By Rohan Connolly
This past September, the Toronto International Film Festival, otherwise known as TIFF, celebrated its 51st year of programming. TIFF has been a staple of Toronto culture since its inception, becoming a destination for filmmakers, film fans, and everyone in between for decades. It is an event for the people with a jam packed Festival Street right outside the core theatres full of celebrity red carpets, photo opportunities, a never-ending selection of food to try, games to play, and more. This year also saw the opening of a Cinema Cellar that was home to the first in-person Criterion store in all of Canada, after the travelling Criterion truck found success at last year’s festival. Festivalgoers can celebrate their love of movies both in the theatre and out with a stellar lineup of Canadian, North American, and World premieres of the latest films surrounded by equally excited peers. It is not unusual to bump into your favourite director roaming the streets of Toronto or stand in line for a premiere behind an actor you love. Each premiere is followed by a Q&A session with filmmakers, cast or other crew involved in the film, and each screening is celebrated with applause for the festival volunteers, pirate “arrr”s at the anti-piracy message, and other participatory traditions from festivals long past.
I had the pleasure of attending this year’s festival and managed to squeeze in 21 films spanning the 11-day event. Though 10 feels like too short a list to fully celebrate the incredible lineup from this year’s program, I have compiled a list of my favourites to keep your eye on when they come to a cinema near you.
Honourable Mention: Fjord
While I can’t say that Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord was a favourite of mine, I have to say that I cannot stop thinking about it. It is a film I find myself encouraging everyone I speak to about it to watch for themselves, and genuinely eager to hear their thoughts. The film is most successful as a series of questions, and perfect as a jumping off point for personal conversations surrounding its themes. Whether or not it's a certified recommendation remains to be seen.
10. Muyi
Also known as Mu Yi and the Handsome General or Muyi, The Legend of the Women’s Village, Muyi is a beautiful film featuring stunning animation by Julien Chheng and his crew at Studio La Cachette. Dedicating it to his mother and to young girls everywhere, it is a beautiful story of adventure and identity that the whole family can enjoy.
9. Ben’Imana
Rwandan Director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s debut feature film was the first film I watched at the festival, and for a while, it struggled to be topped. In the aftermath of the 1994 Tutsi genocide, the village of Kibeho is searching for justice while a young girl struggles to earn her mother’s acceptance. Equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming, Ben’Imana perfectly blends the micro and the macro to explore how the personal and the political are deeply intertwined.
8. A Girl Unknown
Zou Jing’s debut feature film A Girl Unknown is a deeply touching story of a young girl’s search for belonging. Passed between three different families and given three different names, the young protagonist spends her time searching for a way to know herself. This film has some of the most impressive cinematography of the entire festival that evokes deep feelings of nostalgia and both the warmth and cold that come with it.
7. Flies
Flies is a beautifully tender film from Mexican filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke about loss. When a man and his son rent a room from a disgruntled older woman so they can be closer to the local hospital. The woman and the son form an unlikely but touching bond, each helping the other learn to heal from a devastating loss. The film is subdued in its breadth yet awe-inspiring nonetheless, its simple premise being embraced wholeheartedly by Eimbcke.
6. Furies
This exciting heist film set amongst the backdrop of the economic crisis in Lebanon is an energetic story of taking back what has been stolen from you. Furies is a film angry at the system and fed up with being forced into corners and screwed over trying to make ends meet. Though it can drag in the final act, the surge of energy coming from watching these two sisters gather a team and rob a bank more than makes up for it.
5. Still Night, Burning House
The only documentary I had the opportunity to catch this year, Still Night, Burning House is a deeply intimate film about Director Carol Nguyen’s family as they grieve and finally lay to rest her late uncle. Nguyen unearths medical records that reveal to her family the truth of her uncle’s struggle with mental illness as they come to terms with the new information, and the family makes their first trip back to Vietnam since her parents left decades prior. The film is beautifully shot, and this glance into another human’s life is so stunning it feels as though you’ve lived it yourself.
4. Stuffed
Stuffed is a gothic romance following a taxidermist whose dream it is to stuff a man while she falls in love with her volunteer cadaver as they prepare for the end of his life. Did I mention it’s also a musical? This was one of my most anticipated premieres at the festival and boy, did it deliver. The music is enchanting, the performances are impeccable, the aesthetics are out of this world, and the film is some of the most fun I’ve had in a cinema this year.
I wasn’t expecting Vintage Violence to be as good as it was. I went in expecting nothing more than a fun time, anything more than that would have been an added bonus. What I wasn’t expecting to see was a director hone his craft so much that he delivers a near perfect experience. Eugene Kotlyarenko proves himself a master of his craft and innovating film to fit the modern digital landscape. Formatively, the film is absolutely impressive and delivers on its promised thrills.
2. Sunburn
It’s always exciting to see Canadian cinema thrive and Sunburn is no different. Serville Poblete’s sun-kissed film is a perfect goodbye to a moment in time. Experimental cinematography and an excellent score make you feel the sweat dripping off the characters as they survive a heatwave together. Sunburn is a perfect new-age, 24-hour, time-killing summer film resembling the likes of Dazed and Confused (1993) or Empire Records (1995).
1. La Gradiva
Topping off this list, and skyrocketing to the top of the ranks in overall releases this year is Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva. Set amongst the ruins of Pompeii, a group of French high schoolers take a class trip together and, just like Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago, tension boils. It boils and bubbles, and continues to grow until eventually there’s no stopping it and it erupts amongst the group of teens. Atlan, in her directorial debut, proves herself as a filmmaker with a voice and a vision. The film is stunning to look at, her experience as a cinematographer ensuring as much, and in its quiet conversations illustrates a perfect picture of what it means to be a teenager, living in tumultuous times and struggling to simply get by.
All photos courtesy of the TIFF Media Library