zoabi.

explores interconnections of sexual identity, family and small-town Nova Scotia life in this intimate drama about a young woman reassessing her relationship with her mother following the death of her father.

Discovery Scotiabank 6

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 7

21:15 THE MERCY OF THE JUNGLE See box, above

21:30 SPLINTERS

(Canada) 94mins. Dir: Thom Fitzgerald. Cast: Bailey Maughan, Callum Dunphy, Shelley Thompson, Sofia Banzhaf. Two decades after his inspired feature debut The Hanging Garden won the best Canadian feature award at TIFF, Thom Fitzgerald again

21:45 THE LIE

(Canada-US) 97mins. Blumhouse Productions. Dir: Veena Sud. Cast: Cas Anvar, Devery Jacobs, Joey King, Mireille Enos, Peter Sarsgaard. In this thriller from Toronto-born writer/ director Veena Sud, two parents wrestle with the consequences of their teenage daughter’s lethal mistake, proving just how far any parent would go to protect their child. Gala Presentations Scotiabank 12

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★★★

Good

AVERAGE

Excellent

SCREEN INTERNATIONAL

Le Film Français, France

VINCENT LE LEURCH

Time Out New York, US

JOSHUA ROTHKOPF

Boston Globe, US

LOREN KING

NOW/CTV, Canada

★★★★

RADHEYAN SIMONPILLAI

Los Angeles Times, US

THE SCREEN JURY — PLATFORM

JUSTIN CHANG

JURY GRID

★★ Average ★ Poor

✖ Bad

Screen office Fourth floor, meeting room one, TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King Street West, Toronto, ON, M5V 3X5 Editorial Tel +1 310 922 5908

THE RIVER (Kaz-Pol-Nor) Emir Baigazin

★ ★★

★★ ★★

★★

★★ ★★

Editor Matt Mueller, matt.mueller@screendaily.com, +44 7880 526 547 Americas editor Jeremy Kay, jeremykay67@gmail.com, +1 310 922 5908

JESSICA FOREVER (Fr) Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel

DESTROYER (US) Karyn Kusama

★★

OUT OF BLUE (UK) Carol Morley

★★

★

★ ★★

★

★★ ★★

★★

★ ★★

2.2

Chief critic and reviews editor Finn Halligan, finn.halligan@screendaily.com, +44 7798 571 270 Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray, mark.mowbray@screendaily.com, +44 7710 124 065 Features editor Charles Gant, charles.gant@screendaily.com Art director, MBI Peter Gingell, peter.gingell@mb-insight.com

MADEMOISELLE DE JONCQUIERES (Fr) Emmanuel Mouret

DONNYBROOK (US) Tim Sutton

★

★★

★ ★★

★★

2.2

An ex-marine who struggles to provide for his family and a violent drug dealer with an undefeated fight record ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ compete in the Donnybrook, a legendary, bare-knuckle brawl with a cash prize of $100,000. Jamie Bell, Frank ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ Grillo and Margaret Qualley star.

0.0

Patricia Clarkson plays a Louisiana homicide detective who investigates the shooting of a leading astrophysicist ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ and black-hole expert, which destabilises her view of the universe and herself. Carol Morley’s feature is a loose ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ adaptation of the neo-noir novel Night Train by Martin Amis.

0.0

Sid Adilman mentorship programme Karina Mohammed Advertising and publishing Publishing director Nadia Romdhani, nadia.romdhani@ screendaily.com, +44 7540 100 315 Commercial director Scott Benfold, scott.benfold@ screendaily.com International account managers Hettie Halden, hettie.halden@ screendaily.com Ingrid Hammond, ingridhammond@ mac.com Gunter Zerbich, gunter.zerbich@ screendaily.com

ANGELO (Aust-Lux) Markus Schleinzer

Angelo is inspired by the true story of Angelo Soliman, a Nigerian boy born in the 18th century and taken by force ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ from his homeland at the age of 10. He is sold to a European countess and moves into court life in Vienna, falling ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ in love with a young courtesan. Makita Samba stars with Alba Rohrwacher and Christian Friede.

CITIES OF LAST THINGS (Tai-China-US-Fr) Ho Wi Ding

Through a triptych in which the future, the present and the past are told in reverse chronology over several ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ decades, Ho’s tale examines three significant moments in the life of an ordinary man and the circumstances that ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ led to a life-altering decision. The cast includes Jack Kao, Ding Ning, Li Hong-Chi and Louise Grinberg.

THE INNOCENT (Switz-Ger) Simon Jaquemet

0.0

Judith Hofmann stars as a woman who is a committed member of a free church movement. When her former ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ lover, played by non-professional actor Thomas Schüpbach, is released from prison, she questions her family ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ responsibilities and her faith.

0.0

President, North America Nigel Daly, nigeldalymail@gmail.com, +1 213 447 5120 Business development executive, North America Danny De Lillo, danny.delillo@screendaily.com, +1 917 818 8701 Business development executive, North America Nikki Tilmouth, nikki.screeninternational@gmail.com +1 323 868 7633 Production manager Neil Sinclair, neil.sinclair@mb-insight. com, +44 7703 823 444 Marketing executive Charlotte Peers, charlotte.peers@mbi. london Managing director, publishing and events Alison Pitchford

ROJO (Arg-Braz-Fr-Neth-Ger) Benjamin Naishtat

Set in Argentina during the mid-1970s, this hypnotic drama follows a successful lawyer whose picture-perfect life ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ begins to unravel when a private detective arrives in his seemingly quiet small town and starts asking questions. ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ Dario Grandinetti stars with Andrea Frigerio and Alfredo Castro.

HER SMELL (US) Alex Ross Perry

In Alex Ross Perry’s star-studded drama, Elisabeth Moss takes centre stage as Becky Something, a talented ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ but self-destructive musician who seems determined to alienate everyone around her — even at the cost of her ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ band’s success. Cara Delevingne and Amber Heard co-star.

THE GOOD GIRLS (Mex) Alejandra Marquez Abella

0.0

Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam Printer Big Bark Graphics, S/B — 68 Healey Road, Units 1-3, Bolton, ON, L7E 5A4 Screen International, London MBI, Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ, United Kingdom Subscription enquiries help@subscribe.screendaily.com +44 330 333 9414

The Good Girls tackles Mexico’s 1982 financial crash, and its impact on a well-to-do socialite and her husband ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ as the social and economic order starts to shift around them. Ilse Salas and Flavio Medina star. Mexican director ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ Alejandra Marquez Abella made a name for herself with Toronto 2015 and SXSW 2016 drama Semana Santa.

34 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2018

0.0

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3/9/18 23:12

Film i Väst congratulates its co-productions in TIFF 2018! Carlos Reygadas OUR TIME Masters

Also in Official Competition Venice Film Festival and Horizontes Latinos San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Annabel Jankel TELL IT TO THE BEES Special Presentations

Nuri Bilge Ceylan THE WILD PEAR TREE Masters

Ali Abbasi BORDER Contemporary World Cinema

Janus Metz & Sine Plambech HEARTBOUND TIFF Docs

Your Scandinavian Partner in Co-Productions Since 1992 Film i Väst has co-produced more than 1 000 feature films, TV-dramas, shorts & documentaries. Film i Väst is one of Europe’s leading regional film funds, located on the Swedish west coast in Västra Götaland. Film i Väst is active as co-producer and investor in international and Swedish film and TV-drama. www.filmivast.se/com

Film i Väst AD Screen Toronto 180905.indd 1

2018-09-06 10:33:53