TIFF, Saturday, Sept 17

The second last day of the Film Festival, and I started again at 9 am down at the Bell Lightbox, which, since last year, has been the headquarters of TIFF. There are 5 theatres there showing films all through the year.

The first one at 9 was Where Do We Go Now?, from Lebanon. It begins with a haunting funeral procession for a young man killed in the civil war between Christians and Muslims. The village they are from has both Muslims and Christians. The women seem to be able to get along, even the priest and the iman have a good relationship, but the men are constantly bickering. Fights keep breaking out in the bars and cafes. The women pool their money and import 5 Russian strippers to take the men's attention off conflict. Meanwhile, the women secretly dig up all the weapon caches, and hide them. Then the final trick....each woman takes on the dress and customs of the opposite group, so the men wake up to a situation they can't control. It is light hearted on a serious topic, but it works well as a commentary on sectarian conflicts.

Then I went off to the Scotiabank Theatres for 11 Flowers from China. It is set in the last year of the cultural revolution, and focuses on the life of a young boy. We see his family life and his school life. By his family's sacrifice, he gets a new white shirt, so that he can lead his classmates in calisthenics every morning. One day, he and his friends are by the river side, and his new shirt falls in the river. While trying to dry it, a bloodied man comes by and steals it. When he follows the man, he discovers that the man is a killer on the run from the police. The boy is vowed to secrecy and has to return to his mother and admit he lost the shirt. As we learn more about the killer, and his alleged crime, we realize that it was because of an injustice done to his family. The film seems to be memoir, and is an interesting insightful look into the years of the Cultural Revolution, which now seem so far away.

The third film was The Good Son from Finland. It is a story of an actress and her two sons, who head off to a summer cottage to escape publicity. Other friends, including a man who becomes the actress' lover arrive to spend some time. The older son, about 16, is devoted to his mother, and tries to do everything to keep her happy. The problem is that the mother has some anger issues, which the boy has inherited. The movie has the overtones of a Greek tragedy, and is a good character piece. It is clear from the beginning that things are not heading in a good direction, and eventually, the strength of the family is destroyed