Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Toronto >> 2022 >> Contemporary World Cinema
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The Worst Ones and Godland
Aftersun
(Country: UK, US; Year: 2022; Director: Charlotte Wells; Writer: Charlotte Wells; Stars: Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio, Celia Rowlson-Hall, Kayleigh Coleman, Sally Messham, Harry Perdios, Ethan Smith, Ruby Thompson, Brooklyn Toulson)
Sometime in the Nineties, somewhere in a Turkish coastal resort, a young, divorced father is spending the vacation with his daughter pre-teen daughter Sophie.
Amanda
(Country: Italy; Year: 2022; Director: Carolina Cavalli; Writer: Carolina Cavalli; Stars: Benedetta Porcaroli, Galatéa Bellugi, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Michele Bravi, Monica Nappo)
As far as 24-year-old Amanda can remember, she has never had friends. It’s the thing she desires most. When she finds out that as infants she and Rebecca had spent a lot of time together, Amanda settles on her new mission: convincing her that they are still best friends.
Ashkal
(Year: 2022; Director: Youssef Chebbi; Writer: Youssef Chebbi)
In the Gardens of Carthage, a district of Tunis initiated by the former Regime which construction stopped at the beginning of the Revolution, two cops, Fatma and Batal, find a burnt body in one of the lots. As construction slowly resumes, they start looking into this mysterious case.
Autobiography
(Country: Indonesia, Poland, Germany, Singapore, France, Philippines; Year: 2022; Director: Makbul Mubarak; Writer: Makbul Mubarak; Stars: Kevin Ardilova, Yusuf Mahardika, Arswendy Bening Swara, Lukman Sardi, Rukman Rosadi, Haru Sandra, Gunawan Maryanto, Yudi Ahmad Tajudin)
A young man working as a housekeeper sparks a chain of violence after defending his boss's mayoral election campaign.
Beyond The Wall (Shab, Dakheli, Divar)
(Country: Iran; Year: 2022; Director: Vahid Jalilvand; Writer: Vahid Jalilvand; Stars: Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi, Amir Aghaee)
The life of a blind man starts to fall apart when a wandering woman enters his life.
The Maiden and Plan 75
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (Saules Aveugles, Femme Endormie)
(Country: France, Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Pierre Földes; Writer: Pierre Földes, based on the short stories by Haruki Murakami; Stars: Voices of, Ryan Bommarito, Marcelo Arroyo, Shoshana Wilder, Pierre Földes)
A giant talkative frog, a lost cat, and a tsunami help a bank employee, his wife and a schizophrenic accountant to save Tokyo from an earthquake and find a meaning to their lives.
Bones Of Crows
(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Marie Clements; Writer: Marie Clements; Stars: Grace Dove, Phillip Lewitski, Rémy Girard, Karine Vanasse, Alyssa Wapanatâhk, Michelle Thrush)
A psychological drama seen through the eyes of Cree Matriarch Aline Spears, as she survives Canada's residential school system to continue her family's generational fight in the face of systemic starvation, racism, and sexual abuse.
Le Coyote
(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Katherine Jerkovic; Stars: Camille Zorel, Christian de la Cortina, Eva Avila, Jorge Martinez Colorado)
A widower's estranged daughter suddenly reappears with a grandson he didn't know about.
Domingo And The Mist
(Country: Costa Rica, Qatar; Year: 2022; Director: Ariel Escalante; Writer: Ariel Escalante; Stars: Carlos Ureña, Sylvia Sossa, Aris Vindas, Esteban Brenes Serrano)
The town of 65-year-old Domingo lives in is being threatened by thugs hired by a developer to expel its inhabitants. But his land hides a secret—the ghost of his deceased wife who visits him within the mist. Domingo is sure he will never give up his land, even if that means resorting to violence.
The End Of Sex
(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Sean Garrity; Writer: Jonas Chernick; Stars: Emily Hampshire, Jonas Chernick, Gray Powell, Lily Gao, Melanie Scrofano)
A couple feeling the pressures of parenting and adulthood, send their kids to winter camp for the first time and embark on a series of sexual adventures to reinvigorate their relationship.
EO and Falcon Lake
EO
(Country: Poland; Year: 2022; Director: Jerzy Skolimowski; Writer: Ewa Piaskowska, Jerzy Skolimowski; Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Mateusz Kosciukiewicz, Sandra Drzymalska, Tomasz Organek)
Tale revolving around an unassuming grey donkey.
Falcon Lake
(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Charlotte Le Bon; Writer: Karim Boucherka, François Choquet, Charlotte Le Bon; Stars: Monia Chokri, Jeff Roop, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Joseph Engel, Sara Montpetit, Pierre-Luc Lafontaine, Anthony Therrien, Thomas Laperriere, Arthur Igual)
A young teenager falls in love with an older girl while on holiday.
