TIFF12 REVIEW: 2012 Short Cuts Canada Programmes

Programme 4

“People choose the marks they leave behind”

Think The Village meets a futuristic 1984 dystopia and you’ll come close to what visual effects artist Jeremy Ball delivers in his stylish sci-fi thriller Frost. Set in the Arctic within a small tribe desperate for the necessary food with which to sustain their dwindling numbers, Naya (Emily Piggford) must watch as her father (Oscar Hsu) all but gives into the reality that the meat on their table could be their final meal.

Unwilling to surrender, the young girl looks to prove her might by traveling beyond the barrier of their ancestral grounds to find sustenance and the means to bolster their waning hope. But as she reaches the crest of a large ridge, what she discovers on the outskirts is an impossible expanse of a dead, icy world she cannot possibly understand. Trained to fight animals, the foe she encounters is a ruthless monster she may not be able to defeat. With no other options and a starving family back home, however, she has no choice but to try.

A bit heavy-handed in Naya’s cyclical, metaphorical narration, the visual splendor on display is that of a big budget Hollywood adventure into a post apocalyptic world. The art direction and special effects are seamless in their integration and Ball’s characters exist detached from civilization both figuratively and literally. Life must go on no matter the time, place, or people as survival finds you staring down your fear to journey into the unknown.

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“Until this happened I even liked all of us sitting together in the room”

A heartbreaking account of war through the eyes of a child, Elizabeth Lazebnik‘s short fictionalized account of her time hiding with her parents and dog Mishka during the Gulf War gives us a personalized account of the horror. Trapped inside the Safe Room of its title with gas masks firmly secured, this Russian trio must bide their time in Israel amidst the chemical attacks until they can find safe passage to Canada.

Dealing with a young girl’s naivety to the stakes at play, the film’s climactic moment of the parents desperately trying to keep their daughter’s mask on as she attempts to put it on her pet shows how precious the innocence of a child can be. As worried about Mishka as the adults were for her, what started out as a ‘fun’, mysterious game of staying together in the dark with their flashlights became real as though with the flip of a switch.

We take youth for granted and assume our children are left untouched by the horrors outside our doors. But they are a perceptive lot with as many emotions and feelings of responsibility as us. War is a concept we still pray will be eradicated, but its presence in our world must not be taken lightly or ignored especially for the sake of those too young to fully comprehend it.

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“He thought he left a real man behind”

Looking to put the new Egypt—post 2011 revolution and the deposing of Hosni Mubarak—onscreen, Reem Morsi‘s Waleematehom [Their Feast] focuses on a poor family who’s eldest son Ahmed (Ramy Azzazzy) is finally coming home after serving time unjustly as a political prisoner. Following his brothers Shawky (Mahmoud Gaber) and Yahya (Shaaban El Sayed) as they search for the welcome home meal’s centerpiece, we see how much has changed and how much hasn’t.

The family’s matriarch Amaal (Hanan Youssef) works day and night to support her four children without a husband and sees little help. Friends who would can barely afford to survive themselves and those who can want too much in return. Some appreciate the nationalistic approach taken in the revolution and find themselves willing to make concessions while those unaffected remain coarse and entitled. And along with everything that occurs, the reality is that the prisoner returning may be but a shadow of the man who left.

Morsi’s message is sound and the look inside an Egyptian family becoming whole again comes with intriguing baggage as the children who remained became spoiled without the discipline of a man in the house. Unfortunately, no matter the goals of the story, it’s hard to truly give into the film because of its rather amateurish acting. Screaming appears to be the only level of emotion possible as demeanors also change quickly when suits the script. Naturalism in environment and detail becomes rather useless when the performances cannot keep up.

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“You’re a pleasure to be around”

Grimy and disgusting living quarters are what Jessie (Eve Harlow) wakes up to. Flypaper hanging from the ceiling is above occupancy, dirty dishes have mounted, and the stove appears to have a full meal’s worth of dried and crusty food around its burners. But it’s probably the only thing she and boyfriend Lee (Winston De Giobbi) can afford at such an early stage of their adulthood. The mounting tensions of life, responsibility, and love are spiraling down into an abyss of what ifs and decisions gone wrong.

