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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 2014

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TODAY

SCREENINGS

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ALISA KNOWS WHAT TO DO! Action/ Adventure, 90 min ANIMATION STUDIO “MOSKVA” CO.

LAND OF GOOD KIDS Family, 79 min AMADEUS ENTER TAINMENT

THE MAGIC TOWER Historical Fantasy, 77 min MASTERFILM STUDIO

THE SNOW QUEEN: JOURNEY CONTINUES Animation, 80 min WIZART ANIMATION

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 2014

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Partners travel Hyena Road

BY JEREMY KAY

Louis CK

Louis CK joins Trumbo cast

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

Comedian and actor Louis CK has joined the cast of Dalton Trumbo biopic Trumbo. He will play a screenwriter who falls on hard times after being blacklisted but refuses to compromise on his principles. As previously reported, Diane Lane and Elle Fanning have signed on to join Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren in the buzzedabout project being sold by eOne. John Goodman has also completed his deal to play no-nonsense film producer Frank King in the drama, which shoots later this month.

Cranston, director Jay Roach and producers Michael London and Shivani Rawat will be among the entourage meeting potential buyers in Toronto tonight. Bleecker Street will distribute in the US.

Rhombus Media, WTFilms and Canada Company are teaming up on the Afghanistan war film Hyena Road, set to begin shooting in Manitoba in late September before moving on to Jordan.

Paris-based WTFilms is handling international sales outside Canada, where Elevation Pictures will distribute. Canada Company will handle Canadian educational rights.

Passchendaele director Paul

Gross will helm the project from his screenplay, described as a highoctane tale in the vein of The Hurt Locker and Lone Survivor.

Gross will play a veteran intelligence officer in the story of three men whose lives intersect in the murky world of modern warfare.

The producers will unveil Hyena Road at a breakfast today and expect to announce further casting shortly. Rhombus Media will produce in association with Buffalo

Hubert Boesl

French sales company Versatile has acquired Kurdish film-maker Batin Ghobadi’s debut feature Mardan ahead of its world premiere in Discovery today. The film is produced

by Ghobadi’s celebrated brother, Bahman Ghobadi, under the Mij Film banner.

The film revolves around a policeman who investigates the disappearance of a young man, bringing up traumatic memories.

Miss is a hit for Salt

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

The Salt Company has closed deals on comedy drama Miss You Already, which starts shooting in London tomorrow.

Drew Barrymore, Dominic Cooper, Paddy Considine and Jacqueline Bisset have joined Toni Collette on the Catherine Hardwicke-directed film, written by Morwenna Banks, about two life-

long girlfriends whose friendship is put to the test when one starts a family and the other falls ill.

Salt has sold the film to Benelux (Dutch FilmWorks), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Greece (Odeon), India and Turkey (Tanweer Films), Middle East (Front Row), Iceland (Sena), Israel (Forum Film) and Portugal (Nos Lusomundo). eOne has UK rights. All deals were nego-

Edyson gets some Guidance Edyson Entertainment has closed a deal with Andrew Herwitz’s Film Sales Company for world sales rights to Guidance, which received its world premiere in Discovery last night.

INTERVIEW Taking a Chance Susanne Bier talks about her ‘extreme’ new film, A Second Chance » Page 8

REVIEWS English rose Gemma Arterton shows off her usual unassuming charm in one of two Madame Bovary inspired titles in Toronto » Page 10

Bone crunching Toa Fraser’s The Dead Lands is a fast-paced tale of honour and revenge with plenty of Maori martial-arts mayhem » Page 12

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

Bombs drop for Memento Paris-based sales Memento Films International (MFI) has announced a slew of sales on Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs as the film starts shooting in New York.

The English-language film stars Gabriel Byrne, Isabelle Huppert and Jesse Eisenberg, and has presold to Israel (Lev Cinema), Greece (Seven Group), Turkey (Bir Films), ex-Yugoslavia (Megacom), Hong Kong (Golden Scene), Taiwan (Maison Motion), India (Pictureworks) and the Middle East (Falc o n F i l m s ). S v e n s k h o l d s Norwegian and Danish rights, and TriArt has Sweden.

Other titles on MFI’s slate include Xavier Giannoli’s upcoming Marguerite, and TIFF selections Still Alice and Winter Sleep.

A Second Chance

Versatile takes on Mardan

Tom Hardy walked the red carpet last night for Fox Searchlight’s The Drop. Michael R Roskam, who directed Bullhead, makes his Englishlanguage debut.

The film co-stars Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts and the late James Gandolfini.

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

Gal Pictures and Whizbang Films.

Rhombus head Niv Fichman (Enemy, Blindness) produces with Gross, Buffalo Gal’s Phyllis Laing, who made My Winnipeg, and Passchendaele producer Frank Siracusa of Whizbang Films. Former Alliance Films CEO Victor Loewy serves as executive producer alongside Mirwais Alizai.

The film will be produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada and Manitoba Film and Music.

TODAY

Pat Mills wrote and stars in his feature directorial debut about a deluded, alcoholic former child star who lies his way into a high-school guidance counsellor job.

Zahra Bentham, Eleanor Zichy

tiated by Salt partner and head of international James Norrie. Salt and CAA co-represent US. Producers are Christopher Simon and Felix Vossen of Embargo. Executive producers are Banks, Hardwicke, Samantha Horley, Norrie, Barnaby Southcombe, Nicki Hattingh, Anne Sheehan, Sheryl Crown, Lisa Lambert, Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler.

Finance comes from Londonbased New Sparta Films and Exponential Media.

and Tracey Hoyt also star in the dark comedy.

Producers Alyson Richards and Ed Gernon launched Toronto and Los Angeles-based Edyson Entertainment and cut a first-look deal with Content Media in July 2013.

Jeremy Kay

David Gordon Green

Green heads to Bolivia in Crisis

BY WENDY MITCHELL

David Gordon Green, whose Manglehorn plays here tonight, is gearing up to start shooting his next film, Our Brand Is Crisis, in three weeks.

Sandra Bullock will star and executive produce. George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse is producing the Warner Bros project.

Our Brand Is Crisis will shoot in October and November before breaking for December and resuming in January.

“It’s about American political consultants in Bolivia. I just got back from doing some research in Bolivia,” Green told Screen. The film will be partially Spanish language and will shoot in New Orleans, Puerto Rico and Bolivia.

It is based on Rachel Boynton’s 2005 documentary, Our Brand Is Crisis.

“I loved it when this came up, it’s a challenging studio movie.

Sandy wants to make this something distinctive, and once you pull off a Gravity, people let you do something you’re really passionate about,” Green says.

neWs

Al-Remaihi talks Doha transition

By AnDReAs WisemAn

Doha Film Institute (DFI) is “in transition,” admits acting CEO Fatma Al-Remaihi, who is in Toronto to support six films backed by DFI, including Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, which has its world premiere tonight.

After Screen revealed earlier this week that head of programming Ludmila Cvikova is departing the institute after three years, Al-Remaihi admitted DFI is facing structural and financial challenges but remains committed to its film output.

“There have been cuts to cultural funding all over the region. In Qatar there’s been a large governmental focus on health and infrastructure but that doesn’t mean we’re not supported. We are.

Commercial sponsorship also remains strong. It’s about being smart with what we have.”

Fatma Al-Remaihi

Cvikova’s departure follows that of former DFI CEO Abdulaziz Al-Khater, who left last month, and the postponement earlier this year of DFI’s Qumra festival for emerging film-makers.

However, Al-Remaihi believes the Qatari government remains committed to DFI. “The budget is in place to have two festivals per year and we are working well with the resources we have,” she explained. “We are working year round so this isn’t just about one event. We have monthly screenings, educational programmes, film financ-

ing and programming as well as Ajyal Youth Film Festival and Qumra will launch in 2015.”

According to Al-Remaihi, Qumra’s postponement was less about budget than “setting the [right] goals and structure for the event”.

The executive affirmed DFI’s commitment to a slate of films with Participant Media, saying the first project in the partnership would likely be announced soon.

Al-Remaihi, who has been with DFI since 2009, also confirmed this year’s Ajyal Youth Film Festival (December 1-6) will likely feature a new industry event run in collaboration with Italy’s Giffoni Film Festival.

D F I - b a c k e d Ka h l i l Gibran’s The Prophet, produced by Salma Hayek, will close this year’s Ajyal Youth Film Festival.

Us experts head OmDC panel Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) kicks off its International Financing Forum (IFF) tomorrow with a panel of top US distributors.

The ‘US Distribution: What Every Producer Should Know’ talk will feature John Sloss of Cinetic Media, Jonathan

Sehring from IFC Films, and Jason Janego and Tom Quinn from RADiUS. The panel is closed to the public.

OMDC is presenting the ninth annual IFF on Sunday and Monday. The event brings together 40 selected international and Canadian producers with cross-industry

executives. Producers selected as this year’s participants include Guneet Monga (The Lunchbox), Mynette Louie and Sara Murphy (Land Ho!), Angus Lamont (’71) and Eric Jordan and Paul Stephens (In Darkness).

Wendy Mitchell

Abramorama strikes up eventful deal with AAM

By JeRemy KAy

Richard Abramowitz’s dist r i b u t i o n c o m p a n y, Abramorama, has partnered with Arts Alliance to release a slate of titles that includes live events in North American theatres.

Highlights include live

4 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

and as-live broadcasts of the Royal Opera House’s I Due Foscari starring Placido Domingo, La Boheme, Swan Lake and Shakespeare’s Globe On Screen production of Twelfth Night starring Mark Rylance.

Abramowitz said: “Arts

Alliance has been a premier content producer and distributor for years and we’re delighted to be working with them to bring this programming to the North American market. This kind of alternative content is a true growth area in our business.”

www.screendaily.com

TIFF brIeFs raDiUS swoops on The Last 5 years

Rodney Ascher (Room 237) has wrapped production in Los Angeles on The Nightmare. Content has already pre-sold the horror doc to Altitude for the UK and The Jokers for France. Content is working with Preferred Content on the North American deal.

Myriad in time with Heart Beats

By JereMy Kay

Myriad Pictures is in Toronto with world sales on the Das Films and Sikhya Films title Heart Beats 3D from Step Up creator Duane Adler.

Aimee Teegarden from TV’s Friday Night Lights will star as a feisty US hiphop dancer who falls in love with a man and a new dance style while attending a wedding in India.

Adler wrote the script

TIFF brIeFs IFT gets into Polish’s Headlock International Film Trust (IFT) is handling sales here on Mark Polish’s solo directorial debut Headlock, the first of two from the director that Benaroya Pictures is fully financing.

Dealing for The Duff Sierra/Affinity has come on to handle international sales on CBS Films’ comedy The Duff, directed

by Ari Sandel and starring Mae Whitman, Bianca Santos, Skyler Samuels and Ken Jeong.

Saban takes Tracers Saban Films has acquired its second film, taking North American rights to the Taylor Lautner parkour thriller Tracers. FilmNation handles international sales.

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and is preparing to fly to the sub-continent for a first quarter 2015 shoot. Tiger Shroff is in talks to play the Indian love interest, Aseem.

Sriram Das produces Heart Beats 3D through his Das Films alongside Guneet Monga and her Sikhya Films.

Negotiations are underway with two unannounced recording artists to create original Bollywood and hip-hop music.

Razen zaps to Electric Entertainment

By JereMy Kay

Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment has hired Jernej Razen as vice-president of acquisitions and development at the company’s international sales division.

Razen will work closely with Electric’s head of international distribution Sonia Mehandjiyska in acquiring projects for the slate.

He will also find and develop projects for Electric’s production pipeline.

Razen most recently served as vice-president of acquisitions and development at Relativity Media.

Electric’s international sales slate includes Before I Disappear, Kelly & Cal and The Better Angels.

RADiUS has taken North American rights to Richard LaGravenese’s Toronto world premiere The Last 5 Years starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan. RADiUS concluded the deal with CAA. The Exchange handles international sales.

Orchard moves into the Shadows The Orchard has partnered with Unison Films and Funny Or Die on US rights to Jemaine Clement’s Sundance premiere What We Do In The Shadows. The Orchard brokered the deal with the producers and CAA.

Derbez instructs Pantelion pact Instructions Not Included director Eugenio Derbez has struck an exclusive first-look deal with that film’s distributor Pantelion Films.

Cinelicious boards double Decker Cinelicious Pics has acquired all North American rights to Josephine Decker’s Berlinale premieres Butter On The Latch and Thou Wast Mild & Lovely and has set a November theatrical and VoD release.

Nabat goes Swiss Dreamlab Films has sold Elchin Musaoglu’s Venice Orizzonti title Nabat, an Azerbaijan-set family drama, to Swiss distributor Trigon.

