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Toronto International Film Festival · 2024

Toronto International Film Festival 2024

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Programme

26 films · 4 reviews

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Aberdeen

A Peguis woman, homeless in Winnipeg, must fight to regain control of her life so that she can save her grandchildren from the foster system.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Ryan Cooper, Eva Thomas; Writer: Ryan Cooper, Eva Thomas; Stars: Gail Maurice, Billy Merasty, Jennifer Podemski, Liam Stewart-Kanigan, Ryan Black)

Bonjour Tristesse

A teenager dreaming away the summer is threatened by the arrival of her dead mother's glamorous American friend.

(Country: Canada, Germany; Year: 2024; Director: Durga Chew-Bose; Writer: Durga Chew-Bose, based on the book by Françoise Sagan; Stars: Lily McInerny, Claes Bang, Chloë Sevigny, Naïlia Harzoune, Aliocha Schneider)

Boong

A schoolboy and his best friend undertake a dangerous journey to try to find his missing father and bring him home.

(Country: India; Year: 2024; Director: Lakshmipriya Devi; Writer: Lakshmipriya Devi; Stars: Gugun Kipgen, Bala Hijam, Angom Sanamatum, Vikram Kochhar, Hamom Sadananda, Jenny Khurai, Nemetia Ngangbam)

The Courageous (Les Courageux)

Review preview for The Courageous

Jule’s sheer resourcefulness makes her a compelling character to watch.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Three children learn to take care of one another during their mother's absences, as she tries to find a better way of living.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2024; Director: Jasmin Gordon; Writer: Julien Bouissoux; Stars: Ophelia Kolb, Paul Besnier, Arthur Devaux, Jasmine Kalisz Saurer)

Full review See: Interview with Jasmin Gordon about The Courageous

Diciannove

An investigation of the life of a 19-year-old boy and an analysis of his life and his being a student.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2024; Director: Giovanni Tortorici; Writer: Giovanni Tortorici; Stars: Manfredi Marini, Vittoria Planeta, Luca Lazzareschi, Zackari Delmas, Dana Giuliano)

Do I Know You From Somewhere?

Several years into her marriage, a woman's life begins to shift in small but unsettling ways, as if the different life she could have been living is intruding on the one she knows.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Arianna Martinez; Writer: Arianna Martinez, Gordon Mihan; Stars: Caroline Bell, Ian Ottis Goff, Mallory Amirault, Gillian Salmon)

Freedom Way

When friends launch a rideshare app in Lagos state, they get hassle from the police, but there's worse to come, as they find their business at risk from corrupt politicians.

(Country: Nigeria; Year: 2024; Director: Afolabi Olalekan; Writer: Blessing Uzzi; Stars: Adebowale Adedayo, Bimbo Akintola, Jesse Suntele, Meg Otanwa, Femi Jacobs, Mike Afolarin, Jable Ogranya, Teniola Aladese, Taye Arimoro, Tiwalola Adebola-Walter, Akin Lewis)

Gülizar

After Gülizar is sexually assaulted, her future husband Emre does not report the incident, but later decides to go after the attacker himself.

(Country: Kosovo, Turkey; Year: 2024; Director: Belkis Bayrak; Writer: Belkis Bayrak; Stars: Ecem Uzun, Hakan Yufkacigil, Bekir Behrem, Ernest Malazogu)

Horizonte

A mother and son travel through war-torn Colombia in search of redemption.

(Country: Colombia, France, Luxembourg, Chile, Germany; Year: 2024; Director: César Augusto Acevedo; Writer: César Augusto Acevedo; Stars: Claudio Cataño, Paulina García)

Ink Wash

A painter struggles with her upcoming 40th birthday in the aftermath of a break-up.

(Country: Romania, Greece, Denmark; Year: 2024; Director: Sarra Tsorakidis; Writer: Sarra Tsorakidis, Ilinca Hărnuț; Stars: Ilinca Hărnuț, Kenneth M. Christensen, Radouan Leflahi)

Linda

Strife breaks out within a family when each of its members develops an intense attraction to the new domestic worker in the household.

(Country: Spain, Argentina; Year: 2024; Director: Mariana Wainstein; Writer: Diego Bliffeld, Luciano Cocciardi, Horacio Convertini, Juan Cordoni, Mariana Wainstein, Sabrina Campos, Nancy Gay; Stars: Eugenia 'China' Suárez, Julieta Cardinali, Rafael Spregelburd, Minerva Casero, Felipe Otaño, Agustín Della Corte)

Meat (Kreas)

When a young man commits murder and the only witness is an immigrant whom his father has mentored and cared for, the older man must decide which of them will take the blame.

(Country: Greece; Year: 2024; Director: Dimitris Nakos; Writer: Dimitris Nakos; Stars: Kostas Nikouli, Akyllas Karazisis, Pavlos Iordanopoulos, Maria Kallimani, Giorgos Symeonidis)

Mother Mother

A widowed Somali camel farmer and a young American find themselves supporting one another in adversity, though neither will admit it.

(Country: Somalia; Year: 2024; Director: K'naan Warsame; Writer: K'naan Warsame; Stars: Maan Youssouf Ahmed, Hassan Najib, Elmi Rashid Elmi, Ubah Egal)

My Fathers' Daughter (Biru Unjárga)

A teenager who already resents her mother for being Sámi gets a shock when she learns that the father she never met is not the famous actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau but, in fact, an ordinary Sámi man who has spent most of her lifetime in prison.

