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| The Golden Era. Photo courtesy of TIFF |
The Toronto International Film Festival adds to its
international spectrum today with a very world cinema heavy announcement.
Titles for the TIFF Docs, Masters, Midnight Madness, and Vanguard programmes
were released today. They’re a diverse group of films to complement the range
of international films announced last week. (An element I admittedly glossed
over.) The documentary titles, which will comprise the bulk of my work this
year as I’ll be covering for POV, features some especially good gets including
new films from Lixin Fan, Joshua Oppenheimer, and Fred Wiseman, plus a film from Ethan Hawke. Included
in the Masters section are many Cannes hits including Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language, plus Leviathan, which many pundits pegged to
win the Palme. The Masters section also features Ann Hui’s The Golden Era, which stars Lust,
Caution’s Tang Wei.
The programming announcement is as follows:
TIFF DOCS
Beats of the Antonov
Hajooj Kuka, Sudan/South Africa World Premiere
Beats of the Antonov follows refugees from the Blue Nile and
Nuba Mountains in Sudan as they survive displacement and the trauma of civil
war. Music, a cornerstone of their traditions and identity, becomes itself a
vehicle for survival.
I Am Here (Wo Jiu Shi
Wo)
Lixin Fan, China International Premiere
During the summer of 2013, 12 young boys battle each other
for the No. 1 spot in Super Boys, a decade-old American Idol-style TV talent
show in China. They discover who they are and learn to love each other in the
process. From the director of Last Train Home.
Iraqi Odyssey
Samir,
Iraq/Switzerland/Germany/United Arab Emirates World Premiere
Tracing the emigrations of his family over more than half a
century, this riveting documentary epic from acclaimed expatriate Iraqi
filmmaker Samir (Forget Baghdad) pays moving homage to the frustrated
democratic dreams of a people successively plagued by the horrors of
dictatorship, war, and foreign occupation.
Merchants of Doubt
Robert Kenner, USA
Canadian Premiere
Documentarian Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.) investigates the
shadowy world of professional skeptics, whose services are bought and paid for
by corporations, think tanks and other special interests to cast doubt and
delay on public and governmental action on climate change.
National Diploma (Examen
d’Etat)
Dieudo Hamadi, France/Congo North American Premiere
A group of young Congolese high-school students who are
about to write the exam for their National Diploma in Kisangani, Democratic
Republic of Congo, gather in a maquis (communal house) to help each other
prepare. It is common practice to be ejected from classes during the school
year for failing to pay “teachers’ fees”, but the students are determined, and
resort to all means at their disposal to earn a diploma, a stepping stone out
of a life of poverty.
National Gallery
Frederick Wiseman, France/USA North American Premiere
Master documentarian Frederick Wiseman (Crazy Horse, At
Berkeley) takes the audience behind the scenes of this London institution,
which is inhabited by masterpieces of Western art from the Middle Ages to the
19th century. In a perpetual and dizzying game of mirrors, the film presents a
portrait of a place, its inner workings, and its relationship with the world,
its staff, its public and its paintings.
Natural Resistance
Jonathan Nossiter, Italy/France North American Premiere
A group of Italian vineyard proprietors live a life many can
only dream of. In their converted 11th-century monastery and winery in Tuscany,
Giovanna Tiezzi and Stefano Borsa find a way to grow grains, fruit and wine
that create a link to their ancient Etruscan heritage. Ten years after Mondovino,
the wine world has changed just like the world itself. The enemy is now far
greater than the threat of globalization. But against the new world economy,
these natural wine rebels offer a model of charmed and joyous resistance.
Red Army
Gabe Polsky, USA/Russia Canadian Premiere
Red Army follows the most successful dynasty in sports
history: the Soviet Union’s Red Army hockey team of the 1980s. Told from the
perspective of its captain Slava Fetisov, the story portrays his transformation
from national hero to political enemy. From the USSR to Russia, the film
examines how sport mirrors social and cultural movements, and parallels the
rise and fall of the Red Army team with the Soviet Union. An inspiring story
about the Cold War played out on the ice rink, and the man who stood up to a
powerful system and paved the way for change for generations of Russians.
