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Toronto International Film Festival

Premiering Canadian films



The Toronto International Film Festival is known for premiering a lot of Canadian films at their festival.

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This year is no exception. Unfortunately, for festival goers, there are so many films to see that it is impossible to see everything. Even the most hardened film goers can only see a fraction of the films screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. Thus far I've managed to see seven Canadian films, including co-productions, out of a total that exceeds eighty Canadian films. These include films such as Passchendaele, which was the opening night film and which I've already written about. Just so you know, most journalists seem to have given this film a so-so rating, although I liked it a lot. Other Canadian films include films by such directors as Deepa Mehta (Heaven On Earth) and Atom Egoyan (Adoration); a film co-written by Don McKellar (Blindness); as well as one of the best films at this year's festival, Fifty Dead Men Walking. So let me give you my reactions to the Canadian films I have seen thus far. Heaven On Earth tells the story of an Indian young women who is sent by her family to Canada in order to get married. The woman's family is hoping that their daughter will then be able to bring the rest of her family over to Canada. That is fine, except the groom is a bit of a brute. He is a very obedient and dutiful son and respects and reveres his mother, but he treats his bride as a slave and is willing to beat her if she doesn't do everything he wants her to. In my estimation, this film is not up to the usual standards of previous Deepa Mehta films. I did not find anything compelling in the storyline, and I had some difficulty in keeping focused on the film. It certainly was not another Water. Adoration, Atom Egoyan's latest offering, is also less than compelling. It is a strange mix. It tells the story of a teenage boy whose parents were killed in a car accident. After the accident he was raised by his mother's brother. His drama teacher at school reads her students a story about an Arab terrorist who used his naïve girlfriend get a bomb aboard an airliner travelling to Israel. The attempt failed and the girlfriend was detained by Israeli security officials when she tried to enter the country. The young man then writes a story for the class where he claims that his mother was the naïve young woman and his father was the Arab terrorist who seduced his mother and persuaded her to travel to Israel alone. The result was more than the young man bargained for and the true story of his mother and father soon is unveiled. The film is a hodge podge and a strange mixture of several elements that don't always seem to come together. The subject material also seems a bit bizarre and almost anathema to any hopes for commercial success. Blindness, on the other hand, is based on a well known novel and tells the story of an epidemic of blindness that sweeps the world and creates havoc and upheaval. The government sets up camps for the blind, but security disappears and it is everyone for himself. Don McKellar co-wrote the script and was instrumental in getting this film made. And although the film boasts an excellent cast, the film doesn't seem to come together. I've have always loved science fiction, but did not find this film satisfying, in any way. Maybe it was the subject matter, but this was not a film I could recommend. Now, we get to the few films I did enjoy. Fifty Dead Men Walking was one of my favourite films at this festival. It is set in Ireland at the height of the IRA problems. The British manage to convince a young Irishman to infiltrate the IRA and provide information to the British security forces. Eventually the informer is found out, taken into custody by the IRA and tortured. He escapes and is given a new identity by the British and he winds up living in Canada. The IRA tracks him down and attempts to assassinate him. It is an exciting film, based on real events and real people. The subject of the film threatened to file legal action and prevent the film from being released, but this was avoided and a last minute settlement was negotiated with the film's producers. The film captured my attention immediately and kept it right to the end. The only problem I had with it were the Irish accents. It took a while to become accustomed to them. One Week is a sweet little film about a young man who is diagnosed with terminal cancer. He has to decide what to do with his life in the time he has remaining. He buys a motorcycle and decides to visit some places he's always wanted to see in Canada. He enjoys the trip so much that he decides to extend it and travel across the entire country on his motorcycle. His trip becomes a voyage of discovery. He learns about the vast expanse of the country and the enormous difference between the various regions. And he meets some fascinating people on his journey. Eventually he calls his fiancee and invites her to join him in Banff. She meets him at the Alberta resort but returns to Toronto very quickly while our hero continues his trip to the Pacific Ocean. At the end, he returns home and writes a book about his experiences. And as the narrator says just before the closing credits, "What would you do if you knew you only had a day to live, or a week, or a month?" And that's about it for the Canadian films I've seen at this year's festival. I did see Borderline, a film that includes a lot of nudity and sex, but not one that I found at all interesting.


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Larry Anklewicz -- Bio and Archives

Larry Anklewicz. B.A., LL.B., is a lawyer, writer and film and video reviewer.  Mr. Anklewicz is author of “A Guide To Jewish Films On Videos” and has been a columnist for Canada Free Press, the Canadian Jewish News, and other local newspapers.  Mr. Anklewicz worked with the Toronto Jewish Film Festival for thirteen years, the last eight years of which he served as Program Coordinator and Program Director.


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