TIFF 2017 Day 5

DA Y

5

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 2017

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Strickland fits into Fabric

BY TOM GRATER

Charlotte Rampling

Hannah travels after Venice win

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

TF1 Studio has announced a raft of sales on Andrea Pallaoro’s intimate female portrait Hannah following Charlotte Rampling’s best actress win at Venice Film Festival.

The film has sold to Italy (I Wonder Pictures), Benelux (Imagine Film), Greece (Seven Films), Switzerland (Pathé), Japan (Aya Pro), Taiwan (Mirror Stage Films) and China (Time-In-Portrait Entertainment). As previously announced, Paris-based distributor Jour 2 Fete has French rights.

Rampling stars as a woman undergoing an identity crisis following the imprisonment of her husband. It plays in Contemporary World Cinema at Toronto.

TORONTO BRIEFS Vilhunen starts Heart Selma Vilhunen (Little Wing) has started shooting her next feature, Stupid Young Heart, in Helsinki.

The Finland-Sweden-Netherlands co-production is about suburban teenagers dealing with racists.

Edie lands for Truffle UK-based sales outfit Truffle Pictures has inked three key deals on its drama Edie. Arrow Films has taken UK/Ireland; Rialto Distribution has Australia/NZ; and Beijing Spark Future took China.

Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio) will direct ghost story In Fabric starring Oscar-nominated actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

The director is reteaming with producing partner Andy Starke on the project after the pair previously collaborated on The Duke Of Burgundy. Starke developed the film in association with Ian Benson at Blue Bear Film And Television and

will produce via his production company Rook Films.

In Fabric, also written by Strickland, is set against the backdrop of a busy winter sales period in a department store and follows the life of a cursed dress as it passes from person to person, with devastating consequences. UK outfit Bankside Films will handle worldwide sales and is introducing the film to buyers here in Toronto.

The project is co-financed by the BFI with funding from the National Lottery, BBC Films and Head Gear Films. It is executive produced by Lizzie Francke for the BFI, Rose Garnett for BBC Films, Stephen Kelliher and Patrick Howson for Bankside Films, and Phil Hunt and Compton Ross for Head Gear. Principal photography will commence at the end of October in the UK.

Hubert Boesl

TODAY

George Clooney, page 12

NEWS Hail to the chief Piers Handling on 35 years at TIFF » Page 3

REVIEW I Love You, Daddy Louis CK’s provocative comedy » Page 4

FEATURE Leading man George Clooney on his TV favourites » Page 12

Final print daily This is Screen’s final print edition for Toronto 2017. For continued coverage, see ScreenDaily.com

Serner demands parity for female filmmakers

BY WENDY MITCHELL

Kate Winslet meets the crowds at yesterday’s TIFF red carpet for Hany Abu-Assad’s The Mountain Between Us

Arclight punches with Triple Threat

BY JEREMY KAY

Arclight Films has closed a slew of territories on Jesse V Johnson’s USChina action thriller Triple Threat starring Celina Jade (Wolf Warrior 2). As previously announced, Well Go USA plans a theatrical release for early 2018, followed by ancillary platforms, and will also distribute in the UK and Australia.

The film has sold in Germany (Koch), Latin America (Swen), Italy (Movies Inspired), Portugal (Cinemundo), South Korea (Korea Screen), Japan (Klockworx), Middle East (Italia Films) and Greece (Spentzos). Rights have also gone in Turkey (Aqua Pinema), Vietnam and Malaysia (Rainfilm) and India (Viswaas Films). Netflix has

acquired the film for Hong Kong, Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan.

Tony Jaa, Michael Jai White, Scott Adkins, Iko Uwais, Michael Bisping and Tiger Chen round out the lead cast on the story about a team of mercenaries hired to defeat assassins dispatched to kill a billionaire’s daughter.

Participant Media ups pair

UK four spell out Hunter’s Triple Word Score

Participant Media has promoted Jonathan King and Diane Weyermann to the roles of presidents. King oversees narrative film and television projects while Weyermann handles film and television documentaries.

Sam Riley, Lindsay Duncan, Alice Lowe and Tim McInnerny have joined Bill Nighy in Triple Word Score. The directorial debut of Carl Hunter is being produced by Sol Papadopoulos and Roy Boulter

under their Hurricane Films banner along with Alan Latham of GSP Studios. Andrea Gibson is executive producing. DDI is handling world sales here in Toronto. Frank Cottrell Boyce wrote the screenplay, which

follows a tailor who becomes convinced that an online Scrabble opponent could be his missing son.

The film is scheduled to shoot this autumn in the UK. Tom Grater

Anna Serner, CEO of the Swedish Film Institute (SFI) and a leading expert on gender equality in film, has said one of her next steps in Sweden will be to make sure female filmmakers have access to the same production-budget levels as men.

In her Moguls talk at TIFF yesterday, Serner said: “[Women directors] don’t get the big budgets, it’s because the production companies only still present male directors. This is our next very important action, this is a big part of our ‘50-50 by 2020’ [target].”

“It’s amazing [this bias] still exists — we know that female directors get big box-office successes, higher ROI on those films.

And yet they are seen as not experienced enough,” she added. “You can have a guy who has never made a film and [yet] he can get a big budget.”

One such example is Janus Metz, whose feature directorial debut Borg/McEnroe was Toronto’s opening film.

“If the industry doesn’t start working with us, I’m not afraid of quotas,” continued Serner, who joined SFI in 2011 and made it her target to achieve equality in funding films by male and female directors by 2020. “I think we’ve shown that they [women filmmakers] do deliver, so let them. That’s why I’m not leaving my position for a while.”

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NEWS

New Europe sees Miracle

Rick Clifford/TIFF

TRUMP TALK In Toronto for dark comedy The Death Of Stalin, UK filmmaker Armando Iannucci (Veep, In The Loop) described Donald Trump as “his own satirist” during a TIFF masterclass. “Satire is taking what’s true and then twisting it, stretching it, bending it around and making an unusual shape. But that’s what [Trump] does anyway in his tweets.”

Making The Death Of Stalin felt right in the current political climate, Iannucci added. “The movie is about reminding you democracy is not something that, once we have it, we have forever.”

Jordan Adler

BY TOM GRATER

Poland-based sales agent New Europe Film Sales has boarded Syllas Tzoumerkas’s third feature The Miracle Of The Sargasso Sea. Following political dramas A Blast in 2015 and Homeland in 2010, Tzoumerkas’s latest is a thriller set in rural Greece. It will see him reteam with A Blast lead Angeliki Papoulia who will play a foul-mouthed, promiscuous policewoman who takes on a mysterious case. Now in pre-production, Miracle will begin principal photography this month in the Greek city of Messolonghi. It is scheduled for delivery in May 2018.

Tzoumerkas’s regular collaborator Maria Drandaki will lead produce. Film i Vast is a co-producer on the project, which has support from Greek Film Center, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Netherlands Film Fund, Swedish Film Institute, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), Eurimages and Creative Europe’s Media programme.

IFFR revamp gets Reality Check

BY TOM GRATER

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has reconfigured for its 2018 edition ( January 24-February 4). New to the festival will be distribution-focused industry conference Reality Check, which will feature a variety of speakers exploring the transforming landscape of film distribution. The conference will be held across three days during the festival’s IFFR Pro programme,

which includes Rotterdam’s respected industry arm CineMart.

Topics of discussion will include a focus on innovative strategies of distribution, case studies of new models and think tanks to encourage further discussion. “We need to be continuously questioning and, if need be, challenging what is considered the status quo,” said festival director Bero Beyer. “At the heart of the discussion is the question of how

to embrace the new challenges and opportunities of the shifting powers and new players within distribution.”

For 2018, the festival will also revamp CineMart, applying a more tailored approach by curating meeting schedules for visiting industry delegates. A team of IFFR matchmakers will aim to set up appropriate meetings by pairing projects with companies they will find most beneficial.

T&T, Jamaica grow profile The films commissioners of Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica are in Toronto meeting their counterparts as they explore ways to jointly promote the Caribbean industry.

The commissions are educating their local investor bases in the ways of the film business. “We’re working to get them to see the value of investing in local content,” Nneka Luke, film commissioner at Trinidad & Tobago Film Company (FilmTT), said. “It moves away from the model of the government being the only investor.”

Jamaican film commissioner Renée Robinson is launching a $20m film fund and has formed a partnership with the World Bank to take a delegation of investors to Hollywood in 2018.

Five shorts filmmakers from Jamaica’s Propella support initiative will travel to Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival this month.

Jeremy Kay

EXECUTIVE FOCUS PIERS HANDLING, DIRECTOR AND CEO, TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Piers Handling, director and CEO of Toronto International Film Festival, will step down from his role at the end of 2018. After 35 years at the festival, first as programmer, then as artistic director for seven years, and finally in his current role since 1994, Handling looks back and casts an eye to the future.

‘Buyers would come to my office and I’d tell them the hot titles’ Piers Handling, TIFF

The festival has been eager to champion new forms.

How has the festival changed during your time here?

When I started, it was a relatively small event that tended to focus on Englishlanguage films like The Big Chill and Midnight Express. We built up the Canadian presence because that was my specialty; I’d taught it at university and had written a number of books. Then we grew it as an international festival and went to Asia, Latin America and Europe. That was an uphill battle in the ’80s and ’90s.

What was the challenge?

Filmmakers want awards so the big European festivals had a leg-up on us.

Non-competitive festivals can suffer. We had a wonderful Asian programmer called David Overbey who began cultural relationships with the likes of Wong Kar Wai and Edward Yang in the ’80s. These

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When people with whom we have relationships like Steven Soderbergh and Paolo Sorrentino move into long-form television, our audience wants to know. We started a VR strand last year, which we didn’t do this year but it doesn’t mean it won’t return. Netflix and Amazon is a reality and both make very fine films. We’re open to the evolution of the industry.

Piers Handling

young filmmakers saw the benefits of Toronto as a platform. We got North American premieres and then we began to get world premieres.

How else has it evolved?

We also turned it into a market. Buyers would come to my office and I’d tell them the hot titles. The sales office began in the ’90s but we don’t have many market screenings and have always wanted to

stay curated. Toronto acts as an amplification because it’s such a big festival.

Media attention heightened and with the evolution of awards campaigns, Toronto was perfectly positioned to launch these films.

That took off and Harvey [Weinstein] exploited the platform and the studios came… American Beauty was the breakthrough and won the best picture Oscar in 2000 after playing here.

What do you hope to leave behind?

A curiosity about everything. That’s been an attribute of the festival: to be curious and not afraid of taking risks.

What will you do after you leave?

I want to research and write a book about cinema. I’m an outdoorsman and look forward to being in the mountains, skiing and kayaking. I’ll always remain conJeremy Kay nected to TIFF.

September 11, 2017 Screen International at Toronto 3

REVIEWS

» I, Tonya p4 » I Love You, Daddy p4 » The Current War p6

» Professor Marston & »

The Wonder Women p6 Mary Shelley p8

» Dark River p8 » Madamoiselle Paradis p10 » Beast p10

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

I Love You, Daddy Reviewed by Tim Grierson

I, Tonya Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan Australian actress Margot Robbie produced I, Tonya, and she also stars in this funny, biting film about the titular rebel redneck figure-skater who became the centre of one of the first TV tabloid storms back in 1994. While it is an entertaining and often poignant film that addresses a wide range of issues under the stealth cover of humour, I, Tonya also gives Robbie the chance to show her range.

With Allison Janney on the sidelines, I, Tonya also benefits from a smart script from veteran Steven Rogers and smooth twizzle from director Craig Gillespie. High scores all round, then, for this independently produced, Toronto-premiering drama, which should land on a lucrative deal by the end of the festival.

