TIFF ’24: Embeth Davidtz Directs “Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight”

By Abe Friedtanzer

Actors becoming directors can feel like an event, especially when they opt to cast themselves in their projects. Embeth Davidtz, who grew up in South Africa, takes that auspicious step with a deeply personal story set in 1980s Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), screening the film at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where she’s in good company with her Junebug costars, Amy Adams (Nightbitch) and Alessandro Nivola (The Brutalist). She now has her most significant role since Schindler’s List, thirty-one years back...

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TIFF '24: Contrarian takes on "Anora" and "Emilia Perez"

by Cláudio Alves

Sometimes, you find yourself going with the flow, becoming another among a million other voices with the same stated opinion. Such fate can be frustrating, but so can the reverse. When consensus consolidates, being on the other side looking in is just as irritating as picturing oneself as the metaphorical sheep following the flock. Contrarianism isn't fun in and of itself, especially when it manifests as a hostile take against a barrage of love. This TIFF, I've found myself in the minority regarding two Cannes prize-winners already praised to high heaven by our beloved Elisa Giudici. Indeed, one of them is so adored it's already considered a contender for the festival's Audience Award cum Oscar barometer. It's time to explain why neither Anora nor Emilia Pérez convinced me of their merits…

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TIFF '24: "I'm Still Here" is a staggering piece of political cinema

by Cláudio Alves

An absence is a scar. You might not see it like you would scarred flesh, but deep down, you feel it. Memories are both a salve and a burning touch that keeps the tissue raised, red and angry. Memories are all that's left in the absence, so they define it as much as they soothe the pain. People are covered in such scars, littered all over their spirit. Places have them, too, like the ghosts of paintings and photographs taken down from the wall, leaving faded patches within a home that is no more. Countries bear them, their history a story of scars. We can learn from them. We have to, for the alternative is forgetting and forgetting is the death of history, of justice. If a country forgets, new scars will come to pass, torn with impunity in a vicious cycle without end. So, treasure the memory and learn to acknowledge the pain of absence. For absence is a scar, and we are our scars.

In his latest film, I'm Still Here, Brazillian director Walter Salles weaves these notions into every frame, articulating a passionate plea. His is a cinema that fights for the national memory and cries, bloody and furious, against forgetting…

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TIFF ’24: Counting It All in “Addition”

By Abe Friedtanzer

We all hide things from people when we first meet them, and sometimes it feels like it’s too late to share them by the time a relationship has gotten more serious. Some secrets are more significant than others and can have a drastic effect on the way people communicate with and relate to each other. Addition portrays a scenario where one woman forces herself to hide her crippling anxiety from her new boyfriend, creating turmoil for herself and a difficult, if not impossible, path forward for their romance...

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TIFF '24: "On Becoming a Guinea Fowl" and 'Vagabond Queen'

by Cláudio Alves 

ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL

This year, like the last, I'm focusing much of my TIFF schedule on international cinema, looking a bit past the Hollywood Oscar hopefuls that tend to overtake the conversation. Sometimes, this strategy results in glorious cinematic experiences, often bolstered by a feeling of discovery. In other occasions, the outcome is more disappointing but no less interesting to parse out. All this to say that, diving into part of the African contingent of TIFF programming, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl and The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos represent a study in contrasts, from their value as cinema to their intentions, from character study in oblique terms to a raging political indictment of national injustices…

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