This week, the European Union Film Festival kicked off the 25th edition of its yearly edition in Toronto, a major achievement for any festival, especially one unfolding in such a movie crazy city. Until November 28th at The Spadina Theatre inside the Alliance Française, this year’s European Union Film Festival is appropriately one of their biggest and widest reaching offerings yet, with films from across the continent (with each screening presented in part by each country’s consulate, and with English subtitles, where applicable) that appeal to any age bracket and interest.
Family Therapy
If dysfunctional family matters are your cup of tea, the EUFF has a trio of noteworthy selections, starting with Greek filmmaker Panos Koutras’ 2022 Cannes selection Dodo (Friday, November 15th at 8:30pm, with a Q&A with actor Polydoros Vogyatzis), a surrealist comedy about a well to do family on vacation at a villa suddenly having to contend with the mysterious appearance of the titular extinct bird. Another affluent family has to contend with mysterious happenings in Slovenian filmmaker Sonja Presenc’s third feature, Family Therapy (November 16th at 8:30pm), a loose remaking of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema, set in a literal glass house. In Italian filmmaker Antonio Albanese’s A Hundred Sundays (November 20th at 8:30pm, with a special pre-screening wine tasting hosted by festival sponsor Charming Taste of Europe), a retired blue collar worker struggles to keep up with the financial demands of caring for his elderly mother and funding his daughter’s wedding.
Those who like big emotional pay offs will want to check out Germany’s selection, One Million Minutes (November 22nd at 8:30pm), starring Tom Schilling and Karoline Herfurth as a married couple whose lives are upended when one of them is diagnosed with a debilitating disease. Those who prefer their romances with a bit more comedy should check out Slovakia’s Never Say Never, about a friendship (and possibly more) that arises between a man and a woman that are already stuck in dead end marriages.
Hilma
Cinephiles looking to stay abreast of what’s happening with noteworthy global filmmakers can check out Hilma (November 18th at 8:30pm), the latest work from renowned Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallström (My Life as a Dog, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Cider House Rules), which is a biopic centring on female painter Hilma af Klint (played by Tora Hallström as a young woman and Lena Olin as an adult). Another work from a big name director at this year’s festival comes from Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, The Bookshop), Un Amor (November 19th at 8:30pm), an erotic psychodrama about a put-upon thirty-something traveller who starts a passionate affair with her new neighbour.
The Invisible Fight
Those in the mood to see something off-beat and irreverent have plenty to choose from, with the sort of niche titles that only a festival this eclectic could bring to wider global audiences. Stunted adults try to cover up the sudden death of their father in the Dutch comedy Fathers and Sons (November 22nd at 6:00pm). Belgian festival closer My Dad is a Sausage (November 28th at 6:00pm) tells the story of a burnt out, middle aged banker and family man who gets encouragement from his young daughter to go out and live his dream of becoming an actor. And then there’s Estonian filmmaker Rainer Sarnet’s bonkers kung-fu/spy movie epic The Invisible Fight (November 25 at 8:30pm), which needs to be seen to be believed and almost defies explanation. Think of Bridge of Spies crossed with a Shaolin grindhouse movie and a staid drama about the Orthodox church and you might be close to what Sarnet is going for here.
Cats of Malta
There are also pleasing breaks from traditional narrative filmmaking to be found. Luxembourg offers up the animated adventure Icarus and the Minotaur (November 17th at 6:00pm), an tale of the young mythological character from former Pixar animator Carlo Vogele. There are also some documentaries of note: Cats of Malta (November 18th at 6:00pm), which hopes to do for its country’s felines what Kedi did for their four legged friends in Istanbul, and the harrowing Ukrainian account of life in a war zone, The Hardest Hour (November 27th at 8:30pm), which has been pieced together from over 200 hours of footage shot by everyday citizens.
There’s plenty more to check out at the EUFF, and the fact that the screenings are mostly free offers greater incentive to go and check something out. (To keep the festival going, there are limited $10 reserved seating tickets available online, but other than that, screenings are first come, first served.) For those who can’t make it out, a vast majority of festival selections will be available to be screened online from December 1st to 17th. Those have to be paid for, but there are several different types of tickets for those who want to watch one, several, or an unlimited number of available titles. And if you’re out on the west coast, there’s also a Vancouver based version of the festival – with the same line up, but a different schedule – happening at the same time over at The Cinematheque. (Fun fact: the Vancouver version is technically two years older than the Toronto one!)
With the kinds of special presentations and occasional guests, the European Union Film Festival offers movie lovers and adventurous minds plenty of options for a price that really can’t be beat. The selection of films might come from a specific region of the world, but the festival itself is truly one of a kind; a major reason why its legacy in the city endures to this day.
The European Union Film Festival runs in Toronto at The Spadina Theatre inside the Alliance Française (24 Spadina Road) until November 28th. The online component of the festival runs from December 1st to the 17th.
Featured image from One Million Minutes.
