US and International Press

CAIRO TIME

Directed by Ruba Nadda

(Canada/Ireland, 90 min., World premiere, Special Presentations)

Juliette (Patricia Clarkson), a magazine editor, arrives in Cairo to meet her husband Mark (Tom McCamus), a UN official in Gaza. When he is unavoidably delayed, Mark sends his friend and former security officer Tareq (Alexander Siddig) to show her around the city. As she gets used to the customs and rhythm of life in Cairo, she finds herself falling not only for the city’s charms, but for Tareq as well. 

Set in the chaotic but intoxicating Egyptian capital, Cairo Time is a romantic drama about a brief, unexpected love affair that catches two people completely off-guard.

Screening Info:

• Sunday September 13, 8:30 pm, WINTER GARDEN THEATRE, RED CARPET
• Monday September 14, 9:45 am, VARSITY 6, Press & Industry 1
• Monday September 14, 12:00 pm, SCOTIABANK THEATRE 3, Public 2

Talent Attending:

• Director Ruba Nadda, Sep. 10-19
• Actress Patricia Clarkson, Sep. 11-16

Canadian, US, international press

COLONY

Directed by Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell

(Ireland, 2009, 87 min., Real to Reel)

Beautifully photographed by McDonnell and skilfully edited by Gunn, Colony follows several American beekeepers during 2008 and 2009 as the country’s economy spiralled downward. Among them is David Hackenberg, who first identified colony collapse disorder when he mysteriously lost eighty million bees from his Florida hives. Many keepers blamed insecticides for killing more than one quarter of the bees in the United States, but no one had any evidence. We see the keepers search for solutions, testify before politicians and confront pesticide manufacturers.

The mystery is like something out of science fiction and has dark implications for the future. Because our agriculture depends on pollination, when bees are in trouble, so is society. The expression “busy as a bee” gains deeper meaning after hearing the quirky entrepreneur David Mendes describe his migratory pattern. Packing thousands of hives onto a tractor-trailer, he travels across the country, renting out his bees to farmers for weeks at a time, following crop cycles from Maine to Florida to California.

At the heart of this film is the Seppi family, newcomers to the beekeeping world who are guided by their deep Christian faith. Based in California, the Seppis contract their bees to almond growers, who require over 1.3 million hives for the world’s biggest pollination. As the Seppis face the collapse of their colony and the economy, tensions course through the family.

Screening Info:

• Saturday September 12, 12:30 pm, AMC 2, Public 1
• Sunday September 13, 9:30 am, VARSITY 7, Press & Industry 1
• Monday September 14, 9:30 pm, VARSITY 7, Public 2
• Saturday September 19, 9:15 am, AMC 2, Public 3

Talent Attending:

• Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell, co-directors, Sep. 11-15

Canadian, US, international press

DELIVER US FROM EVIL

Directed by Ole Bornedal

(Denmark/Sweden/Norway, 93 min., international premiere, Contemporary World Cinema)

Lars and Johannes are brothers with very little in common. Johannes is a high-powered lawyer with a beautiful wife and two children; Lars is a truck driver and a drunken brute who beats his girlfriend. Having returned to his hometown in the country, Johannes hopes for a less hectic, more genuine lifestyle. But trouble is underfoot when Lars runs over a woman in a moment of inattention. He sees only one way out: put the blame on the Bosnian refugee Alain, whose post-traumatic stress has impaired his mental functions. But when Lars, the God-fearing husband of the victim, Ingvar, and their friends close in on the Bosnian, Johannes stands up for the hard-working man and brings him home with him. Undeterred, the violent, drunken horde makes their way to Johannes´ secluded house, in which Johannes, his wife, his children and Alain all fear for their lives. When words no longer suffice to contain the madness, a siege begins, in which unchained anarchy dictates a scenario of terror…

With a critical nod to American cinematography and religious myths, Ole Bornedal depicts a European version of xenophobia in a disquieting social thriller reminiscent of New Hollywood. Best known for his chilling international hit NIGHTWATCH, Bornedal is at his genre filmmaking best in this harrowing allegory on hatred in an archetypal small Danish town. 

