TorontoFilmFestivalReviews.com: Special Presentations Film

Special Presentations

The Special Presentations programme boasts films featuring major stars and directors. Last year’s Toronto International Film Festival showed Michel Gondry’s Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and Academy Award nominee Corpse Bride, directed by Tim Burton.

This year’s round-up of Special Presentations includes Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon the Brain!, a silent film with English narration about a character named Guy who returns to the orphanage where he was raised to paint a lighthouse, making this his first trip back home in thirty years. Guy reminisces of his adolescent sister, his mother and his workaholic father. Back on his native island, Guy faces two detectives investigating the head wounds endured by former charges of his malicious parents.

Catch Brand Upon the Brain! on Friday September 8th at 6:00 p.m. in the Visa Screening Room (Elgin).

Another Special Presentations film includes Mira Nair’s The Namesake, a passionate account of family bonds among Indians in America. When Ashoke Ganguli and his wife Ashima flee the disorder in 1970s Calcutta, they lead a new life in the U.S., introducing a new addition to their family—a son that faces the most struggles in America. The son, Gogol endures cross-cultural barriers, dating woes and family problems.

You can watch The Namesake on Monday September 11th at 6:00 p.m. and Wednesday September 13th at 3:00 p.m. in the Visa Screening Room (Elgin).