FACING A VIOLENT PAST TO SAVE THE FUTURE
Palme d’Or winner Dheepan one of eight films to be screened during festival’s 13th annual slate
Once he was a Tamil Tiger soldier, obliged to commit terrible acts of violence in the name of freedom during Sri Lanka’s Civil War.
Now, Dheepan (Antonythasan Jesuthasan) works as a handyman in a Paris slum, fixing broken lights while also seeking to repair shattered lives, his own and his family’s. But the terror he escaped won’t let him alone; he must confront his past if he has any hope of saving the future.
Dheepan, Jacques Audiard’s 2015 Palme d’Or winner, is one of eight movies screening at the 13th annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival (March 30 to April 7 at TIFF Bell Lightbox). The explosive drama sears with righteous anger, an emotion common to the series.
Another highlight of the global selection is Patricio Guzman’s Silver Bear winner The Pearl Button, a documentary recalling the Chilean auteur’s masterpiece Nostalgia for the
Light with its empathetic examination of the harsh treatment accorded his country’s indigenous peoples. Water is the central image this time.
The festival’s opening-night gala is the Canadian premiere of Adam Sjoberg’s I Am Sun Mu, a doc about an ex-North Korean propagandist turned artful dissident. The fest closes with another doc, Steve Hoover’s Almost Holy. Produced by Terrence Malick, it tells the story of controversial Ukrainian pastor Gennadiy Mokhnenko, founder of the Pilgrim’s Republic home for addicted and abused street kids. All screenings include intros and/or discussions by filmmakers, Human Rights Watch researchers or subject experts. Full details are at tiff.net/ humanrightswatch.