After last year’s celluloid exhumation of the OJ case, I, Tonya looks back at the scandal that immediately preceded it: the court of trial-by-TV and the infamous 1994 ‘incident’ that rocked US figure-skating and the Lillehammer Olympics when skater Nancy Kerrigan (played here by Caitlin Carver) was attacked by goons hired by Harding’s husband, Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan).

Australian director Craig Gillespie (Lars And The Real Girl) delivers a funny, bittersweet ode to the times and production designer Jade Healy has a blast with whitetrash early ’90s interiors, alongside period hairdos, moustaches and an eclectic score. But I, Tonya is more than just fun. Its depiction of Harding as a verbal and physical punchbag — for her appalling mother LaVona (Janney), her dimbulb husband Jeff and, ultimately, the US media and public — has a powerful sting.

I, Tonya is set up in faux documentary style with Tonya, LaVon and Jeff giving what opening credits acknowledge as conflicting, unreliable testimony about the events. If these characters seem outsized, that’s because they were: real-life footage at the end of the film reveals a cast of characters that even the Coen brothers couldn’t make up.

On a technical note, the film’s low budget has resulted in not-quite-seamless grafting of Robbie’s head onto a skater’s body, something that could potentially be rectified with more time and the money that could be coming I, Tonya’s way.

4 Screen International at Toronto September 11, 2017

SPECIAL PRESENTATION US. 2017. 121mins Director Craig Gillespie Production company AI Film International sales Sierra/Affinity Producers Bryan Unkeless, Steven Rogers, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley Executive producers Len Blavatnik, Aviv Giladi, Vince Holden,Toby Hill, Craig Gillespie, Zanne Devine, Rosanne Korenberg Screenplay Steven Rogers Cinematography Nicolas Karakatsanis Production design Jade Healy Editor Tatiana S Riegel Music Peter Nashel Main cast Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Julianne Nicholson, Paul Walter Hauser, Bobby Cannavale, Allison Janney, Caitlin Carver

It is easier to worship our heroes from afar than to get to know them — especially when their controversial personal lives intrude into our world. That’s one of the notions at play in I Love You, Daddy, a provocative comedy in which stand-up and filmmaker Louis CK seemingly pays homage to Woody Allen but also addresses the tabloid issues that have plagued Allen’s career.

Indulgent and meandering, but also funny and thoughtprovoking, this film is ultimately about how little we understand about others — as well as ourselves.

Premiering in Toronto, I Love You, Daddy will appeal to fans of CK, not to mention filmgoers who will appreciate the overt references to the bittersweet quality of Allen’s comedy dramas. A starry cast that includes Chloë Grace Moretz, Rose Byrne and John Malkovich will only draw further attention to this low-budget affair.

The film stars CK as Glen, a New York TV writer who cannot say no to his 17-year-old daughter China (Moretz).

While casting his new series, Glen meets Grace (Byrne), a rising film star who adores his work. She invites him and his daughter to a party, where they encounter Leslie (Malkovich), a revered filmmaker who Glen worships.

There is only one problem: he is notorious for dating underage girls, a rumour that never bothered Glen until the director starts spending time with China.

I Love You, Daddy evokes everything from Manhattan to Crimes And Misdemeanors. But the self-consciousness of CK’s borrowing comes with a twist after the introduction of Leslie, who does not behave like Allen’s on-screen persona but whose gossipy personal life bears a resemblance. I Love You, Daddy enters provocative territory once Glen discovers his usual dismissals of his hero’s rumoured behaviour evaporate when they involve his daughter.

That this is the stuff of comedy is a tribute to CK, who tackles taboo topics with liberating candour. Glen’s hypocrisy is nicely skewered, but that is only one element in a film that continually examines how this successful writer is actually flailing. Specifically, CK focuses on Glen’s unhealthy relationship with his daughter, who knows how to get what she wants by showering him with affection.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION US. 2017. 123mins Director/editor Louis CK Production company Circus King Films International sales 3 Arts Producers Louis CK, Vernon Chatman, John Skidmore, Dave Becky, Ryan Cunningham Executive producer Tony Hernandez Screenplay Louis CK, story by Vernon Chatman and Louis CK Cinematography Paul Koestner Production design Amy Silver Music Zachary Seman, Robert Miller Main cast Louis CK, Chloë Grace Moretz, Rose Byrne, Charlie Day, Edie Falco, Pamela Adlon, Ebonee Noel, Helen Hunt, John Malkovich

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REVIEWS

Professor Marston & The Wonder Women Reviewed by Tim Grierson

The Current War Reviewed by Wendy Ide Extravagant camera moves, woozy fish-eye lenses and a full-on assault of CGI fail to give this story of warring inventors much in the way of dramatic charge. The story of the cut-throat competition between electricity pioneers Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) is opulently mounted, but hampered by the fact that watching bewhiskered men in frock coats endlessly debating the merits of competing current systems is simply not that interesting.

The prestige-project production values, the heat from Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s debut Me, Earl And The Dying Girl, The Weinstein Company backing and the Cumberbatch name should all provide marketing leverage for the picture. Unlike The Imitation Game, however, which managed a deft balance between its mathematical theory and human interest while contriving to make a similarly prickly Cumberbatch lead sympathetic, The Current War gets bogged down in its own science. Word of mouth is likely to be muted, and awards-season prospects limited.

The film captures the moment when electricity — something that had hitherto been a scientific curiosity, a parlour trick for the wealthy — was transformed into an essential tool for modern life and the powering force for an industrial revolution. Michael Mitnick’s screenplay, however, acknowledges the core problem in one wry line delivered by Edison: “Try to talk to him about electricity, that’ll put him to sleep for sure.” This story requires a basic understanding of physics; to this end, characters spend an inordinate amount of time explaining it in dramatically inert, wood-panelled chunks of exposition.

Cinematography, design and score all have an edge of frenetic desperation. Chung Chung-hoon, who shot The Handmaiden and It, tries every trick in the book to invigorate the stodgy subject matter. But the panicky tracking shots, off-kilter framing and lens flares are more distracting than anything else. Elsewhere, decisions are a little on the nose: a Giorgio Moroder-style pulsing electro influence on the score for example, and the decision to dress Westinghouse’s wife Marguerite (Katherine Waterston) in, you’ve guessed it, electric blue.

6 Screen International at Toronto September 11, 2017

SPECIAL PRESENTATION/ OUR DIGITAL FUTURE US. 2017. 107mins Director Alfonso GomezRejon Production company The Weinstein Company, Thunder Road Pictures, Bazelevs, Film Rites, SunnyMarch US Distributor/ international sales The Weinstein Company Producers Harvey Weinstein, Basil Iwanyk, Timur Bekmambetov Executive producers Benedict Cumberbatch, Adam Ackland, David Glasser, Bob Weinstein, Garrett Basch, Steven Zaillian, Martin Scorsese, Michael Mitnick, Ann Ruark Screenplay Michael Mitnick Cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon Editor David Trachtenberg Production design Jan Roelfs Music Dustin O’Halloran, Volker Bertelmann Main cast Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult, Tom Holland, Katherine Waterston, Tuppence Middleton, Matthew Macfadyen

A very different kind of comic-book origin story is presented in Professor Marston & The Wonder Women, which traces the history of William Moulton Marston, the Harvard psychologist who dreamed up Wonder Woman with the help of his wife and their mutual lover. Writer-director Angela Robinson chronicles a complex love story that investigates kinkiness, social mores and the impetus for art, resulting in a drama that’s far more intellectually intriguing than emotionally engaging. Guided by Rebecca Hall’s fine performance as William’s sharp, brittle wife, Professor Marston is a picture about sexual freedom than ends up feeling a little too conventional.

The film hits US theatres on October 13, no doubt hoping that Wonder Woman’s massive grosses will spur interest in this biopic. Spanning about 20 years, it focuses on William (Evans), a professor and psychologist, and his equally brilliant wife Elizabeth (Hall). Interested in inventing a lie-detector test during the late 1920s, they recruit one of his students, a beauty named Olive (Bella Heathcote), to help with their experiments.

But they soon realise they both have feelings for the young woman, which inspires them to try a polyamorous relationship.

Robinson, a prolific writer, director and producer of TV dramas (The L Word, True Blood), ambitiously balances the trio’s evolving relationship with William’s interest in popularising his theory about the distinct emotional categories (including dominance and compliance), which he believes define all human interactions — a theory that will, ultimately, be utilised in the creation of Wonder Woman.

Societal scorn and the challenges of making a polyamorous relationship work are dramatically rich obstacles, and the film helps normalise a romantic arrangement that, even now, is viewed as odd, even perverse. Unfortunately, Professor Marston slowly and inextricably drifts into biopic clichés, pummelling the viewer with bland montages, an uninspired flashback-laden structure and other obvious narrative devices.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION US. 2017. 108mins Director/screenplay Angela Robinson Production companies Stage 6 Films, Topple Pictures, Boxspring Entertainment International sales Annapurna Pictures Producers Terry Leonard, Amy Redford Executive producers Andrea Sperling, Jill Soloway Cinematography Bryce Fortner Production design Carl Sprague Editor Jeffrey M Werner Music Tom Howe Main cast Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote, JJ Feild, Chris Conroy, Alexa Havins, Oliver Platt, Connie Britton

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REVIEWS

Dark River Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan

Mary Shelley Reviewed by Allan Hunter The creation of Frankenstein has inspired a spate of films, including Ken Russell’s Gothic (1986) and Ivan Passer’s Haunted Summer (1988). Mary Shelley considers the writing of the book as the summation of a life’s experiences, and claims its author as a pioneering feminist pushing against the boundaries of an age that blithely oppressed women. The result is an intelligent, elegantly realised balance between romantic drama and literary biography that will hold solid appeal for upscale arthouse audiences.

The second feature from Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al-Mansour is an ambitious foray into English period drama, but is very much of a piece with her admired debut Wadjda (2012) in its desire to champion rebellious woman fighting to make their presence felt.

When we first encounter Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Elle Fanning, sustaining a convincing English accent), she is an unusually mature 16-year-old with a passion for reading and a desire to write her own works. A meeting with radical poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Douglas Booth) convinces her that she has found her soulmate.

Defying her father William (Stephen Dillane), Mary leaves home to be with Shelley. While the sentiments found in Shelley’s poetry are like an assault on Mary’s senses, however, the reality of life with him can never quite match the earthly paradise promised in his writings.

All of Mary’s heartaches and disappointments are filtered into her writing of Frankenstein. The grief of losing loved ones, Mary’s fascination with the possibility of reanimating life, her sense of loneliness and abandonment all feed into the construction of the plaintive creature.

Mary’s personal travails also find a wider echo in societal attitudes to a woman’s rightful place; most people find it easier to accept that the anonymous Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus was written by Percy Shelley.

Mary Shelley is commendably lacking in ostentation as it evokes early 19th century Britain. Candlelit rooms, the flicker of oil lamps, the soggy landscapes of Scotland and all the extremes of luxury and squalor are there to draw us into the past, but not distract from emotions and aspirations that cross centuries and cultures. It may even be a little too tasteful and respectable for its own good. Ultimately, however, Mary Shelley is the story of a woman finding her own voice and asserting her independence and that will be the heart of its appeal.

8 Screen International at Toronto September 11, 2017

GALA PRESENTATION Ire-UK-Lux-US. 2017.

120mins Director Haifaa Al-Mansour Production company Gidden Media, Parallel Films International sales HanWay Films Producers Amy Baer, Alan Moloney, Ruth Coady Executive producers Johanna Hogan, Peter Watson, Matthew Baker, Isabel Davis, Charles Auty, Phil Hunt, Compton Ross, Emma Jensen, Joannie Burstein, Rebecca Miles, Mark Amin Screenplay Emma Jensen Cinematography David Ungaro Editor Alex Mackie Production design Paki Smith Music Amelia Warner Main cast Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth, Bel Powley, Joanne Froggatt, Tom Sturridge, Maisie Williams, Stephen Dillane

A close-quarters drama from writer-director Clio Barnard (The Selfish Giant, The Arbor), Dark River is a precise, penetrating story of casual farm labourer Alice (Ruth Wilson), who has somehow survived a childhood of sexual abuse at the hands of her father (Sean Bean, in flashback).

