TIFF 2014: Day Four

I've got a few spare minutes before I've got to dash off and pick up Ros, so I thought I'd put up at least one quick film fest review. And I thought I'd pick the one that might be most relevant to the interests of people on my flist: Pride.

This is a fictional account of the true story of LGSM, Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, a group of London activists who decided to support a small Welsh mining village during the miner's strike in '80s Britain.

Here's a shot of the activists in question:

With the exception of Dominic West in the middle of the back row, (ETA: And Andrew Scott! I forgot Andrew Scott!) they're mostly young, unknown actors, but they're all wonderful. The people in the mining village are more recognizable faces (Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Paddy Considine), and are also wonderful. The movie is smartly written, funny and heartwarming, but also has some bite, given the politics involved. I loved it, and I wasn't alone. The entire audience rose to its feet during the credits to give the filmmakers an extended standing ovation. And while Toronto's film fest audience has the rep of being enthusiastic, we're not always that enthusiastic. The film really is quite special.

Making the screening even more special was the fact that three of the real people involved (two of the gay activists, and a miner's wife who ended up getting a degree after the strike and becoming a Labour MP) joined the filmmakers for a Q&A at the end.

Consider this an enthusiastic thumbs up from me.

TIFF 2014: Day One

Skipping back to the first day of TIFF.

My fest had a rather inauspicious start with The Valley, an international co-production from a Senegalese director working in Lebanon. It sounded potentially promising. It starts with a heard but not seen car crash in the desert, from which emerges a man with a head injury and no memory. He goes in search of help and finds four people whose car has broken down. When he fixes their car, they feel they have to take him in. But as is gradually revealed, they're not innocent travellers. They run a drug lab in a desolate area of Lebanon. And a war is gradually closing in around them.

You could make an interesting film with that premise. The Valley is not that film. It's full of people staring into the middle distance while not much happens, or sitting tensely together while not much happens, and one character is occasionally seen creating ominous charcoal drawings that I'm sure are meant to be highly significant but don't really do much. But ultimately, it doesn't amount to much more than a line voiced by one character after war finally breaks out: "The Middle East is fucked."

On the positive side, the director knows how to compose an image, and he does incredible things with sound. (He manages to create a complete invasion with only sound and a few distant CGI effects.)

Fortunately, my second film of the day was a huge improvement.

( Here, have a poster )

The Dead Lands is an epic set in pre-colonial New Zealand, with dialogue entirely in Maori. It starts off with two rival tribes meeting years after a war between them to honour the bones of their dead ancestors. But the visiting tribe desecrates the bones and accuses the son of the other tribe, and uses this as an excuse to come back and massacre all the men of the tribe. The only male survivor is the teenage son, who feels he then has to track down the killers of his tribe.

He's outnumbered and outclassed, but then the rival tribe decides to take a short cut home through the dead lands, a place where another tribe was killed, and now said to be the home of a flesh-eating demon. The son seeks the help of the demon, who turns out to be the last member of the missing tribe, and a great warrior.

The film is gorgeously shot, and has a number of well-choreographed fight scenes. And the demon warrior is played by Lawrence Makoare, who amongst other roles played Lurtz, a.k.a. the Orc that killed Boromir in the first LotR movie.

As an added bonus, the entire cast came out and did a Maori haka during the credits. And someone filmed it!

Now I really want to go back to New Zealand...