(Country: Norway, Sweden, Finland; Year: 2024; Director: Egil Pedersen; Writer: Egil Pedersen; Stars: Sarah Olaussen Eira, Ingá Elisá Påve Idivuoma, Aslat Mahtte Gaup, Amund Lode, Ánne Mággá Wigelius, Sara Sofia Mienna, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau)

On Falling

Review preview for On Falling

Carreira shows how quiet desperation can be eroding

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Trapped between the confines of her workplace and the solitude of her flat-share, a Portuguese warehouse picker in Scotland seeks to resist the loneliness, alienation and ensuing small talk which begin to threaten her sense of self.

(Country: UK, Portugal; Year: 2024; Director: Laura Carreira; Writer: Laura Carreira; Stars: Joana Santos, Inês Vaz, Neil Leiper, Ola Forman, Deborah Arnott, Katharine K.K. Kennedy, Piotr Sikora, Robert Rutonic, Ross Ian-Martin, Daniel McGuire, Helen Robinson)

Full review See: Laura Carreira on buidling character with her cast and cinematographer in On Falling , Laura Carreira on the gig economy and loneliness in her Silver Shell-winner On Falling

The Paradise Of Thorns

Two men spend five years cultivating a durian orchard together, but when one of them dies in a tragic accident, their lack of formal relationship status means that the grieving survivor risks losing everything they built.

(Country: Thailand; Year: 2024; Director: Boss Kuno; Writer: Boss Kuno, Naron Cherdsoongnern, Karakade Norasethaporn; Stars: Jeff Satur, Engfa Waraha, Srida Puapimol, Harit Buayoi, Pongsakorn Mettarikanon)

The Party's Over

A wealthy divorcée's life is changed forever when she finds a young Senegalese immigrant hiding in her toolshed.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2024; Director: Elena Manrique; Writer: Elena Manrique; Stars: Sonia Barba, Edith Martínez, Beatriz Arjona)

The Quiet Ones

A group of criminals aim to pull off the biggest heist ever committed on Danish soil.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2024; Director: Frederik Louis Hviid; Writer: Anders Frithiof August; Stars: Gustav Giese, Reda Kateb, Amanda Collin, Christopher Wagelin, Jens Hultén, Granit Rushiti, Amin Ahmed)

Really Happy Someday

Review preview for Really Happy Someday

The film hinges on amazing vocal work by Lalama.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Once a rising star of musical theatre, a young man has to find his voice, career and identity all over again after his transition.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: J Stevens; Writer: J Stevens, Breton Lalama; Stars: Breton Lalama, Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah, Xavier Lopez, Ali Garrison, Katharine King So)

Full review See: Interview with J Stevens and Breton Lalama about Really Happy Someday

Saba

A daughter gives up everything to pay for surgery after her chronically ill mother suffers from a heart attack.

(Country: Bangladesh; Year: 2024; Director: Maksud Hossain; Writer: Trilora Khan, Maksud Hossain; Stars: Mehazabien Chowdhury, Rokeya Prachy, Mostafa Monwar)

Sad Jokes

When his co-parent is hospitalised due to severe depression, a filmmaker reeling from a recent break-up is forced to step up.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2024; Director: Fabian Stumm; Writer: Fabian Stumm; Stars: Fabian Stumm, Haley Louise Jones, Ulrica Flach, Jonas Dassler, Godehard Giese, Marie-Lou Sellem, Anne Haug, Knut Berger)

Seeds

A woman finds herself caught between her new job with a seed company and the traditions on Kanienʼkehá:ka food sovereignty, in a situation which becomes increasingly dangerous.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Kaniehtiio Horn; Writer: Kaniehtiio Horn; Stars: Kaniehtiio Horn, Dallas Goldtooth, Meegwun Fairbrother, Dylan Cook, Graham Greene)

Shook

A struggling writer finds his life thrown into chaos when his father is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and he falls for a barista.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Amar Wala; Writer: Amar Wala, Adnan Khan; Stars: Saamer Usmani, Amy Forsyth, Bernard White, Pamela Sinha, Shomari Downer, Faizan Khan, Sammy Azero, Nina Kiri)

U Are The Universe

Review preview for U Are The Universe

Given that U Are The Universe is practically a one-man-play, Volodymyr Kravchuk masterfully commands the screen combining his knack for humour with a strong sense for drama.

Marko Stojiljkovic · 3.5 out of 5
In the distant future, a space trucker from Khmelnytskyi is trying to get rid of over three billion tons of waste. When he hears from a woman on a distant space station, he becomes determined to reach her.

(Country: Ukraine, Belgium; Year: 2024; Director: Pavlo Ostrikov; Writer: Pavlo Ostrikov; Stars: Volodymyr Kravchuk, Daria Plahtiy, Alexia Depicker, Leonid Popadko)

Full review

Village Keeper

An overprotective mother in Toronto finds an unusual way to come to terms with her traumatic past.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Karen Chapman; Writer: Karen Chapman; Stars: Olunike Adeliyi, Maxine Simpson, Zahra Bentham, Micah Mensah-Jatoe, Oyin Oladejo, d'bi.young anitafrika, Ethan Burnett, Shiloh O'Reilly)

You Are Not Alone (Vous N'êtes Pas Seuls)

A pizza delivery guy falls for a musician, but he's already been targeted by an alien which preys on lonely men and isn't prepared to let him go.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2024; Director: Marie-Hélène Viens, Philippe Lupien; Writer: Marie-Hélène Viens, Philippe Lupien; Stars: Pier-Luc Funk, Marianne Fortier, François Papineau, Sandrine Bisson, Blaise Tardif, Micheline Lanctôt)