It has been 15 years since Alice fled her rundown rural farmhouse, yet, when her father dies, she opts to return to confront the past and a complicated relationship with a brother who can terrify her. Rats roam the barns, fences are in disrepair, the sheep go hungry. Still, Alice wants to make it good, fix it all up; her bright eyes surge with hope against the odds.

Premiering in Toronto’s Platform section, Dark River should enjoy healthy festival exposure as Barnard’s reputation continues to grow. A career-best performance from Wilson will help this drama resonate, although commercial prospects are hard to call for the third UK farming drama this year, after God’s Own Country and The Levelling. Dark River is distinguished by superior film-making and admirable command of tone and pace.

Once again, Barnard delivers an intimate take on a difficult subject, raising anticipation for her future work should she decide to scale up.

Slim, at 89 minutes, Dark River (the title of a Ted Hughes poem) sets off down a classical narrative path — the death of a father unlocking the action — yet feathers in the narrative slowly and mysteriously. Although the abuse is made clear, it is never established what happened to make Alice leave her brother Joe (Mark Stanley) behind, or the precise nature of their relationship then. It is also not easy to predict how she will behave now. At times she is defiant, but often Alice is simply scared, impelled to seize on her father’s promise of the land as the chance to make good. Flashbacks, hooked on to underwater sequences, fade in and out and Alice is still too terrified to sleep in the farmhouse, opting for a tin shack instead.

She is, however, proud of her skills as a sheep shearer, and scenes with the livestock help bring life and colour to the gloom. Adriano Goldman’s camera is intuitive and lithe, while Harry Escott’s score throbs. This is a story told with a strong female perspective, and Wilson brings fresh insights to the story of a survivor of abuse. This fine actress should certainly be noticed when it comes to British awards.

PLATFORM UK. 2017. 89mins Director/screenplay Clio Barnard Production companies Moonspun Films, Left Bank Pictures, Film4, BFI, Screen Yorkshire, Wellcome Trust International sales Protagonist Pictures Producer Tracy O’Riordan Executive producers Lila Rawlings, Suzanne Mackie, Andy Harries, Lizzie Francke, Rose Garnett, Polly Stokes, Hugo Heppell, Meroë Candy.

Cinematography Adriano Goldman Editors Nick Fenton, Luke Dunkley Production design Helen Scott Main cast Ruth Wilson, Mark Stanley, Shane Attwooll, Dean Andrews, Mike Noble, Aiden McCullough, Joe Dempsie, Sean Bean

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A M E R I C A N

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REVIEWS

Beast Reviewed by Wendy Ide

Mademoiselle Paradis Reviewed by Allan Hunter Great talent demands great sacrifice in Mademoiselle Paradis (Licht), an exquisitely crafted period drama telling the true story of blind musician Maria Theresia von Paradis and pioneering physician Dr Franz Mesmer. The personal tale also reflects on the plight of women amid the glaring inequalities of 18th-century European high society.

Following its premiere in Toronto’s Platform strand.

This should readily attract arthouse audiences who have supported similar portraits of women who have suffered for their art, from Séraphine (2008) to Paula (2016).

Mademoiselle Paradis begins and ends with a lingering close-up on star Maria Dragus as she plays the harpsichord. Effort, concentration and ecstasy dance across her expressive features but, between those two scenes, the musician’s life fluctuates between hope and despair.

Blind since the age of three, Maria is both admired and pitied by a society that swoons over the sublime sensitivity of her playing. Her parents regard her as a mixture of breadwinner and prize possession, but agree to her treatment at the hands of Mesmer (Devid Striesow).

Muscle exercises and Mesmer’s more controversial methods of manipulating magnetic fields achieve some success. As Maria starts to perceive light and colour, she is overwhelmed by the beauty and cruelty of the world. Director Barbara Albert allows us some sense of what she is feeling by using a light that seems too strong, and presenting the outlines of faces just starting to come into focus.

The question remains of how much genuine progress Maria has made, whether this is mind over matter and if Mesmer is merely a charlatan. What is without doubt is that Maria no longer plays with the skill and dexterity that once seemed innate. The promise of restored vision could mean the end of her career.

Across all of its elements, Mademoiselle Paradis illustrates a rich selection of themes from the class divide of the period to the treatment of the afflicted and the plight of Maria as a young woman given no say in her own future.

Costume designer Veronika Albert deserves special mention for the fabrics and finery used to denote the way fashion was a measure of status in 18th century Vienna.

A superb performance from Maria Dragus pulls Maria from the pages of history making her alive and emotional. She creates a deeply sympathetic figure trapped between the conflicting demands of life and art.

10 Screen International at Toronto September 11, 2017

PLATFORM Ger-Austria. 2017. 97mins Director Barbara Albert Production companies Looks Filmproduktionen, NGF International sales Films Distribution Producers Michael Kitzberger, Wolfgang Widerhofer, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Markus Glaser, Martina Haubrich, Gunnar Dedio Screenplay Katrin Resetarits based on the novel Mesmerized by Alissa Walser Cinematography Christine A Maier Editor Niki Mossböck Production design Katharina Wöppermann Main cast Maria Dragus, Devid Striesow, Lukas Miko, Katja Kolm, Maresi Riegner

Jessie Buckley is a force of nature in the lead role of this sinewy psychological thriller. And just to be clear, we are talking about the kind of nature that is red of tooth and claw, the kind that eats its young. The first feature from writer and director Michael Pearce, Bafta nominated for his short Keeping Up With The Joneses, Beast should connect with further thrillseeking festival audiences following its world premiere in Toronto’s Platform. The combination of dramatically charged material and impressive rising talents should prove catnip to arthouse audiences Buckley plays Moll, the dutiful daughter of an overbearing mother who meets an inappropriate boy, which promptly unleashes the hellcat within. The story unfolds against the backdrop of a series of murders that rock their Jersey island community, but the fact her lover is a suspect is only part of a story that is driven by the white-knuckle trajectory of Moll’s character arch.

A soul-sapping mother/daughter relationship is neatly summed up in an early scene. A choir rehearsal is abruptly interrupted for the choir leader, Moll’s mother (Geraldine James), to single out her daughter for criticism. Later, Moll runs away from her own birthday party and meets Pascal (Johnny Flynn). Feral, unvarnished, dangerous, exciting, he is everything Moll’s conservative family disdains.

Just as Moll’s glorious red hair gradually breaks free of the lifeless, apologetic bob she first sports, so her personality, emboldened by Pascal’s interest, is no longer constrained by family expectations. And Buckley captures the tumult of conflicting emotions stirred. In one scene, she is following Pascal deep into the woods when suddenly she freezes; the audience assumes she is afraid, but in fact it is desire that darkens her eyes and launches her towards him.

Perhaps even more powerful is the scene that follows.

Back home, smeared with dirt and sweat, she digs her mudcaked nails into the pristine family sofa, languidly reliving the sense memory of her new lover’s body.

The collision of two worlds is explosive — it feels like the earthy sensuality of Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights chafing against the buttoned-up propriety of Joanna Hogg’s Archipelago. Pearce’s use of the oppressively pretty landscape of Jersey in the Channel Islands gives the picture a distinctive flavour; the score, a throbbing pulse that rises like a tide of anger, grounds some of the visceral moments before they spiral into excess.

PLATFORM

UK. 2017. 106mins Director/screenplay Michael Pearce Production companies Agile Films, Stray Bear Productions, Film4, BFI International sales Protagonist Pictures Producers Ivana MacKinnon, Lauren Dark, Kristian Brodie Cinematographer Benjamin Kracun Editor Maya Maffioli Production design Laura Ellis Cricks Music Jim Williams Main cast Jessie Buckley, Johnny Flynn, Trystan Gravelle, Geraldine James, Charley Palmer Rothwell

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Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock

SPOTLIGHT GEORGE CLOONEY

George Clooney at Saturday’s TIFF premiere of Suburbicon

eating each other alive, they need a more palatable candidate.

Not yourself?

I don’t think so. I would hope there are a lot more qualified people than me. We need someone who can clearly articulate who we are as a country, and that we’re not living our lives in fear. That’s not who we are, Americans aren’t afraid. All these Breitbart idiots who act like tough Americans, all they do is stoke fear — what a bunch of pussies.

A leading man George Clooney speaks to Tom Grater about US politics, his love for Narcos and The Crown, and his TIFF Special Presentation Suburbicon

G

eorge Clooney is in Toronto for the North American premiere of his latest film as a director, Suburbicon, a 1950s-set crime noir starring Matt Damon and Julianne Moore. The film’s depiction of a black family’s struggles with the racial abuse they receive after moving into a prefab community in 1950s America will strike a chord with many after recent events in Charlottesville, but as Clooney tells Screen International, the film’s politics are inadvertently prescient. In fact, Suburbicon had to be re-edited after Donald Trump’s election, with Josh Brolin’s nowabsent profanity-laden baseball coach deemed too silly against the political backdrop. In a wide-ranging discussion, Clooney divulges why he will not be running for office, why the price of fame doesn’t bring him regrets, and the politics of getting ‘woke’.

Suburbicon is set in the 1950s but has clear comparisons to today. Was the film designed to be an allegory?

Films can never lead a conversation because it takes two years to make them, you’re always behind the story. We didn’t want the film to be a conversation about race, that wasn’t what it was designed to

be. [The events in Charlottesville] have transformed the film’s meaning.

The film is quite violent and angry — why were those aspects important?

I’ve done films that tackle issues straight on. We wanted this one to be a big, entertaining film, we wanted people to go in there and watch Matt Damon get punched in the face — I think that’s funny.

The film’s $24m budget isn’t huge considering it’s a period film and you have A-list actors. Did everyone work below their usual rates?

Matt [Damon] obviously did, Julianne [Moore] did too, everybody took a hit. I got paid $50,000 to write, direct and produce for two years, and I have no back end.

If the movie made $200m, I w o u l d n’ t make a dime.

I did it because I like it.

(Right) Matt Damon in Suburbicon

12 Screen International at Toronto September 11, 2017

‘All these Breitbart idiots who act like tough Americans, all they do is stoke fear — what a bunch of pussies’ George Clooney

Looking at the context around the film, do things in the US have to get worse before they can get better?

There are some people out there who believed in voting for Trump to make things terrible and make everybody ‘woke’. I’m not a big believer in that.

I think we can fix things without having to destroy everything along the way. But since we are in the middle of destroying everything, it would be good if we fixed it.

Trump already seems to be campaigning for a second term. Do you think he’ll get it?

I didn’t think he could get one, I’m done predicting.

The Democrats are

You’ve been an A-lister for such a long time, rarely out of the limelight. Has that taken a toll?

I used to cut tobacco for a living, I sold insurance door-to-door, I worked in an all-night liquor store. I remember growing up in Kentucky and hearing some star talk about how tough their life was, and I’d be like, ‘Fuck that guy.’ The reality is that I’m aware I can’t complain, I’m lucky. Does that mean I don’t miss being able to walk in Central Park with my wife and kids? Sure. You’re in a constant fishbowl and that’s claustrophobic.

You once said you felt like you’d made a pact with the devil to give up your privacy for fame. If you could turn back time, would you still make that pact?

Probably, but I would do it in a different way. Fame is a bug light on a camping site — you go hurtling towards it thinking you want all these things, then you get there and you get your wings singed because it’s too bright. But I get to work in this world and I feel very privileged.

It’s harder on my wife, and I’m very concerned about how it will be for my two children, but we’ll figure it out.