Fixation
(Country: Germany, Canada, US; Year: 2022; Director: Mercedes Bryce Morgan; Writer: William Day Frank, Katrina Kudlick, Mercedes Bryce Morgan; Stars: Genesis Rodriguez, Maddie Hasson, Jordan Hayes, Atticus Mitchell)
A young woman undergoes a psychiatric evaluation before her sentencing in an unusual murder trial. But as the tests become more personal and frightening, she begins to question the true motives of her doctors.
Godland
(Country: Denmark, Iceland, France, Sweden; Year: 2022; Director: Hlynur Pálmason; Writer: Hlynur Pálmason; Stars: Hilmar Guðjónsson, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Elliott Crosset Hove, Jacob Lohmann, Waage Sandø, Vic Carmen Sonne)
In the late 19th century, a young Danish priest travels to a remote part of Iceland to build a church and photograph its people. But the deeper he goes into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, his mission and morality.
The Happiest Man In The World
(Country: Republic of North Macedonia, Denmark, Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina; Year: 2022; Director: Teona Strugar Mitevska; Writer: Teona Strugar Mitevska, Elma Tataragic; Stars: Irma Alimanovic, Izudin Bajrovic, Vedrana Bozinovic, Jelena Kordic, Ana Kostovska, Nikolina Kujaca, Ksenija Marinkovic, Labina Mitevska, Mona Muratovic, Adnan Omerovic, Kemal Rizvanovic, Sinisa Vidovic)
Asja is a 40-year-old single woman living in Sarajevo. She meets Zoran, a 43-year-old banker, at a dating event. Zoran is not there looking for love though, but for forgiveness.
Amanda and Fixation
La Jauría
(Country: Colombia, France; Year: 2022; Director: Andrés Ramírez Pulido; Writer: Andrés Ramírez Pulido; Stars: Jhojan Estiven Jimenez, Maicol Andrés Jimenez, Miguel Viera, Diego Rincon)
Eliú is incarcerated in a minors' centre in the heart of Colombian forest, for a crime he committed with his friend El Mono. The teenagers perform manual labour and intense group therapy. One day, El Mono is transferred to the same centre.
Living
(Country: UK; Year: 2022; Director: Oliver Hermanus; Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro, based on the film by Akira Kurosawa; Stars: Bill Nighy, Tom Burke, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Colin Blyth, Daniel Eghan, Richard Cunningham, Ffion Jolly, Dan Robins, Grant Crookes, Oliver Smiles, Michael James, Stuart Whelan, Jamie Wilkes, Edward Wolstenholme)
In 1952 London, veteran civil servant Williams has become a small cog in the bureaucracy of rebuilding England post-WWII. As endless paperwork piles up on his desk, he learns he has a fatal illness. Thus begins his quest to find some meaning in his life before it slips away.
Love And Mathematics (Amor Y Matemáticas)
(Country: Mexico; Year: 2022; Director: Claudia Sainte-Luce; Writer: Adriana Pelusi; Stars: Roberto Quijano, Daniela Salinas, Diana Bovio, Marco Alfonso Polo Guerra)
A former pop star and a fan of his boy band struggle to fit in with society.
Love Life
(Country: Japan, France; Year: 2022; Director: Kôji Fukada; Writer: Kôji Fukada; Stars: Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada)
Taeko and her husband, Jiro, are living a peaceful existence with son, Keita. A tragic accident brings the boys' father, Park, back into her life, Taeko throws herself into helping this deaf and homeless man to cope with pain and guilt.
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
(Country: Ukraine; Year: 2022; Director: Antonio Lukich; Writer: Antonio Lukich; Stars: Anna Alsheva, Lyudmyla Sachenko, Ramil Nasirov, Amil Nasirov)
Twin brothers find their lives disrupted after a phone call about their long-estranged dad.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman and Luxembourg, Luxembourg
The Maiden
(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Graham Foy; Writer: Graham Foy; Stars: Jackson Sluiter, Marcel T Jiménez, Hayley Ness)
The lives of three suburban teenagers intersect.
Manticora
(Country: Spain; Year: 2022; Director: Carlos Vermut; Writer: Carlos Vermut; Stars: Nacho Sánchez, Zoe Stein, Catalina Sopelana, Javier Lago. Angela Boix)
A video game designer's trauma following a fire manifests in a frightening obsession.