DSCHOINT VENTSCHR FILMPRODUK TION COIN FILM PRESENT „IRAQI IRAQI ODYSSEY“ ODYSSEY A FILM BY SAMIR DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY LUK AS STREBEL PIERRE MENNEL YURI BURAK JOHN KELLERAN KIRILL GERRA SAMIR SOUND RETO STAMM AL SECONI MARTIN WILSON DON FEIGEL ROMAN PL ATONOV MA XIM MALIN EDITED BY SOPHIE BRUNNER ALI AL FATL AWI WATHIQ AL AMERI SAMIR 3D ANIMATIONS WAMIDH AL AMERI DRAMATIC ADVISOR K ATHRIN PLÜSS DIGITAL ARTIST MARTIN SUNDARA SOUNDDESIGN AND MIX TILO BUSCH MUSIC MACIEJ SLEDZIECKI PRODUCED BY WERNER SCHWEIZER SAMIR E XECUTIVE PRODUCER JOËL JENT CO-RODUCED BY HERBERT SCHWERING FURAT AL JAMIL DIRECTED BY SAMIR IN COPRODUCTION WITH COIN FILM SRF SCHWEIZER RADIO UND FERNSEHEN - URS AUGSTBURGER WDR WESTDEUTSCHER RUNDFUNK - JUTTA KRUG SUPPORTED BY BUNDESAMT FÜR KULTUR ZÜRCHER FILMSTIFTUNG SRG SSR SRF SCHWEIZER RADIO UND FERNSEHEN AARGAUER KURATORIUM FILM UND MEDIEN STIFTUNG NRW WDR WESTDEUTSCHER RUNDFUNK SANAD FUND - ABU DHABI FILM FESTIVAL SUISSIMAGE FOCAL WITh ThE PARTIcIPATIOn Of SAnAD - THE DEVELOPMENT AND POST-PRODUCTION FUND OF THE ABU DHABI FILM FESTIVAL - UnITED ARAb EMIRATES

ARTWORK: GIJS KUIJPER

WWW.IRAQIODYSSEY.COM

TIFF DOCS

IRAQI ODYSSEY

A global family saga in 3D

by Samir World Sales: Autlook Filmsales Switzerland / Germany / United Arab Emirates

Press and Industry Screenings Thursday, September 11, 8:45 am, Scotiabank 6 Public Screenings Saturday, September 6, 9:30 pm, Scotiabank 13 Sunday, September 7, 5:30 pm, Scotiabank 9 Saturday, September 13, 9:00 am, TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Drive revs up Kyle Mann and Michael Risley have launched Los Angeles and Vancouver based Drive Productions, which will focus on elevated genre films. The company has raised an initial $2m.

at Toronto 2014 Please visit us at booth # 5 in the Industry Office Location at The Hyatt Regency Hotel, King Ballroom, 370 King Street West

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ProfileS

SCreeningS, pAge 20

Susanne Bier A Second Chance

By Wendy Mitchell

The Oscar-winning Danish film-maker follows the romance Love Is All You Need with this darker tale of a detective who crosses a moral line after a family tragedy. TrustNordisk handles sales; the film premieres in Special Presentations on Tuesday.

This film sounds quite intense. Are these themes you were thinking about or was it [screenwriter] Anders Thomas Jensen?

It is intense. It’s a thing between Anders Thomas and myself where we always end up having these discussions about moral dilemmas. It’s interesting, this thing of who is really right and who is really wrong, and the desire we have to make a black-and-white decision can be totally impossible. And we also thought there is a Scandinavian tradition of dealing with complicated police officers, that has always intrigued me. Having an eye to a thriller and yet really dealing with

You’re also a parent, did that factor into you wanting to tell this story?

I think it factors into all of my movies in a way… What happens when you are a parent is that you feel this extreme love and it’s different from all other kinds of love you’ve felt before. Which is also scary.

profound human dilemmas. It’s pretty extreme and he wrote it pretty extreme. It was surprising.

Did you ever think it was too extreme for you?

No, I think one of the things that scares me more than anything else as a film-

Susanne Bier

maker is becoming complacent or repeating myself.

A Second Chance

This is a film more about fatherhood than motherhood?

Anders Thomas is a man, and he has small kids. It has got quite a strong personal element.

Had you worked before with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau?

I’ve seen him around and I’ve always wanted to do a film with him but it had to be the right film. He’s very sincere, as an actor and as a human being. That particular trait was so perfect for this film.

And he’s very handsome (laughs).

He’s an interesting mix of being powerful, forceful, competent, and at the same time, vulnerable.

I don’t like showy performances — human beings rarely behave in a showy way, they might behave in extremes. I like that there’s an enigmatic quality to what Nikolaj is doing.

david Gordon Green Manglehorn

By Wendy Mitchell

Manglehorn stars Al Pacino as a Texas locksmith who pushes people away while pining for a woman who left him decades before. Holly Hunter, Chris Messina and Harmony Korine co-star. After competing in Venice, the film screens here starting today in Special Presentations. WestEnd Films handles international sales with Cinetic/CAA repping North America.

work and prepare, and you’ve got your own ways, so how did you fit together?

What he was describing as his process is actually my ideal process. He said, “I want you to come to my house every month until we make the movie, and we’ll gather our friends and read the script out loud and we’ll hear it and I’ll find my voice.”

How did you know you could get the subtle performance from Al Pacino that this film needs?

It’s not the bravado, it’s not the grand eloquence that the Academy knows he’s capable of. I loved what he did in films like Scarecrow and The Panic In Needle Park and he made me laugh a lot in his earlier work. Even The Godfather has funny little things he did in it.

I wanted the movie to be just a true performance piece regardless of narrative, you just track this character.

I’m sure Pacino has ways he likes to

our naturalistic fable. I was struggling with who Gary was, and then I was at SXSW when Harmony was showing Spring Breakers… and at the introduction and Q&A he steals the show, he’s just hilarious. I thought, “That’s Gary.” So I e-mailed him the next day and said, “Would you be in a movie with Al Pacino?” and he replied, “Sounds dope.”

It was so much fun working with him.

Manglehorn

David gordon green

8 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

How did you come to cast Harmony Korine as Gary?

I told Al that I wanted some traditional technical support from professional actors but I also wanted to be a little weird and cast some non-actors and some less-experienced actors. Let’s make it feel like a real, breathing world, to do

Why did you decide to show the cat’s surgery scene so graphically?

These people are awkwardly putting together the pieces of their relationship and struggling to recognise each other and what they want from each other. So I also wanted to show something that was the absolute other side of what love is, and something that’s repulsive to watch.

It’s intercut with these two people in a bank flirting in a wonderful way, and here is something equally miraculous happening, someone can go into the body of an animal and remove an obstruction.

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REVIEWS

Reviews edited by Mark Adams mark.adams@screendaily.com

» Gemma Bovery p10 » The Dead Lands p12 » Tokyo Tribe p12

» Manglehorn p13 » The Lesson p13 » Pasolini p14

» Mary Kom p14 » Pride p15

Gemma Bovery Reviewed by Mark Adams An engagingly lush Gallic romantic-drama that updates Gustave Flaubert’s famous novel Madame Bovery to good effect and pitches a glowing Gemma Arterton as a young married English woman finding adulterous love in bucolic Normandy, Anne Fontaine’s Gemma Bovery is an enjoyably lightweight film given life by some engaging performances and a glorious pastoral backdrop.

Adapted from Posy Simmonds’ graphic novel — whose Tamara Drewe, based on Far From The Madding Crowd, was made into a film by Stephen Frears four years ago, also starring Gemma Arterton who seems to be cornering the market for such English-rose roles — the film favours melancholic comedy over melodramatic drama as the lust for love sits alongside cross-Channel bickering between the French and ‘les rosbif ’.

Whereas Tamara Drewe — which again has Arterton’s lead character romanced by virtually every man around her, and lusted after by a mild-mannered narrator — hit more comedy sweetspots, Gemma Bovery is quite gently paced (reflecting the mundane aspects of the novel) and therefore may find it more difficult to reach an audience. But it benefits from

10 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

SPECIAL PRESENTATIoN Fr-UK. 2014. 99mins Director Anne Fontaine Production companies Albertine Productions, CINE@, Gaumont, Ruby Films, BFI International sales Gaumont, www.gaumont.fr Producers Matthieu Tarot, Philippe Carcassonne Screenplay Anne Fontaine, Pascal Bonitzer, based on the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds Cinematography Christophe Beaucarne Editor Annette Dutertre Production designer Arnaud De Moleron Music Bruno Charles Main cast Gemma Arterton, Fabrice Luchini, Jason Flemyng, Niels Schneider, Isabelle Candelier, Edith Scob, Elsa Zylberstein, Mel Raido

Arterton’s genuine sex appeal, which is delightfully balanced by Fabrice Luchini as her neighbour, obsessed with the novel and who sees worrying links between her and the fictional heroine.

Luchini stars as genial family man Martin Joubert who moved back to his family hometown seven years earlier to take on his father’s bakery and shop. When new neighbours move in across the road, he is intrigued — Brits Charlie Bovery (Flemyng) and his beautiful young wife Gemma (Arterton) have the same surname as Flaubert’s heroine, and attracted to Gemma he strikes up a friendship that has palpable sexual tension.

While he lusts after her — and even invites her to his bakery for a little bread-making session that brims with clichéd sexual energy as she lustily folds the dough while he leans over her — she may well be frustrated in her rather dull marriage, but has eyes for young and handsome Herve (Schneider), who lives at the nearby chateau, rather than the doe-eyed baker.

While Gemma is overtaken with passion — and things get seriously sexy as Fontaine makes the most of Arterton’s voluptuous physique — so Joubert takes matters into his own hands as he decides to try and break up the relationship.

But this simply pushes Gemma into the arms of another man — her former lover, played by Mel Raido — which sees Joubert confused and upset that his heroine is behaving in such a manner. But then the story never really tries to explain why Gemma moves from relationship to relationship, except to escape her dull existence and find solace through romance.

There is always a refreshing lack of pretension in Arterton’s performances, and she is unassumingly charming in Gemma Bovery.

There are plenty of scenes that see her wandering through woods with her small dog, dressed in fluttering summer dresses and green wellington boots, and director Fontaine (who made Coco Before Chanel) is not shy on focusing on her physical charms alongside her warm friendliness.

At the same time, Luchini is delightful as the genial baker who is mildly obsessed with this physical manifestation of his favourite fictional character. His calm, wide-eyed attraction to Gemma is no simple middle-age lust, but more a man drawn to her warmth and openness.

The film may lack the dramatic heft of Flaubert’s source novel — and at times finds it difficult to balance humour with drama — but it is an engaging and watchable spin on a classic story.

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REVIEWS

Tokyo Tribe Reviewed by Tim Grierson

The Dead Lands Reviewed by Mark adams An energetic, glossy and exciting New Zealand Maori action-adventure, Toa Fraser’s The Dead Lands (Hautoa) is a fast-paced tale of honour and revenge that does not shirk when it comes to bone-crunching battles and blood-thirsty martial-arts scenes.

Taking place some 500-600 years ago, before Maori contact with Europeans and civilisation, the story is set against a backdrop of tribal society and the shifting balance between allies and enemies, where codes of honour and ritual were vital. With XYZ Films handling international sales, it is easy to see why The Dead Lands is being partially pitched as an action-driven film, though it also works as a violent drama as it blends together the look and tone of Apocalypto and The Last Of The Mohicans.

The film brings to life the New Zealand Maori warrior traditions, with a fighting style based on a form of martial arts called Mau Rakau, which features flowing fight moves, brutal weaponry and provocative facial expressions. In many ways the film is a counter-balance to the popular — and equally brutal — Viking films, with an emphasis on bludgeoning violence rather than subtle storytelling, except in a warmer climate.

After his tribe is almost wiped out in an attack by a rival clan, Maori chieftain’s teenage son Hongi (Rolleston) must avenge his father’s murder to bring peace to the souls of those killed. Vastly outnumbered, he pursues the killers, led by Wirepa (Tuhaka), having no real idea how to face them but determined to do so.

When they cut through the forbidden Dead Lands, Hong forms an uneasy alliance with a mysterious warrior (a mesmerising Lawrence Makoare from The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug), a ruthless fighter dubbed ‘the monster who eats the dead’ — who as the last survivor of his tribe guards the land with grim determination.

Director Toa Fraser (Dean Spanley, Giselle) has crafted an exhilarating action romp, punctuated by stylish and crunching fight sequences (kudos to martial-arts adviser Jamus Webster). The film — delivered in the Maori language — slows up shortly after a centrepiece fight scene as Hongi meets a warrior woman, but finds its feet again towards the expected climax. Fantasy scenes of Hongi talking to his ancestors suit the tone of the film, though Don McGlashan’s 1970s-style score jars at times with the lush feel of the jungle backdrop.

12 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

speCial pResenTaTiOns NZ-UK. 2014. 108mins Director Toa Fraser Production companies GFC/Fightertown, XYZ Films, new Zealand Film Commission, new Zealand Film production Fund Trust, Te Mangai paho images & sound, lip sync, day Tripper Films International sales XYZ Films, www.xyzfilms. com Producers Matthew Metcalfe, Glenn standring Co-producers Tainui stephens, norman Merry Screenplay Glenn standring Cinematography leon narbey Editor dan Kircher Production designer Grant Major Music don McGlashan Main cast James Rolleston, lawrence Makoare, Te Kohe Tuhaka, Xavier horan, George henare, Raukura Turei, Rena Owen

Tokyo Tribe is a shot of adrenaline that offers only a sporadic boost of energy. Ambitiously trying to mix the hiphop musical with the gangland action epic, the latest from gonzo film-maker Sion Sono seems destined for cult status like so many movies in his oeuvre, but this probably won’t be the place where the uninitiated join his bandwagon. Sexy, tawdry, gaudy, bizarre and tiresome, Tokyo Tribe is dispiriting proof that sometimes a hyperactive film-making style can lead to tedium more than euphoria.