Now that you’re a family man, what do you enjoy watching at home?

There’s infinitely more good television than there is anything else. My favourite series I’ve ever seen is Narcos — every episode was like The Godfather. My wife and I also watched The Crown. In Narcos we see someone beating the shit out of somebody and killing their fucking dog, and then the next night we’re watching The Crown and when Prince Philip says to the Queen, “Maybe you should do that on your knees,” we’re like, “Ooh dear.” It’s unbelievable how quickly your sense of morals changes.

Who are the directors around you’d like to work with?

I love that guy who did Ex Machina, Alex Garland. I think he’s scarily good. And how about Get Out? I thought that movie s was fucking great. ■ Suburbicon: final P&I screening on Sept 13

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EVENTS ARE MADE HERE.

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TORONTO IN PICTURES

Scotland gets creative at TIFF Where When Who Why

Brassaii, 461 King St West, Toronto Saturday, September 9 Creative Scotland and Screen International A celebration of Scottish film

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1 Thierry Wase-Bailey and Henriette Wollmann Celsius Entertainment, Roy Boulter and Sol Papadopoulos Hurricane Films 2 Steve Shor Sonoma International Film Festival, Sorrel Geddes British Film Commission, Craig Weintraub Long Beach International Film Festival 3 Matt Mueller Screen International, Natalie Usher Creative Scotland 4 Tine Klint LevelK, Stine Oppegaard Norwegian Film Institute, Christian De Schutter Flanders Image, Wendy Mitchell British Council and Screen International 5 Sofia Neves and Lucie Braverman WestEnd Films 6 Paul McGuigan director, Barbara Broccoli producer, Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool 7 Andrea Skinner BFI, Matthew Reents British Consulate LA, Brodie Pringle Creative Scotland 8 Tom Grater Screen International, Tristan Goligher producer, Lean On Pete 9 Renée Robinson and Christopher Benjamin Jamaica Promotions Corporation, Nneka Luke Trinidad & Tobago Film Company 10 Brassaii, Toronto

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September 11, 2017 Screen International at Toronto 15

Grayson Lee

GUEST LIST

ON SET BREATHE

‘My mother is realising it’s a bit odd to have a film made about you. She trusts us to do it right’ Jonathan Cavendish, producer

Andy Serkis (left) on set with Andrew Garfield and Hugh Bonneville

Life force

Producer Jonathan Cavendish and director Andy Serkis tell Mark Salisbury why Breathe’s triumph-over-adversity story is so close to their hearts

H

atfield House in Hertfordshire has stood in for Wayne Manor (Batman) and Lara Croft’s ancestral pile (Tomb Raider), as well as being the childhood home of Elizabeth I. Today, however, the grand Jacobean manor has been transformed into both a 1970s Oxford hospital car park and the interior of a German hotel for Breathe, the remarkable true story of Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield) and his wife Diana (Claire Foy) who together battled Robin’s polio, raised their son Jonathan and helped bring about a pioneering change in the treatment and care of people with the condition.

“It’s a love story, a story of triumph over adversity, and a story of somebody who loses control of their life and then gets it back,” says producer Jonathan Cavendish, who previously filmed part of Elizabeth: The Golden Age at Hatfield. But what makes Breathe unique is that it also happens to be the story of Cavendish’s parents, and he, himself, is a character in it, played by a variety of actors from baby to 20 year old (Dean-Charles Chapman).

Written by William Nicholson (Shadowlands) and directed by Andy Serkis, Breathe is one of two new films emerging

from Serkis and Cavendish’s production company The Imaginarium, alongside horror-thriller The Ritual. It also marks Serkis’s feature directorial debut. The actor, renowned for his motion-capture performances as Gollum, King Kong and Caesar in the Planet Of The Apes franchise, has directed several shorts and shot second unit on Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit films; he also directed The Imaginarium’s delayed adaptation of The Jungle Book, entitled Jungle Book, prior to Breathe but the VFX-heavy film is still in post and not scheduled for release by Warner Bros until October 2018.

Gathering momentum Cavendish had been developing the project with Nicholson for more than a decade when he and Serkis decided in spring 2016 to make Breathe after finding that Garfield and Foy had a window of availability that coincided with their own. Just before Cannes last year, they decided to roll the dice. “We rushed off to Cannes and it was all very bracing,” recalls Cavendish. “It was a bit scary.

And we’re a company with resources. It would be very difficult for a small, independent company to have done that.”

16 Screen International at Toronto September 11, 2017

‘It packs an emotional punch. The buzzword will be it’s a disability movie, but it celebrates life’ Andy Serkis, director

Seven weeks after the decision to move ahead, and having raised the $15m budget from BBC Films, BFI, Embankment Films and Silver Reel, they were in production. Bleecker Street and Participant Media picked up North American rights to Breathe, while STX International will release in the UK. It has its world premiere at TIFF before opening the BFI London Film Festival on October 4.

The shooting schedule comprised five weeks in the UK and two in South Africa, which doubled for Kenya’s Great Rift Valley as well as Spain. Tom Hollander, Hugh Bonneville, Ed Speleers and Diana Rigg round out the cast.

Serkis played rock star Ian Dury, who was partially paralysed by childhood polio, in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and has a sister who is a wheelchair user, and Breathe represented the opportunity to

make a film that is “full of pathos and packs an emotional punch. The buzzword will be it’s a disability movie, but it’s celebrating life, and celebrating as much life as you can have, being only two minutes away from death.”

On set today, Garfield is found either in a wheelchair or bedbound, his performance requiring a total lack of physicality as well as a change in his voice and breathing that is striking to behold. “He learnt to breathe like my father, who had to relearn to talk after he got polio,” explains Cavendish. “He moves his face in the same way.

A lot of it came from me describing how he did it. But it’s often uncanny for me to watch.” So how much is fact and how much fiction? “There’s nothing that happens that didn’t happen. To the extent there are lots of conversations that took place because I can remember them, or my mother mentioned them, or they’ve passed into family mythology.”

While writing the script, Nicholson spent time with many of the people involved. “He met my mother at great length. And my godfather, Colin Campbell, who is a big part of the story,” says Cavendish, whose father Robin passed away in 1994. “He met my surviving uncle — I have identical twin uncles, both of whom are being played by Tom Hollander. He became very immersed.”

As did Garfield, Foy and Serkis. The latter, coincidentally, bought a house near Cavendish’s mother shortly after they founded The Imaginarium in 2011.

“Andy lives 200 yards from my mother, and my mother lives at the bottom of the garden of the house where she lived all their married life,” reveals Cavendish.

“She is very matter-of-fact,” he says of his mother, who visited the set several times. “One of her great gifts is that she lives in the moment, she doesn’t look back, she doesn’t look forward. She’s realising it’s a bit odd to have a film made about you, but she’s very unquestioning. She trusts us to do it right. She trusts Claire, she trusts Andrew, she trusts Andy. I presume she trusts me. She’s quietly proud, I think, of the life she and my father had, s and the achievements they managed.” ■ Breathe: public screenings from Sept 11; press & industry from Sept 12

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DANIELLE WEINBERG

July 26 – August 5

2018

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

Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz.

Sebastian Lelio (A Fantastic Woman, Gloria) directs Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams in this adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s novel about a woman who returns home to her orthodox Jewish community in London and rekindles a romance with her cousin’s wife.

PUBLIC SCREENINGS

08:45 LIFE AND NOTHING MORE See box, right

09:15 HAPPY END

(France/Austria/ Germany) 107mins. Les Films du Losange (int’l).

Dir: Michael Haneke.

Cast: Fantine Harduin, Franz Rogowski, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Laura Verlinden, Mathieu Kassovitz, Toby Jones.

Isabelle Huppert and JeanLouis Trintignant star in Michael Haneke’s semisequel to 2012’s Amour, about the dysfunctional lives of a bourgeois European family.

Masters TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

09:30 FIVE FINGERS FOR MARSEILLES

(South Africa) 120mins.

XYZ Films (US). Game 7 Films (int’l). Dir: Michael Matthews.

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

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

Discovery Jackman Hall

THE LEGEND OF THE UGLY KING

(Germany/Austria) 122mins.Dir: Hüseyin Tabak. Cast: Costa Gavras, Donat Keusch, Elif Güney Pütün, Fatos Güney, Gilles Jacob, Güllü Pütün, Halil Ergün,

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US

PUBLIC SCREENING

Hüseyin Tabak, Jack Lang, Leyla Demirezen, Michael Haneke, Nebahat Cehre, Tarik Akan, Tuncel Kurtiz, Yilmaz Güney.

Director Hüseyin Tabak explores the legacy of Yilmaz Güney — political dissident, convicted murderer and visionary Kurdish filmmaker — who directed the 1982 Palme d’Or-winning Yol from inside prison and died in exile just two years later.

TIFF Docs TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

10:00 BEAST

(UK) 107mins.

Protagonist Pictures (US & int’l). Dir: Michael Pearce. Cast: Charley Palmer Rothwell, Geraldine James, Jessie Buckley, Johnny Flynn, Trystan Gravelle.

A troubled woman living in an isolated community finds herself torn between her oppressive family and the allure of a secretive outsider suspected of a series of brutal murders, in writer-director Michael Pearce’s feature debut.

Platform TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

CHAPPAQUIDDICK

(US) 107mins. William Morris Endeavor

18 Screen International at Toronto September 11, 2017

Entertainment (US).

Sierra/Affinity (int’l). Dir: John Curran. Cast: Bruce Dern, Clancy Brown, Ed Helms, Jason Clarke, Jim Gaffigan, Kate Mara, Olivia Thirlby, Taylor Nichols.

A sombre and suspenseful historical drama which examines the infamous 1969 incident when Senator Ted Kennedy (Jason Clarke) accidentally drove off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, resulting in the death of campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara).

Gala Presentations Winter Garden Theatre

11:30 3/4

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

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

Two talented siblings struggle with the idea of being separated while their astrophysicist father seems incapable of dealing with his children’s anxieties, in Ilian Metev’s (Sofia’s Last Ambulance) delicately executed portrait of a family

08:45 LIFE AND NOTHING MORE

(Spain/US) 113mins.

Film Constellation (int’l). Dir: Antonio Mendez Esparza. Cast: Andrew Bleechington, Regina Williams, Robert Williams, Ry’nesia Chambers.

The second feature from Spanish-born filmmaker during their last summer together.

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

MOTHER!

(US) 115mins. Paramount Pictures. Dir: Darren Aronofsky. Cast: Brian Gleeson, Domhnall Gleeson, Ed Harris, Javier Bardem, Jennifer Lawrence, Kristen Wiig, Michelle Pfeiffer.

Darren Aronofsky’s highly anticipated psychological thriller about a couple threatened by the arrival of uninvited guests to their tranquil home.

Special Presentations Elgin Theatre

VICTORIA & ABDUL

(UK) 111mins. Universal Pictures International (int’l). Dir: Stephen

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

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

Frears. Cast: Adeel Akhtar, Ali Fazal, Eddie Izzard, Fenella Woolgar, Judi Dench, Olivia Williams, Tim Piggot-Smith.

Stephen Frears reunites with his Philomena star Judi Dench in this charming dramedy chronicling the friendship between Queen Victoria and a decades-younger Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales

12:00 DISOBEDIENCE

(UK) 114mins.

FilmNation Entertainment, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US). FilmNation Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Sebastian Lelio.

Cast: Alessandro Nivola,

(US) 104mins. Dir: Hany Abu-Assad. Cast: Beau Bridges, Dermot Mulroney, Idris Elba, Kate Winslet.

A surgeon (Idris Elba) and a journalist (Kate Winslet) must rely on each other for survival when the small plane they share crashes in the wilderness.

Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

12:30 WESTERN

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

Cultural difference, masculine bravado and national pride lead to high tensions in the latest from Valeska Grisebach, about a group of German construction workers labouring in the Bulgarian countryside.

Contemporary World Cinema Jackman Hall

12:45 OUR PEOPLE WILL BE HEALED

(Canada) 97mins.

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

Documentary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin provides a glimpse of what decolonisation looks like in Norway House, one of Manitoba’s largest First Nations communities.

Masters TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

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JURY GRID, PAGE 26

OF SHEEP AND MEN

13:00

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

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

A SEASON IN FRANCE

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

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

TIFF Docs Jackman Hall

15:45 RAINBOW — A PRIVATE AFFAIR

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

13:15 JIM & ANDY: THE GREAT BEYOND — THE STORY OF JIM CARREY & ANDY KAUFMAN WITH A VERY SPECIAL, CONTRACTUALLY OBLIGATED MENTION OF TONY CLIFTON

(US/Canada) 95mins.

William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, Cinetic Media (US). Dir: Chris Smith. Cast: Jim Carrey.

Offbeat documentarian Chris Smith provides a behind-the-scenes look at how Jim Carrey adopted the persona of idiosyncratic comedian Andy Kaufman on the set of Man on the Moon.

TIFF Docs Winter Garden Theatre

13:45

PUBLIC SCREENING 14:00 RAVENS

(Sweden) 107mins.

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

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

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

14:15

THE MOTIVE

WOMAN WALKS AHEAD

See box, above

(US) 101mins. Creative Artists Agency (US).

IM Global (int’l). Dir: Susanna White. Cast: Ciaran Hinds, Jessica Chastain, Michael Greyeyes, Sam Rockwell.

Jessica Chastain stars in the true story of Catherine Weldon, a 19th-century Brooklyn artist who travelled to the Dakota Territory and became the confidante of legendary Sioux chief Sitting Bull.

WAJIB

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

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

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

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 4

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Gala Presentations Scotiabank 1

14:30

Valerie Faris. Cast: Alan Cumming, Andrea Riseborough, Austin Stowell, Bill Pullman, Elisabeth Shue, Emma Stone, Natalie Morales, Sarah Silverman, Steve Carell.

Emma Stone and Steve Carell star in this recreation of the legendary 1973 tennis match that pitted Billie Jean King against Bobby Riggs.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales

15:00 LEAN ON PETE

(US/UK) 119mins. The Bureau Sales, Celluloid Dreams (int’l). Dir: Andrew Haigh. Cast: Charlie Plummer, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Travis Fimmel.

Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years) directs Steve Buscemi and Chloë Sevigny in this modernday western about a 15-year-old lost soul who hooks up with a pair of itinerant horse trainers and develops a powerful bond with a racehorse on its last legs.

Special Presentations Elgin Theatre

BATTLE OF THE SEXES

SUBMERGENCE

(US) 121mins. Dir: Jonathan Dayton,

(France/Germany/ Spain) 112mins. United

13:45 THE MOTIVE

(Spain) 112mins.

Filmax International (int’l). Dir: Manuel Martin Cuenca. Cast: Adelfa Calvo, Adriana Paz, Antonio de la Torre, Javier Gutierrez, Maria Leon, Rafael Tellez, Tenoch Huerta.

Searching for inspiration, an aspiring novelist in Seville insinuates himself into the lives of his neighbours, in this hilarious, thoughtprovoking and selfaware meditation on art and authorial intent.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3

(Italy/France) 84mins.

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

In Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s elegant historical drama, a doomed lovetriangle gets caught up in the tumultous upheaval of the Second World War and the partisan resistance in Italy.

Masters Scotiabank 14

REVENGE

Talent Agency (US).

Embankment Films (int’l). Dir: Wim Wenders. Cast: Alicia Vikander, Celyn Jones, James McAvoy.

The new film from German director Wim Wenders (Pina) is a globetrotting romance about a water engineer (James McAvoy) and a deep-sea researcher (Oscar winner Alicia Vikander) striving to reconnect across oceans, continents and civil war.

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

UNICORN STORE

(US) 92mins. William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US & int’l). Dir: Brie Larson.

Cast: Annaleigh Ashford, Bradley Whitford, Brie Larson, Hamish Linklater, Joan Cusack, Karan Soni, Mamoudou

Athie, Martha MacIsaac, Samuel L. Jackson.

Brie Larson stars in her directorial debut about a dreamer reluctant to abandon her childish wonder who is offered the most magical gift she can imagine.

Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

15:30 ERIC CLAPTON: LIFE IN 12 BARS

(UK) 135mins. Altitude Film Sales (int’l). Dir: Lili Fini Zanuck.

An intimate, revealing musical odyssey into the extraordinary life and career of guitar virtuoso Eric Clapton, told by those who have known him best, including BB King, Jimi Hendrix and George Harrison.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 2

(France) 108mins.

Charades (US & int’l).

Dir: Coralie Fargeat.

Cast: Kevin Janssens, Matilda Lutz.

Never take your mistress on an annual guys’ getaway, especially one devoted to hunting — this is the violent lesson for three married men, in writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s feature debut.

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 11

THE GUARDIANS

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

An intimate drama exploring the lives of women who are left behind »

September 11, 2017 Screen International at Toronto 19

SCREENINGS

Cast: Antoine Morin, Michel Haas, Rachid Haddad.

Narimane Mari explores the legacy of colonisation through a portrait in three acts — filmed in Algeria, on Kythira Island and in Greece — of the far reaches of imperialism, history and, ultimately, the dogged work of revolution.

to work a family farm during the Great War. Special Presentations Scotiabank 13

THE JUDGE

(Palestine/US) 76mins.

Ro*co films (US & int’l).

Dir: Erika Cohn. Cast: Judge Kholoud Al-Faqih.

A vérité legal drama about Judge Kholoud Al-Faqih, the first woman appointed to a sharia court in the Middle East, whose career provides rare insights into both Islamic law and gendered justice.

Wavelengths Jackman Hall

THE HOUSE BY THE SEA

TIFF Docs TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

16:00 DARK IS THE NIGHT

(Philippines) 106mins.

Swift Productions (int’l).

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

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

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 9

16:15 PUBLIC SCHOOLED

(Canada) 86mins.

Kaleidoscope Film Distribution, XYZ Films (US). Kaleidoscope Film Distribution (int’l).

Dir: Kyle Rideout. Cast: Alex Barima, Andrea Bang, Andrew Herr, Andrew McNee, Daniel Doheny, Eva Day, Grace Park, Josh Epstein, Judy Greer, Maxine Miller, Russell Peters, Siobhan Williams.

After being homeschooled his whole life, wannabe physicist Liam (Daniel Doheny) drops out and enrols in public school to chase the girl of his dreams, in this heartwarming comedy.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

THE CAPTAIN

(Germany/France/ Poland) 118mins.

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

PUBLIC SCREENING 18:15 ZAMA

(Argentina/Brazil/Spain/ France/Netherlands/ Mexico/Portugal/US) 115mins. The Match Factory (int’l). Dir: Lucrecia Martel. Cast: Daniel Gimenez Cacho,

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

Special Presentations Scotiabank 10

THE RIDER

(US) 103mins.

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

Cast: Brady Jandreau, Cat Clifford, Lane Scott, Lilly Jandreau, Tim Jandreau.

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

Special Presentations Scotiabank 4

16:45 THE FLORIDA PROJECT

(US) 115mins.

Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Sean Baker.

Cast: Bria Vinaite, Brooklynn Prince, Valeria Cotto, Willem Dafoe.

The latest from Sean Baker (Tangerine) juxtaposes the carefree summer of a spirited kid with the harsh realities dogging the grown-ups in her orbit.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3

20 Screen International at Toronto September 11, 2017

Daniel Veronese, Juan Minujin, Lola Duenas, Mariana Nunes, Matheus Nachtergaele, Nahuel Cano.

Tired of waiting for the king to transfer him to a more liberating location, a South American officer

WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY

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

Nisha’s attempts to live a double life — obedient to her traditional Pakistani upbringing at home, a typical Norwegian teenager when she is out with her friends — comes crashing down when her concerned parents kidnap her and send her to Pakistan, in Iram Haq’s empathetic story of family, community and culture.

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

17:00 RAZZIA

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

Dir: Nabil Ayouch.

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

Director Nabil Ayouch weaves together a tapestry

love story of Robin and Diana Cavendish, an adventurous couple who refuse to give up in the face of a devastating disease.

of the Spanish Crown embarks on a perilous journey towards freedom, in the latest from Lucrecia Martel (The Holy Girl, The Headless Woman).

Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

Masters TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

DOWNSIZING

of five narrative threads, all tied to one tumultuous event on the streets of Casablanca.

Platform Winter Garden Theatre

17:30 HANNAH

(Italy/Belgium/France) 95mins. TF1 Studio (int’l). Dir: Andrea Pallaoro. Cast: André Wilms, Charlotte Rampling.

Charlotte Rampling stars in Andrea Pallaoro’s intimate portrait of a woman drifting between reality and denial when she is left alone to grapple with the consequences of her husband’s imprisonment.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 1

18:00 BREATHE

(UK) 117mins.

Embankment Films (int’l). Dir: Andy Serkis. Cast: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Hugh Bonneville, Tom Hollander.

Actor Andy Serkis makes his directorial debut with the inspiring true

(US) 135mins.

Paramount Pictures. Dir: Alexander Payne. Cast: Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, Kristen Wiig, Matt Damon.

Matt Damon leads a strong cast in Alexander Payne’s latest, a sci-fi social satire about a man who chooses to shrink himself (literally) to simplify his life.

Special Presentations Elgin Theatre

FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER

(Cambodia) 136mins.

Dir: Angelina Jolie. Cast: Kompheak Phoeung, Socheata Sveng, Sreymoch Sareum.

Angelina Jolie co-produces, co-writes and directs this adaptation of the memoir

by Loung Ung, which recounts the author’s horrifying childhood experiences under the murderous Khmer Rouge regime in her native Cambodia.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales

(France) 107mins. MK2 (int’l). Dir: Robert Guédiguian. Cast: Anais Demoustier, Ariane Ascaride, Diouc Koma, Fred Ulysse, Genevieve Mnich, Gérard Meylan, Jacques Boudet, JeanPierre Darroussin, Robinson Stévenin.

Three grown children gathered at the picturesque villa of their dying father reflect on where they are, who they have become, and what they have inherited, in Robert Guédiguian’s elegiac tribute to a family and a fading lifestyle.

Masters TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

(US) 115mins. Dir: Martin McDonagh.

Cast: Abbie Cornish, Caleb Landry Jones, Clarke Peters, Frances McDormand, John Hawkes, Lucas Hedges, Peter Dinklage, Sam Rockwell, Samara Weaving, Woody Harrelson.

A grieving mother (Frances McDormand) antagonises her local police force to call attention to the lack of progress in the search for her daughter’s killer.

Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

18:15 ZAMA See box, above

18:30 SULEIMAN MOUNTAIN

LE FORT DES FOUS

(France/Algeria/ Switzerland/Germany/ Greece/Qatar) 144mins.

Dir: Narimane Mari.

(Kyrgyzstan/Russia) 101mins. Dir: Elizaveta Stishova. Cast: Asset Imangaliev, Daniel Daiyrbekov, Perizat

www.screendaily.com

Ermanbetova, Turgunai Erkinbekova.

A small-time con man, his two wives and his recently returned son travel through the countryside of Kyrgyzstan, in Elizaveta Stishova’s unconventional family road-trip drama.

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

18:45 MEDITATION PARK

(Canada) 94mins.

Mongrel Media (US & int’l). Dir: Mina Shum.

Cast: Don McKellar, Pei Pei Cheng, Sandra Oh, Tzi Ma. A devoted wife is forced to reassess her reverence for her husband after she finds another woman’s thong in his laundry.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 2

PRINCESITA See box, below

THE ROYAL HIBISCUS HOTEL

(Nigeria) 90mins.

