By Ali Moosavi. Love Child is not so much a story about refugees and asylum seekers…. This is a film about love triumphing above all adversaries.” The subject of asylum seekers has come to the fore in recent years with refugees from war torn countries fleeing to the west and […]
Everything’s Gone Green: Carnival Dystopia in Michel Franco’s New Order (TIFF 2020)
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. Franco is aggressively focused on a contemporary moment of social upheaval where a literal class war is rendered even more nightmarish….” Michel Franco’s New Order bursts on the screen with a series of almost breath-takingly bold images. A naked woman covered in green, slime-like paint. A hospital’s […]
The Anti Rape-Revenge Film: Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli on Violation (TIFF 2020)
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. There is something super cathartic about the idea of revenge, and what we recognised when first making the film is that really we’re making an anti revenge film. It’s like the film is designed to scare you not to seek revenge because of how it’s going to […]
TIFF 2020: Short Cuts
By Gary M. Kramer. The Short Cuts programs, a staple of the Toronto International Film Festival, showcases five programs of new work by established and up and coming filmmakers. Each program has a loose theme and offers a mix of narrative, animated, and documentary shorts. Here is a rundown of […]
Hitler is Not Your Friend: Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit (Toronto International Film Festival)
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
September 19, 2019
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. With its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit functions as the final installment of the filmmaker’s informal trilogy that focuses on the subjective experience of boyhood. In 2010’s Boy, the eponymous protagonist is an 11-year-old played by James Rolleston, while in 2016’s […]
Portrait of a Lady on File: Seberg (Toronto International Film Festival)
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
September 19, 2019
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. Although often unspoken, there is a frequently assumed “right” and “wrong” way to approach an artist’s body of work, be they a novelist, composer, director or actor. In this sense, I came to Jean Seberg all wrong. My first encounter with her was not the default “essentials” […]
Noir en Blanc: Vivian Qu on Angels Wear White (TIFF)
October 9, 2017
By Tom Ue. Writer, director, and producer Vivian Qu’s second film Angels Wear White is set in a small seaside town. Two schoolgirls were assaulted in a motel and the one witness, Mia (Wen Qi), is a teenager working on reception. The film follows the stories of Mia and one of […]
When a Room is No Longer Just a Room: An Interview with Eric Khoo
October 21, 2015
By Amir Ganjavie. Eric Khoo’s latest film, In The Room, is a tapestry of stories that all take place over several decades in Room 27 of the Singapura Hotel. Sex is the common thread of the tales and through the individual guests of the hotel we can observe all the facets […]
Between Order and Chaos: An Interview with Jerzy Skolimowski on 11 Minutes
October 8, 2015
By Amir Ganjavie. An out-of-control jealous husband, his sexy performer wife, an immoral Hollywood director, a careless drug messenger, a perplexed young woman, an ex-con hot dog seller, a struggling student on a obscure mission, an elderly sketch artist, a hectic paramedic team, a high-rise window cleaner on an illicit […]
Society’s Ailment(s): Sanna Lenken on My Skinny Sister
October 3, 2015
By Amir Ganjavie. Filmmaker Sanna Lenken’s debut feature, My Skinny Sister, concentrates on the societal problem of the eating disorder anorexia by investigating the love-hate relationship between two sisters. The winner of the Crystal Bear at Berlinale as well as an audience award at the Goteborg Film Festival, My Skinny […]