Seymour: An
Introduction
Ethan Hawke, USA International Premiere
Director Ethan Hawke explores the life and lessons of
pianist, teacher and sage, Seymour Bernstein. Since giving up a career as a
concert pianist at age 50, Seymour has dedicated his life to teaching his
students about music, happiness and the power of detaching satisfaction from
success.
Silvered Water, Syria
Self-Portrait (Ma'a al Fidda)
Ossama Mohammed and Wiam Simav Bedirxan, Syria/France, North
American Premiere
The collaboration between exiled Syrian filmmaker Ossama
Mohammed and young Kurdish activist Wiam Simav Bedirxan distills footage from
thousands of clandestine videos to create a shattering, on-the-ground
documentary chronicle of the ordeal being undergone by ordinary Syrians in the
ongoing civil war.
Sunshine Superman
Marah Strauch,
USA/Norway/United Kingdom World Premiere
Sunshine Superman tells the story of Carl Boenish who
pioneered and popularized the activity of BASE jumping (jumping from fixed
objects with a parachute). Carl married Jean Campbell and together they
travelled to Norway in 1984 to jump from the cliffs of Trollveggen. Against the
backdrop of the midnight sun, tragedy strikes.
Tales of the Grim
Sleeper
Nick Broomfield,
USA/United Kingdom World Premiere
Nick Broomfield digs into the case of the notorious serial
killer Lonnie Franklin, known as the “Grim Sleeper,” who terrorized South
Central Los Angeles over a span of 25 years.
The Look of Silence (Senyap)
Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Indonesia/Norway/Finland/United
Kingdom Canadian Premiere
Through Joshua Oppenheimer's work with perpetrators of the
Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discover who killed their son. The
youngest brother is determined to break the spell of silence and fear under
which the survivors live, and confronts the men responsible for his brother's
murder.
This Is My Land
Tamara Erde, France
World Premiere
This film follows several Israeli and Palestinian teachers
over one academic year, observing their exchanges and confrontations with
students, their debates with their respective ministries’ curriculum and its
restrictions, and offering an intimate glimpse into the profound and
long-lasting effect that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict transmits onto the
next generation.
The Yes Men Are
Revolting
Laura Nix and The Yes
Men, USA World Premiere
For two decades, The Yes Men have pulled off hilarious and
spectacular media hoaxes to expose corporate crime. In this intimate portrait,
they are now approaching middle age and struggle to stay inspired as the worst
crime of all threatens the planet. Can they get it together before the ice caps
melt?
MASTERS
1001 Grams
Bent Hamer,
Norway/Germany/France World Premiere
When Norwegian scientist Marie attends a seminar in Paris on
the actual weight of a kilo, it is her own measurement of disappointment, grief
and love that ends up on the scale. Starring Ane Dahl Torp, Laurent Stocker and
Stein Winge.
A Pigeon Sat on a
Branch Reflecting on Existence (En duva satt på en gren och funderade på
tillvaron)
North American Premiere Roy Andersson,
Sweden/Norway/France/Germany
Like a modern-day Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Sam and
Jonathan, two travelling salesmen peddling novelty items, take audiences on a
kaleidoscopic journey through human destinies. This is a trip that shows us the
beauty of single moments, the pettiness of others, the humour and tragedy that
is in us, and the frailty of humanity.
The Face of an Angel
Michael Winterbottom,
United Kingdom World Premiere
Why are we fascinated by murder? Inspired by the killing of
British student Meredith Kercher in Italy, this film looks beyond the salacious
headlines to explore both the media and the public's obsession with violent
stories, whether fictional or real. Starring Daniel Brühl, Kate Beckinsale,
Valerio Mastandrea and Cara Delevingne.
The Golden Era (Huang
jin shi dai)
Ann Hui, China/Hong
Kong North American Premiere
Xiao Hong, one of the most famous female writers, lived
through the most turbulent times in contemporary China. Her estrangement from
her father sparked a long quest for an emotionally satisfying life. She was
rescued from poverty by writer Xiao Jun, but their competitive relationship
brought her more heartache than joy. While escaping the Japanese invasion, she
married novelist Duanmu Hongliang and fled to Hong Kong. Starring Tang Wei and
Feng Shao Feng.