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

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

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

LONGING

(Israel) 104mins. Films Boutique (int’l). Dir: Savi Gabizon. Cast: Asi Levi, Neta Riskin, Shai Avivi, Shimon Mimran, Yoram Tolledano.

A middle-aged Israeli bachelor is forced to evaluate his life choices when he discovers an ex-girlfriend had given birth to his son 20 years before, in this drama.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 4

Hawa Essuman. Cast: Silas Kpanan’Ayoung Siakor.

Anjali Nayar and Hawa Essuman profile the life of Liberian activist Silas Siakor, a tireless crusader against illegal logging and a symbol of resistance for a new generation.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 10

19:30 DON’T TALK TO IRENE

(US) 89mins. Dir: Jason Kohn.

Infamous and influential tennis coach Nick Bollettieri has trained generations of champions, but that greatness comes at a personal price, in the second film from director Jason Kohn.

(Canada) 82mins. The Film Sales Company (US & int’l). Dir: Pat Mills.

Cast: Anastasia Phillips, Bruce Gray, Geena Davis, Michelle McLeod, Scott Thompson.

An overweight teenage girl follows her passion for cheerleading and signs up for a talent-search reality show in order to prove physical perfection isn’t everything.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 13

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 3

SILAS

WINTER BROTHERS

(Canada/South Africa/ Kenya) 80mins. Cinephil (int’l). Dir: Anjali Nayar,

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

19:15 LOVE MEANS ZERO

PUBLIC SCREENING 18:45 PRINCESITA

(Chile/Argentina/ Spain) 78mins.

Mundial (int’l). Dir: Marialy Rivas. Cast: Marcelo Alonso, Maria Gracia Omegna, Nathalia Acevedo.

Dir: Hlynur Palmason.

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

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

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

20:15 EUPHORIA

(Sweden/Germany) 104mins. Great Point Media (US & int’l). Dir: Lisa Langseth. Cast: Adrian Lester, Alicia Vikander, Charles Dance, Charlotte Rampling, Eva Green, Mark Stanley.

Alicia Vikander and Eva Green star in this finely honed meditation on life and mortality — a story of two estranged sisters attempting a difficult and ominous reconciliation.

Platform Winter Garden Theatre

20:30

A young girl’s transition to adulthood becomes violent when she defies the cult leader forcing her to carry his ‘holy child’, in this dark fairytale.

Discovery Scotiabank 11

YOU DISAPPEAR

(Denmark/Sweden) 118mins. TrustNordisk (int’l). Dir: Peter Schonau Fog. Cast: Henning Valin, InaMiriam Rosenbaum, Lane Lind, Lars Knutzon, Laura Bro, Michael

Nyqvist, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Sofus Ronnow, Trine Dyrholm.

Several of Denmark’s finest actors, including Trine Dyrholm and Nikolaj Lie Kaas, star in this incisive, sometimes chilling drama about a school principal whose marriage begins to unravel after he receives a terminal diagnosis.

Hansal Mehta. Cast: Kewal Arora, Rajesh Tailang, Rajkummar Rao, Rupinder Nagra, Timothy Ryan Hickernell.

Hansal Mehta recounts the story of infamous British-born terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who kidnapped and murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

21:00 MARK FELT — THE MAN WHO BROUGHT DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE

(US) 103mins. Sierra/ Affinity (int’l). Dir: Peter Landesman. Cast: Brian d’Arcy James, Bruce Greenwood, Diane Lane, Eddie Marsan, Josh Lucas, Julian Morris, Kate Walsh, Liam Neeson, Maika Munroe, Michael C. Hall, Noah Wyle, Tom Sizemore, Wendi McLendon-Covey.

Liam Neeson stars as the FBI special agent who helped bring down the Nixon White House when he became Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward’s infamous source Deep Throat during the Watergate investigation.

Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

OMERTA

(India) 96mins.

FilmKaravan (int’l). Dir:

21:15 GOOD LUCK

(France/Germany) 143mins. Dir: Ben Russell.

Ben Russell continues his explorations in speculative ethnography with this study of two mines: a state-owned and -operated copper mine in Serbia, and a small-scale, collectively run open-air gold mine in Suriname, restoring visibility to an often unseen labour force.

Wavelengths TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

NEVER STEADY, NEVER STILL

(Canada) 110mins. Dir: Kathleen Hepburn.

Cast: Jared Abrahamson, Jonathan Whitesell, Lorne Cardinal, Mary Galloway, Nicholas Campbell, Shirley Henderson, Théodore Pellerin.

In the wake of her husband’s death, a

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 9

19:00 BEYOND WORDS

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

A Polish-born, Berlinbased lawyer working on refugee cases is unexpectedly reunited with his long-lost father, in this luminous black-and-white feature.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

www.screendaily.com

»

September 11, 2017 Screen International at Toronto 21

SCREENINGS

woman fights to remain independent despite the advance of Parkinson’s disease.

Discovery Scotiabank 9

OBLIVION VERSES

(France/Germany/ Netherlands/ Chile) 92mins.

Urban Distribution International (int’l).

Dir: Alireza Khatami.

Cast: Amparo Noguera, Gonzalo Robles, Itziar Aizpuru, Juan Margallo, Manuel Moron, Tomas del Estal.

An elderly caretaker discovers the body of an unknown young woman and embarks on a magical odyssey to give her a proper burial.

Discovery Scotiabank 11

21:30 DARKEST HOUR See box, right

DISAPPEARANCE

(Iran/Qatar) 88mins.

New Europe Film Sales (US & int’l). Dir: Ali Asgari. Cast: Elsie de Brauw, Jakob Oftebro, Marcus Hanssen, Rifka Lodeizen.

On a cold night in Tehran, two young lovers go from hospital to hospital in search of help as they face the tragic consequences of their youthful naivety, in the latest from Iranian writer-director Ali Asgari.

PUBLIC SCREENING 21:30 DARKEST HOUR

(UK) 125mins. Universal Pictures International (int’l). Dir: Joe Wright.

Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Gary Oldman, Kristin

Discovery Jackman Hall

Lebanon/Qatar) 90mins.

The Match Factory (int’l).

Dir: Shirin Neshat, Shoja Azari. Cast: Kais Nashif, Mehdi Moinzadeh, Neda Rahmanian, Yasmin Raeis.

Sherin Neshat’s moviewithin-a-movie about an ambitious Persian director’s attempts to film the life and legacy of legendary Egyptian singer Oum Kulthum.

HOSTILES

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 2

(US) 127mins. Creative Artists Agency (US).

Dir: Scott Cooper. Cast: Adam Beach, Ben Foster, Christian Bale, Jesse Plemons, Q’orianka Kilcher, Rory Cochrane, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi.

A 19th-century-set western from director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Black Mass), about an army captain who agrees to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief back to his tribal lands.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales

SOLDIERS. STORY FROM FERENTARI

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

Set within an impoverished ghetto in Bucharest, Ivana Mladenovic’s intimate debut navigates the unexpected relationship that blossoms between a young anthropologist and a Roma guide.

Scott Thomas, Lily James, Ronald Pickup, Stephen Dillane.

Gary Oldman steps into the imposing shoes of Winston Churchill in this period drama from

director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement), set in the early years of the Second World War.

LevelK (US & int’l). Dir: Priscilla Cameron. Cast: Ed Oxenbould, Ewen Leslie, Melissa George, Sophie Lowe.

Priscilla Cameron’s feature debut follows a father (Ewen Leslie) and his son (Ed Oxenbould), who find their joie de vivre rekindled for the first time since the death of their matriarch by the arrival of a mysterious florist named Evelyn (Melissa George).

Finecut (int’l). Dir: Kim Yang-hee. Cast: Ga-ram Jung, Hye-jin Jeon, Ik-june Yang.

A married poet meets a teenage boy working at a doughnut shop and helplessly develops feelings for him.

Discovery Scotiabank 14

THE LITTLE GIRL WHO WAS TOO FOND OF MATCHES

(Canada) 111mins. Seville International (US & int’l). Dir: Simon Lavoie.

Cast: Antoine L’Écuyer, Jean-Francois Casabonne, Marine Johnson.

The latest by Québecois auteur Simon Lavoie follows the lives of two children who, in the wake of their father’s death, gradually come to realise the perverse nature of their upbringing.

Discovery Scotiabank 8

Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

LOOKING FOR OUM KULTHUM

THE BUTTERFLY TREE

THE POET AND THE BOY

(Germany/Austria/Italy/

(Australia) 97mins.

(South Korea) 110mins.

22 Screen International at Toronto September 11, 2017

Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

Discovery Scotiabank 10

THE SHAPE OF WATER

(US) 123mins. Dir: Guillermo del Toro. Cast: Doug Jones, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins, Sally Hawkins.

At the height of the Cold War, circa 1962, two workers in a high-tech US government laboratory (Sally Hawkins and Oscar winner Octavia Spencer) discover a terrifying secret experiment, in this otherworldly fairytale from Guillermo del Toro.

Special Presentations Elgin Theatre

21:45 MOTORRAD

(Brazil) 92mins. Dir: Vicente Amorim. Cast: Alex Nader, Carla Salle, Emilio Dantas, Guilherme Prates, Jayme

Del Cueto, Juliana Lohmann, Pablo Sanabio.

In director Vicente Amorim’s wild and weird allegorical thriller, a gang of young dirt-bikers on a ride across an isolated region of Brazil find themselves being hunted by a machete-wielding band of motorcyclists intent on killing them all.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 3

SAMMY DAVIS, JR.: I’VE GOTTA BE ME

(US) 100mins.

Submarine (US & int’l).

Dir: Sam Pollard.

A star-studded roster of interviewees (including Jerry Lewis, Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal) pay tribute to the legendary, multi-talented song-and-dance man.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 13

psychologically astute comedy.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 4

22:00 RUDE

(Canada) 90mins. The Feature Film Project (CFC) (int’l). Dir: Clement Virgo. Cast: Clark Johnson, Maurice Dean Wint, Melanie Nicholls-King, Rachel Crawford, Richard Chevolleau, Sharon Lewis, Stephen Shellen.

The groundbreaking debut feature from Jamaicaborn, Toronto-raised filmmaker Clement Virgo interweaves five urban narratives.

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

23:59 THE DISASTER ARTIST

UNDER THE TREE

(Iceland/Denmark/ Poland/Germany) 89mins. New Europe Film Sales (US & int’l).

Dir: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurosson. Cast: Dora Johannsdottir, Edda Björgvinsdottir, Lara Johanna Jonsdottir, Selma Björnsdottir, Sigriour Sigurpalsdottir Scheving.

The shade from a front-yard tree brings the already simmering tensions between two families in an Icelandic suburb to boiling point, in this absurd and

(US) 98mins. Good Universe (US). Dir: James Franco. Cast: Alison Brie, Ari Graynor, Dave Franco, Jacki Weaver, James Franco, Josh Hutcherson, Paul Scheer, Seth Rogen, Zac Efron James Franco directs this giddy tribute to eccentric filmmaker Tommy Wiseau and his friend, actor Greg Sestero, whose notoriously awful film The Room has become one of the most beloved cult classics of all time.

Midnight Madness Ryerson Theatre

www.screendaily.com

PRESS & INDUSTRY 08:30 C’EST LA VIE!

(France) 115mins.

Gaumont, Creative Artists Agency (US).

Gaumont (int’l). Dir: Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache. Cast: Eye Haidara, Gilles Lellouche, Jean-Paul Rouve, JeanPierre Bacri, Suzanne Clément, Vincent Macaigne.