Screening as part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness section, where Sono won the audience prize last year for Why Don’t You Play In Hell?, Tokyo Tribe will play best to his small but loyal tribe of genre buffs and extreme-cinema aficionados. The heavy use of rap music in place of dialogue could help broaden the movie’s appeal, and those familiar with the source material — Santa Inoue’s early1990s manga — may also check it out.

Set over the course of one eventful night and morning, Tokyo Tribe imagines a grim future Japan where earthquakes are rampant and the land is divided between fierce hip-hop gangs. The most terrifying warlord is Buppa (Takeuchi), who with his deadly lieutenant Merra (Suzuki), is in search of their high priest’s missing virgin daughter. Their quest will put them in opposition to Kai (Dais), a relatively peaceful young man who befriends Sunmi (Seino), an innocent girl who is at risk of falling into Tokyo’s sex-worker industry.

Sono’s previous films (such as Love Exposure) have moved from genre to genre and tone to tone, risking campness and bad taste in order to achieve the director’s hyper-vivid emotional portraits. By comparison, Tokyo Tribe offers overblown spectacle, but Sono and cinematographer Daisuke Soma create several bravura tracking shots in which we see the breadth of the chaos and energy of their Tokyo. Additionally, Sono’s gambit to have the characters rap what they are thinking gives the movie the bracing freedom of an old-school musical or opera.

Unfortunately, what starts off as a bold canvas quickly becomes dull and garish. The unremittingly juvenile and misogynistic rhymes of the gangster-rap lyrics leave us trapped in a world in which everyone is just different shades of unappealing.

MidniGhT Madness Jap. 2014. 116mins Director sion sono Production company nikkatsu Corporation International sales nikkatsu Corporation, www.nikkatsu.com/en/ US sales XYZ Films, www.xyzfilms.com Producers Yoshinori Chiba, nobuhiro iizuka Executive producers ayako Oguchi, Keizo Yuri, Kinya Oguchi, Tadashi Tanaka Screenplay sion sono, based on the manga Tokyo Tribe2 by santa inoue Cinematography daisuke soma Production designer Yuji hayashida Editor Junichi ito Music BCdMG Main cast Ryohei suzuki, Young dais, nana seino, shunsuke daitoh, Takuya ishida, Yui ichikawa, Riki Takeuchi, shota sometani

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The Lesson

conteMpoRARy WoRlD cineMA

Reviewed by Allan Hunter

Manglehorn Reviewed by Mark Adams Manglehorn shows director David Gordon Green’s ability to tell a familiar story in an impressively off-kilter manner, charting the story of a reclusive, elderly Texan locksmith and his tenuous relationships with the few people he allows close to him. Though well performed and engaging at times, Manglehorn (a great title… promising much, but in the end, just a name) rather flatters to deceive, following an entirely predictable route while somehow hinting at moments of drama and intrigue that never emerge.

It is a relatively restrained performance from Pacino — both in terms of his line delivery and physical mannerisms — but he makes the most of his lengthy monologues (often internal ones) as he does his best to flesh out a bitter man who feels life has robbed him of happiness.

The film succeeds in its sense of understated unsentimentality, frustrated romanticism and gently leftfield moments of humour, but after the director’s recent films and the high-profile casting of Pacino, expectations will be high for this quirky story of loneliness and longing.

Locksmith AJ Manglehorn (Pacino) leads a solitary life, busy with work before pottering home to feed his cat.

There he drinks, eats bad food and writes letters to Clara, the long-lost love of his life. He has a fractured relationship with his wealthy son (Messina), though tenderly plays with his granddaughter every week, and the only other person he appears fond of is bank teller Dawn (Hunter), who he chats to every Friday when he pays in money from his business.

He and Dawn set up a tentative date (at the local Legion where they tuck into pancakes) and he subsequently asks her out for dinner. It is a beautifully excruciating scene as she expresses her open warmth to him while he simply talks about how wonderful Clara was and how much he clings to her memories. Holly Hunter is quite superb as a warm and loving woman knocked back

by Manglehorn’s sheer thoughtlessness and obsession.

Pacino is nicely low-key, though the film offers him little in the way of charm or charisma. Perhaps best of all is Hunter’s delightfully warm performance as a woman willing to take a risk on love and who is treated thoughtlessly. She is the compassionate heart of the film and it is, unsurprisingly, only at the end of the piece that Manglehorn comes to see the possibility of happiness might lie in her direction.

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SpeciAl pReSentAtionS US. 2014. 97mins Director David Gordon Green Production companies Worldview entertainment, Dreambridge Films, Westend Films, Muskat Filmed properties, Rough House pictures International sales West end Films, www. westendfilms.com Producers lisa Muskat, David Gordon Green, Derrick tseng, christopher Woodrow, Molly conners Executive producers Danny McBride, Jody Hill, Brad coolidge, Melissa coolidge, todd labarowski, Maria cestone, Sarah e Johnson, Hoyt David Morgan Screenplay paul logan Cinematography tim orr Editor colin patton Production designer Richard A Wright Music explosions in the Sky & David Wingo Main cast Al pacino, Holly Hunter, Harmony Korine, chris Messina

A schoolteacher’s determined struggle against a raft of troubles provides the basis of a quietly compelling human drama in The Lesson (Urok). The fiction feature debut of co-directors and co-writers Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov has clear affinities with Two Days, One Night in the way it views the age of austerity through the tragic plight of an individual.

The duo prove to be worthy additions to the ranks of European social-realist directors headed by the Dardenne brothers, Cristian Mungiu and Ken Loach, promising further festival exposure for The Lesson. The stark subject matter might prove commercially challenging but there should still be theatrical interest from committed arthouse distributors seeking to champion new talent.

When we first see teacher Nadezhda (Gosheva), she is standing before a classroom vowing to unmask the individual who has stolen a wallet. She is immediately established as a woman of principle and a slightly righteous figure who holds the world to high standards of honesty.

Over the course of the film her core beliefs will be tested, compromised and abandoned as she is pushed towards an increasingly desperate financial situation.

Like Two Days, One Night there is a ticking clock element to Nadezhda’s plight as she discovers her feckless husband has not been maintaining the payments on their bank loans. There are only three days left before they lose possession of their home.

The plot is driven by her tenacious efforts to raise the cash and what they reveal about different aspects of her life, from the fractured relationship with her father to how difficult it has been to sustain family life. There is also implicit and explicit critiques of a Bulgaria rife with corruption and exploitation of the vulnerable.

Grozeva and Valchanov sustain a credible, well-paced storyline that paints the central character into a tighter and tighter corner. The film’s unfussy style largely eschews tearjerking melodrama in favour of a more dispassionate observation of a woman running out of options. There are just a couple of moments when it feels as if the whole world is conspiring to ruin her life but the film-makers have good instincts about when to raise the stakes and when to ease the pressure.

Bul-Gr. 2014. 105mins Director/screenplay Kristina Grozeva, petar Valchanov Production companies Abraxas Film, Graal Film, little Wing International sales Abraxas Film abraxasfilm@abv.bg Producers Magdelena ilieva, Kristina Grozeva, petar Valchanov, Konstantina Stavrianou, Rena Vougioukalou Cinematography Krum Rodriguez Editor petar Valchanov Production designer Vanina Geleva Main cast Margita Gosheva, ivan Burnev, ivanka Bratoeva, ivan Savov, Deya todorova, Stefan Denolyubov

September 6, 2014 Screen International at Toronto 13

REVIEWS

Pasolini Reviewed by Lee Marshall A flawed but intriguing attempt to capture the final days in the life of Italian writer, film-maker and poet Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was murdered by a rent boy in the small hours of November 2, 1975, Abel Ferrara’s first biopic sees one of indie cinema’s walkers on the wild side in uncharacteristically subdued, contemplative mode.

Sure, there is a small orgy and some justglimpsed fellatio, plus a couple of fairly explicit clips from the Italian maestro’s ‘scandalous’ last film, 120 Days Of Sodom, but it is Willem Dafoe’s impressively understated lead performance that sets the tone of a film that tries to understand a complex man by simply following him through the course of what — but for its ending — would have been an unremarkable mid-career day-and-a-half in the life.

Dramatised scenes from a novel and film script he was working on at the time are intercut with reconstructions of Pasolini’s life and death over his last 48 hours. What emerges from an at-times confusing mosaic is the portrait of a man who in his creative projects, public declarations and private life was taking a prophetic, apocalyptic turn, shocking the bour-

Mary Kom Reviewed by Tim Grierson An Indian boxing drama that follows the sports-movie template a little too slavishly, Mary Kom has its share of likeable predictability, but this true story of a world champion female prizefighter gets bogged down in its emphasis on emotional overkill. Making his directorial debut, Omung Kumar seeks to do little more than send his audience on a rollercoaster of highs and lows, in the process losing the nuance of his main character who, one suspects, was probably more interesting than this formulaic movie suggests.

Playing at TIFF as it opened in India yesterday, Mary Kom will be boosted by the presence of star Priyanka Chopra in the title role. And international audiences who may not be familiar with the particulars of Kom’s story could nonetheless be engaged by this underdog tale. Anyone who has seen a boxing movie will recognise Mary Kom’s Rocky-like narrative contours.

The film focuses on approximately eight years in the life of a young woman from Manipur named Chungneijang (Chopra).

Although teased by some, she has loved boxing since childhood, and after meeting Singh (Thapa), a respected boxing coach who runs a popular gym, she is convinced that she wants to

14 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

SPeCiaL PReSeNTaTiONS Fr-It-Bel. 2014. 85mins Director abel Ferrara Production companies Capricci, Urania Pictures, Tarantula, Dublin Films International sales Funny Balloons, contact@ funny-balloons.com Producers Thierry Lounas, Conchita airoldi, Joseph Rouschop Executive producers Camille Chandellier, Costanza Coldagelli Screenplay Maurizio Braucci, based on an idea by abel Ferrara and Nicola Tranquillino Cinematography Stefano Falivene Editor Fabio Nunziata Production designer igor Gabriel Main cast Willem Dafoe, Ninetto Davoli, Riccardo Scamarcio, Valerio Mastandrea, adriana asti, Maria de Medeiros

SPeCiaL PReSeNTaTiONS India. 2014. 120mins Director Omung Kumar Production companies Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Bhansali Productions International sales Viacom18 Motion Pictures, www.viacom18. com Producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali Executive producer Chetan Deolekar Screenplay Saiwyn Quadras Cinematography Keiko Nakahara Editors Rajesh G Pandey, Sanjay Leela Bhansali Production designer Vanita Omung Kumar Music Shashi Shivamm Main cast Priyanka Chopra, Darshan Kumaar, Sunil Thapa, Minakkshi Kalitaa, Zachary Coffin, Shishir Sharma

geoisie as he attempted to uncover hidden political-industrial conspiracies that he believed were dehumanising Italian life.

But although it is a surprisingly absorbing watch, this uneven film never really gets under the skin of the poet. In Gus Van Sant’s finaldays-of-Cobain film Last Days this outside view was a deliberate technique, a study in the everyday banality of genius; here the impression is of a series of takes on a character that never quite add up to a whole portrait.

The reaction among the Italians in the audience at the film’s Venice premiere ranged from mild admiration to bemusement to dislike; it probably didn’t help that the characters speak

English part of the time and Italian at other points, for no obvious reason (though this will presumably be fixed by dubbing for an Italian release). Outside of Italy, Pasolini will most likely be confined to the more resilient end of the arthouse market; it certainly has none of the topicality or controversy of Ferrara’s other 2014 feature, Welcome To New York.

The Pasolini that emerges is a collection of diverse and sometimes incoherent fragments, more than a rounded character. But perhaps that is the point Ferrara and screenwriter Maurizio Braucci are trying to make: that the closer you get to the enigma of an intensely private public man, the more he slips away.

be a fighter. As she rises up the ranks and becomes a champion, she also finds love in the form of her long-time friend Onler (Kumaar), but Singh warns her that marriage will distract her from athletic glory.

As with many sports movies before it, Mary Kom charts dutifully the course of an unlikely dreamer who succeeds thanks to hard work, determination and a wise-but-gruff coach (Singh gives Chungneijang the boxing name Mary Kom because it is shorter).

To be fair, Kumar’s film does have its novel twists on the genre. For instance, Mary’s struggle to reclaim her championship title after having twins and experiencing profound changes to her body are challenges no male athlete has to face. But these potentially intriguing aspects

to her story have been beaten down and reshaped until they all fit rather too smoothly into the programmatic narrative.

With that said, Mary Kom can still be sufficiently rousing in its training and boxing scenes. Kumar is an art director, and he brings that talent to the film’s most music-video-like sequences, giving the viewer plenty of kinetic eye-candy.