Screening Info:

• Saturday September 12, 3:00 pm, CUMBERLAND 4, Press & Industry 1
• Wednesday September 16, 5:30 pm, VARSITY 2, Public 1
• Thursday September 17, 6:30 pm, SCOTIABANK THEATRE 3, Public 2
• Saturday September 19, 10:15 am, VARSITY 5, Public 3

Talent Attending:

• Director Ole Bornedal, Sep. 13-17

Canadian, US, international press

HADEWIJCH

Directed by Bruno Dumont

(France, 120 min., World premiere, Special Presentations)

Shocked by the blind, ecstatic faith of Hadewijch, a young novice, the mother superior sends her packing from the convent. Hadewijch once again becomes Céline, 20, the daughter of a French minister. Her passionate love of God, her rage and her encounter with Yassine and Nassir lead her, between grace and madness, off along dangerous paths. HADEWIJCH tells the story of people thirsting for the Absolute yet alienated by it. Apprehending the insignificance and pallor of the modern world, they thrash about in a desperate quest for Strength and Truth. They will go to the End and the Beginning, to the extremes where the forces of Good and Evil intermingle.

Screening Info:

• Friday September 11, 6:00 pm, VARSITY 8, Public 1
• Saturday September 12, 2:15 pm, CUMBERLAND 3, Press & Industry 1
• Sunday September 13, 10:00 am, AMC 6, Public 2
• Monday September 14, 1:00 pm, CUMBERLAND 4, Press & Industry 2
• Saturday September 19, 4:00 pm, WINTER GARDEN THEATRE, Public 3

Talent Attending:

• Director Bruno Dumont, Sep. 11-15

Canadian, US, international press

PARTIR

Directed by Catherine Corsini

(France, 90 min., International premiere, Special Presentations)

Suzanne (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a well-to-do married woman and mother in the south of France. Her idle bourgeois lifestyle gets her down and she decides to go back to work as a physiotherapist. Her husband agrees to fix-up a consulting room for her in their backyard. When Suzanne and the man (Sergi López) hired to do the building meet, the mutual attraction is sudden and violent. Suzanne decides to give up everything and live this all-engulfing passion to the fullest.

Screening Info:

• Saturday September 12, 11:45 am, CUMBERLAND 1, Press & Industry 1
• Monday September 14, 8:30 pm, WINTER GARDEN THEATRE, RED CARPET
• Tuesday September 15, 3:45 pm , CUMBERLAND 4, Press & Industry 2
• Wednesday September 16, 9:45 am, SCOTIABANK THEATRE 2, Public 2
• Friday September 18, 1:45 pm, VARSITY 8, Public 3

Talent Attending:

• Director Catherine Corsini, Sep. 13-16
• Actress Kristin Scott Thomas, Sep. 14

Canadian, US, international press

PETROPOLIS

Directed by Peter Mettler

(Canada, 43 min., North American premiere, Real to Reel)

Shot primarily from a helicopter, filmmaker PETROPOLIS: AERIAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE ALBERTA TAR SANDS offers an unparalleled view of the world’s largest industrial, capital and energy project. Canada’s tar sands are an oil reserve the size of England. Extracting the crude oil called bitumen from underneath unspoiled wilderness requires a massive industrialized effort with far-reaching impacts on the land, air, water, and climate. PETROPOLIS an extraordinary spectacle, whose scope can only be understood from far above. In a hypnotic flight of image and sound, one machine’s perspective upon the choreography of others, suggests a dehumanized world where petroleum’s power is supreme.

Related Links:

• http://www.petropolis-film.com
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTTEiFcJVsY

Screening Info:

• Thursday September 10, 2:00 pm, VARSITY VIP 2, Press & Industry 1
• Friday September 11, 10:00 am, VARSITY 2, Press & Industry 2
• Sunday September 13, 2:30 pm, AMC 2, Public 1
• Wednesday September 16, 10:00 pm, JACKMAN HALL - AGO, Public 2
• Saturday September 19, 6:00 pm, VARSITY 7, Public 3

Talent Attending:

• Director Peter Mettler, Sep. 10-19

Canadian, US, international press

PHANTOM PAIN

Directed by Matthias Emcke

(Germany, 92 min., International premiere, Gala)

Marc is a lucky beggar. He is good-looking, charming and an educated storyteller that women are fascinated by. If he is not doing any odd jobs to get by, he is on the road with his bike, with which he has traveled the world. Marc’s other side is less flattering. He is always broke, a constant heartbreaker, an unreliable drunkard refusing to take responsibility for anything. But one can’t really be mad with him. Not even his daughter Sarah, the offspring from a long failed relationship. Then comes the day that changes Marc’s life, he loses his left leg in a hit-and-run accident. But barely out of the hospital, Marc rushes back into his old life, joking, flirting and behaving as if nothing had happened. He tries to repress his blow of fate, until he meets Nika and he falls in love.