Goodbye to Language
3D (Adieu au langage 3D)
Jean-Luc Godard, France North American Premiere
The idea is simple: A married woman and a single man meet.
They love, they argue, fists fly. A dog strays between town and country. The
seasons pass. The man and woman meet again. The dog finds itself between them.
The other is in one, the one is in the other and they are three. The former
husband shatters everything. A second film begins: the same as the first, and
yet not. From the human race we pass to metaphor. This ends in barking and a
baby's cries. In the meantime, we will have seen people talking of the demise
of the dollar, of truth in mathematics and of the death of a robin.
Hill of Freedom (Ja-yu-ui
eon-deok)
Hong Sang-soo, South Korea North American Premiere
South Korean master Hong Sang-soo crafts yet another
delightful, soju-saturated tale of love thwarted in this story of a heartsick
Japanese man who travels to Seoul to attempt a reunion with the woman he still
pines for. Starring Ryo Kase, Sori Moon, Younghwa Seo and Euisung Kim.
Leviathan
Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia Canadian Premiere
Kolia lives in a small fishing town near the Barents Sea. He
owns an auto-repair shop that stands right next to the house where he lives
with his young wife Lilya (Elena Liadova) and his son Roma (Sergueï Pokhodaev)
from a previous marriage. The town’s corrupt mayor Vadim Shelevyat is
determined to take away his business, his house, as well as his land. First the
mayor tries buying off Kolia, but Kolia unflinchingly fights as hard as he can
so as not to lose everything he owns. Facing resistance, the mayor starts being
more aggressive. Starring Alexey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Vladimir
Vdovitchenkov, Roman Madyanov and Anna Ukolova.
Revivre (Hwajang)
Im Kwon-taek, South Korea North American Premiere
A middle-aged man who has recently lost his wife to cancer
indulges in fantasies about a young woman at his work in the new film from
Korean master Im Kwon-taek (Chunhyang). Starring Ahn Sung-ki, Kim Qyu-ri and
Kim Ho-jung.
Timbuktu
Abderrahmane Sissako, France/Mauritania/Mali North American
Premiere
Luminous, lyrical and poetic, set during the early days of
the 2012 fundamentalist takeover of northern Mali and inspired by real people
and real events, Timbuktu is a searing drama about the everyday woes and
resistance of ordinary people in a city overrun by extremist foreign fighters.
Starring Ibrahim Ahmed aka Pino, Toulou Kiki and Abel Jafri.
MIDNIGHT MADNESS
[REC] 4: Apocalypse
Jaume Balagueró, Spain World Premiere
Angela Vidal wakes up in a high-security quarantine
facility, sole survivor and witness to the horrific events inside the building.
But does she remember what happened to her? Is she carrying a virus? Distrust
spreads through the isolated facility while new, even more deadly forms of evil
spread even faster.
Big Game
Jalmari Heleander, Finland/United Kingdom/Germany World
Premiere
The fate of the most powerful man in the world lies in the
hands of a 13-year-old boy. Plunged into a deadly game of cat and mouse, Oskari
and the president must team up to survive the most extraordinary night of their
lives.
Cub
Jonas Govaerts, Belgium World Premiere
Young, imaginative 12-year-old Sam heads off to camp with
his Cub Scouts pack. In the woods, he stumbles upon a strange tree house and a
masked, feral child. When his leaders ignore his warnings about the mysterious
boy, Sam starts to feel increasingly isolated from the pack, and convinced a
terrible fate awaits them all.
Electric Boogaloo:
The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
Mark Hartley, Australia International Premiere
Director Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood, Machete Maidens
Unleashed!) continues his delightful documentary disinterment of down-market
movie detritus with this chronicle of the rise and fall of 1980s
action-exploitation juggernaut Cannon Films, whose contributions to the
cinematic canon include American Ninja, The Delta Force, Death Wish II and Masters
of the Universe.
