The more I read into the film prior to the fest, the more I was looking forward in seeing Jesper Ganslandt’s The Ape in it’s official International Premiere. A disturbing film to say the least, that came to Toronto via a stop in the Venice Days section (a sidebar that discovers and promotes new auteurs whose talents are fairly obvious), this is the type of film that is guaranteed to have people talking which bodes well for whichever direction the Swedish director ends up taking.
In the intro (TIFF’s Steve Gravestock) and Q&A video below, what I think Ganslandt is emphatic about is that nothing needs to go the expository route. While the film’s central character’s intentions and motivations might be unclear, the range of emotions swell up the screen that should be highlighted, and you can only remain clueless, but yet informed on how a split second loss of control that isn’t even in the film’s runtime can effect a person, thus making the viewing experience a participatory one.