Tiff '08

So, I was determined to attend TIFF this year. In an effort to make good on the promise to myself, I bought a 10-pk ticket set from the TIFF website in August. Tickets had to be picked up from the Festival Box Office, Downtown.

Unfortunately, in true form, I completely forgot about it after that and continued in happy ignorance that I'd have plenty of time to figure out which films to watch sometime in September. And thus I would have continued in this way, had a colleague of mine not decided to resign. You are probably at a complete loss... what would my colleague resigning have anything to do with TIFF '08. No, I don't work in films, either.

I'm blessed with the happy coincidence of having her farewell at the new Milestones in the Toronto Life Building. Luckily the AMC was next door to Milestones and the python-like line up quickly dispensed with my temporary amnesia. I rushed home to recover the e-mail which gave me details about where to pick up my tickets and how to register for the movies I wanted to see.

Not realizing how many people take the TIFFs seriously, I was caught off guard at the counter at the Box Office when I went to collect my tickets. Most of the movies I had wanted to see were sold out. I finally managed tickets for Il Resto Della Notte (The Rest of the Night), Parc, Mothers and Daughters and At the edge of the World.

Il Resto Della Notte - Italian/Romanian
This was a gripping experience. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more had I been able to understand Italian but the subtitles did it justice. It was bold yet sophisticated. It addressed many issues such as the condition of immigrants in European countries, drug trafficking, marital problems and the difference in classes. It begins with an Armenian maid working in an upper class Italian home in the suburbs. Due to a case of missing jewellery, she is relieved from her position and is forced to return to the slums in the city. And the story dramatically shifts its focus from there on, gliding between three central groups of characters (the upper class Italian family; the Armenian ex-maid and her burglarizing boyfriend & his adolescent brother; and the drug addict/Italian convict fighting a custody battle for his son), weaving a tight web of deceit, insecurity and a hope for the way things cannot be. The film was well made and well directed and the performances were simply superb.

Parc - French/English
I have to say that I was completely lost through most of this film. The director had warned us prior to the movie commencing that this film was a bit of an enigma and it definitely proved to be so. It begins with a boy walking briskly through a park with a golf club. He continues walking for sometime and seems depressed. This continues for at least 5 minutes. He stops at the door of his house and the news blaring on television seems to be about vandalism in various parts of France. The story continues in this fashion for awhile. The french upper class family is trying to cope with the son's depression (he wants to be a vagrant, he is dissatisfied with the world and he was cut from his soccer team at school). In the meantime, there is an introduction of a middle-aged, married man named Paul, who suffers from extreme self-loathing and is in a dysfunctional relationship with his wife whose purpose in life seems to be - to remain in a perpetual state of unhappiness. Between depression and attempted Crucifixion in a gated community, the movie seems unbelievably long and ill-contrived.

Mothers and Daughters - English
Originally, I expected this movie to explore the warm yet turbulent relationship between mothers and daughters. The movie was quite different. It was like a documentary exploring the the internal relationship between 3 pairs of people who are eventually all connected to each other in some way. The 1st pair - an established, whimsical writer and her unemployed, poetic daughter who have a violent parasitic relationship that they just cannot seem to grow out of. The 2nd pair - a quiet, nervous, conservative housewife and her independent, focused daughter who is a psychiatrist. The 50-something father leaves the mother to start a new family, leaving the mother at a complete loss as to how to go on living. The daughter who was close to her father feels betrayed, and is now burdened with the sense of responsibility towards her mum who she now has to help take the next step in life. The 3rd pair - a independent native woman with a painting business who lost her daughter to drugs and is looking for her grandchild, lends assistance and support to her client, a young single professional who finds herself pregnant but cannot relate to motherhood as her birth mother had given her up for adoption. All three pairs are connected to each other in this documentary-like movie about the dysfunctional relationships between mothers and daughters. I found myself to be a bit dissatisfied as the movie only concentrated on maternal relationships that had gone wrong. It would have been nice to see a good relationship represented as well.

At the Edge of the World - English
This was a brilliant documentary about the Sea Shepherd's quest to save Whales in the Ross Sea. The crew represent a group of people who are against illegal whaling in various parts of the world. With their limited resources, they make an effort to prevent poaching in whale sanctuaries. The purpose of the initial documentary was not for televising during the Toronto International Film Festival but to show the world how the Japanese are violating International treaties in the Ross Sea by whale hunting under the pretext of research. The cinematography was stunning, the adventure was captivating and the premise was unconventional. Unfortunately, though they did everything from ramming into the Japanese vessels to stink bombing them, the Japanese were not deterred. They held the Japanese shipmates under citizen's arrest for violating international treaties but Japan was not reprimanded for their illegal whale hunting as they are a G8 country and a worthy adversary. Currently, the Japanese "research" ships are still sailing the ROSS sea, hunting whales, and are accompanied by the Japanese military to prevent any interference from organizations like the Sea Shepherd. Whales are now an endangered species and hunting them is illegal everywhere. Much like seal hunting in Canada which is inhumane but Canada has yet to make it illegal. For more information about the Sea Sheppard, please refer to http://www.seashepherd.org/

All in all, the TIFF 08 was an eye opener and I am waiting with bated breath for TIFF 09. Will be better prepared this time around to attack the box office :)

We do it all for the love of film!