Toronto International Film Festival

The 2008 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival got off the ground with a terrific new film by Director, Screenwriter and Actor, Paul Gross.

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Passchendaele is a work of love that has taken many years to get off the ground and onto the screen. Gross was first made aware of the story of Passchendale because his grandfather fought at that battle during World War I. In fact, Gross’ grandfather was wounded during the battle, one of three wounds he sustained during that War, but he later suffered terrible nightmares about the War. World War I was not a pretty war. It was often fought in the mud and rain and with rather primitive weapons. The casualties were heavy. Some 16,000 Canadians died in the Battle of Passchendaele, and the wounded often suffered for the rest of their lives. Although most of the film is really a romance, the two major scenes that open and close the film show the brutality and futility of warfare. And that is exactly what Gross had in mind. He wanted to show that war was a terrible thing and a waste of young lives. The love story in between the two battle scenes, tends to underline the cruelty and inhumanity of war and also underscore the jingoism that prevailed in Canada during those times. Very few people seemed to question the validity of the war and very few people were brave enough to oppose it. This is a much deeper and more complex film than one may first imagine. It deals with the question of the shellshock suffered by the soldiers who participated in the war and it deals with feelings and emotions. As a result, it was a most appropriate film to select as the Opening Night Premiere. And it is one of the biggest films to have ever been shot in Canada, with a budget in excess of $20 million. Watch for it when it opens in local theatres in October. Although some reviewers have not been too kind to the film, I do believe it is a film that had to be made and Paul Gross was the perfect person to have made it. Opening night also saw the premiere of another war film. Waltz With Bashir is an animated film from Israel that also deals with the horrors and futility of war. The fact that it is an animated film gives it a certain edge to the film that a live action production could not have accomplished. This film deals with the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon of 1982. The film’s director, who served in a combat unit during that war, has been suffering from nightmares, and he contacts other members of his unit to see whether they have been experiencing the same after affects. In this film, shellshock is also a major factor as the soldiers who saw real combat have difficulty living a normal civilian life, even two decades after the events. The director, who is also the main character, travels to Europe and throughout Israel to find members of his unit and he questions how they have dealt with their own experiences. He even seeks the advice of a psychologist. The director’s journey is a difficult one because his unit was stationed close to the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps where Christian Lebanese militiamen carried out the mass killings of Palestinian civilians. The question then becomes, how can one live with that knowledge? Waltz With Bashir is a fascinating film on many levels and will be another must see film when it is released theatrically in the new year.