The all-caps Indian pop songs further juice these moments with euphoric energy, but since these scenes are not girded by emotional underpinnings, they feel diverting as opposed to gripping.

Aspiring to be an inspirational sports film, Mary Kom is merely efficient: its punches glance off.

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Pride

SPeCIAL PReSeNTATIONS

Reviewed by Allan Hunter

to raise money to support the striking miners.

He forms Lesbians And Gay Men Support The Miners (LGSM) and the fund-raising efforts are wildly successful, but no organisation seems open to accepting support from a gay group.

They make direct contact with a mining village in Wales and the village representative Dai (Considine) ventures to London to express his thanks. A reciprocal visit to Dulais Valley is arranged and the stage is set for prejudices to be challenged and unlikely friendships to be formed.

Paddy Considine invests Dai with a gentle decency, Dominic West shows some nifty dance moves as Jonathan, and there are equally mem-

orable moments from Bill Nighy’s shy Cliff and Imelda Staunton’s formidable committee stalwart Hefina.

The film does acknowledge the darker side of what was happening at the time with nods towards the troubling role of the police in the dispute, the growing visibility of the Aids pandemic and elements within the Welsh village who resent the arrival of gay people bearing support.

Award-winning theatre director Matthew Warchus has waited 15 years to return to the cinema after his disappointing film debut Simpatico. Pride is a breezy, assured handling of true events and does not leave a dry eye in the house.

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The long dispute between Margaret Thatcher’s UK government and the National Union of Miners in the 1980s fostered bitter divisions and left national wounds that have never healed entirely. Part of the huge appeal of Pride is the way it salvages crumbs of joy from that legacy of crushing defeat.

Pride is a rousing, irresistible celebration of the alliance forged between striking miners and lesbian and gay activists who found common ground in their shared history of oppression. A big-hearted tearjerker that packs a huge emotional wallop, the film has all the hallmarks of UK crowdpleasers such as Billy Elliot and Calendar Girls. Enthusiastic word of mouth will be the biggest marketing device for a film that appeals across the board from a generation that will invest in bittersweet nostalgia for the battles of their youth to a younger demographic won over by the humour, humanity and the impressive ensemble cast.

Pride is undeniably corny and predictable at times but any detached appraisal of its flaws and virtues tends to be swept away by the well-paced, assured storytelling. Following the London Gay Pride March in 1984, Mark (Schnetzer) decides

UK. 2014. 117mins Director Matthew Warchus Production company Calamity Films Producer David Livingstone International sales Pathé International, www. patheinternational.com Executive producers Cameron McCracken, Christine Langan, James Clayton Screenplay Stephen Beresford Cinematography Tat Radcliffe Editor Melanie Oliver Production designer Simon Bowles Music Christopher Nightingale Main cast Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Andrew Scott, Paddy Considine, George MacKay, Ben Schnetzer

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For full UK films in selection and UK FILM Centre information go to WEAREUKFILM.COM Follow us at @WEAREUKFILM

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September 6, 2014 Screen International at Toronto 15

Feature awards season preview

Foxcatcher

Birdman

Gone Girl

The prize fighters As Venice, Telluride and Toronto introduce a slew of prestige titles, Jeremy Kay examines the season’s possible awards contenders

R

oll the drums, roll the dice (or, for some, roll the eyeballs). The awards race is under way again, ushering in a binge of brilliance, bluster and ballgowns.

The gruelling circuit is not for the fainthearted, yet the next six months are statistically likely to deliver several dazzling movies, plenty of behind-the-scenes tales of trial over adversity and the odd breakout performance.

For these rewards alone, the marathon will be worth it — despite the irritating yearround hype by myopic awards bloggers that tests everyone’s patience.

It will be intriguing to see how everything plays out, because while very little is known at this stage, on paper it looks like the season is more auteur-heavy than in previous years.

It is by no means guaranteed that the boxoffice heroics of the crop of contenders from the past couple of years will be repeated.

On paper it looks like the season is more auteurheavy than in previous years

16 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

Venice and Telluride kicked off the awards season in the run-up to Toronto. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Lido opener Birdman flew high, as did Ramin Bahrani’s 99 Homes, while Jean-Marc Vallée’s Wild with Reese Witherspoon and in-form Ethan Hawke’s doc Seymour: An Introduction earned admirers in Telluride. Toronto was just getting underway at time of writing.

Next up, New York Film Festival (NYFF) unleashed a powerful one-two punch. Last year it launched Captain Phillips and this year has stepped up its game yet further, securing two of the most sought-after movies of the season. The festival will kick off on September 26 with the world premiere of Fox/New Regency’s crime adaptation Gone Girl from the masterful David Fincher. It carries awards potential across the board, from Fincher to reinvented Hollywood darling Ben Affleck.

Kill The Messenger

99 Homes

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The other undisputed US auteur whose work will bow at NYFF is Paul Thomas Anderson, who landed the centrepiece slot with the first screening of his Thomas Pynchon stoner private investigator allegory Inherent Vice starring Joaquin Phoenix.

These are heavyweights and New York owns them. Venice tried to get both movies and, Screen understands, so did Toronto. New York rounded out its early salvo of announcements with a closing night North American premiere for Birdman.

“Three total home runs,” as one top awards strategist described the haul. “Three serious films by major directors and they’re not going to Toronto.”

That is saying something. In fact immediately after NYFF’s announcements, there were dark mutterings that Toronto would struggle to catch up.

That’s nonsense. Toronto may lack focus in its effort to be all things to all people, but its sheer scale guarantees heavy-hitters as well as discoveries. It can be a maddening, sprawling dynamo that bothers industry types who are there to work, but pretty much everybody gets to see movies — the point of a festival — and the public loves it.

The Imitation Game

Toronto’s sheer scale guarantees heavy-hitters as well as discoveries

The Theory Of Everything

BATTLE LINES: KEY AWARDS SEASON TITLES Title

Festival world premiere

US distributor

US release date

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Berlin 2014

Fox Searchlight

March 7

The Fault In Our Stars

Seattle 2014

Fox

June 6

Boyhood

Sundance 2014

IFC

July 11

The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: Them

Cannes 2014

The Weinstein Company

Sept 12

Gone Girl

New York 2014 (opening night)

Fox

Oct 3

The Homesman

Cannes 2014

Saban Films and Roadside Attractions

Oct 3

The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: Him And Her

Toronto 2013

The Weinstein Company

Oct 10

The Judge

Toronto 2014

Warner Bros

Oct 10

Whiplash

Sundance 2014

Sony Pictures Classics

Oct 10

Birdman

Venice 2014 (opening night)

Fox Searchlight

Oct 17

Columbia Pictures

Oct 17

Fury The Theory Of Everything

Toronto 2014

Interstellar A Most Violent Year

Focus Features

Nov 7

Paramount

Nov 7

A24

Nov 12

Sony Pictures Classics

Nov 14

Foxcatcher

Cannes 2014

The Imitation Game

Telluride 2014

The Weinstein Company

Nov 21

Inherent Vice

New York 2014 (centrepiece)

Warner Bros

Dec 12

Warner Bros

Dec 17

Sony Pictures Classics

Dec 19

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies Mr. Turner

Cannes 2014

Big Eyes

The Weinstein Company

Dec 25

Selma

Paramount

Dec 25

Universal

Dec 25

Paramount

TBC

Unbroken Men, Women & Children

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Toronto 2014

Also it has landed prestige titles. There is world premiere opener The Judge starring Robert Downey Jr; a first showing of Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children and the premiere of James Marsh’s Stephen Hawking drama The Theory Of Everything.

Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young is an acquisition title and may not land a 2014 release, but everybody will want to see it. A healthy international contingent showcases world premieres of Francois Ozon’s The New Girlfriend and Oscar winner Susanne Bier’s A Second Chance, among others.

The best of the rest The Weinstein Company’s The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch will open BFI London Film Festival on October 8 and receives a Canadian premiere in Toronto, having had its world premiere at Telluride.

Fox Searchlight’s Wild screened well in the Rockies before the hike up to Toronto a few days later. In the spring, the Toronto leadership, riled by years of unofficial sneak previews of its world premieres at Telluride, delivered distributors an ultimatum.

New this year, Toronto will only open coveted first-weekend slots to undisputed world or North American premieres. Everything else rolls into the second week.

“We would present what we called the world premiere or the North American premiere in Toronto, but after all that excitable coverage [by the media from Telluride] had already happened before we got up on stage, it began to feel silly,” artistic director Cameron Bailey told Screen.

Foxcatcher and Mr. Turner both play at Toronto and are already known quantities.

They will find their champions in the awards season, as will other admired films such as Boyhood, The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby (a Toronto premiere last year that had a Cannes berth in May), The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Homesman and possibly Whiplash.

Apart from the inevitable surprises that will pop up, a handful of titles have not as far as we know landed festival berths. Werner Herzog’s Queen Of The Desert was not ready for Telluride or Toronto due to technical delays.

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, Ava DuVernay’s Selma and JC Chandor’s A Most Violent Year are all fourth-quarter releases that may find their way to AFI FEST, which kicks off on November 6.

The Jeremy Renner thriller Kill The Messenger opens through Focus in October.

Meanwhile nobody seems to know what has become of Susanne Bier’s much-delayed English-language drama Serena starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper.

Finally, it has been arguably a decade since Clint Eastwood has delivered a cracker and Warner Bros has set a December 25 limited debut for American Sniper. Will that be a brils liant late arrival to the party? ■

September 6, 2014 Screen International at Toronto 17

IntervIew MyrIad PIctures

‘‘T

here’s been small evolutions and big evolutions over the last few years,” says Myriad Pictures president and CEO Kirk D’Amico as he looks back on the company’s 15-year history.

The Santa Monica-based production, financing and sales outfit has long established itself as a purveyor of quality content with the likes of Kinsey and The Good Girl, and has recently elevated its profile even further.

Myriad championed Margin Call back in 2011; the Oscar-nominated Wall Street story launched the career of JC Chandor and grossed more than $19.5m worldwide, not including a whopping $6m VoD tally that made headlines.

D’Amico also sold international territories on the 2011 Canadian comedy Goon starring Seann William Scott, which tickled audiences at Toronto in 2011, amassed more than $6.5m globally and was a big hit across digital platforms through US distributor Magnet Releasing.

D’Amico says: “We’ve become more involved and selective in what we’re doing with the likes of Margin Call and The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby.”

The latter, Ned Benson’s dual-perspective relationship saga, wowed critics in Toronto last year and inspired Harvey Weinstein and his cohorts to stump up for US, Canadian, UK and French rights.

Weinstein got a new, single cut of the film — The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: Them — into Un Certain Regard in Cannes in May, where it earned a 10-minute standing ovation and sparked Oscar buzz for the leads. the road to rigby The response on the Croisette was the latest development in what has been a long road for D’Amico, starting with pre-sales at the EFM in Berlin 2012.

“One of the things that gets lost when people talk about it [Eleanor Rigby] is how much time is spent putting the film together and I don’t just mean finding the script and making the deal,” he says.

“It took us many months to lock in the cast. When it came to us it was originally Jessica Chastain and Joel Edgerton. We took this film to Berlin and made pre-sales and over the spring Joel was on the fence and there was an opportunity to get James McAvoy on board and we jumped at the opportunity. We were involved at the script stage. We did presales and tax credits and brought in half the equity through Dreambridge [Films].”

Finding valuable source material is key to D’Amico’s strategy of aligning with projects that set Myriad apart. “We work very well with all the agencies. The co-ordination between US and international is a lot of work.

“As a company that’s not aligned with any particular capital source we still have to cobble the films together, but we’re building relationships and the financiers are more and more comfortable dealing with us.”

October Gale

Breaking out Kirk D’Amico, founder of Myriad Pictures, tells Jeremy Kay about the move into Canadian distribution and prestige productions in the pipeline

Robert Carlyle (right) directs Ray Winstone in The Legend Of Barney Thomson

‘We’re building relationships and the financiers are more and more comfortable dealing with us’ Kirk D’Amico, Myriad Pictures

18 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

D’Amico, who prior to Myriad served as executive vice-president of international sales at Village Roadshow and vice-president of international at the Samuel Goldwyn Company, has a soft spot for Canada.

The Vancouver-based distributor Pacific Northwest Pictures (PNP) launched in 2010, and is headed by D’Amico’s wife and majority owner Zanne Devine, also a veteran producer. Myriad owns a minority stake.

The distributor aims to release seven or eight titles a year and will up the ante to 10-12 starting in 2015. PNP also enjoys strong ties with Telefilm Canada and Quebec-based television network TVA, which releases most PNP films in French-speaking Canada.

“PNP is a fully fledged theatrical distribution company where a lot of the back-room stuff is supported out of Los Angeles,” says D’Amico. “It turned a corner this year as a distributor. We released Le Week-end, which did very well.

“We will have one or more of our films in

Toronto including October Gale [directed by Cairo Time’s Ruba Nadda] starring Patricia Clarkson, which we got involved in at script stage.” PNP releases in Canada and Myriad handles international sales. Myriad’s Ruth & Alex, starring Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman, will play as a Gala screening.

