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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TIFF ’24: Scandar Copti Returns with “Happy Holidays”

By Abe Friedtanzer

It’s always worth keeping track of filmmakers whose first films are nominated for the Oscar for Best International Feature, and sometimes it’s quite a wait to see them return for a sophomore effort. Palestinian director Scandar Copti earned Israel its nine (and third consecutive) nomination in the foreign film category in 2009 along with Israeli co-director Yaron Shani. Fifteen years later, Copti is back with another film that feels very much like his first, probing the complexities of multicultural society in a country that’s very often in the news but not always portrayed in such an authentic and vivid manner…

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TIFF ’24: Conviction of Character in “Quisling – The Final Days”

By Abe Friedtanzer

Those with unshakable principles are typically fascinating subjects for film and television, even if those principles contrast sharply with what audiences believe to be right and moral. In the opening scene of Quisling – The Final Days, Vidkun Quisling (Gard B. Eidsvold), the minister president of Norway during the Nazi occupation, announces the death of Adolf Hitler over the radio and frames it as a great loss for the nation. His arrest and imprisonment by the new government follow swiftly, and he remains steadfast that he did the right thing at every turn throughout the entire ill-fated process…

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TIFF ’24: Claes Bang is “William Tell”

By Abe Friedtanzer

The legend of William (or Wilhelm, in German) Tell describes a man who helped to liberate Switzerland from Austrian occupation in the early 1300s. Whether he was real or not is immaterial to the fame his legacy has achieved throughout history, and he’s become the subject of many stories, including the 1804 play William Tell by Friedrich Schiller. That serves as the inspiration for writer-director Nick Hamm’s action epic of the same name, making its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival…

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