The Guest
Adam Wingard, USA Canadian Premiere
The follow-up to Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett’s wildly
popular You're Next, The Guest tells the story of a mysterious and
devastatingly charming visitor, David (Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey) who
arrives on the doorstep of a bereaved family claiming to be the best friend of
their dead son, a young soldier who died in action. The Petersons welcome David
into their home and into their lives, but when people start mysteriously dying
in town, their teenage daughter Anna (Maika Monroe of It Follows) starts wondering
if David is responsible.
It Follows
David Robert Mitchell, USA North American Premiere
For 19-year-old Jay (Maika Monroe), the fall should be about
school, boys and weekends at the lake. Yet after a seemingly innocent sexual
encounter she suddenly finds herself plagued by nightmarish visions; she can't
shake the sensation that someone, or something, is following her. As the threat
closes in, Jay and her friends must somehow escape the horrors that are only a
few steps behind. With a riveting central performance from Monroe and a
strikingly ominous electronic score by Disasterpeace, It Follows is an artful
psychosexual thriller from David Robert Mitchell (whose The Myth of the
American Sleepover premiered at Critics' Week in 2010). The film also stars
Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi, and Lili Sepe.
.Midnight Madness
Opening Night Film.
Tokyo Tribe
Sion Sono,
Japan International Premiere
Set in an alternate Tokyo of the near future, director Sion
Sono continues his run of sensational films with the explosive street gang tale
Tokyo Tribe. Tokyo Tribe is the first live-action adaptation of the
best-selling manga series Tokyo Tribe 2, by Santa Inoue, which has sold two
million copies and has been published in Asia and the west to great popularity.
Tusk
Kevin Smith, USA World Premiere
Wallace (Justin Long) is a podcaster on a mission who thinks
he has found the story of a lifetime in Howard Howe (Michael Parks), an adventurer
with amazing stories and a curious penchant for walruses. When Mr. Howe’s true
desires unfold, things take a dark turn and Wallace faces a terrifying
transformation at the hands of his captor. As his friends Alison and Teddy
(Genesis Rodriguez and Haley Joel Osment) search the backwoods of Canada to
rescue him, they discover a nightmare from which there is no escape. Conceived
from one of indie legend Kevin Smith's own Smodcast’s, Tusk is an unprecedented
tale that is equal parts hilarious and horrifying.
What We Do in the
Shadows
Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, New Zealand/USA Canadian
Premiere
Vladislav (Jemaine Clement), Viago (Taika Waititi), and
Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) are three flatmates who are just trying to get by and
overcome life’s obstacles—like being immortal vampires who must feast on human
blood. Hundreds of years old, the vampires are finding that beyond sunlight
catastrophes, hitting the main artery, and not being able to get a sense of
their wardrobe without a reflection, modern society has them struggling with
the mundane like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get
into nightclubs, and overcoming flatmate conflicts.
VANGUARD
Alleluia
Fabrice Du Welz, France/Belgium North American Premiere
When Gloria and Michel meet on a dating site, nothing
suggests the destructive and murderous passion that will be born of their crazy
love. Alleluia is inspired by a 1947 article about nurse Martha Beck and
swindler Raymond Fernandez, who became involved in a deadly, tragic affair.
The Duke of Burgundy
Peter Strickland, United Kingdom World Premiere
Peter Strickland’s eagerly anticipated follow up to Berberian
Sound Studio and Katalin Varga is a gorgeously dark melodrama following two
women who test the limits of their unsettlingly intense relationship. Starring
Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen) and Chiara d’Anna.
Goodnight Mommy (Ich
seh, Ich seh)
Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, Austria North American
Premiere
In the heat of the summer in an isolated house in the
countryside between woods and corn fields, 10-year-old twins wait for their
mother. When she returns with her head wrapped in bandages after surgery,
nothing is as it was before. Stern and distant now, she shuts the family off
from the outside world. Starting to doubt that this woman is actually their
mother, the boys are determined to find the truth by any means.