The roster will feature roughly 40% Canadian co-productions a year. Upcoming releases include Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves in August and Juliette Binoche starrer A Thousand Times Goodnight.

“We just wrapped on Robert Carlyle’s The Legend Of Barney Thomson that shot primarily in Glasgow and stars Carlyle, Ray Winstone and Emma Thompson. We’re the Canadian distributor and Myriad has world sales outside of Canada,” he adds. “We will not necessarily always handle sales on a Pacific Northwest release. Cas & Dylan is an example of something that we’re releasing in Canada [but not selling internationally].”

Returning to Myriad, upcoming projects that D’Amico is getting excited about include The Keys To The Street, a UK-Germany erotic thriller and Ruth Rendell adaptation to star Gemma Arterton, Tim Roth and Max Irons.

Producers Steve Norris of Pinewood Films and Gail Mutrux are lining up for a possible spring start.

The pipeline also includes Caught Stealing set to star Patrick Wilson. Wayne Kramer will direct the South Africa-Canada crime caper adapted by David Hayter.

D’Amico continues to forge new relationships and search for new treasures. “People think of Myriad as a company that every year or two has a break-out film. They cannot s afford not to pay attention to us.” n

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ScreeningS edited by Jamie mcLeish

Public

screenings 8:45 AM coming Home

(China) 109mins. Wild Bunch, Edko Films Ltd (int’l). Dir: Zhang Yimou. Cast: Gong Li, Chen Daoming, Zhang Huiwen.

In the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, an amnesiac woman struggles to regain her memory and reconnect with her longimprisoned husband.

Special Presentations TiFF Bell Lightbox cinema 2

9:00 AM corBo

(Canada) 119mins. Max Films Media (int’l).

Dir: Mathieu Denis.

Cast: Anthony Therrien, Antoine L’Ecuyer, Karelle Tremblay.

A teenage Quebecer in the 1960s evolves from proindependence activist to radical terrorist, in this gripping chronicle of the origins of the FLQ in the decade preceding the 1970 October Crisis.

Discovery TiFF Bell Lightbox cinema 4 — Paul & Leah Atkinson Family cinema

THe TALe oF THe PrinceSS KAguyA

(Japan) 137mins. Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Isao Takahata. Cast: Aki Asakura, Kengo Kora, Takeo Chii.

Okina is a bamboo cutter in ancient rural Japan.

One day in the forest, he finds a tiny baby in the folds of a bamboo shoot.

He brings the creature home to his wife Ounaa and they decide to keep her and raise her as a princess.

She is clearly not of this world. masters TiFF Bell Lightbox cinema 3

TricK or TreATy?

(Canada) 85mins.

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

Legendary Canadian

Public screening 12:00 PM nigHTcrAWLer

(US) 117mins. Sierra/ Affinity (int’l). Dir: Dan Gilroy. Cast: Michel Litvak, Jake Gyllenhaal, David Lancaster.

A drifter and petty thief joins the nocturnal

legions of scuzzy freelance photographers who scour the city for gruesome crime-scene footage, in this gripping portrait of the dark side of Los Angeles.

Special Presentations ryerson Theatre

documentarian Alanis Obomsawin digs into the tangled history of Treaty 9 — the infamous 1905 agreement wherein First Nations communities allegedly relinquished sovereignty over their traditional territories — to reveal the deceptions and distortions which ‘the real agreement’ has been subjected to by successive governments seeking to deprive Canada’s First Peoples of their lands and rights.

Australian town.

masters Jackman Hall

Special Presentations TiFF Bell Lightbox cinema 1

9:30 AM

contemporary World cinema The Bloor Hot Docs cinema

Force mAJeure

(Sweden/Norway/ Denmark/France) 118mins. Coproduction Office (int’l/US). Dir: Ruben Ostlund. Cast: Johannes Bah Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren.

An impulsive decision in a moment of crisis drives a wedge between a husband and wife.

10:30 AM

cuT SnAKe

ruTH & ALex

(Australia) 94mins.

Seville International (int’l). Dir: Tony Ayres.

Cast: Sullivan Stapleton, Alex Russell, Jessica De Gouw.

The past catches up with an ex-con who has rebuilt his life in a small

(US) 92mins. Creative Artists Agency, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

Myriad Pictures (int’l).

Dir: Richard Loncraine.

Cast: Michael Cristofer, Diane Keaton, Morgan Freeman.

20 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

A long-married couple have an eventful weekend after they are forced to contemplate selling their beloved Brooklyn apartment. gala Presentations Winter garden Theatre

ScArLeT innocence

(South Korea) 107mins.

CJ Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Yim Pil-sung. Cast: Jung Woo-sung, Lee Som. A university professor, gradually succumbing to blindness, is entranced by an obsessive love in this modern-day adaptation of a classic Korean fairy tale. city to city isabel Bader Theatre

11:30 AM PHoenix

(Germany) 98mins. The Match Factory (int’l).

Dir: Christian Petzold.

Cast: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld.

A concentration-camp survivor searches ravaged post-war Berlin for the husband who might have betrayed her to the Nazis.

Special Presentations Visa Screening room (elgin)

Song oF THe SeA

(Ireland/Luxembourg/ Belgium/France/ Denmark) 93mins.

WestEnd Films (int’l).

Dir: Tomm Moore.

Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan, Pat Shortt.

Magical beings who live as seals in the water and as humans on land — a young brother and sister must unlock the magical secrets of their ancestry in order to find their way home.

TiFF Kids TiFF Bell Lightbox cinema 2

THe VALLey

(France/Germany/ Lebanon/Qatar) 135mins.

Doc & Film International (int’l). Dir: Ghassan Salhab. Cast: Carlos Chahine, Carole Abboud, Fadi Abi Samra.

After surviving a car crash in the middle of Lebanon’s isolated Beqaa Valley, an amnesiac man finds himself held hostage on a local farm that doubles as an illegal drug-production facility. contemporary World cinema Jackman Hall

11:45 AM SPeAKing PArTS

(Canada) 93mins. Dir: Atom Egoyan. Cast: Michael McManus, Arsinée Khanjian, Gabrielle Rose, Tony Nardi.

An aspiring actor/janitor/ gigolo becomes an object of obsession for his lonely fellow custodian. cinematheque TiFF Bell Lightbox cinema 4 — Paul & Leah Atkinson Family cinema

THe DroP

(US) 107mins. Chernin Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Michael R Roskam.

Cast: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini.

A Brooklyn bartender is caught between the cops and a crew of Chechen mobsters.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales

12:00 PM nigHTcrAWLer See box, left

ST. VincenT

(US) 103mins. The Weinstein Company (int’l). Dir: Theodore Melfi. Cast: Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O’Dowd, Terrence Howard.

A cantankerous, cashstrapped, loose-living retiree becomes a spectacularly unlikely role model for his 12-year-old neighbour.

Special Presentations roy Thomson Hall

www.screendaily.com

Further coverage, see screendaily.com

12:15 PM

1:00 PM

EdEn

THE dark HorSE

(France) 131mins.

Kinology (int’l). Dir: Mia Hansen-Love.

Cast: Felix De Givry, Pauline Etienne, Vincent Macaigne, Greta Gerwig, Golshifteh Farahani.

Traces the rise of the French electronic-music boom in the 1990s.

(New Zealand) 124mins.

Seville International (int’l). Dir: James Napier Robertson. Cast: Cliff Curtis, James Rolleston, Kirk Torrance.

A former speed-chess champion struggling with bipolar disorder takes over as coach of a chess team for at-risk youth, in the inspirational true story of New Zealand chess legend Genesis Potini.

Special Presentations The Bloor Hot docs Cinema

naTional GallEry

(France/USA) 173mins.

Zipporah Films (US).

Doc & Film International (int’l). Dir: Frederick Wiseman.

Master documentarian Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the inner workings of London’s National Gallery.

TiFF docs TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 3

Contemporary World Cinema TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 1

1:45 PM GEmma BovEry

(France) 99mins.

Gaumont (int’l). Dir: Anne Fontaine. Cast: Gemma Arterton, Fabrice Luchini, Jason Flemyng.

A passionate young Englishwoman finds dull

Public screening 3:45 PM dukHTar

(Pakistan/USA/ Norway) 93mins.

Dukhtar Productions, LLC (int’l). Dir: Afia Nathaniel. Cast: Samiya Mumtaz, Mohib Mirza, Saleha Aref.

Fleeing with her 10-yearold daughter after the

girl is promised in marriage as part of a peace treaty, the wife of a tribal chieftain is pursued through the mountains by both her husband and the intended groom’s henchmen. discovery The Bloor Hot docs Cinema

married life in a provincial Norman town is steering her towards adultery.

Special Presentations Winter Garden Theatre

miraGE

(Hungary/Slovakia) 90mins. Hungarian National Film Fund (int’l).

Dir: Szabolcs Hajdu.

Cast: Isaach De Bankolé, Razvan Vasilescu, Orsolya Torok-Illyés.

A mysterious wanderer settles into a strange homestead on the parched Hungarian plains, populated by an odd assortment of outcasts.

Contemporary World Cinema isabel Bader Theatre

2:00 PM in HEr PlaCE

(Canada/South Korea) 115mins. Elle Driver (int’l/US). Dir: Albert Shin. Cast: Yoon Da-kyung, Ahn Ji-hye, Kil Hae-yeon.

A wealthy couple seeks to secretly adopt the unborn child of an impoverished and troubled rural teenager. discovery TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 2

2:45 PM PridE

(United Kingdom) 120mins. Pathé

International (int’l).

Dir: Matthew Warchus.

Cast: Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Paddy Considine.

In 1984 Britain, a ragtag band of activists from London’s gay community form an unlikely, antiThatcherite alliance with striking Welsh miners.

Special Presentations visa Screening room (Elgin)

Cast: Michael Douglas, Jeremy Irvine, Hanna Mangan Lawrence.

A high-rolling corporate shark and his impoverished young guide play the most dangerous game during a hunting trip in the Mojave desert.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales

3:00 PM BlaCk and WHiTE

THE narroW FramE oF midniGHT

(Morocco/United Kingdom/France) 93mins. Wide Management (int’l). Dir: Tala Hadid. Cast: Khalid Abdalla, Marie-Josée Croze, Fadwa Boujouane.

The intersecting destinies of three people — a Moroccan-Iraqi writer searching for his brother, the lover whom he left behind, and a young orphan on the run — create an incisive and unsettling portrait of a land riven by violence and fundamentalism. discovery Jackman Hall

THE rEaCH

(US) 90mins. William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

Good Universe (int’l). Dir: Jean-Baptiste Leonetti.

(US) 121mins. IM Global (int’l). Dir: Mike Binder.

Cast: Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer.

An attorney, struggling to raise his bi-racial granddaughter after the deaths of his wife and daughter, becomes embroiled in a custody battle with the child’s paternal grandmother.

Gala Presentations roy Thomson Hall

kaHlil GiBran’S THE ProPHET

(Canada/France/ Lebanon/Qatar/USA) 84mins. Creative Artists Agency (US). Wild Bunch (int’l). Dirs: Roger Allers, Gaetan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Joan Gratz, Mohammed Saeed Harib, Tomm Moore, Nina Paley, Bill Plympton, Joann Sfar, Michal Socha.

Cast: Liam Neeson,

Salma Hayek-Pinault, John Krasinski.

Director Roger Allers assembled an array of internationally acclaimed animators to realise episodes from the classic text by the renowned Lebanese poet, which are woven into the tale of a mischievous young girl who attempts to free an imprisoned poet.

Special Presentations ryerson Theatre

THE CroW’S EGG

(India) 99mins. Fox Star Studios Pvt Ltd. (int’l).

Dir: M Manikandan.

Cast: Ramesh, Ramesh Thilaganathan, Vignesh.

In a Chennai slum, two young brothers set out to realise their dream: to get their first taste of pizza. discovery Scotiabank 9

3:45 PM dukHTar See box, below

4:15 PM ConFESSion

(South Korea) 114mins.

United Pictures (int’l).

Dir: Lee Do-yun. Cast: Ji Sung, Ju Ji-hoon, Lee Kwang-soo.

When a faked robbery ends in a real death, three long-time friends have their fierce loyalty to one another put to the test.

City to City TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 1

mardan

(Kurdistan) 110mins.

Mijfilm Production (int’l). Dir: Batin Ghobadi. Cast: Hossein Hassan, Helan Abdullah, Ismail Zagros.

A police officer finds himself haunted by a traumatic childhood memory as he searches for a missing man in the rugged mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. discovery TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 3

voiCE ovEr

(Chile) 96mins. Jirafa Films (int’l). Dir: Cristian Jiménez. Cast: Ingrid Isensee, Maria Siebald, Paulina Garcia. »

www.screendaily.com

September 6, 2014 Screen International at Toronto 21

SCreeninGS

opportunity for spiritual healing.

Vanguard the bloor hot docs Cinema

the neW GirLFriend

(France) 105mins. Films Distribution (int’l). Dir: Francois Ozon. Cast: Romain Duris, Anais Demoustier, Raphael Personnaz.

