TIFF
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia… a large group consisting of police, public officials, military and civilian workers were led through a dark, Turkish desert by a man accused of murder. They were in search of the buried body of his victim – only he couldn’t remember exactly where he placed it. So they trek blindly through the desolate land, stopping at the slightest recognition of a landmark only to discover it’s similar to a place marker that can be found further up the road. The search continues to be fruitless and tensions rise as the night grows longer. But...
Postpartum depression is a serious mental illness that affects an estimated 13 per cent of mothers. Symptoms include problems sleeping and thoughts of suicide, and it can have a negative impact on a child’s development. It’s unclear when Kotoko’s illness began, but it appears to have become significantly worse since the birth of her son....
Despite the title and important deadline, Countdown wouldn’t really be categorized as a “race against the clock” picture. It rarely even provides a time check. Instead, it begins as a pretty straightforward action film; but by the end, it transforms into something entirely and unexpectedly different....
A disturbing and graphic film, Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In is a challenging but rewarding watch that pushes the boundaries of perversity and sexuality, all while dancing beautifully between melodrama and outright horror. Antonio Banderas is mesmerizing on screen as the emotionally disturbed doctor at the centre of the film....
Director and cinematographer Ron Fricke is undoubtedly a master of his craft. Having developed specialized time-lapse camera systems for past documentary projects like Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi (1982) and after honing his visual and narrative approach with his two previous “nonverbal meditations”, Chronos (1985) and Baraka (1992), Fricke once again takes audiences on a breathtaking visual trip around the planet exploring humanity’s different cultures and practices in a way that shows the power of film as a fine art form. Thoughtful and meticulous, Fricke’s latest work Samsara was filmed in 25 countries and sublimely captures images that will have you finding...
Mental illness and its affect on the relationships of the afflicted are at the forefront of the slow-building mystery The Cat Vanishes. The Argentinean film exercises restraint in its tension-mounting storyline which follows both a literal and figural cat and mouse game between a husband and wife and their pet cat....
People Mountain, People Sea (Ren Shan Ren Hai) is a neorealistic crime drama from director Cai Shangjun part of the Contemporary World Cinema program at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Situated in the remote countryside of the southern province of Guizhou in present day China, a labourer named Old Iron (Chen Jianbin) works to pay off his debts. He is hampered by a large settlement he has to pay for someone being injured on a job site that he was rock mining on. Tragedy hits his family further when his brother is brutally murdered in a highway robbery. When...
In Rampart, Woody Harrelson stars as a corrupt officer Dave Brown in the LAPD that lays out his own form of rough-justice, or at least he thinks he does. Dave thinks of himself of mix of John Wayne and Dirty Harry, but the reality of his personality and his world is really something else in this new film by director Oren Moverman premiering at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. ...
There comes a certain point over the course of any Toronto International Film Festival where the film-goer must ask exactly what it is they expect out of the film they’re about to see. Obviously, among the 300-plus films that run over the course of 11 days, not every single one is going to be a game-changer....