Hyena
Gerard Johnson, United Kingdom International Premiere
Michael Logan is an anti-hero for our times: a natural
predator, a high-functioning addict, and corrupt police officer. But his dark
world is evolving: a recent influx of ruthless Albanian gangsters is
threatening to change London’s criminal landscape. Michael’s razor sharp
instincts have always kept him one step ahead, but now his increasingly
self-destructive behavior and the sheer brutality of the new gang lords send
Michael spiraling into a descent of fear and self-doubt.
Luna
Dave McKean, United Kingdom World Premiere
Renowned artist and filmmaker Dave McKean (MirrorMask)
brings his distinctive blend of live action and gorgeously wrought animation to
this dreamlike reverie about four people – Grant, Christine, Dean and Freya –
whose long weekend in an isolated house by the sea brings up old resentments
and the life of a dead child is revisited in a series of strange dreams.
Over Your Dead Body
Takashi Miike, Japan International Premiere
A star, Miyuki Goto (Ko Shibasaki) plays Oiwa, the
protagonist in a new play based on the ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan. She pulls
some strings to get her lover, Kosuke Hasegawa (Ebizo Ichikawa) cast in the
play, even though he's a relatively unknown actor. Other performers Rio Asahina
(Miho Nakanishi) and Jun Suzuki (Hideaki Ito) lust after Miyuki. Off stage the
cast's possessive love and obsessions exist as reality. Trapped between the
play and reality, the cast's feelings for each other are amplified. When it
becomes clear that love is not meant to be both on and off stage, love turns
into a grudge and crosses the blurred line between reality and fantasy.
Shrew’s Nest (Musarañas)
Juanfer Andrés and
Esteban Roel, Spain World Premiere
Spain, 1950s. Monste’s agoraphobia keeps her locked in a
sinister apartment in Madrid and her only link to reality is the little sister
she sacrificed her youth to raise. But one day, a reckless young neighbour,
Carlos, falls down the stairwell and drags himself to their door. Someone has
entered the shrew’s nest... and perhaps he’ll never leave.
Spring
Justin Benson and
Aaron Moorhead, USA World Premiere
A young man in a personal tailspin flees the US to Italy,
where he sparks up a romance with a girl harbouring a dark, primordial secret
in this edgy, romantic drama with a supernatural twist.
They Have Escaped
JP Valkeapää, Finland North American Premiere
A boy and a girl meet at a custody center for youth with
difficulties. The boy has come to serve his obligatory civil service. The girl
is one of the youths in custody, and she is constantly in trouble, with a fire
inside her and a lust for life that can't be quashed or controlled. The boy
becomes infatuated with the girl. He is a quiet one; a stutterer. But there is
a fire inside him as well. Rules, laws, punishment; the shackles of the hostile
environment with no understanding around them can be broken. They steal a car
and flee together. Thus begins a journey with endless escapes.
Waste Land
Pieter Van Hees, Belgium World Premiere
Leo Woeste is a homicide investigator living with his
girlfriend Kathleen and her five-year-old son, Jack. Kathleen gets pregnant
unexpectedly just as Leo must solve his most bizarre case to date: the ritual
murder of a young Congolese man, which may or may not involve Leo’s hedonistic
new colleague, Johnny Rimbaud. As the case’s complexity mounts by the minute,
Leo is pulled away from Kathleen and his role as a father, and heads deeper and
deeper into the Waste Land.
The World of Kanako (Kawaki)
Tetsuya Nakashima, Japan International Premiere
When beautiful straight-A high school student Kanako goes
missing, her mother asks ex-husband Akikazu — a drifting, irresponsible former
cop — to find their daughter. He embarks on a desperate search in the hope of
reuniting his family by any means necessary. But as his investigation
progresses, Akikazu starts to discover the darkness that lies behind his
daughter’s impeccable façade. Clue by clue, revelation by revelation, he starts
his descent into the hellish underworld of Kanako’s secret life…
Please visit www.tiff.net
for more information.
The Toronto International Film Festival runs September 4-14.
(Canadian titles will be announced on August 6.)