A young woman makes a surprising discovery about the husband of her late best friend.

Gala Presentations roy thomson hall

6:45 PM the VaniShed eLePhant

Public screening 4:30 PM LabyrinthuS

(Belgium) 95mins.

Attraction (int’l). Dir: Douglas Boswell. Cast: Emma Verlinden, Spencer Bogaert.

A married woman — seeking to purify herself through a ‘disconnection vow’ — leaves her husband and returns to her parents’ home, but finds a situation far from the peace and quiet she had imagined.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 13

4:30 PM GuidanCe

(Canada) 83mins.

Edyson Entertainment Inc. (int’l). Dir: Pat Mills. Cast: Pat Mills, Zahra Bentham, Laytrel McMullen.

Fabricating credentials to score a last-ditch job as a high-school guidance counsellor, a boozing, drug-addled former child star becomes an improbable hit with his students by dispensing the worst advice possible. discovery Scotiabank 8

LabyrinthuS See box, above

4:45 PM ManGLehorn

(US) 97mins. Creative

A young boy is sucked into the digitised world of a mysterious video game, in this visually dazzling adventure. tiFF Kids Scotiabank 14

Artists Agency, Cinetic Media (US). WestEnd Films (int’l). Dir: David Gordon Green. Cast: Al Pacino, Holly Hunter, Harmony Korine.

Left heartbroken by the woman he loved and lost 40 years ago, an eccentric small-town locksmith tries to start his life over again with the help of a new friend.

Special Presentations Winter Garden theatre

Short CutS internationaL ProGraMMe 2

121mins. Dirs: various.

From the simple pleasures of an ice cream to the realisation of our deepest and darkest wishes, desire has many names and faces in this shorts programme.

Short Cuts international tiFF bell Lightbox cinema 4 — Paul & Leah atkinson Family Cinema

5:15 PM itSi bitSi

(Denmark/Croatia/ Sweden) 107mins. The Match Factory (int’l).

Dir: Ole Christian

22 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

Madsen. Cast: Joachim Fjelstrup, Marie Tourell Soderberg, Christian Gade Bjerrum.

Based on events that led to the founding of the shortlived but massively influential Danish rock group Steppeulvene.

Media (int’l/US). Dir: Gina Prince-Bythewood.

Cast: Gugu Mbatha Raw, Nate Parker, Minnie Driver.

A rising young musician falls into a passionate love affair with the cop assigned to protect her.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 4

Special Presentations Visa Screening room (elgin)

the PrinCeSS oF FranCe

FLaPPinG in the MiddLe oF noWhere

(Argentina) 70mins.

Trapecio cine (int’l). Dir: Matias Pineiro. Cast: Julian Larquier, Agustina Munoz, Maria Villar.

Detailing how life begins to imitate art when a Buenos Aires theatre company mounts a radio version of Love’s Labour’s Lost.

Wavelengths Jackman hall

5:45 PM Who aM i — no SySteM iS SaFe

(Germany) 105mins.

TrustNordisk (int’l). Dir: Baran bo Odar. Cast: Tom Schilling, Elyas M’Barek, Wotan Wilke Moehring.

A young, friendless computer geek becomes a wanted man after he joins a crew of daredevil hackers.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 2

6:00 PM

(Vietnam) 99mins.

VBlock Media (int’l). Dir: Diep Hoang Nguyen.

Cast: Thuy Anh Nguyen, Bao Son Tran, Ha Hoang.

When they discover they are pregnant, a young couple in Hanoi resort to desperate — and bizarre — measures to raise money for an abortion. discovery Scotiabank 9

GoMorrah

(Italy/Germany) 120mins. Beta Cinema (int’l). Dir: Stefano Sollima.

The first two episodes of a 12-part television series based on Italian journalist Roberto Saviano’s gripping exposé of the Camorra, which was previously adapted into the awardwinning 2008 feature film

by Matteo Garrone.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1

beyond the LiGhtS

Men, WoMen & ChiLdren

(US) 116mins. Relativity

(US) 116mins. Right of

Way Films (int’l). Dir: Jason Reitman. Cast: Kaitlyn Dever, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ansel Elgort.

Follows a group of teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the many ways the internet has changed their relationships, their communication, their selfimage and their love lives.

Special Presentations ryerson theatre

WeLCoMe to Me

(US) 88mins. United Talent Agency, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

Cargo Entertainment (int’l). Dir: Shira Piven.

Cast: Kristen Wiig, James Marsden, Jennifer Jason Leigh.

A woman suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder becomes an overnight celebrity after a huge lottery jackpot allows her to launch her own offthe-wall talk show.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

6:30 PM Luna

(United Kingdom) 104mins. Simon Moorhead (int’l). Dir: Dave McKean. Cast: Ben Daniels, Dervla Kirwan, Stephanie Leonidas.

A dreamlike reverie about four people whose weekend idyll in an isolated English seaside home becomes an

(Peru/Colombia/Spain) 110mins. El calvo films (int’l). Dir: Javier Fuentes-Leon. Cast: Salvador del Solar, Angie Cepeda, Lucho Caceres.

A crime novelist receives a vital clue to the whereabouts of his longmissing fiancée, in this mind-bending mystery that pays homage to Hollywood film noir and the reality-twisting fictions of Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar. discovery Scotiabank 3

7:00 PM iMPunity

(South Africa) 85mins.

Shadowy Meadows Productions; Ken Kaplan, Bioskope Pictures (int’l).

Dir: Jyoti Mistry. Cast: Alex McGregor, Bjorn Steinbach, Desmond Dube.

Investigating the gruesome murder of a cabinet minister’s daughter, a special investigator and a local police detective find themselves knee-deep in political corruption and conspiracy.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 13

return to ithaCa

(France) 95mins. Funny Balloons (int’l/US). Dir: Laurent Cantet. Cast: Isabel Santos, Jorge Peugorria, Fernando Hechevarria.

Five old friends in Havana reflect on their lives, experiences and unrealised dreams, in this affecting character study.

Special Presentations isabel bader theatre

www.screendaily.com

strip toronto-2 6-9-14_Opmaak 1 02-09-14 17:10

FROM THE NETHERLANDS WavelengThS 2: SomeThing in The aTmoSpheRe

SATURDAY SEP 6

107mins. Dirs: various.

Wavelengths Jackman hall

8:00 PM The FaCe oF an angel

(United Kingdom) 100mins. WestEnd Films (int’l/US). Dir: Michael Winterbottom. Cast: Daniel Brühl, Kate Beckinsale, Valerio Mastandrea.

A fictional feature inspired by the notorious Amanda Knox murder case in Perugia, Italy. masters Winter garden Theatre

8:15 PM The WanTeD 18

Public screening 9:00 PM Big game

(Finland/Germany/ United Kingdom) 90mins.

Altitude Film Sales, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

The ReapeR

(Croatia/Slovenia) 98mins.

Kinorama (int’l). Dir: Zvonimir Juric. Cast: Ivo Gregurevic, Mirjana Karanovic, Igor Kovac.

Haunted by his dark past, a labourer in a small Croatian village has a series of fateful encounters over the course of a single night.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

Altitude Film Sales (int’l).

Dir: Jalmari Helander.

Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Onni Tommila, Ray Stevenson.

Trapped in the wilderness after Air Force One is forced

down by a terrorist attack, the president of the United States must rely on the survival skills of a 13-yearold woodsman.

Nino Kirtadzé. Cast: Levan Murtazashvili, Irma Inaridze.

This subtly comic blend of fact and fiction follows a middle-aged married couple in Tblisi, Georgia, as they deal with the fallout from an unclear, potentially fatal prognosis.

Blends fiction, formalism and raw documentary as it follows a young heroin addict who finds love in the streets of New York.

Contemporary World Cinema TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 4 — paul & leah atkinson Family Cinema

87mins. Bailasan (int’l).

Dir: Suha Arraf. Cast: Nisreen Faour, Ula Tabari, Cherien Dabis.

The story of spirited 18-yearold orphan Badia, whose arrival at the Ramallah home of her three spinster aunts unleashes a torrent of family secrets and long-held grudges.

(Germany) 122mins. Beta Cinema (int’l). Dir: Giulio Ricciarelli.

A young prosecutor in post-war West Germany investigates a massive conspiracy to cover up the Nazi pasts of prominent public figures.

Discovery TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 3

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 2

While We’Re Young

(US) 94mins. United Talent Agency (US). FilmNation Entertainment (int’l). Dir: Noah Baumbach. Cast: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver.

Noah Baumbach’s exploration of ageing, ambition and success stars Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as a middle-aged couple whose career and marriage are overturned when a disarming young couple enters their lives.

heaRTBeaT

Special presentations princess of Wales

heaven KnoWS WhaT

7:15 PM Don’T BReaThe

(France) 86mins. Deckert Distribution (int’l). Dir:

www.screendaily.com

(Canada/Palestine/France) 75mins. National Film Board of Canada (int’l).

Dirs: Amer Shomali, Paul Cowan. Cast: Alison Darcy, Heidi Foss, Holly Uloth O’Brien.

Through stop-motion animation, drawings and interviews, directors Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan recreate an astonishing true story from the first Palestinian Intifada: the Israeli army’s pursuit of 18 cows, whose independent milk production on a Palestinian collective farm was declared “a threat to the national security of the state of Israel”.

(Canada) 93mins.

Northeast Films (int’l).

Dir: Andrea Dorfman.

Cast: Tanya Davis, Stephanie Clattenburg, Stewart Legere.

Stuck in a go-nowhere job and a DOA personal life, a Halifax twentysomething finds salvation by returning to her musical roots.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 14

(US/France) 93mins. ICM Partners (US). Dir: Benny Safdie, Joshua Safdie.

Cast: Arielle Holmes, Caleb Landry Jones, Buddy Duress.

midnight madness Scotiabank 12

Wavelengths TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 1

7:30 PM villa Touma

7:45 PM

THE INTRUDER Dir: Shariff Korver Prod: Lemming Film (feature, 90’) 22:00 Scotiabank 8

TiFF Docs Scotiabank 4

8:45 PM laBYRinTh oF lieS

9:00 PM

ouT oF naTuRe

Big game

(Norway) 80mins. NDM International Sales (int’l).

Dir: Ole Giaever, Marte Vold. Cast: Ole Giaever, Marte Magnusdotter Solem, Sivert Giaever Solem.

A put-upon man seeks spiritual renewal in the Great Outdoors.

See box, above

Contemporary World Cinema TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 2

DISCOVERY

WAVELENGTHS

EPISODE OF THE SEA Dir: Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan Prod: Van Brummelen & De Haan (documentary, 63’) 21:45 Cinema 4

Kill me ThRee TimeS

(Australia) 90mins.

William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US). Cargo Entertainment (int’l). Dir: Kriv Stenders. Cast: Simon Pegg, Sullivan Stapleton, Alice Braga.

A small Australian town »

your Dutch film connection

international@eyefilm.nl www.international.eyefilm.nl

September 6, 2014 Screen International at Toronto 23

ScreenIngS

becomes a hotbed of scheming, scamming, blackmail and murder in this blackly comic, sunscorched neo-noir. contemporary World cinema Scotiabank 1

The SounD anD The Fury See box, right

unlucky PlaZa

(Singapore) 122mins.

Kaya Toast Pictures (int’l). Dir: Ken Kwek.

Cast: Epy Quizon, Adrian Pang, Judee Tan. The lives of an arrogant young motivational speaker in debt to the Chinese mafia, his lookin’to-get-out wife, and a single father in dire straits fatefully intertwine in this nail-biting thriller from Singapore that is based, almost unbelievably, on a true story.

Discovery Scotiabank 9

9:15 PM roger WaTerS The Wall

(United Kingdom) 133mins. Cinetic Media (US). Mister Smith Entertainment Ltd. (int’l). Dir: Roger Waters, Sean Evans. Cast: Roger Waters, Dave Kilminster, Snowy White.

A rib-rattling, sonically stupendous account of the Pink Floyd frontman’s continent-crossing concert tour with his epic stage show, The Wall Live.

Special Presentations visa Screening room (elgin)

9:30 PM

Public screening 9:00 PM The SounD anD The Fury

(US) 101mins. New Films International (int’l). Dir: James Franco. Cast: James Franco, Jon Hamm.

106mins. HanWay Films (int’l). Dir: Lone Scherfig. Cast: Sam Claflin, Max Irons, Douglas Booth.

Two young men are inducted into the exclusive, debaucherous company of Oxford’s elite ‘Riot Club’, in this scathing dissection of the British class system. gala Presentations roy Thomson hall

IraqI oDySSey

(Iraq/Switzerland/ Germany/United Arab Emirates) 162mins.

Autlook Filmsales (int’l).

Dir: Samir.

Tracing the emigrations of his family over more than half a century, this riveting 3D documentary epic from acclaimed expatriate Iraqi filmmaker Samir pays moving homage to the frustrated democratic dreams of a people successively plagued by the horrors of dictatorship, war and foreign occupation.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 13

The rIoT cluB

(United Kingdom)

WaSTe lanD

(Belgium) 97mins. Be for Films (int’l). Dir: Pieter Van Hees. Cast: Jérémie Renier, Natali Broods, Babetida Sadjo.

