TIFF Fills Out CWC with Cannes’ Dogtooth, Le Père de mes Enfants and Tales from the Golden Age

If I’m counting right, a total of 23 titles have been added to the Contemporary World CInema section and I can vouch for a trio of Cannes titles that I have seen in the awesomely disturbing Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth, Mia Hansen-Løve’s delicate Le Père de mes Enfants and Cristian Mungiu and co.’s humor-filled look at communism in native Romania in Tales from the Golden Age. Almost all of these titles have recently appeared on the film festival circuit after Cannes. Here is the full list below.

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA

25 Carat Patxi Amezcua, Spain
North American Premiere
From director Patxi Amezcua comes a fresh action film that delves into the world of thieves, go-getters, swindlers, thugs, mafia members and corrupt police officers in Barcelona.

Adrift Bui Thac Chuyen, Vietnam
North American Premiere
This is a sensual drama about a newlywed couple, exploring sexual awakening, forbidden lesbian desire and marital infidelity within modern Vietnam.

Ajami Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Israel/Germany
North American Premiere
An original, powerful film in which an accidental murder and a murky drug deal spur uncontrolled violence in a Palestinian community in Jaffa.

At the End of Daybreak Ho Yuhang, Malaysia/Hong Kong, China/South Korea
North American Premiere
Two young people of different classes are bound together by restless ennui. But when the girl is revealed to be underage, lies and blackmail spiral out of control.

Backyard Carlos Carrera, Mexico
International Premiere
A policewoman investigates the gruesome murders of female assembly-line workers in Ciudad Juárez. This suspense thriller is the first fictionalized account of the real-life events.

Balibo Robert Connolly, Australia
International Premiere
This is the true story of a war correspondent who goes in search of missing colleagues amid the chaos of Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor in 1975.

Bran Nue Dae Rachel Perkins, Australia
International Premiere
The renowned Australian stage musical about young love and Aboriginal identity makes its exuberant and fun-filled way to the big screen.

Castaway on the Moon Lee Hey-jun, South Korea
International Premiere
This is a smart and original love story by one of Korea’s most promising young filmmakers, Lee Hey-jun. A potential suicide victim becomes a modern Robinson Crusoe on an island in the middle of Seoul’s Han River.

Cell 211 Daniel Monzon, Spain/France
North American Premiere
A newly hired prison officer finds himself in the midst of a prison riot after an unforeseen turn of events. With the inmates around him unaware of his position, he must pretend to be a prisoner to survive.

Deliver Us from Evil Ole Bornedal, Denmark/Sweden/Norway
North American Premiere
A Danish variation on Straw Dogs, Deliver Us from Evil is an almost unbearably intense thriller about a young couple who moves to the countryside and encounters xenophobia, psychosis and murder.

Dogtooth Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece
North American Premiere
Shut off from the outside world by their over-protective parents, three siblings are raised in a manner that their mother and father deem appropriate until the eldest daughter is offered an interesting proposition.

The Double Hour Giuseppe Capotondi, Italy
International Premiere
When an attractive young Slovenian girl moves to Italy and meets an eligible young man, both of their lives are set to change. They become the victims of a very professional art heist, but in this taut psychological thriller, appearances belie the truth. Or do they?

Help Gone Mad Boris Khlebnikov, Russia
North American Premiere
Following the whimsical, warm-hearted relationship between two men, Help Gone Mad is a modern-day depiction of the theme of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. All sorts of their wild charades go wrong, but they remain faithful to their fantasies, adding pleasure and poetry to their sordid lives.

I Am Not Your Friend György Pálfi, Hungary
North American Premiere
This is a fresh and entertaining improvised film made up of a series of vignettes portraying the many faces of love relationships. Young couples move through stages of desire, jealousy and infidelity, tempted by the promises of someone or something different in their lives.

If I Knew What You Said Mike Sandejas, The Philippines
International Premiere
An affecting, sensitive and convincingly drawn teen romance between a rebellious rock girl and a deaf boy who loves to dance.

Jean Charles Henrique Goldman, United Kingdom/Brazil
International Premiere
A Brazilian girl comes to live with her cousin in London. He has already carved out a life for himself there; she hopes to do the same. It is 2005, a year in which the city will be traumatized by terrorist attacks. Both of them will be caught in the crossfire.

The Last Days of Emma Blank Alex van Warmerdam, The Netherlands
North American Premiere
Emma is a lady living in high style, surrounded by family members who double as maids and servants. Everyone hopes Emma’s bad health will soon do her in, letting them inherit her substantial wealth.

Le Père de mes Enfants Mia Hansen-Løve, France/Germany
North American Premiere
When a hard-working, independent film producer finds that personal and professional pressures are too much, something has to give –and it does. His wife is left to pick up the pieces in this heart-rending portrait of a modern-day marriage overwhelmed by life’s demands.

Prince of Tears Yonfan, Taiwan/Hong Kong, China
North American Premiere
A gorgeously shot, thought-provoking look at Taiwan’s White Terror, the anti-communist campaign that swept the island throughout the 1950s. This little-known time in history becomes the backdrop for a unique tale of love, friendship, ideals and dignity.

Same Same but Different Detlev Buck, Germany
North American Premiere
This is an exceptional modern love story in which a young German falls in love with a Cambodian bar girl and stays by her side, even though she is HIV-positive. The film is based on the true story of Benjamin Prüfer and Sreykeo Solvan.

The Search Wan Ma Cai Dan, China
North American Premiere
This peacefully charming second feature by Pema Tseden (Wan Ma Cai Dan) is the first ever to be shot entirely in Tibet and in the Tibetan language by a local crew. It is a road movie and an expedition in search of a disappearing culture, as well as a detailed fresco of contemporary Tibet.

Tales from the Golden Age
North American Premiere
Cristian Mungiu, Ioana Maria Uricaru, Hanno Höfer, Razvan Marculescu and Constantin Popescu, Romania/France
This film presents a series of absurd and ridiculous situations set during the repressive communist era in Romania.

V.O.S. Cesc Gay, Spain
International Premiere
A smart and intriguing film-within-a-film comedy about love and friendship, where the characters travel playfully in and out of one another’s lives and the film’s narratives.