SOUTH ASIAN FILM, POUTINE AND FRESH-AIR FLICKS
Also screening in Toronto this week: Dirty Dancing, French cinema essentials and George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead
Mosaic International South Asian
Film Festival: Now in its sixth year, the MISAFF presents a generous program of new South Asian cinema this week at Cineplex Mississauga. The festival opens Thursday with the Canadian premiere of Moko Jumbie, a drama about a taboo romance on a coconut plantation in rural Trinidad. The MISAFF continues to Aug. 6, with a slate of features, docs and shorts that includes such highlights as Arifa, a debut feature by U.K.based director Sadia Saeed about a British-Pakistani woman whose life is complicated by the appearance of a shady gamer and the return of her estranged father, and A Death in the
Gunj, a thriller that made its world premiere at TIFF 2016. The MISAFF’s focus on Canadian-South Asian filmmakers includes a presentation of Fire with a talk by director Deepa Mehta on Aug. 6. Maudite Poutine at MDFF: A debut feature by Quebec’s Karl Lemieux,
Maudite Poutine is a moody, unsettling drama about the increasingly toxic dynamic between two brothers living on the edge of a rural commu- nity. Shot in 16 mm black-and-white, the movie boasts the same distinctive visual sensibility as Lemieux’s many films for the Montreal experimental rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor and its various offshoots. MDFF hosts its Toronto premiere with Lemieux in attendance at the Royal on Wednesday.
Outdoor screenings: Though the options for outdoor moviegoers are getting slightly less abundant as we head toward August, there’s still plenty to accommodate a huge variety of tastes and interests among the blanket-toting masses. Recent Hot Docs festival opener Bee
Nation returns for a showing at the Christie Pits Film Festival on Sunday. The Open Roof Festival at 99 Sudbury St. continues with the starstudded satire Beatriz at Dinner and live music by the Sinners Choir on Tuesday. On the same night, City Cinema at Yonge-Dundas Square presents Jim Carrey in The Truman
Show. Then on Wednesday, Regent Park’s Under the Stars opts for the Bollywood romance Jaane Tu . . . Ya
Jaane Na and My Internship in Canada plays Harbourfront Centre’s Concert Stage.