A Brussels homicide cop begins to lose control of his life as he tries to solve a bizarre murder. vanguard The Bloor hot Docs cinema

9:45 PM ePISoDe oF The Sea

(Netherlands) 63mins.

Van Brummelen &De Haan (int’l). Dirs: Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan, the inhabitants of Urk. Cast: Femmy Brands, Hennie De Bruijne, Tinie De Boer.

24 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

An adaptation of William Faulkner’s modernist masterpiece about the ill-fated Mississippi Compson clan.

Special Presentations ryerson Theatre

Documenting the tenacious traditionalism of the remote Dutch fishing community of Urk. Wavelengths TIFF Bell lightbox cinema 4 — Paul & leah atkinson Family cinema

genTleMen

(Sweden) 141mins.

Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Mikael Marcimain. Cast: David Dencik, Ruth Vega Fernandez, David Fukamachi Regnfors.

A would-be novelist discovers the story of a lifetime when his host — a bon vivant and possible spy with friends in the highest of places — reveals the existence of a decadesspanning conspiracy by Europe’s ultra-wealthy elite, who are secretly remodelling the continent to serve their own sinister needs.

Special Presentations Isabel Bader Theatre

hIgh SocIeTy

(France) 95mins.

Pyramide International (int’l). Dir: Julie Lopes Curval. Cast:

Ana Girardot, Bastien Bouillon, Baptiste Lecaplain.

Class barriers threaten the budding romance of two young lovers striving to realise their artistic ambitions. contemporary World cinema Scotiabank 3

verge on the prehistoric — raises hell when he is forced to move in with his sadsack, city-dwelling son and domineering daughter-in-law. contemporary World cinema Scotiabank 14

Tells the story of New York City comedian-turned-film star Andre Allen, whose unexpected encounter with a journalist forces him to confront both the career that made him famous and the life he left behind.

The InTruDer

Special Presentations Princess of Wales

117mins. Dirs: various.

From the most intimate spheres to the wide open spaces, this programme explores our physical connections to our environment and to each other.

(Netherlands) 86mins.

Lemming Film (int’l).

Dir: Shariff Korver. Cast: Nasrdin Dchar, Walid Benmbarek.

A Dutch cop of Moroccan heritage goes undercover in a Moroccan drug ring and finds there a feeling of belonging he never experienced in ‘normal’ society.

Short cuts canada TIFF Bell lightbox cinema 3

Discovery Scotiabank 8

The Duke oF BurgunDy

ToDay

(United Kingdom) 101mins. Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Peter Strickland. Cast: Sidse Babett Knudsen, Chiara D’Anna.

Tale of an amateur butterfly expert whose wayward desires test her lover’s tolerance. vanguard TIFF Bell lightbox cinema 1

(Iran) 88mins. DreamLab Films (int’l/US). Dir: Reza Mirkarimi. Cast: Parviz Parastui, Soheila Golestani, Shabnam Moghadami.

A Tehran taxi driver becomes the impromptu protector of a desperate young pregnant woman after he rushes her to hospital.

The gruMP

contemporary World cinema Jackman hall

10:00 PM ShorT cuTS canaDa PrograMMe 2

(Finland) 104mins. The Yellow Affair (int’l). Dir: Dome Karukoski. Cast: Antti Litja, Petra Frey, Mari Perankoski.

A stubbornly traditional 80-year-old farmer — whose social attitudes

ToP FIve

(US) 101mins. United Talent Agency (US).

FilmNation (int’l). Dir: Chris Rock. Cast: Chris Rock, Rosario Dawson, JB Smoove.

10:15 PM May allah BleSS France!

(France) 96mins. Films Distribution (int’l). Dir: Abd Al Malik. Cast: Marc Zinga, Sabrina Ouazani, Larouci Didi.

French rapper, author and spoken-word artist Abd Al Malik makes his directorial debut with this adaptation of his 2004 autobiography, chronicling his upbringing in the crime and drug-ridden streets of Strasbourg and his life-changing encounters with hip-hop and religion.

Discovery TIFF Bell lightbox cinema 2

11:59 PM TuSk

(US) 102mins. XYZ (int’l). Dir: Kevin Smith.

Cast: Justin Long, Haley Joel Osment, Genesis Rodriguez.

Canuck-baiting chiller about a popular podcast host who descends into madness when he heads north of the 49th parallel.

Midnight Madness ryerson Theatre

www.screendaily.com

Press & Industry 8:45 AM BeAtS of the Antonov

(Sudan/South Africa) 65mins. Big World Cinema (int’l).

Dir: Hajooj Kuka.

Director Hajooj Kuka immerses us in the world of the Sudanese farmers, herders and rebels of the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountain regions, who defiantly celebrate their heritage and tend their lands in the face of a government bombing campaign. tIff Docs Scotiabank 9

mAgIcAl gIRl

(Spain) 127mins. Films Distribution (int’l). Dir: Carlos Vermut. Cast: José Sacristan, Barbara Lennie, Luis Bermejo.

Desperate to fulfill his terminally ill daughter’s last wish, a grief-stricken man plunges into a vortex of blackmail, deception and double-cross.

Discovery Scotiabank 14

9:00 AM the RIot cluB

(United Kingdom) 106mins. HanWay Films (int’l). Dir: Lone Scherfig. Cast: Sam Claflin, Max Irons, Douglas Booth.

Two young men are inducted into the exclusive, debaucherous company of Oxford’s elite ‘Riot Club’, in this scathing dissection of the British class system. gala Presentations Princess of Wales

the YeS men ARe RevoltIng

(US) 90mins. Cinetic Media (US). Dir: Laura Nix, The Yes Men. Cast: Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno, Chandia Bernadette Kodili.

The sequel to the hit 2003 documentary follows activist-pranksters Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano as they pull the rug out from under mega-corporations, government officials and a complacent media in a

www.screendaily.com

Press & industry 9:00 AM Wet Bum (preceded by 9-min short ‘Red Alert’)

(Canada) 104mins.

Clique Pictures (Int).

Dir: Lindsay MacKay. Cast: Julia Sarah Stone, Kenneth Welsh.

An awkward teenage outcast finds unlikely companions in two aged residents of the retirement home in which she works.

Discovery Scotiabank 8

tIff Docs Scotiabank 13

Wilke Moehring.

A young, friendless computer geek becomes a most wanted man after he joins a crew of daredevil hackers.

Welcome to me

contemporary World cinema Scotiabank 10

series of outrageous stunts that are designed to draw awareness to the issue of climate change.

(US) 88mins. United Talent Agency, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

Cargo Entertainment (int’l). Dir: Shira Piven.

Cast: Kristen Wiig, James Marsden, Jennifer Jason Leigh.

A woman suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder becomes an overnight celebrity after a huge lottery jackpot allows her to launch her own offthe-wall talk show.

9:15 AM A SIngle WoRD

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3

(Senegal/Qatar) 63mins. Guiss Guiss Communication (int’l).

Dirs: Mariama Sylla, Khady Sylla. Cast: Penda Diogo Sarr, Doudou Dieye, Anta Sarr.

In this meditative and elegiac portrait, Senegalese film-makers Khady and Mariama Sylla record the tales of their grandmother, one of the last repositories of their culture’s oral tradition.

Wet Bum

Wavelengths Scotiabank 7

See box, above

guIDAnce Who Am I — no SYStem IS SAfe

(Germany) 105mins.

TrustNordisk (int’l).

Dir: Baran bo Odar.

Cast: Tom Schilling, Elyas M’Barek, Wotan

(Canada) 83mins.

Edyson Entertainment Inc (Int). Dir: Pat Mills. Cast: Pat Mills, Zahra Bentham, Laytrel McMullen.

Fabricating credentials to

score a last-ditch job as a high-school guidance counsellor, a boozing, drug-addled former child star becomes an improbable hit with his students by dispensing the worst advice possible.

Discovery Scotiabank 5

men, Women & chIlDRen

(US) 116mins. Right of Way Films (int’l). Dir: Jason Reitman. Cast: Kaitlyn Dever, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ansel Elgort, Jennifer Garner.

Follows a group of teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the many ways the internet has changed their relationships, their communication, their selfimage and their love lives.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1

9:30 AM Song of the SeA

(Ireland/Luxembourg/ Belgium/France/ Denmark) 93mins.

Dir: Tomm Moore.

Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan, Pat Shortt.

Magical beings who live as seals in the water and as humans on land — a young brother and sister must unlock the magical secrets of their ancestry in order to find their way home. tIff Kids Scotiabank 11

the gAte

(France/Belgium/ Cambodia) 95mins.

Gaumont (int’l). Dir: Régis Wargnier. Cast: Raphael Personnaz, Olivier Gourmet, Kompheak Phoeung.

Two decades after forging an unlikely alliance in Pol Pot’s Cambodia, a French ethnologist and a former Khmer Rouge official meet again after the latter is arrested for crimes against humanity.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 4

10:00 AM the PRIce We PAY

(Canada) 92mins.

Filmoption International (int’l). Dir: Harold Crooks.

The dark history and dire present-day reality of big-business tax avoidance, which has seen multinationals depriving governments of trillions of dollars in tax revenues by harbouring profits in offshore havens. tIff Docs Scotiabank 6

10:30 AM BIg gAme

(Finland/Germany/ United Kingdom) 90mins. Altitude Film Sales, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US). Altitude Film Sales (int’l). Dir: Jalmari Helander. Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Onni Tommila,

Ray Stevenson, Jim Broadbent, Felicity Huffman.

Trapped in the wilderness after Air Force One is forced down by a terrorist attack, the president of the United States must rely on the survival skills of a 13-year-old woodsman. midnight madness Scotiabank 12

ItSI BItSI

(Denmark/Croatia/ Sweden) 107mins. The Match Factory (int’l).

Dir: Ole Christian Madsen. Cast: Joachim Fjelstrup, Marie Tourell Soderberg, Christian Gade Bjerrum.

Based on events that led to the founding of the short-lived but massively influential Danish rock group Steppeulvene. contemporary World cinema Scotiabank 9

11:00 AM eScoBAR: PARADISe loSt

(France/Spain/Belgium) 120mins. Pathé International (int’l). Dir: Andrea Di Stefano. Cast: Benicio del Toro, Josh Hutcherson, Claudia Traisac.

An American surfer meets the girl of his dreams — but gets a brutal (sur)reality check when he meets her uncle, Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. gala Presentations Scotiabank 13

September 6, 2014 Screen International at Toronto 25

»

SCREENINGS

11:15 AM IN HER PlaCE

(Canada/South Korea) 115mins. Elle Driver (int’l/US). Dir: Albert Shin. Cast: Yoon Da-kyung, Ahn Ji-hye, Kil Hae-yeon.

A wealthy couple seeks to secretly adopt the unborn child of an impoverished and troubled rural teenager.

Discovery Scotiabank 8

NatuRal RESIStaNCE

(Italy/France) 86mins.

Rezo (int’l). Dir: Jonathan Nossiter. Cast: Paula Prandini, Alberto Sordi, Giovanna Tiezzi.

A profile of four radical vineyard proprietors in Italy, who are striving to produce all-natural wines in the face of market and governmental pressure. tIFF Docs Scotiabank 7

11:30 AM BoyCHoIR

(US) 106mins. Creative Artists Agency (US).

Embankment Films (int’l). Dir: Francois Girard. Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Josh Lucas.

A troubled 11-year-old boy at a prestigious East Coast music school clashes with the school’s demanding choir master.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 10

BREakuP BuDDIES See box, above

tHE NEw GIRlFRIEND

(France) 105mins.

Films Distribution (int’l).

Dir: Francois Ozon.

Cast: Romain Duris, Anais Demoustier, Raphael Personnaz.

A young woman makes a surprising discovery about the husband of her late best friend.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 3

11:45 AM SHoRt CutS INtERNatIoNal PRoGRammE 1

91mins. Dirs: various.

An accident at the supermarket turns into an international event; a day on the job has life-

Press & industry 11:30 AM BREakuP BuDDIES

(China) 116mins. Injo Films Limited (Int).

Dir: Ning Hao. Cast: Huang Bo, Xu Zheng, Zhou Dongyu.

Recently cuckolded and

altering repercussions; an unexpected connection leaves an electric impression... Serendipity, circumstance and dumb luck combine in unforgettable ways in this package of stellar international short films.

Short Cuts International Scotiabank 5

12:00 PM la SalaDa

(Argentina) 88mins.

Sudestada Cine (Int).

Dir: Juan Martin Hsu. Cast: Ignacio Huang, Yunseon Kim, Chang Sun Kim. Buenos Aires’ enormous, informal street market La Salada is the vibrant setting for this thoughtful and affecting study of the immigrant experience in Argentina.

Discovery Scotiabank 11

tHE DRoP

(US) 107mins. Chernin Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Michael R Roskam.

26 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

reeling from a messy divorce, a hapless former singer hits the road — and the bar — with his all-too-helpful best buddy.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3

Cast: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini.

