Toronto International Film Festival Abridged Part 2

Now that TIFF has come to a conclusion, it is time to take stock of some of the films I watched and some general comments about the Festival.

Many Festival goers want to see movie stars and personalities. I’m not particularly interested in that aspect of the Festival. I’ve seen and met movie stars in past years and I’ve interviewed some of them. As far as I’m concerned, there are few movie stars who interest me. Most interviews, especially at TIFF, are done in a hurry and the interviewers are shuffled in and out of the stars’ suites so quickly that you don’t really have time to settle in and do a full and satisfactory interview. I see my job at TIFF as watching as many films as I can and trying to get some idea of what films are coming out in the upcoming season. Because of my restrictions this year, I was only able to see a grand total of six films (as compared to 35-45 in past years). In addition, I was forced to join the Rush line and wait until a few minutes before the film was scheduled to begin before I was allowed into the theatre. This last part was not a major problem. Of the six films I did see, I was able to gain entrance in time to see the entire film for five of the films. Only once were the TIFF people late in getting us into the theatre. And almost all of the Press & Industry screenings I attended had lots of empty seats. So overall, the people working the Rush line did a very good job.

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I have already mentioned one of the films I saw, FRIENDS FROM FRANCE. As I said before, I had problems with the film because it wasn’t really as advertised. I expected a film about the Refuseniks and the attempts to obtain freedom for the Jews in the Soviet Union to leave their homeland and emigrate to Israel. Instead, the film changed directions in the second half and became a story about the relationship between the two lead characters. The other five films I saw included three films from Israel. They were competently made films, but none were extraordinary. A PLACE IN HEAVEN follows one character through several decades of his life. As a young man he fights in Israel’s War of Independence and upon his return from a mission, is asked to give up his place in heaven in return for one month’s worth of shakshuka for breakfast every morning. He agrees. As time goes on, this young man carves out a brilliant career in the Israeli military and serves in all its wars. At the end, he dies about the same time as the soldier with whom he traded his place in heaven and they go off together to face their individual fates. This is an interesting character driven film about life, death, parenthood and betrayal. BETHLEHEM is a fascinating film about the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is about betrayal and the emotions and life-threatening decisions people are forced to make as a result of this conflict. Razi is an officer in Israel’s secret service, the Shin Bet. He recruits Sanfur, a Palestinian teenager, to supply him with information about terrorist groups, including Sanfur’s brother. The results are devastating for both Razi and Sanfur. THE WONDERS is a mystery set mainly in modern Jerusalem. Ariel is a school dropout/bartender/cartoonist who lives in a poorer section of the city. One night he spots a light in a vacant apartment and discovers a man being held there. When he manages to talk to the prisoner, he can’t decide whether the man is being held against his will or whether he is a part of an overall scheme. Then a private detective and the private eye’s client get involved and the entire film is spent trying to determine what is really happening. The film has some wonderful aspects to it, but seems to be a little too convoluted and it takes too long to get to its climax. IDA is a Polish black and white film set in the 1960’s. A novitiate nun about to take her vows is told by her Mother Superior that she must visit her aunt before she can be accepted into the church. Her aunt is her only living relative. Ida goes to see her aunt and discovers that she (Ida) is Jewish and that her parents had been killed during the War. Ida and her aunt undertake a harrowing voyage to discover what exactly did happen to their family. The results are continuingly surprising and the film is a eye opening revelation. The last film I saw was a Canadian documentary called WHEN JEWS WERE FUNNY. Director Alan Zweig interviews many Jewish comedians, from Howie Mandel and Shelly Berman to Bob Einstein and David Brenner, in an attempt to discover what makes Jews funny and whether there is something in the religion or the culture that produces so many Jewish comedians. The results are somewhat mixed. Some of the comedians don’t believe that being funny is a Jewish thing. Some do. But from my point of view, I felt that Zweig was really trying to find his own roots and his own place within the Jewish culture. Actually, I thought he was trying to get these comedians to find those cultural roots for him. The most touching moment of the film comes at the end when Shelly Berman sings a Yiddish song about the home town in Eastern Europe where his own family comes from. Nothing in the film can top that moment, except for the fact that the film won the award for Best Canadian Feature Film. And so we say goodbye to TIFF for another year. Some of the films presented at the Festival have already started showing up at local movie theatres and this trend will accelerate in the weeks and months to come. Hopefully next year I’ll have the opportunity to provide a much more comprehensive report on the goings on at the Festival.