Muru
(Country: New Zealand; Year: 2022; Director: Tearepa Kahi; Writer: Tearepa Kahi, Jason Nathan; Stars: Cliff Curtis, Jay Ryan, Manu Bennett, Simone Kessell, Tame Iti)
A police sergeant must choose between his badge and his people, when the Government launches an armed raid through his Ruatoki community, on a school day.
My Sailor, My Love
(Country: Finland, Ireland, Belgium; Year: 2022; Director: Klaus Härö; Writer: Jimmy Karlsson, Kirsi Vikman; Stars: James Cosmo, Brid Brennan, Catherine Walker, Nora-Jane Noone)
A retired sea captain and his daughter must reassess their strained relationship after he begins a new romance with a widowed housekeeper.
Nightalk
(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Donald Shebib; Writer: Claude Harz, Donald Shebib; Stars: Ashley Bryant, Al Mukadam, Ted Hallett, Art Hindle, Emily Andrews, Rena Polley)
A police officer goes undercover on a phone sex app to solve a murder.
Victim and Aftersun
North Of Normal
(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Carly Stone; Writer: Alexandra Weir, based on the book by Cea Sunrise Person; Stars: Sarah Gadon, Robert Carlyle, James D'Arcy, Benedict Samuel, Amanda Fix)
After being raised in the wilderness, a teenage girl moves to the city hoping for a normal life with her anything but normal mother.
The Origin Of Evil (L'Origine Du Mal)
(Country: France, Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Sébastien Marnier; Writer: Sébastien Marnier; Stars: Laure Calamy, Suzanne Clément, Doria Tillier, Jacques Weber, Dominique Blanc)
Jealousy and bitterness lead a woman to invent a whole other life for herself in order to impress the rich men and women who surround her.
Plan 75
(Country: Japan, France, Philippines; Year: 2022; Director: Chie Hayakawa; Writer: Chie Hayakawa; Stars: Chieko Baishô, Hayato Isomura, Taka Takao, Yumi Kawai)
In a near future Japan, over-75s are offered a payment to encourage them to accept an assisted death.
Return To Dust
(Country: China; Year: 2022; Director: Li Ruijun; Writer: Li Ruijun; Stars: Wu Renlin, Hai-Qing)
In a rural Chinese village, reticent farmer Ma and a disabled woman named Guiying lead lives that are similarly sheltered and difficult. Their arranged marriage seems destined to make things worse, but instead they discover a shared purpose.
R.M.N
(Year: 2022; Director: Cristian Mungiu; Writer: Cristian Mungiu; Stars: Judith State, Marin Grigore, Orsolya Moldován, András Hatházi, Macrina Barladeanu, Zoltán Deák)
When a man returns to his village after working away he finds resentments brewing.
The Umbrella Men and The Water
So Much Tenderness
(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Lina Rodriguez; Writer: Lina Rodriguez; Stars: Noëlle Schönwald, Natalia Aranguren, Deragh Campbell, Augusto Bitter)
Having fled Colombia after her husband was murdered, an environmental lawyer rebuilds her life in Toronto with her tempestuous daughter, only to risk losing everything when her traumatic past re-surfaces.
Sparta
(Country: Austria, Germany, France; Year: 2022; Director: Ulrich Seidl; Writer: Veronika Franz, Ulrich Seidl; Stars: Georg Friedrich)
A man in his 40s leaves his girlfriend, he moves to the hinterland. With young boys from the area, he transforms a decaying school into a fortress. The children enjoy a new, carefree existence. But the distrust of the villagers is soon awoken.
Stellar
(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Darlene Naponse; Writer: Darlene Naponse; Stars: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Braeden Clarke, Rossif Sutherland, KC Collins, Billy Merasty)
Two Indigenous characters have an encounter that sets off a cosmic and environmental connection link to the past and future.
Stonewalling
(Country: China; Year: 2022; Director: Huang Ji, Ryûji Otsuka; Stars: Honggui Yao)
A young flight-attendant-in-training’s plans to finish college are thrown into doubt when she discovers she’s pregnant.
The Swearing Jar
(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Lindsay MacKay; Writer: Kate Hewlett; Stars: Adelaide Clemens, Douglas Smith, Patrick J Adams, Kathleen Turner, David Hewlett)
A woman falls in love with two men at the same time.
Under The Fig Trees and Winter Boy
The Umbrella Men
(Country: South Africa; Year: 2022; Director: John Barker; Writer: John Barker, Lev David, Philip Roberts; Stars: Abduragman Adams, Omar Adams, Irshaad Ally, Keenan Arrison)
A ragtag bunch of musicians are forced to rob a bank during the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival in the hope they will save their iconic but indebted nightclub in the Bo Kaap.
