The Peasants
Luminous hand-painting animates a famed Polish tale of female defiance in a rural world of predatory opportunism and survival.
Toronto 2023
City of Wind
In ‘City of Wind’, Mongolia’s Academy Award hopeful which has already collected prizes at Venice and Pingyao, director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir offers a charmingly intimate look at a gifted young city-dwelling shaman.
Working Class Goes To Hell
Mladen Djordjevic’s slow-burn Midnight Madness selection has headier things on its mind than blood and guts.
Strikes Can’t Keep the Shine Off Movies at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival
2023 Toronto International Film Festival sparkles with starry debuts and international favorites.
Shame On Dry Land
Axel Petersén conjures a surreal, pure vibes, sun-baked noir that’s equal parts David Lynch and Dashiel Hammett.
I Told You So
Temperatures rise but drama stays stuck in this hellish, apocalyptic vision of Rome.
A Happy Day
‘A Happy Day’ is a stylized asylum seeker story that wraps its message inside a frustrating riddle.
Spirit of Ecstasy
‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ is a sensitive look at coming-of-age through the unique lens of the ruthless world of finance.
Not A Word
Nina Palcek follows Lydia Tár in managing Mahler’s 5th with a spiralling personal life in slow-burn thriller ‘Not A Word.’
Snow Leopard
Rural herders, urbanite journalists and a young monk consider the fate of a captured, livestock-ravaging wild animal in “Snow Leopard”, an affective, nuanced and multilayered film bowing out of competition at Venice four months after the death of its Tibetan director Pema Tseden.
Bye Bye Tiberias
Directed by Hiam Abbass’s daughter Lina Soualem, this beautifully layered, quietly intelligent documentary explores her female-centric family’s experiences of dispossession and exile following the 1948 Nakba, seeking to break the silence surrounding trauma.
Evil Does Not Exist
Starkly opposing views of nature collide in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘Evil Does Not Exist’ which, despite its portentous title, is simplicity itself and in a minor key after ‘Drive My Car’.
An Endless Sunday
Dazzling camerawork and an exceptional trio of teenage actors dangle from a weak narrative thread in Alain Parroni’s intense first feature about underprivileged kids growing up without a future.
Upon Open Sky
‘Upon Open Sky’, a Mexican road movie full of restraint and some surprises, premieres in Venice’s Orizzonti section.
God is a Woman
God is a Woman, nearly fifty years after a film documenting Panama’s Kuna community was lost, Swiss-Panamanian director Andrés Peyrot tracks it down and screens it before an emotionally engaged crowd in this fascinating though flawed documentary.
CineVerdict: A cielo abierto
A cielo abierto, road movie mexicana con una controlada dirección y varias sorpresas se estrena en Horizontes in Venecia 2023
Chuck Chuck Baby
Debut director Janis Pugh’s off-beat musical rom-com ‘Chuck Chuck Baby’ is a rough-edged but warm-hearted celebration of working-class dreamers and queer liberation.
48th Toronto International Film Festival Shines A Light On European Cinema
European cinema and international films load the Toronto slate.