A delightful comedy about a long-suffering caterer hoping to get through one last, mishap-heavy dinner party.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 10

CHAPPAQUIDDICK

(US) 107mins. William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

Sierra/Affinity (int’l). Dir: John Curran. Cast: Bruce Dern, Clancy Brown, Ed Helms, Jason Clarke, Jim Gaffigan, Kate Mara, Olivia Thirlby.

This suspenseful historical drama examines the infamous 1969 incident when Senator Ted Kennedy accidentally drove off a bridge, resulting in the death of campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 2

FACES PLACES

(France) 89mins. Cohen Media Group (US & int’l). Dir: Agnes Varda, JR. Cast: Agnes Varda, JR. French master Agnes Varda collaborates with mysterious street artist JR in this wondrous travelogue, in which the duo travel through small villages in the French countryside and immortalise the faces of those they meet in immense public murals.

Ke, Wang Yuexin, Wen Qi, Zhou Meijun.

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

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 11

BATTLE OF THE SEXES

(US) 121mins. Dir: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris. Cast: Alan Cumming, Andrea Riseborough, Austin Stowell, Bill Pullman, Elisabeth Shue, Emma Stone, Sarah Silverman, Steve Carell.

Emma Stone and Steve Carell star in this recreation of the legendary 1973 tennis match that pitted Billie Jean King against Bobby Riggs.

Untitled Entertainment (US). Embankment Films (int’l). Dir: Simon Baker. Cast: Ben Spence, Elizabeth Debicki, Samson Coulter, Simon Baker.

A 13-year-old thrillseeker in a coastal Australian town finds both exhilaration and danger when he is taken under the wing of a pro surfer, in the feature directorial debut of actor Simon Baker.

ONE OF US

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 14

THE LITTLE GIRL WHO WAS TOO FOND OF MATCHES

09:00 LOVING PABLO

BREATH

(Spain/Bulgaria) 123mins. Millennium Media (int’l). Dir: Fernando Leon de Aranoa. Cast: Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard.

Javier Bardem is Pablo Escobar and Penélope Cruz is his lover Virginia Vallejo, in this jarring deconstruction of the drug lord, adapted from Vallejo’s memoir Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar.

(Australia) 115mins.

Creative Artists Agency,

Special Presentations Scotiabank 4

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1 & 3

PRESS & INDUSTRY 09:15 PYEWACKET

(Canada) 87mins. Les Films Séville, TAJJ Media (int’l). Dir: Adam MacDonald.

Cast: Chloe Rose, Laurie Holden, Nicole Munoz.

A frustrated girl attempts an occult ritual in order to kill her mother, but awakens something sinister in the woods instead.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

(US) 95mins. Dir: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady.

Oscar-nominated documentarians Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady penetrate the insular world of New York’s Hasidic community, focusing on three individuals driven to break away despite threats of retaliation.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 7

(Canada) 111mins. Seville International (US & int’l). Dir: Simon Lavoie.

Cast: Antoine L’Ecuyer, Jean-Francois Casabonne, Marine Johnson.

Québecois auteur Simon Lavoie follows the lives of two children who, in the wake of their father’s death, gradually come to realise the perverse nature of their upbringing.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 9

WOMAN WALKS AHEAD

(US) 101mins. Creative Artists Agency (US).

IM Global (int’l). Dir: Susanna White. Cast: Ciaran Hinds, Jessica Chastain, Michael Greyeyes, Sam Rockwell.

Jessica Chastain stars in the true story of Catherine Weldon, a 19th-century Brooklyn artist who became the confidante of legendary Sioux chief Sitting Bull.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 12

09:15 PYEWACKET See box, below

09:30

to her orthodox Jewish community in London and rekindles a romance with her cousin’s wife.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 2

COCOTE

(Dominican Republic/ Argentina/Germany/ Qatar) 106mins. Luxbox (int’l). Dir: Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias. Cast: Isabel Spencer, Judith Rodriguez, Pedro Sierra, Vicente Santos, Yuberbi de la Rosa.

Dominican filmmaker Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias explores the lurking violence, corruption and class conflicts in his homeland through the tale of a gardener whose tense return to his country home is compounded by the fact that he is expected to avenge his father’s murder.

MARROWBONE

Wavelengths Scotiabank 6

Special Presentations Scotiabank 13

10:45

(Spain) 110mins. Creative Artists Agency (US).

Lionsgate (int’l). Dir: Sergio G Sanchez. Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, George MacKay, Matthew Stagg, Mia Goth.

Four siblings seek refuge in an old home after the death of their mother, only to discover that the house has another, more sinister, inhabitant, in this haunting directorial debut from Sergio G Sanchez, screenwriter of The Orphanage and The Impossible.

11:00

DISOBEDIENCE

APRIL’S DAUGHTER

(UK) 114mins.

FilmNation Entertainment, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US). FilmNation Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Sebastian Lelio.

Cast: Alessandro Nivola, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz.

Sebastian Lelio (A Fantastic Woman, Gloria) directs Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams in this adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s novel about a woman who returns home

(Mexico) 103mins. ICM Partners (US). MK2, Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Michel Franco. Cast: Ana Valeria Becerril, Emma Suarez, Enrique Arrizon, Hernan Mendoza, Joanna Larequi.

The estranged mother of a pregnant teen re-enters her daughter’s life, but her take-charge attitude becomes considerably more disturbing once the child is born.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 11

Masters Scotiabank 13

08:45 ANGELS WEAR WHITE

(China/France) 107mins.

Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Vivian Qu. Cast: Geng Le, Li Mengnan, Liu Weiwei, Peng Jing, Shi

www.screendaily.com

»

September 11, 2017 Screen International at Toronto 23

SCREENINGS

13:45

11:15 DARK

LES AFFAMÉS

(Germany) 90mins.

Dir: Baran bo Odar.

Cast: Anatole Taubman, Andreas Pietschmann, Angela Winkler, Anne Ratte-Polle, Jördis Triebel, Karoline Eichhorn, Lisa Vicari, Louis Hofmann.

The strange disappearance of a child is only the beginning of the mystery in Netflix’s supernatural family drama.

(Canada) 96mins.

Alma Cinema (int’l).

Dir: Robin Aubert.

Cast: Brigitte Poupart, Charlotte St-Martin, Édouard TremblayGrenier, Luc Proulx, Marc- André Grondin, Marie-Ginette Guay, Micheline Lanctot.

A remote village in Quebec is terrorised by a flesheating plague, in the latest from Robin Aubert.

Primetime Scotiabank 8

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

PRESS & INDUSTRY

DARK RIVER

(UK) 89mins.

Protagonist Pictures (US & int’l). Dir: Clio Barnard. Cast: Mark Stanley, Ruth Wilson, Sean Bean.

A drama about the old wounds and bitter new grievances that come to light when a woman returns home to settle the tenancy of her family’s Yorkshire farm.

Platform Scotiabank 14

THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING

(Serbia/France/Qatar) 100mins. Dir: Mila Turajlic.

For Serbian filmmaker Mila Turajlic, a locked door in her mother’s apartment in Belgrade provides the gateway to both her remarkable family history and her country’s tumultuous political inheritance.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 7

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

Discovery Scotiabank 5

EYE ON JULIET See box, right

REVENGE

(France) 108mins.

Charades (US & int’l).

Dir: Coralie Fargeat.

Cast: Kevin Janssens, Matilda Lutz.

Never take your mistress on an annual guys’ getaway, especially one devoted to hunting — this is the violent lesson learned by three wealthy married men, in Coralie Fargeat’s feature debut.

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 9

SUBMERGENCE

A FISH OUT OF WATER

(France/Germany/ Spain) 112mins. United Talent Agency (US).

Embankment Films (int’l). Dir: Wim Wenders. Cast: Alicia Vikander, Celyn Jones, James McAvoy.

The new film from Wim Wenders (Pina) is a globe-trotting romance about a water engineer (James McAvoy) and a deep-sea researcher (Oscar winner Alicia Vikander) striving to reconnect despite being separated by oceans, continents and civil war.

(Taiwan) 90mins.

Charades (int’l). Dir:

Special Presentations Scotiabank 4

THE SHAPE OF WATER

(US) 123mins. Dir: Guillermo del Toro.

Cast: Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins, Sally Hawkins.

Two workers in a high-tech US government laboratory discover a terrifying secret experiment, in this otherworldly fairytale from Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth).

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1 & 3

11:30

24 Screen International at Toronto September 11, 2017

11:45 RAINBOW — A PRIVATE AFFAIR

11:30 EYE ON JULIET

(Canada) 90mins. TAJJ Media (US). Films Distribution (int’l).

Dir: Kim Nguyen. Cast: Joe Cole, Lina El Arabi.

While piloting his robotic spider from the United States, a hexapod

(Italy/France) 84mins.

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

A doomed love-triangle gets caught up in the tumultous upheaval of the Second World War and the partisan resistance in Italy.

radical environmentalist husband come to him for counselling.

Masters Scotiabank 10

Masters Scotiabank 13

12:00 JEANNETTE, THE CHILDHOOD OF JOAN OF ARC

(France) 106mins.

Luxbox (int’l). Dir: Bruno Dumont.

French master Bruno Dumont (Hadewijch, P’tit Quinquin) recreates the adolescence of the Maid of Orleans as a radical, electro-metal musical.

Wavelengths Scotiabank 6

13:15 FIRST REFORMED

(US) 112mins. Arclight Films, Creative Artists Agency (US). Arclight Films (int’l). Dir: Paul Schrader. Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Cedric Kyles, Ethan Hawke, Philip Ettinger, Victoria Hill.

Tortured by the loss of a son he encouraged to enlist in the armed forces, a church minister and ex-military chaplain (Ethan Hawke) struggles with his faith when a pregnant woman (Amanda Seyfried) and her

JOURNEY’S END

(UK) 107mins. Creative Artists Agency (US).

Metro International Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Saul Dibb. Cast: Asa Butterfield, Paul Bettany, Sam Claflin, Stephen Graham, Toby Jones, Tom Sturridge.

A tense drama about a group of British soldiers awaiting a massive German offensive during the First World War, in this new adaptation of R.C. Sherriff ’s classic play.

THE CHILDREN ACT

operator and pipeline guardian (Joe Cole) becomes fascinated by a Middle Eastern woman (Lina El Arabi), in the latest from Oscarnominated filmmaker Kim Nguyen.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

SHEIKH JACKSON

(Egypt) 93mins. Media Luna New Films (int’l).

Dir: Amr Salama. Cast: Ahmad Alfishawy, Ahmed Malek, Amina Khalil, Maged El Kedwany.

The sudden death of Michael Jackson sends a former King of Pop devotee — now a young imam — into a tailspin, in this tender, comic film from Egyptian filmmaker Amr Salama.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 11

13:30 THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE SEASON 2

(US) 103mins. United Talent Agency, WME (US). Great Point Media (int’l). Dir: Tali ShalomEzer. Cast: Ellen Page, Kate Mara.

The daughter (Ellen Page) of a man on death row falls in love with a woman (Kate Mara) on the opposing side of her family’s political cause.

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

Cast: Anna Friel, Carmen Ejogo, Louisa Krause.

The second season of Starz’s chilling serialised drama — about highly paid sex workers who provide their clients with a full sexual and emotional girlfriend experience — focuses on the lives of Anna, caught up in corrupt Washington politics, and Bria, an ex-sex worker in hiding who can’t escape her past.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 2

Primetime Scotiabank 7

Special Presentations Scotiabank 14

MY DAYS OF MERCY

(UK) 105mins.

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

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

An adaptation of the novel

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

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

THE GREAT BUDDHA+

(Taiwan) 104mins.

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

Discovery Scotiabank 5

14:00 MANHUNT

(Hong Kong/China) 106mins. Media Asia Film Distribution (HK) Limited (US & int’l).

Dir: John Woo. Cast: Hanyu Zhang, Jiwon Ha, Masaharu Fukuyama.