Under The Fig Trees
(Country: Tunisia, Switzerland, France, Qatar; Year: 2021; Director: Erige Sehiri; Writer: Peggy Hamann, Ghalya Lacroix, Erige Sehiri; Stars: Fedi Ben Achour, Firas Amri, Ameni Fdhili, Feten Fdhili, Fide Fdhili, Gaith Mendassi, Abdelhak Mrabti, Leila Ouhebi, Hneya Ben Elhedi Sbahi, Samar Sifi)
Among the trees, young women and men working the summer harvest develop new feelings, flirt, try to understand each other, find – and flee – deeper connections.
Valeria Is Getting Married (Valeria Mithatenet)
(Country: Israel, Ukraine; Year: 2022; Director: Michal Vinik; Writer: Michal Vinik; Stars: Lena Fraifeld, Yaakov Zada Daniel, Dasha Tvoronovich, Avraham Shalom Levi)
Christina is a Ukrainian woman who moved to Israel through a ‘bride-to-order’ kind of deal. Things work out well until her sister also arrives as a result of matchmaking.
Vicenta B
(Country: Colombia, Norway, Cuba, US, France; Year: 2022; Director: Carlos Lechuga; Writer: Carlos Lechuga, Fabián Suárez; Stars: Mireya Chapman, Aimeé Despaigne, Linnett Hernandez Valdes, Eduardo Martínez, Pedro Martínez)
A Cuban woman who can see into the future and communicate with spirits faces an existential crisis and confronts her own anxiety.
Victim (Obet)
(Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany; Year: 2022; Director: Michal Blasko; Writer: Jakub Medvecký; Stars: Elizaveta Maximová, Alena Mihulová, Vita Smachelyuk, Igor Chmela, Gleb Kuchuk, Viktor)
A Ukranian immigrant faces racism as she seeks justice.
Living and The End Of Sex
War Sailor (Krigsseileren)
(Country: Norway, Germany, Malta; Year: 2022; Director: Gunnar Vikene; Writer: Gunnar Vikene; Stars: Kristoffer Joner, Pål Sverre Hagen, Ine Marie Wilmann, Henrikke Lund Olsen)
The sailor Alfred is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when World War Two breaks out. Suddenly the sailors are in the front of the war, without any weapons.
The Water (El Agua)
(Country: Spain; Year: 2022; Director: Elena López Riera; Writer: Elena López Riera, Philippe Azoury; Stars: Luna Pamies, Bárbara Lennie, Nieve De Medina, Alberto Olmo, Irene Pellicer, Nayara García, Lidia María Cánovas, Pascual Valero)
First love plays out against a backdrop of a hot summer and local myth.
We Are Still Here
(Country: Australia, New Zealand; Year: 2022; Director: Beck Cole, Dena Curtis, Tracey Rigney, Danielle MacLean, Tim Worrall, Renae Maihi, Miki Magasiva, Mario Gaoa, Richard Curtis, Chantelle Burgoyne; Writer: Dena Curtis, Richard Curtis, Mario Gaoa; Stars: Elijah-Jade Bowen, Deborah Brown, Evander Brown, Lisa Flanagan, Natassia Gorey Furber, Oriini Kaipara)
Eight stories by and about First Nations people.
Wildflower
(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Matt Smukler; Writer: Jana Sacage, Matt Smukler; Stars: Alexandra Daddario, Kiernan Shipka, Jean Smart, Jacki Weaver, Charlie Plummer)
A coming-of-age film that follows Bea Johnson from birth to graduation as she navigates life with an intellectually disabled parent and an extended family who can't quite agree on the best way to help.
Winter Boy (La Lyceen)
(Country: France; Year: 2022; Director: Christophe Honoré; Writer: Christophe Honoré; Stars: Paul Kircher, Vincent Lacoste, Juliette Binoche, Erwan Kepoa Falé, Christophe Honoré, Xavier Giannoli, Wilfried Capet, Jean-Philippe Salerio, Isabelle Thevenoux)
Set over the course of one winter, a 17-year-old high school student struggles with grief.
My Sailor, My Love and We Are Still Here
The Worst Ones (Les Pires)
(Country: France; Year: 2022; Director: Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret; Writer: Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret, Elénore Gurrey; Stars: Johan Heldenbergh, Matthias Jacquin, Loïc Pech, Mallory Wanecques)
Film within a film about a group of youngsters who are street cast and how it changes their lives.
Zwigato
(Country: India; Year: 2022; Director: Nandita Das; Writer: Nandita Das, Samir Patil; Stars: Shahana Goswami, Kapil Sharma)
A man who loses his job as a factory floor manager during the pandemic has to come to terms with his wife getting a job as a cleaner, and the independence it gives her.
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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