TorontoFilmFestivalReviews.com: Contemporary World Cinema

Contemporary World Cinema

Contemporary World Cinema features the top current international films which either premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival or are prize-winning selections from other festivals. Contemporary World Cinema ranges in films from Vietnam, Chile, Iceland and more.

In Jan Hrebejk’s Beauty in Trouble, this film explores the influence of modern events in traditional Czech culture. Featuring a romantic relationship between a young mother and an older, Czech emigrant, Beauty in Trouble dwells on the captivating nature of the Western world in a post-Communist community.

When Jarda (Roman Luknar) starts stripping stolen cars to feed his family, his young wife Marcela (Ana Geislerova) leaves him and takes her two children. Along the way she finds Benes, (Josef Abraham) a Czech emigrant who returns to Czech from Tuscany. They develop a tender relationship despite their age difference as Benes desires to help Marcela and Marcela, exhausted from struggling, longs to live with security and comfort.

But when Jarda returns from jail because of his theft, he demands to have his family back .

Watch Beauty in Trouble on Sunday September 10th at 9:15 p.m. in Varsity 4 and 5, Tuesday September 12th at 9:00 a.m. in Paramount 1 and Saturday September 16th at 7:45 p.m. in Varsity 5.

In Rachid Bouchareb’s Indigenes—a French and Arabic film—he shows the story of 1943 France under the German rule. In attempt to overthrow Nazi control, the First French Army develops in Africa consisting of North Americans called indigenes, or “natives.”

Bouchareb presents four young men who fight for the French for different reasons, from escaping their family’s impoverished state to perhaps cultivating romance with a French girl.

Catch Indigenes on Saturday September 9th at 6:15 p.m. at Varsity 1 and Tuesday September 12th at 11:15 a.m. at Paramount 4.