A Brooklyn bartender finds himself caught between the cops and a crew of Chechen mobsters.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1

husband who might have betrayed her to the Nazis.

life as he tries to solve a bizarre murder.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 2

Vanguard Scotiabank 9

SHEltER

(US) 105mins. United Talent Agency (US).

Voltage Pictures (int’l).

Dir: Paul Bettany. Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Mackie.

Homeless on the streets of New York, two people from very different worlds find strength and solace in each other.

(Australia) 94mins.

Seville International (int’l). Dir: Tony Ayres.

Cast: Sullivan Stapleton, Alex Russell, Jessica De Gouw.

The past catches up with an ex-con who has rebuilt his life in a small Australian town.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

Contemporary world Cinema Scotiabank 13

tHE PRINCESS oF FRaNCE

(United Kingdom) 101mins. Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Peter Strickland. Cast: Sidse Babett Knudsen, Chiara D’Anna.

Tale of an amateur butterfly expert whose wayward desires test her lover’s tolerance.

(Argentina) 70mins.

Trapecio cine (Int). Dir: Matias Pineiro. Cast: Julian Larquier, Agustina Munoz, Maria Villar.

Detailing how life begins to imitate art when a Buenos Aires theatre company mounts a radio version of Love’s Labour’s Lost.

Vanguard Scotiabank 4

wavelengths Scotiabank 6

12:30 PM

12:45 PM

tHE DukE oF BuRGuNDy

1:30 PM

PHoENIx

waStE laND

(Germany) 98mins. The Match Factory (int’l).

Dir: Christian Petzold.

Cast: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld.

A concentration-camp survivor searches ravaged post-war Berlin for the

(Belgium) 97mins. Be for Films (int’l). Dir: Pieter Van Hees. Cast: Jérémie Renier, Natali Broods, Babetida Sadjo, Peter van den Begin.

A Brussels homicide cop begins to lose control of his

Cut SNakE

1:45 PM SPRING

(US) 109mins. XYZ Films (int’l/US). Dir: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead. Cast: Lou Taylor Pucci, Nadia Hilker, Francesco Carnelutti.

The tale of an American backpacker in Italy who falls in love with a beautiful young woman harbouring a dark, primordial secret.

Vanguard Scotiabank 7

uNluCky PlaZa

(Singapore) 122mins.

Kaya Toast Pictures (int’l). Dir: Ken Kwek.

Cast: Epy Quizon, Adrian Pang, Judee Tan. The lives of an arrogant

young motivational speaker in debt to the Chinese mafia, his lookin’to-get-out wife, and a single father in dire straits fatefully intertwine in this nail-biting thriller from Singapore that is based, almost unbelievably, on a true story.

Discovery Scotiabank 8

2:00 PM Cut BaNk

(US) 93mins. Untitled Entertainment (US).

Entertainment One Films International (int’l). Dir: Matt Shakman. Cast: John Malkovich, Billy Bob Thornton, Bruce Dern.

A small-town Montana mechanic yearning to move to the big city finds what may be his ticket out when he comes into possession of evidence of a murder.

Contemporary world Cinema Scotiabank 10

REVENGE oF tHE GREEN DRaGoNS

(US) 94mins. IM Global (int’l/US). Dir: Andrew Lau, Andrew Loo. Cast: Ray Liotta, Justin Chon, Kevin Wu. Follows two best friends as they rise through the ranks of New York’s Chinese underworld in the 1980s.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3

www.screendaily.com

»

/OFFICIALMILLENNIUMFILMS

/MILLENNIUMFILMS

T O R O N T O 2 0 1 4 . H y a t t R e g e n c y, S u i t e 1 8 0 3 Te l : + 1 4 1 6 3 4 3 1 2 3 4

SCREENINGS

Press & industry Ruth & AlEx

(US) 92mins. Creative Artists Agency, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

Myriad Pictures (int’l).

Dir: Richard Loncraine.

Cast: Michael Cristofer, Diane Keaton, Morgan Freeman.

A long-married couple have an eventful weekend after they are forced to contemplate selling their beloved Brooklyn apartment.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 14

2:15 PM ShoRt CutS CANAdA PRoGRAmmE 1

85mins. Dirs: various.

Headlined by newly restored animations by the great Norman McLaren, this programme muses on the many facets of fame, with tales of war heroes, TV stars and local mayors.

Short Cuts Canada Scotiabank 6

2:30 PM oBRA

(Brazil) 80mins. FiGa Films (int’l/US). Dir: Gregorio Graziosi. Cast: Irandhir Santos, Lola Peploe, Julio Andrade.

A young architect

discovery Scotiabank 4

2:30 PM NIGhtCRAwlER

(US) 117mins. Sierra/ Affinity (int’l). Dir: Dan Gilroy. Cast: Michel Litvak, Jake Gyllenhaal, David Lancaster.

A drifter and petty thief joins the nocturnal legions of scuzzy freelance photographers who scour the city for gruesome crime-scene footage, in this gripping portrait of the dark side of Los Angeles.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1

oBRA x+Y

(United Kingdom) 111mins. Bankside Films (int’l). Dir: Morgan Matthews. Cast: Asa Butterfield, Rafe Spall, Sally Hawkins.

A socially awkward teenage maths prodigy finds new confidence and new friendships when he lands a spot on the British squad at the International Mathematics Olympiad.

See box, above

and junkies in Montreal. embarking upon his first major project is unexpectedly brought face to face with dark secrets from his ancestral past. discovery Scotiabank 5

— with an immaculate conception. discovery Scotiabank 11

3:15 PM A SECoNd ChANCE

(Denmark) 105mins.

TrustNordisk (int’l).

Dir: Susanne Bier. Cast: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Ulrich Thomsen, Maria Bonnevie.

A veteran police officer with a wife and new baby makes a fateful decision when he is brought back into contact with a pair of junkie parents.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 2

4:00 PM

Contemporary world Cinema Scotiabank 7

4:30 PM I Am Not loRENA

(Chile/Argentina) 82mins. Forastero (int’l).

Dir: Isidora Marras. Cast: Loreto Aravena, Paulina Garcia, Maureen Junott.

A case of mistaken identity becomes a living nightmare when a young actress finds herself relentlessly assailed by debt collectors. discovery Scotiabank 5

thE lASt fIvE YEARS

(US) 94mins. Creative Artists Agency (US). The Exchange (int’l). Dir: Richard LaGravenese.

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Jeremy Jordan.

A struggling actress and her novelist lover look back on the last half-decade of their relationship from very different viewpoints.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3

SECoNd ComING

lovE IN thE tImE of CIvIl wAR

thE YEARS of fIERRo

(United Kingdom) 105mins. Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Debbie Tucker Green.

Cast: Nadine Marshall, Idris Elba, Kai FrancisLewis.

A married, middle-class London couple are shocked when they seem to have been blessed — or cursed

(Canada) 120mins. Les Films du 3 Mars (int’l/ US). (Int). Dir: Rodrigue Jean. Cast: Alexandre Landry, Jean-Simon Leduc, Simon Lefebvre.

A fearless, unflinching look at the reality of addiction in this toughminded docudrama set in the bleak milieu of hustlers

(Mexico) 98mins.

Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografia (IMCINE) (int’l). Dir: Santiago Esteinou.

An empathetic and powerful documentary portrait of Cesar Fierro, a Mexican convict who has spent 30 years in a Texas prison awaiting his

28 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

sentence of execution by lethal injection. tIff docs Scotiabank 10

4:45 PM ElEPhANt SoNG

(Canada) 110mins. Seville international (int’l/US).

Dir: Charles Binamé.

Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Xavier Dolan, Catherine Keener, Carrie-Anne Moss, Guy Nadon.

Follows a psychiatrist who is drawn into a complex mind game when he questions a disturbed patient about the disappearance of a colleague.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 11

blindness, is entranced by an obsessive love in this modern-day adaptation of a classic Korean fairy tale.

City to City tIff Bell lightbox cinema 5

6:30 PM whERE I Am KING

(Philippines) 91mins.

Reynafilms, Inc. (int’l).

Dir: Carlos SiguionReyna. Cast: Robert Arevalo, Liza Lorena, Rez Cortez.

When his fortune is wiped out, an arrogant, self-made tycoon is forced to return to the slum tenement where he grew up.

Contemporary world Cinema Scotiabank 5

6:45 PM

lEttERS to mAx

toKYo tRIBE

(France) 103mins. PouletMalassis (int’l). Dir: Eric Baudelaire. Cast: Maxim Gvinjia.

Both a chronicle of a developing friendship and an ingenious, unusual essay film about the inherently speculative nature of nationhood.

(Japan) 116mins. XYZ Films (US). Nikkatsu Corporation (int’l). Dir: Sion Sono. Cast: Ryohei Suzuki, Young Dais.

The director ventures even further into uncharted cinematic territory with this yakuza-street ganghip hop-musical epic.

wavelengths Scotiabank 6

midnight madness Scotiabank 7

6:00 PM

7:00 PM

SCARlEt INNoCENCE

thE fAREwEll PARtY

(South Korea) 107mins.

CJ Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Yim Pil-sung. Cast: Jung Woo-sung, Lee Som. A university professor, gradually succumbing to

(Germany/Israel) 90mins. Beta Cinema (int’l). Dir: Sharon Maymon, Tal Granit.

Cast: Ze’ev Revach, Levana Finkelshtein, Aliza Rosen.

www.screendaily.com

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SCREENINGS

Screen office Meeting room 12, fifth floor, TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 Kind Street West, Toronto, ON, M5V 3X5 Editorial Tel +1 416 599 8433 ext 2512 Editor Wendy Mitchell, wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com, +44 7889 414 856 US editor Jeremy Kay, jeremykay67@gmail.com, +1 310 922 5908 Chief reporter Andreas Wiseman, andreas.wiseman@ screendaily.com, +44 7713 086 674 Chief critic & reviews editor Mark Adams, mark.adams@screendaily.com, +44 7834 902 528 Group head of production & art Mark Mowbray, mark.mowbray@screendaily.com, +44 7710 124 065 Sid Adilman mentorship programme Daniel Horowitz, daniel.horowitz@mail.utoronto.ca

Press & industry 7:15 PM REd AmNESIA

(China) 110mins.

Chinese Shadows (int’l). Dir: Wang Xiaoshuai. Cast: Lu Zhong, Shi Liu, Feng Yuanzheng, Qin Hao,

Amanda Qin. A retired widow has her daily routine derailed when she starts receiving mysterious, anonymous phone calls.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 11

A devoted elderly couple living in a Jerusalem retirement home is faced with a pair of devastating challenges that threaten to divide them after decades of marriage.

Israeli army’s pursuit of 18 cows, whose independent milk production on a Palestinian farm was declared “a threat to the national security of the state of Israel”.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 10

TIFF docs Scotiabank 6

7:15 PM REd AmNESIA See box, above

ThE WANTEd 18

(Canada/Palestine/ France) 75mins. National Film Board of Canada (int’l). Dirs: Amer Shomali, Paul Cowan.

Cast: Alison Darcy, Heidi Foss, Holly Uloth O’Brien.

Through stop-motion animation, drawings and interviews, directors Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan recreate an astonishing true story from the first Palestinian Intifada: the

9:15 PM BlACk ANd WhITE See box, below

9:30 PM GoodNIGhT mommy

(Austria) 100mins. Films Distribution (int’l). Dirs: Veronika Franz, Severin

Fiala. Cast: Susanne Wuest, Elias Schwarz.

Two young twins confined to an isolated country house transform their resentment towards their mother into a fatal illusion about her identity.

hIll oF FREEdom

Andrew Dixon, andrew.dixon@

(South Korea) 66mins.

Finecut Co. Ltd (int’l).

Dir: Hong Sang-soo. Cast: Ryo Kase, Sori Moon A man pines for his true love.

screendaily.com, +44 7595 646

vanguard Scotiabank 7

masters Scotiabank 11

+1 213 447 5120

9:45 PM

30 Screen International at Toronto September 6, 2014

541 vP business development, North America Nigel Daly, nigeldalymail@gmail.com, US sales and business Nikki Tilmouth, nikki.screeninternational@gmail. com +1 323 868 7633 Production manager Jonathon Cooke, jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com, +44 7584 335 148 Group commercial director Alison Pitchford Chief executive, mBI

mEN Who SAvE ThE WoRld

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 6

Commercial director

development executive

9:00 PM

(Malaysia/Netherlands/ Germany/France) 93mins. Everything Films Sdn Bhd (int’l).

Dir: Liew Seng Tat. Cast: Wan Hanafi Su, Soffi Jikan, Harun Salim Bachik.

The superstitious inhabitants of a small Malaysian village go to ever sillier extremes to exorcise the ‘ghost’ they believe is haunting a dilapidated house.

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Press & industry 9:15 PM BlACk ANd WhITE

(US) 121mins. IM Global (int’l). Dir: Mike Binder. Cast: Kevin Costner, Octavia

Tel: +44 20 3033 4267

Spencer, Anthony Mackie.

An attorney, struggling to raise his bi-racial granddaughter after the deaths of his wife

and daughter becomes embroiled in a custody battle with the child’s paternal grandmother.

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Gala Presentations Scotiabank 10

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