Liberation and self exploration dominate

Stories of the wounded struggling to liberate themselves from emotional isolation, grief and regret dominate the slate of Canadian features spotlighted in the Contemporary World Cinema section at TIFF this year.

“This group of films is quite thematically unified,” the associate director of Canadian programming for TIFF, Steve Gravestock, told Playback. “They are dealing with dysfunctional families, grief and a yearning for connection. Many take place in rural settings.”

Despite their quintessential Canadian bleakness, the veteran TIFF programmer maintains his picks are “not necessarily pessimistic, but redemptive.”

In Quebec director Robin Aubert’s À l’origine d’un cri (Crying Out) three generations of men from the same family drunkenly careen across the Quebec countryside in an attempt to come to terms with their past. For Gravestock, Aubert is exploring the same emotional territory as acclaimed director Jean-Claude Lauzon (Un zoo la nuit, Leolo) who died in 1997. “Robin is critical of machismo,” he observes. “He’s looking at a world where men act out instead of dealing with stuff. And their responses are booze-fueled.”

The veteran TIFF programmer also believes the Aubert film “takes a chainsaw,” to a myth which is central to many Quebec films: the countryside as a place of healing.

A veteran actor – Aubert played the psychologist in De père en flic (Fathers and Guns) – the loosely autobiographical film is the writer/director’s third feature. “I wanted to understand where I came from,” says Aubert. “We perhaps make the same errors from generation to generation but we are able to love despite it all.”

In Quebec director Louis Bélanger’s Route 132 the main character also takes to the road, this time in despair after losing a loved one. The film, which had its world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival August 26, is written by Bélanger (Gaz Bar Blues) and Alexis Martin.

In it, the grief stricken main character, Gilles – played by well known Quebec actor François Papineau (Le Confessionnal) – joins up with an old buddy and former partner in crime, Bob, and the pair hatch a plan to make some easy cash on their Odyssey down Route 132, which follows the south shore of the St. Lawrence River and is the longest highway in Quebec. “The character is trying to connect with his past. Both 132 and À l’origine d’un cri deal with the past and themes of replenishment and regeneration,” says Gravestock.

“I approached Louis in 2003 and told him that he could do the film he wanted to do,” says Denise Robert of Cinémaginaire, who is coproducing Route 132 with Fabienne Larouche. “I gave him the space he needed. It took seven years.” Last year Bélanger released Timekeeper, a film based on the novel by Montreal author Trevor Ferguson.

Described by its producers as a “modern gothic tale of crime and redemption,” Small Town Murder Songs, Ed Gass-Donnelly’s follow-up to This Beautiful City, stars Swedish actor Peter Stormare (Fargo, Armageddon, Prison Break) as Walter, an aging police officer from a small Ontario Mennonite town who hides a violent past until a local murder upsets the calm of his newly reformed life.

Shot in the towns surrounding Listowel, Ontario, Gass-Donnelly set the film in a Mennonite community to put the central character’s internal struggle with his violent past in sharp relief. “He’s a police officer, he carries a gun and he has been violent. Yet lives in a community where a central value is pacifism,” explains Gass-Donnelly. “The strong morality of the community is very hard on him.”

Gass-Donnelly is pleased his film is featured in Contemporary World Cinema rather than a section which draws attention to the film’s “Canadian-ness.”

“Creating a separate playpen for Canadian films is like saying to the world ‘You guys are part of international cinema, and this Canada First section is what we Canadians do in our spare time,'” says the director. “Being featured in Contemporary World Cinema puts us on par with everyone else.”

The director’s goal at TIFF is to launch the film in international markets. “We’ve hired an international publicist and we are trying to generate buzz. It’s not an inherently commercial film but we hope to have a theatrical release in the United States.”

In Vancouver-based director/writer Terry Mile’s A Night for Dying Tigers, Jack, played by Gil Bellows (Ally McBeal) gathers his family around him at their ancestral home for a farewell dinner the night before he goes to prison. It’s also the first time they are all together since the death of their parents the year before. As the evening progresses the characters dramatically – and often savagely – reveal the conflict and tragedy at the heart of their family history.

“This is about dysfunction on a much bigger scale than the other films,” says Gravestock. “This family is very messed up.” Starring Jennifer Beals, Kathleen Roberston, Lauren Lee Smith, Tygh Runyon and John Pyper-Ferguson the film also has a larger and more well-known cast than the other picks in the Contemporary World Cinema category.

The most lyrical Canadian film featured in the section is actress and director Ingrid Veninger’s portrait of teenage self-discovery, Modra, says Gravestock.

Set in small-town Slovakia the film follows 17-year-old Lina and Leco as they travel to visit Lina’s extended family in Modra, Slovakia. For the co-writer and producer of Nurse.Fighter.Boy, Modra is a return to Veninger’s Slovakian roots. And like her 2008 film about pre-adolescent love, Only, which starred her son Jacob, Modra features one of Veninger’s children – this time her daughter Hallie Switzer.

“Modra is a much gentler movie than the other four. It is about the way teenagers speak and interact. It’s a very compassionate work,” says Gravestock.

À l’origine d’un cri (Crying Out)
Director: Robin Aubert
Writer: Robin Aubert
Producers: Roger Frappier, Luc Vandal
Production company: Max Films
Key cast: Jean Lapointe, Michel Barrette, Patrick Hivon
Distributor: TVA Films
International sales: Max Films

A Night For Dying Tigers
Director: Terry Miles
Writer: Terry Miles
Producers: Terry Miles, Sidney Chiu
Production company: Cinemanovel Films
Key cast: Jennifer Beals, Gil Bellows, Lauren Lee Smith, Tygh Runyan, Kathleen Robertson, John Pyper Ferguson, Leah Gibson
International sales: Joker Films

Modra
Director: Ingrid Veninger
Producer: Ingrid Veninger
Principle cast: Hallie Switzer, Alexander Gammal, Cyril Dugovic, Elena Dugovicova, Mathieu Chesneau
Production company: pUNK Films Inc.

Route 132
Writers: Louis Bélanger, Alexis Martin
Producers: Fabienne Larouche,Denise Robert, Michel Trudeau and Daniel Louis
Production company: Aetios productions and Cinémaginaire
Key cast : François Papineau, Alexis Martin, Sophie Bourgeois, Andrée Lachapelle, Gilles Renaud, Janine Sutto, Gary Boudreault, Clémence Desrochers and Benoît McGinnis
Distributor: Alliance Vivafilm
International sales: Funfilm distribution

Small Town Murder Songs
Writer/Director: Ed Gass-Donnelly
Producer: Lee Kim
Production Company: 3 Legged Dog Film and Resolute Films & Entertainment
Key Cast: Peter Stormare, Aaron Poole, Martha Plimpton, Jill Hennessy
Distributors: KinoSmith will distribute in Canada