Hello Reader,

I'm four days and 40 features (I started two weeks early!) into TIFF 2023, and it's been a solid year thus far. Almost everything in my top 5 films premiered at other festivals (Bas Devos's Here, which I discussed on the Berlinale 2023 episode of the Seventh Row Podcast, is still topping my list). So, I'll start by discussing some highlights I've caught that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

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Out of Cannes, I really liked La Chimera, which is a Josh O'Connor showcase and the only Alice Rohrwacher film I've ever connected with. I attribute this largely to O'Connor's grumpy, wounded performance, which adds layers to what could be a one-note character. An archeologist-turned-graverobber and the tallest man in Italy (it's a regular visual gag in the film), his character is the leader of a band of thieves but also stands at a distance from them. I loved the way Rohrwacher depicted O'Connor as an outsider who was still central to the band's self-mythologizing – there's even a song about him — who hasn't quite figured out how to move on after losing his love.

Unsurprisingly, I loved Justine Triet's Palme d'Or winning Anatomy of a Fall starring the always amazing Sandra Hüller. (I'm a true fan who has found and watched the DVD of her Hamlet.) I've been fiddling with reviewing it for days because it's a complicated film, but it should be live early this week.

I also loved Kleber Mendonça Filho's personal documentary Pictures of Ghosts. I've interviewed him twice about Aquarius and Bacarau, parts of which appear in our ebook In their own words: Fiction Directors, alongside other filmmakers with new films this year (including Andrew Haigh, Yorgos Lanthimos, Pablo Larraín). This film about the places he's spent his life inhabiting in Recife, Brazil — the apartment he's lived in for 40 years and the cinemas — feels like a continuation of his fascination with place and memory. You can see a lot of the seeds of it in Aquarius, especially (I talked to him about that particular space in my interview), which seems to have taken a lot of inspiration from his own home.

I'm still working through my thoughts on The Zone of Interest, but put me in the non-believers camp. The more time I sit with it, the less I like it, and I was skeptical about it from the start. There's one good idea in there that could have made for an excellent short film, but it has time to flub many things in two hours. On the whole, there are many other excellent non-Spielberg Holocaust films I'd recommend, starting with Christian Petzold's Transit and Phoenix. For the perpetrators' perspective, I highly recommend the excellent documentary Final Account.

Read what I've published so far

I've already published reviews of early highlights A Road to a Village (Nepal), The Monk and the Gun (now Bhutan's Oscar submission for Best International Feature), I Don't Know Who You Are (Canada), and Snow Leopard (China).

Tomorrow, we'll publish a joint review of two first features by women directors about intergenerational relationships: Solitude (Iceland) and Not a Word (Germany), which stars the great Maren Eggert. I'll also publish my review of A Happy Day (Norway) when the embargo lifts near midnight EST.

You can also check out my list of the best acquisition titles of TIFF (films still seeking distribution in Canada, the US, and/or the UK), which I've been updating throughout the festival.

Over at the CBC, Canada's national news outlet, I've also written a How To Guide for finding the best under-the-radar films at the festival. Of course, I will continue to publish more reviews of these films as the festival progresses (and embargoes lift!)

How should you follow Seventh Row's TIFF coverage?

1. ​Bookmark our TIFF23 homepage. You'll find our latest reviews, interviews, and features on the website.
2. ​Sign up for our FREE TIFF 2023 newsletter.

Sign up for our FREE TIFF23 newsletter

Every couple of days during the festival (September 7th to 17th), I'll send you an email dispatch with my thoughts on all the new TIFF films I'm seeing — whether I'm reviewing them on the site or not (links to new pieces on the site will be included).

Attending TIFF and want to know what films to get tickets for? Or just want to stay in know?

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You can also follow me (@bwestcineaste) and @SeventhRow on Twitter for my immediate thoughts on films throughout the festival.

Best,

Alex Heeney

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