PHANTOM PAIN is a thought-provoking, yet light and upbeat look at an urban slacker who´s forced to turn his life around. Starring international star Til Schweiger (INGLORIUS BASTERDS).

Screening Info:

• Monday September 14, 9:30 am, VARSITY 3, Press & Industry 1
• Wednesday September 16, 2:45 pm, CUMBERLAND 3, Press & Industry 2
• Thursday September 17, 6:30 pm, ROY THOMSON HALL, GALA
• Friday September 18, 3:00 pm, RYERSON, Public 2
• Saturday September 19, 4:30 pm, AMC 6, Public 3

Talent Attending:

• Director Matthias Emcke, Sep. 16-18
• Actor Til Schweiger, Sep. 16-18
• Stephen Sumner, Sep 16-18

Canadian, US, international press

THE APE

Directed by Jesper Ganslandt

(Sweden, 81 min., N.A. premiere, Vanguard)

Screening Info:

• Friday September 11, 8:45 pm, AMC 3, Public 1
• Saturday September 12, 11:30 am, VARSITY 6, Press & Industry 1
• Wednesday September 16, 6:15 pm, AMC 3, Public 2
• Thursday September 17, 4:30 pm, CUMBERLAND 3, Press & Industry 2
• Friday September 18, 10:00 am, VARSITY 6, Public 3

Talent Attending:

• Director Jesper Ganslandt, Sep. 10-14

Canadian, US, international press

THE LOVED ONES

Directed by Sean Byrne

(Australia, 84 min., International premiere, Midnight Madness)

You don’t have to die to do to hell...

Brent, a 17-year-old student grieving from the recent loss of his father, politely declines an invitation to the school formal from Lola, the quietest girl in school. Devastated by the rejection Lola and her overly protective father kidnap Brent and force him to endure a macabre Formal of their own creation…

Set to a scorching soundtrack, THE LOVED ONES is a vivid, sexy, fun, relentlessly attacking rollercoaster that takes the conventions of the horror genre and then runs them off the rails.

Screening Info:

• Saturday September 12, 6:45 pm, VARSITY 1, Press & Industry 1
• Sunday September 13, 11:59 pm, RYERSON, RED CARPET
• Tuesday September 15, 3:30 pm, SCOTIABANK THEATRE 2, Public 2
• Thursday September 17, 6:30 pm, VARSITY 4, Public 3

Talent Attending:

• Director Sean Byrne, Sep. 11-16
• Actor Xavier Samuel, Sep. 13
• Actress Victoria Thaine

Canadian, international press

VENGEANCE

Directed by Johnnie To

(Hong Kong/France, 109 min., North American premiere, Special Presentations)

Related Links:

• http://www.vengeance-lefilm.com

Screening Info:

• Monday September 14, 10:15 am, VARSITY 2, Press & Industry 1
• Tuesday September 15, 9:15 pm, RYERSON, RED CARPET
• Thursday September 17, 3:30 pm, SCOTIABANK THEATRE 3, Public 2

Talent Attending:

• Director Johnnie To, Sep. 14-17

Canadian, US, international press

WOMEN WITHOUT MEN

Directed by Shirin Neshat

(Germany/France/Austria, 96 min., NA premiere, Special Presentations)

Shirin Neshat’s first feature-length film is based on a magic-realist novel written by Iranian author Sharnush Parsipur. The narrative interweaves the lives of four Iranian women during the summer of 1953, a pivotal moment in Iranian history when an American led coup d’état brought down the democratically elected prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh and reinstalled the Shah to power. The film chronicles each woman’s quest for change and their mysterious encounter in a magical orchard. 

Screening Info:

• Thursday September 10, 3:00 pm, VARSITY 7, Press & Industry 1
• Friday September 11, 12:00 pm, RYERSON, Public 1
• Saturday September 12, 3:15 pm, SCOTIABANK THEATRE 4, Public 2
• Thursday September 17, 4:45 pm, VARSITY 7, Press & Industry 2
• Saturday September 19, 9:15 am, SCOTIABANK THEATRE 4, Public 3

Talent Attending:

• Director Shirin Neshat, Sep. 10-12