Toronto Film Festival: Six long, one short

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA SECTION

War Sailor Directors and Script Writer Gunnar Vikene sheds light on a dark chapter in Norwegian history in his new film "War Sailor": the German invasion of Norway during the Second World War turns two lifelong friends into refugees at sea. The two men are transporting important supplies for the Allied forces and live in constant fear of the German U-boats. The War Sailors have only one goal: to survive - and return home. In summer 2021, the team filmed for a total of seven days in Lübeck and Hamburg. The main producers are Rohfilm Factory from Lübeck and Mer Film from Norway. Letterbox Filmproduktion, NDR and Falkun Films are on board as co-producers of "War Sailor".

Victim While "Victim" is currently celebrating its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the drama will soon be shown in North America for the first time. Slovakian Director Michal Blaško's film takes viewers to a small Czech town. Irina, a Ukrainian single mum, lives here with her son Igor and wants to build a new life for herself. When her son is apparently seriously injured one day by a group of Roma, this sets off a maelstrom of events in the town that Irina is soon no longer able to control. Lead actress Vita Smachelyuk lives in Hamburg, and a large part of post production also took place in the Hanseatic city. The German co-producer is the company Electric Sheep. The script was written by Jakub Medvecky and Tomas Hruby.

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS SECTION

Holy Spider Directors Ali Abbasi's "Holy Spider", a dark German-Danish co-production that has already celebrated its premiere in Cannes, will be shown in Toronto this year. In this thriller, a journalist delves into the dark underbelly of the Iranian city of Mashhad to get to the bottom of the serial murders of prostitutes by the so-called "spider killer". He believes he has to cleanse the streets of sinners. Abbasi's film "Border" won the main prize in the "Un Certain Regard" section at Cannes in 2018. This year, lead actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi won the Palme d'Or for best actress for "Holy Spider", part of whose post production took place in Hamburg.

Triangle of Sadness Ruben Östlund's social satire has already been awarded the Palme d'Or for Best Film in Cannes - now the audience in Toronto will also be able to enjoy Östlund's new film about two models who go on a luxury cruise in the South Seas before the official cinema release. The trip ends in an absurd disaster when the ship sinks and a few survivors manage to save themselves on a deserted island. In addition to US superstar Woody Harrelson, the film also stars German actress Iris Berben. Part of the post production and the team come from Hamburg.

DISCOVERY SECTION

Snow and the Bear In Selcen Ergun's feature film debut, a young nurse is called to a small Turkish mountain village where the snow increasingly cuts the village community off from the outside world. One night, a man with whom she previously had an argument disappears. She finds herself in the midst of confused power relations, secrecy and inner doubts. The film is co-produced by Hamburg-based Rivafilm.

SECTION WAVELENGTHS

Pacifiction In Albert Serra's new drama, everything revolves around a French high commissioner in Tahiti. Between official receptions and dodgy bars, he constantly feels the pulse of the local population, from which anger can rise at any time. This is all the more true as a rumour persists: A submarine has allegedly been sighted, its ghostly presence heralding a resumption of French nuclear testing. The Hamburg production company Tamtam Film ("Ein großes Versprechen", "Manche hatten Krokodile") is behind the European co-production. The film celebrated its premiere this year at the Cannes Film Festival.

SECTION SHORT CUTS

Beben World premiere in Cannes, now a guest in Toronto: Directors Rudolf Fitzgerald Leonard's short film "Beben" was largely shot in Schleswig-Holstein - the main actor is Luis Brandt from Hamburg. The film centres on physiotherapist Mina and her young patient Leon, who lives with infantile cerebral palsy. During a therapy session in the therapy pool, an incident occurs which is recorded on a mobile phone by a few bystanders and posted on the internet. The video and its distribution on social media have far-reaching consequences for the two main protagonists. Fitzgerald Leonard wrote the script together with Luis Brandt and Executive Producer Annika Birgel.