Toronto Film Festival’s “Contemporary World Cinema”
by Andre Soares
The list of films to be screened at this year’s edition of the Toronto International Film Festival can be found here.
Among the entries in the "Contemporary World Cinema" sidebar are Jens Lien’s quirky drama Den brysomme mannen / The Bothersome Man (Norway), winner of the Best Director and Best Screenwriting awards at this year’s Norwegian Film Institute Amanda Awards; Jeffrey Jeturian’s Kubrador / The Bet Collector (The Philippines), the story of a bet collector whose life is changed following a death in the neighborhood, 
and the winner of this year’s OSIAN-CINEFAN Festival’s Best (Asian) Film Award; and Robert Favreau’s Un Dimanche à Kigali / A Sunday in Kigali (Canada), which stars Luc Picard as a journalist returning to Rwanda after the genocide in order to find his long-lost Rwandan lover.
Also, Jasmila žbanic’s portrayal of the aftermath of Bosnia’s civil war, Grbavica (Bosnia and Herzegovina / Austria), winner of the Golden Bear at the last Berlin Film Festival; Hans-Christian Schmid’s Requiem (Germany), starring Berlin Film Festival and German Film Academy Best Actress winner Sandra Hüller as a woman possessed by the devil; 
and Rachid Bouchareb’s look at misplaced patriotism (and the winner of an ensemble Best Actor Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival), Indigènes / Days of Glory (France / Morocco / Algeria / Belgium), in which North Africans fight for France — the colonizing power — during World War II. (The Toronto Festival site compares Indigènes to Edward Zwick’s deeply flawed and highly sentimental Glory; I hope they are way off the mark.)
And finally, Denis Dercourt’s La Tourneuse de pages / The Page Turner (France), about the symbiotic relationship between a piano player (the excellent Catherine Frot) and her soothing page turner played by Déborah François (the synopsis reminds me of the flawed but touching Food of Love); Francisco Vargas Quevedo’s El Violin / The Violin (Mexico), which depicts the tensions between Mexican peasants and that country’s military in the Guerrero region; and Szabolcs Hajdu’s Fehér tenyér / White Palms (Hungary), the story of a Hungarian gymnast attempting to regain his psychological and physical balance after immigrating to Canada.
I’ve already mentioned a few of the "Vanguard" sidebar titles here.
On Sept. 16, the list of Toronto winners will be posted here.
Kirby Dick’s This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Sarajevo Film Festival 2006 Awards
Pre-Code Series: Strange Interlude
DVD Review: Werner Herzog’s Klaus Kinski: My Best Fiend
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