For the second year running, I will be spending some time in one of my favourite Canadian cities during the Festival des films du monde. The Montréal World Film Festival, as it is known in English, is celebrating its 34th edition with a wide-ranging program of more than 400 films from 80 countries. The festival takes place from August 26th through September 6th, though I’ll only be there from August 28th through September 1st. Here are some films that are catching my eye so far:
- Pete Smalls Is Dead – starring Peter Dinklage, Tim Roth and Steve Buscemi, and directed by Alexandre Rockwell (In The Soup)
- Wenecza (Venice) – Polish WW2 coming-of-age story about a boy whose dreams of visiting Venice are crushed by the war. Down in the flooded basement of his aunt’s mansion, he’ll bring Venice to life.
- Bjarnfreðarson – based on a popular Icelandic sitcom, title character Georg is a son, a father and a communist megalomaniac with a chronic compulsion to control his environment, yet at the same time unable to control his own life.
- Los caminos de la memoria – doc about the period of the Franco dictatorship in Spain.
- Adem (Oxygen) – two young men with cystic fibrosis form a bond and help each other face the prospect of their early deaths by embracing life.
Best of all, compared to TIFF, this festival is very affordable and easy to navigate. Passports which get you into any film in the festival are just $100 and books of 10 tickets are just $65.