Top 20 Alternative Picks for TIFF 2013: Menno Meyjes’ The Dinner

Title – Filmmaker

Section: Contemporary World Cinema
Times: Monday 9th, Wednesday 11th, Sunday 15th

Buzz: Best known to North American audiences as the screenwriter of Spielberg faves The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, (as well as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), veteran filmmaker Menno Meyjes is no stranger to taking book club favorites and adapting them into timeless films. The Dinner is a best selling Dutch novel by Herman Koch that was recently translated and brought over to North America readers, who quickly shone a spotlight on the darkly funny criminal satire of modern day European society, and based on a shocking true story. Fans of the novel are curious to see how the biting tale of what sins are overlooked underneath the sheen surface of bourgeois culture will translate into film.

The Gist: Paul and his enamored wife Claire sing the praises of their son Michel, even when Paul’s brother Serge brings to light, over the course of a monumental dinner, that Michel may have committed a heinous crime.