Action maestro John Woo returns to the template of his classic The Killer with this remake of a 1970s Japanese thriller, about an innocent man who sets out

www.screendaily.com

FILMS FROM ISRAEL

AT THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2017 to clear his name after he is framed.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 10

THE SEEN AND UNSEEN

(Indonesia/Netherlands/ Australia/Qatar) 83mins.

Cercamon (int’l). Dir: Kamila Andini. Cast: Ayu Laksmi, Gus Sena, Happy Salma, I Ketut Rina, Thaly Titi Kasih.

A 10-year-old girl retreats to a fantastical, evocative dream space to deal with the impending loss of her twin brother, in this film from Indonesian director Kamila Andini.

Platform Scotiabank 9

14:15 CANIBA

(France) 95mins. Elle Driver (int’l). Dir: Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel. Cast: Issei Sagawa.

A complex and disturbing interview-portrait of Issei Sagawa, the notorious Japanese cannibal now living a reclusive life and seeking atonement for his gruesome crimes.

Wavelengths Scotiabank 6

16:00 ALL YOU CAN EAT BUDDHA

(Canada) 88mins.

Voyelles Films, FunFilm Distribution (US & int’l).

Dir: Ian Lagarde. Cast: Alexander Guerrero, David La Haye, Ludovic Berthillot, Sylvio Arriola, Yaite Ruiz.

A mysterious man at an all-inclusive resort begins performing miracles, leading onlookers to believe he is perhaps connected to a higher power.

Discovery Scotiabank 5

I LOVE YOU, DADDY

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

Shot on 35mm in black and white, Louis CK’s I Love You, Daddy was filmed entirely in secret.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

www.screendaily.com

16:30 SHUTTLE LIFE

(Malaysia) 91mins. MM2 Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Tan Seng Kiat. Cast: Angel Chan, Jack Tan, Sylvia Chang.

An impoverished family attempts to cope with tragedy and mental illness in a very divided society.

Discovery Scotiabank 7

18:30 SWEET COUNTRY

(Australia) 113mins.

Memento Films International (int’l). Dir: Warwick Thornton. Cast: Bryan Brown, Ewen Leslie, Gibson John, Hamilton Morris, Matt Day, Natassia Gorey-Furber, Sam Neill.

Accused of murder, an Aboriginal stockman and his wife try to stay ahead of a posse in the harsh outback of the Northern Territory.

Platform Scotiabank 12

THERE IS A HOUSE HERE

(Canada) 105mins.

Primitive Entertainment (US & int’l). Dir: Alan Zweig. Cast: Tatanniq Idlout.

Spanning years of correspondence and three separate trips to Nunavut, Alan Zweig’s documentary navigates issues of culture and identity with his penpal and semi-reluctant guide, Tatanniq Idlout, aka Inuk rock singer Lucie Idlout.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 5

18:45 THE CONFORMIST

(China) 126mins. Dir: Shangjun Cai. Cast: Bo Huang, Jia Song.

A police informant in a town on the Sino-Russian border finds his double life catching up with him, in director Cai Shangjun’s combination of crime movie and character study.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 7

19:15 BLACK COP

(Canada) 91mins. Dir: Cory Bowles. Cast: Ambyr Dunn, Christian Murray, Emmanuel John, Lanette Ware, Ronnie

Rowe Jr, Sébastien Labelle, Sophia Walker, Taylor Olson.

A black police officer seeks revenge after being egregiously profiled and assaulted by his colleagues.

Discovery Scotiabank 6

20:45 PAPILLON

(Serbia/Montenegro/ Malta) 133mins. Creative Artists Agency (US).

Capstone Pictures (int’l).

Dir: Michael Noer. Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Eve Hewson, Rami Malek.

A new screen adaptation of Henri Charriere’s memoir of his imprisonment and repeated escapes from the Devil’s Island penal colony.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 5

21:OO ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ.

(US) 129mins. Dir: Dan Gilroy. Cast: Denzel Washington, Colin Farrell, Carmen Ejogo.

An idealistic lawyer slowly begins to lose touch with his moral beliefs when he goes to work for a highflying Los Angeles attorney.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

21:15 VAMPIRE CLAY

(Japan) 81mins. King Record (int’l). Dir: Soichi Umezawa. Cast: Asuka Kurosawa, Ena Fujita, Kyoka Takeda, Momoka Sugimoto, Yuyu Makihara.

Japanese director and master makeup artist Soichi Umezawa gives life to a plasticine demon that subsequently devours the denizens of an art school.

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 6

21:30 EUTHANIZER

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

The carefully balanced (albeit deranged) life of a freelance, black-market pet euthaniser begins to come apart at the seams.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 7

Special PresentationS FOXTROT

Director: Samuel Maoz Producers: Michael Weber, Viola Fuegen, Eitan Mansuri, Cedomir Kolar, Marc Baschet, Michel Merkt Co-producers: Jonathan Doweck, Jamal ZEINAL ZADE Associate Producers: Meinolf Zurhorst, Olivier Pere, Remi Burah, Dan Wechsler, Jim Stark Production: Spiro Films , Pola Pandora FILM PRODUKTIONS, A.S.A.P. FILMS, KNM PRODUCTION CO-PRODUCTION: Bord Cadre Films, ARTE FRANCE CINEMA IN ASSOCIATION WITH: ARTE ZDf World Sales: The Match Factory E-mail: info@matchfactory.de Web: www.the-match-factory.com Wed Thu Sat

Sep 13 Sep 14 Sep 16

21:30 9:15 18:30

Press & Industry: Sat Sep 9 19:00 Tue Sep 12 10:30

Elgin Theatre TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 2 ScotiaBANk 4 ScotiaBANk 11 Scotiabank 3

Discovery MONTANA

Director: Limor Shmila Producers: Chilik Michaeli, Avraham Pirchi, Tami Leon, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery Production Companies: UCM – United Channels Movies, united King films World Sales: Chilik Michaeli – UCM E-mail: chilikm@ucm-film.com Web: www.ucm-film.com sun Tue Sat

Sep 10 Sep 12 Sep 16

16:15 14:15 18:30

Scotianabk 13 Jackman Hall Scotiabank 11

Press & Industry: sat Sep 9 14:00 Thu Sep 14 14:30

Scotianabk 5 Scotiabank 5

SCAFFOLDING

Director: Matan Yair Producers: Gal Greenspan, Roi Kurland, Stanislaw Dzeidzic, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery Production Companies: Green Productions, Film Produkcia, United King Films World Sales: New Europe Film Sales E-mail: kat@neweuropefilmsales.com Web: www.neweuropefilmsales.com Tue Thu Sun

Sep 12 Sep 14 Sep 17

21:00 16:30 12:30

Press & Industry: Sat Sep 9 21:15

Scotiabank 11 Tiff Bell Lightbox Cinema 3 Scotiabank 14 Scotiabank 8

Contemporary World Cinema LONGING

Director: Savi Gabizon Producers: Chilik Michaeli, Avraham Pirchi, Tami Leon, Savi Gabizon, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery Production Companies: UCM –United Channels Movies, United King Films World Sales: Films Boutique E-mail: contact@filmsboutique.com Web: filmsboutique.com Mon Wed Sat

Sep 11 Sep 13 Sep 16

19:00 16:00 15:15

Scotiabank 4 Scotiabank 14 Scotiabank 8

Press & Industry: Sun Sep 10 21:00 Thu Sep 14 9:00

Scotiabank 7 Scotiabank 9

Short Cuts EVERLASTING MOM

Director: Elinor Nechemya Producer: Elinor Nechemya Sales Contact: Elinor Nechemya E-mail: elinorhik@gmail.com Web: www.elinorigby.com/everlasting-mom Thu Thu

Sep 7 Sep 14

21:15 18:30

Scotiabank 2 Scotiabank 10

Press & Industry: Fri Sep 8 9:00

Scotiabank 5

ISRAEL FILM FUND / TEL: 972 3 562 8180, FAX: 972 3 562 5992 I N F O @ F I L M F U N D . o r g . I L / W W W. F I L M F U N D . O R G . I L T H E Y E H O S H U A R A B I N O V I C H F O U N D AT I O N F O R T H E A R T S / C I N E M A P R O J E C T I N F O @ C I N E M A P R O J E C T. O R G . I L T E L : + 9 7 2 - 3 - 5 2 5 5 0 2 0 / F A X : + 9 7 2 - 3 - 5 2 5 5 1 3 0 / W W W. C I N E M A P R O J E C T. O R G . I L Ministry of Culture and Sport

September 11, 2017 Screen International at Toronto 25

SWEET COUNTRY (Australia) Warwick Thornton

★ ★★

★ ★★

MADEMOISELLE PARADIS (Austria-Ger) Barbara Albert

★ ★★

★★

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

★★

★★ ★★

CUSTODY (Fr) Xavier Legrand

★ ★★

★ ★★

★★ ★★

★★

★ ★★

★ ★★

★★ ★★

★★

BEAST (UK) Michael Pearce

★ ★★

★ ★★

★★

★ ★★

DARK RIVER (UK) Clio Barnard

★★

★ ★★

★★

★★ ★★

★ ★★

★★

★★ ★★

★ ★★

★★ ★★

Good

AVERAGE

★★★

3.5

★ ★★

★ ★★

2.5

★★ ★★

★ ★★

3.3

★★

★ ★★

Excellent

SCREEN INTERNATIONAL

The Globe And Mail, Canada

KATE TAYLOR

IndieWire, US

★ ★★

★ ★★

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

BRAD’S STATUS (US) Mike White

ERIC KOHN

AV Club, US

AA DOWD

Toronto Star, Canada

★★★★

PETER HOWELL

Los Angeles Times, US

THE SCREEN JURY — PLATFORM

JUSTIN CHANG

JURY GRID

★★ ★★

3

★★ ★★

★ ★★

3.2

★★

★ ★★

2.7

★★

★ ★★

★ ★★

★ ★★

2.7

2.8

IF YOU SAW HIS HEART (Fr) Joan Chemla

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

RAZZIA (Fr-Mor-Bel) Nabil Ayouch

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

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

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

EUPHORIA (Swe-UK-Ger) Lisa Langseth

0.0

0.0

0.0

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

26 Screen International at Toronto September 11, 2017

★★ Average ★ Poor

✖ Bad

Screen office Meeting room 4, fourth floor, TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King Street West, Toronto, ON, M5V 3X5 Editorial Tel +1 416 599 843 ext 2440 Editor Matt Mueller, matt.mueller@screendaily.com, +44 7880 526 547 Americas editor Jeremy Kay, jeremykay67@gmail.com, +1 310 922 5908 Chief critic & reviews editor Finn Halligan, finn.halligan@screendaily.com, +44 7798 571 270 Group head of production & art Mark Mowbray, mark.mowbray@screendaily.com, +44 7710 124 065 Reporter Tom Grater, tom.grater@screendaily.com, +44 7436 096 420 Features editor Charles Gant, charles.gant@screendaily.com Sid Adilman mentorship programme Jordan Adler, jzadler91@gmail.com Advertising and publishing Commercial director Scott Benfold, scott.benfold@ screendaily.com, +44 7765 257 260 International account managers Ingrid Hammond +39 05 7829 8768, ingridhammond@mac.com Pierre-Louis Manes, pierre-louis.manes@screendaily.com, +44 7768 237 487 Gunter Zerbich, gunter.zerbich@ screendaily.com, +44 7768 237 487 VP business development, North America Nigel Daly, nigeldalymail@gmail.com, +1 213 447 5120 US sales and business development executive Nikki Tilmouth, nikki.screeninternational@gmail.com +1 323 868 7633 Production manager Neil Sinclair, neil.sinclair@mb-insight. com, +44 7834 902 528 Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam Printer Big Bark Graphics, 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

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04/09/2017 17:54