TIFF 2011: Vanguard Section Holds Headshot World Preem, Venice’s Love and Bruises, Locarno’s Year of the Tiger, Cannes’ Snowtown and Oslo, August 31

It’s a shaved down lucky seven, from last year’s eleven titles that are the make-up of TIFF’s Vanguard section and we’ve got some noteworthy films to point out including the world premiere to Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s Headshot (see pic above) which promises to be a rather interesting cinematic experience. While last year we got such items as Monsters, Our Day Will Come and Adam Wingard’s A Horrible Way to Die (he returns to the line-up this year in the Midnight Madness section), this edition appears to be a cut above, they’ve got a pair of excellent features we caught back in Cannes with Joachim Trier’s Oslo, August 31 (Un Certain Regard) and Justin Kurzel’s Snowtown (Critics’ Week). A highly touted item from Venice has also made the cut, and we’re especially glad that we’ll be able to see Tahar Rahim violently and emotionally lose it in Love and Bruises – Lou Ye’s first film in another language and perhaps his “comeback” film of sorts.

Completing the batch we get Sebastián Lelio (whose let feature Navidad was selected in Cannes) with the Locarno selected The Year of the Tiger and a pair of first feature film works from Jean-Baptiste Leonetti, whose film Carré Blanc features a solid cast and receives a domestic France release shortly, and Victor Ginzburg’s media portrait Generation P. Here’s the TIFF selections below:

Carré Blanc Jean-Baptiste Leonetti, France/Luxembourg/Belgium/Switzerland World Premiere
Philip and Mary, two teenagers whose parents were crushed by the system, are placed in an orphanage with frightening education methods. Twenty years later, they became husband and wife and have all the appearances of a wealthy couple. However, while Philip is a cog in the system, Mary goes into a depression that seems irreversible. Unable to have kids, they are on the verge of breaking. But Mary will do anything to show Philip that together they can love and survive in a frozen desert where men have become monsters. Starring Sami Bouajila, Julie Gayet, Jean-Pierre Andreani, Fejria Deliba and Valerie Bodson.

Generation P Victor Ginzburg Russia/USA North American Premiere
Set in 1990s Moscow, Generation P details the parallel rise of poet-turned-copywriter Babylen Tatarsky through both a new advertising business and the shadowy Cult of Ishtar, whose acolytes control the media. Starring Vladimir Yepifantsev, Michael Yefremov and Andrei Fomin.

Headshot Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Thailand/France World Premiere
Tul, a straight-laced cop, is blackmailed by a powerful politician and framed for a crime he did not commit. Disillusioned and vengeful, he is soon recruited to become a hitman for a shadowy group aimed at eliminating those who are above the law. But one day, Tul is shot in the head during an assignment. He wakes up after a three-month coma to find that he sees everything upside down, literally. Tul begins to have second thoughts about his profession. But when he tries to quit, roles are reversed and the hunter becomes the hunted. Can Tul find redemption from the violence that continues to haunt him?

Love and Bruises Lou Ye, China/France North American Premiere
Hua, a young teacher from Beijing, is a recent arrival in Paris. Exiled in an unknown city, she wanders between her tiny apartment and the university, drifting between former lovers and recent French acquaintances. She meets Matthieu, a young worker who falls madly in love with her. Possessed by an insatiable desire for her body, he treats Hua like a dog. An intense affair begins, marked by Matthieu’s passionate embraces and harsh verbal abuse. When Hua decides to leave her lover, she discovers the strength of her addiction, and the vital role he has come to play in her life as a woman. Starring Tahar Rahim, Corinne Yam, Jalil Lespert, Sifan Shao,
Vincent Rottiers.

Oslo, August 31 Joachim Trier, Norway North American Premiere
Anders wanders the city, meeting people he hasn’t seen in a while. Long into the night, the ghosts of past mistakes will wrestle with the chance of love, of a new life, with the hope to see some future by morning… From the director of the award-winning Reprise. Starring Anders Danielsen Lie, Hans Olaf Brenner, Ingrid Olava, Johanne Kjellevik Ledang.

Snowtown Justin Kurzel, Australia North American Premiere
When 16-year-old Jamie is introduced to a charismatic man, a friendship begins. As the relationship grows so do Jamie’s suspicions, until he finds his world threatened by his loyalty for, and fear of, his newfound father-figure John Bunting, Australia’s most notorious serial killer. Starring Lucas Pittaway, Daniel Henshall, Louise Harris.

The Year of the Tiger Sebastián Lelio, Chile North American Premiere
Manuel is imprisoned in a jail in the south of Chile, which collapses on the night of the violent earthquake of February 27, 2010. Manuel escapes and becomes a fugitive, lost in the middle of the catastrophe. He returns to his home only to find out that it has been ravaged by a tsunami, which has also taken the lives of his wife and daughter. As Manuel travels through completely destroyed landscapes, he enters deeper and deeper into his own devastated areas. This strange freedom will bring him to face nature’s cruelty and take his own human existence to its limit. Starring Luis Dubó, Sergio Hernández, Viviana Herrera.