There is an unspoken elephant in the room as we see the couple abruptly and discourteously dismiss each other with a surface vitriol hiding the real issue at hand. Kids themselves, the prospect of moving forward into a future that’s supposed to house the good ol’ white picket fence and diapered babies gleefully rolling around in the yard is a virtual impossibility when looking at where they are now. And when a rat turns up in the bathroom, initial fear turns to anger as pent up rage allows its destruction to become the perfect outlet for over-flowing frustration.

Writer/director Ashley McKenzie‘s When You Sleep creates an aesthetic of squalor for which its characters must awaken within to acknowledge its metaphorical mirroring of the lives they have been living. With internalized anger brimming, De Giobbi and Harlow take us into their darkening souls lost without answers for a future they can no longer avoid. It’s a gritty look into the psyche of a young couple on the cusp of implosion and the choices we all must make when life becomes more than a journey of one.

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“Kick up your heels”

A pointed satire on the state of race relations where it concerns the Canadian police force and the First Nations Aboriginal people living amongst them, Kelvin Redvers‘ The Dancing Cop shows public bias and its all too normal willingness to look the other way.

When Wallace the cop (Mikal Grant) catches Travers (William Belleau) running from a convenient store as the clerk (Ranjit Samra) chases behind, the assumption of a crime leads him to follow with a highly aggressive bent. Refusing to listen to the man’s pleas that he did nothing wrong, the brutality ensuing is sadly unsurprising. Over-zealous cops are a staple in every nation and the fact they wield their power unchecked has become a common scene we’ve all numbed ourselves towards.

Only when Wallace breaks out into a full song and dance number (with lyrics by Alexandra Staseson) do we question his motivations, realizing how we let our ‘protectors’ get away with anything. The absurdity of the situation brings with it this clarity and yet it’s hard to think change will occur anytime soon. Authoritative uniforms will always be seen as more credible than a marginalized minority no matter the truth. It’s a flaw of society and one power-hungry men have prayed upon for centuries.

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“Get the blinds, Becky”

Poor Bernard (Jakob Davies)—the universe is simply not his fan. Cute and precocious to a fault, this boy will do whatever is necessary to make sure he isn’t a disappointment to those around him. On this fateful day, however, we discover just what the world thinks of him as a chaotic mess of events comes raining down.

Sophie Jarvis‘ stylized fantasy The Worst Day Ever shows how the filter of a child’s eyes is not always full of rosy optimism. They pick up subtleties in adults and find themselves taking the blame when tragedy strikes. Needing approval and a sense of belonging, watching Bernard’s parents divorce (Iris Paluly and Ingo Holst), teacher expel him (Helen Camisa), and neighbors shake their head in disgust when walking by only adds to the feelings of isolation Davies’ highly expressive face has been projecting.

Darkly comic in the best way, Bernard’s misfortunes escalate as the day goes by to make him feel even smaller than his short stature already does. Portraying how emotional and adorably innocent children can be, the film truly gets at the heart of life from their point of view. A tiny blip in the fabric of happiness can appear an earthquake of monumental proportions, so just think what a major incident like being the reason your entire house was cleaned out by robbers can do.

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“But if I knew its weight and radius we could probably work together …”

It’s interesting to note that Jeanne Leblanc‘s Sullivan’s Applicant is part of a larger project about the city of Montreal and its myriad corners. I’m not sure this is necessarily relevant towards enjoying the piece on its own—the Toronto International Film Festival obviously didn’t—but it does go far in showing how Leblanc and writer Kevin Coughlin went about preparing their entry.

The opening monologue by Lucy (Judith Baribeau) says it all when she attempts to calculate how much of our lives on average are spent waiting in a car because of traffic. It’s a simple conceit and yet it allows the filmmakers to put their camera in the heart of the city and show it how so many experience it through their vehicle’s windows. More than this, however, the film is also about humanity’s drive for success and the disregard for details happening around them when without meaning towards their ultimate mission. Sometimes you just need to stop, take a breath, and reassess exactly what it is you want.

The dialogue here is fun as Lucy gets berated by her over-bearing mother (Suzannah Lehir) and discovers a stranger with the kind of similar sense of humor you don’t often find. Clicking wholly with the man in the car next to her (Graham Cuthbertson), Sullivan’s Applicant ends up less about getting to a job interview and more about understanding one’s heart and desires. We all need to stop and smell the roses to be able to catch those moments that will change our lives forever and Montreal like all cities possesses the nooks and crannies with which to discover them when you least expect it.

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— Programme 1 – Programme 2 – Programme 3 —
— Programme 4 – Programme 5 – Programme 6 —