TIFF ’24: What to See at This Year’s Fest, Sept. 6

By Jim Slotek, Liz Braun, Thom Ernst, Karen Gordon, Kim Hughes, John Kirk, Chris Knight, and Liam Lacey

It’s here! The 49th annual Toronto International Film Festival is officially underway and with it, a city suddenly electrified by movies and their makers, media and filmgoers from around the world, a street fest, a gigantic singalong, a bunch of free open-air screenings and, if you keep your eyes open, always the possibility of a stealthy movie-star sighting at a local Starbucks.

At Original-Cin, our passion is film, whether blockbuster or indie, epic or short. As in years past, our small, dedicated staff endeavours to see as much of everything as we can. And over the next 10 days, until TIFF closes September 15, we will file daily capsule reviews (with upcoming screening info noted) to help you figure out how best to spend your time and money now and in the coming months when many of these titles will be opening in theatres or heading to streaming platforms.

We hope you have as much fun reading as we had watching. Well, mostly… though we’d be lying if we said dogs don’t have their charms. Meantime, for a solid jumpstart of what to see, be sure to check out our TIFF ’24 movie wish-list feature as well as our roundup of titles by theme.

Daughter’s Daughter

Daughter’s Daughter (Platform)

Thurs, Sept. 12, 12:15 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2; Fri, Sept. 13, 5 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 10; Sat, Sept. 14, 6:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 9.

Sylvia Chang is the long-reigning queen of Taiwanese cinema and the new film, Daughter’s Daughter — directed by longtime Hou Hsiao-hsien collaborator, Huang Xi — amply demonstrates why. Chang plays Jin Aixia, a woman in her sixties, divorced, the mother of two grown daughters, living happily alone in her Taipei apartment. Jin plays the stock market, attends exercise classes, and ends each day with a nip of liqueur in her coffee. But Jin must make a series of life-changing choices, first when she must look after her mother, newly arrived from New York, in the initial stages of dementia. Subsequently, through a chain of tragic events, Jin also finds herself responsible for her late daughter’s embryo. Grief blends with tenderness and humour in this portrait of a woman caught between Taiwan and New York, the strictures of the past and the contemporary world of normalized same sex relationships, in vitro fertilization, adoption, and the balance between family and independence. LL

Flow (Centrepiece)

Tues, Sept. 10, 12 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 4; Sat, Sept. 14, 12 pm, Princess of Wales Theatre.

One could spend an afternoon debating the symbolism in director Gints Zilbalodis’ animated feature: ravages of climate change? Importance of camaraderie? But a better idea is simply to watch it. In a weirdly human-free, vaguely South Asian-looking world with temples and statues indicating the place wasn’t always so empty, a cat, dog, lemur, capybara and secretary bird band together, somewhat forcibly, to save themselves from the fast-rising waters surrounding them. With minimal anthropomorphizing, Zilbalodis depicts the animals like their earthly counterparts, a rare sight in animation. Though likely too frightening for young children, teens and adults will be transfixed by Flow’s action-packed, surprisingly gripping — and, d’uh, dialogue-free — story. KH

Presence (Centrepiece)

Fri, Sept. 13, 6:15 pm, Princess of Wales Theatre; Sat, Sept. 14, 7:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 2.

Steven Soderbergh’s newest is a ghost story told from the point of view of the ghost — literally. So every scene is shot with a camera that floats from place to place, taking in the daily lives of a family who have recently moved into what they don’t yet know is a haunted house. The spirit seems to take a special interest in daughter Chloe (Callina Liang), perhaps because she’s grieving the loss of a friend. But it also has a purpose, particularly when one character proves scarier than any phantom. Effectively eerie rather than flat-out terrifying, this is a tale that will have you rooting for the ghost. CK

So Surreal: Behind the Masks (TIFF Docs)

Tues, Sept. 10, 7:35 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 11; Thurs, Sept. 12, 12:30 pm, TIFF Lightbox 4.

Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond (Reel Injun, Red Fever) is a wryly engaging onscreen guide, narrator and co-director with Joanne Robinson of this real-life detective story about of the efforts to repatriate native ceremonial artifacts. The film follows Diamond’s attempts to trace the journey of one Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw transformational raven mask (it opened to reveal a second mask inside) seized by the Canadian government in 1921 as part of the anti-potlatch crackdown, and made its way to New York, Paris and beyond. Along with that story, So Surreal chronicles how such masks were revered by the Surrealist artists who fled the war in Europe to New York city in the 1940s. The film covers vast cultural ground in a brisk fashion, interviewing historians, curators, relatives of the Surrealists and contemporary native artists, including the film’s the wonderful Yup’ik storyteller and dancer, Chuna McIntyre. LL

Superboys of Malegaon (Gala Presentations)

Fri, Sept. 13, 9:30 pm, Roy Thomson Hall; Sat, Sept. 14, 12 pm TIFF Lightbox 1.

Malegaon is the 100th largest city in India. (For reference, the 100th largest city in Canada is Midland, Ont.) And Nasir Shaikh (Adarsh Gourav) is nowhere near its 100th most important citizen. But he has a dream of making movies. So, he and his buddies scrape together a few rupees and make their own version of Sholay, a 1975 Hindi action film itself based on Seven Samurai. The goofy, lo-fi shenanigans of the filmmakers (it’s 1997, by the way) lead to a darker turn as friendships splinter. Happy ending? Superboys is based on a true story that was told in the 2012 documentary Supermen of Malegaon, but I’m guessing you haven’t seen that one either, so I won’t spoil it. CK

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Centrepiece)

Wed, Sept. 11, 9 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Thur, Sept. 12, 8:45 pm, Scotiabank 3.

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof won a special jury prize and the FIPRESCI award at Cannes for this complex drama-thriller, set against the women’s rebellion in 2022 and using actual news footage. That rebellion, in the aftermath of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini (arrested for improperly wearing her hijab) resulted in a harsh crackdown. In Rasoulof’s film, lawyer Iman (Misagh Zare) has just been promoted, and is now an investigator for the Iranian government. His attentive wife (Soheila Golestani) wants their teenage daughters (Setareh Maleki, Mahsa Rostami) to avoid doing anything that could reflect negatively on their father. Amid increasing violence outside their apartment, Iman’s handgun goes missing. Nothing is quite as it seems. The film has a sweeping and important agenda but wanders from its focus with mixed results. Still Rasoulof — forced to flee Iran after making the film — gets at the soul-destroying corruption of middle managers in a brutal totalitarian regime that provides no exit. KG