04/08/2023 - Themes of injustice and resistance run across many of the European productions in Discovery, while Serbia makes its first ever appearance in Midnight Madness

Dedicated to first and second feature from the category broadly defined as contemporary international cinema, the Discovery section of the Toronto International Film Festival (taking place from 7 to 17 September 2023) typically features a good amount of European productions. The 2023 line-up is no exception: of the 26 films selected, 10 are European (co-)productions; of those 10, 8 are world premieres. The two films that will have already premiered elsewhere are How to Have Sex [+see also:
film review
interview: Molly Manning Walker
film profile], the debut feature from British director Molly Manning Walker, winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival; and An Endless Sunday, from Italian director Alain Parroni, a debut feature centred on three youths in the suburbs of Rome that will be landing in Canada after its premiere in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival.

Among the debut features that will be having their world premiere in the Discovery section, we find Achilles, from Iranian director Farhad Delaram, which tells of two fugitives in contemporary Iran and the various people they meet who help them survive.

Themes of oppression and resistance will also be central to French director Mehdi Fikri’s After the fire, centred on a family seeking justice after the police slaying of a young man in the suburbs of Strasbourg, France.

Likewise The Teacher. Starring Saleh Bakri (The Blue Caftan [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and Imogen Poots, the first fiction feature from British-Palestinian filmmaker Farah Nabulsi follows a Palestinian school teacher committed to political resistance.

Another school teacher resists in Without Air, the debut feature from Hungarian director Katalin Moldovai. Billed as an absurdist film, it focuses on a highschool teacher accused of promoting homosexal values in the classroom.

Arthur&Diana, by German director Sara Summa (The Last to See Them [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), sounds like a potentially lighter proposition. The director stars alongside her real-life brother Robin Summa in a semi-biographical, auto-fictional road trip from Berlin to Paris.

Another duo is at the centre of Solitude. The feature debut from Icelandic filmmaker Ninna Pálmadóttir (who participated in Future Frames at Karlovy Vary in 2021; read our interview) tells of a cross-generational friendship between a man forced to move to the city and a 10-year-old boy.

Also making her feature debut is Norwegian director Sara Margrethe Oskal. The Tundra Within Me follows a Sámi artist as she returns to her hometown.

Finally, British filmmaker Thomas Napper (Jawbone [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) will take us out of the present and into the past with Widow Clicquot, a biopic of French champagne producer Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin — otherwise known as Veuve Clicquot — starring American actress Haley Bennett in the eponymous role.

Also revealed is the line-up of the famed Midnight Madness section, focused on horror films and gory thrills. Of the ten films selected, seven will be having their world premiere at the festival.

This year’s edition marks the first time that a film from Saudia Arabia features, but also the first time for a Serbian film: the honor goes to Working Class Goes to Hell, by Mladen Đorđević, a socio-horror satire in which the labour union of a small town decides to turn to the dark arts when faced with local corruption.

Also selected, alongside Weston Razooli’s Riddle of Fire [+see also:
film review
film profile] (which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar at this year’s Cannes Film Festival), is Boy Kills World by Moritz Mohr (Germany/South Africa/USA), starring Bill Skarsgård as a deaf man trained to be used as a killing machine in a dystopian world.

The current line-up of the sections:

Discovery

​​Achilles - Farhad Delaram (Iran/Germany/France)
After the fire - Mehdi Fikri (France)
A Match - Jayant Digambar Somalkar (India)
Andragogy - Wregas Bhanuteja (Indonesia/Singapore)
An Endless Sunday - Alain Parroni (Italy/Germany/Ireland)
Arthur&Diana - Sara Summa (Germany)
Backspot - D.W. Waterson (Canada)
Frybread Face and Me - Billy Luther (USA)
Gonzo Girl - Patricia Arquette (USA)
Hajjan - Abu Bakr Shawky (Saudi Arabia/Egypt/Jordan)
How to Have Sex [+see also:
film review
interview: Molly Manning Walker
film profile] - Molly Manning Walker (United Kingdom)
I Don’t Know Who You Are - MH Murray (Canada)
La Suprema - Felipe Holguín Caro (Colombia)
Mandoob - Ali Kalthami (Saudi Arabia)
Mimang - Kim Taeyang (South Korea)
Seagrass - Meredith Hama-Brown (Canada)
Tautuktavuk (What We See) - Carol Kunnuk, Lucy Tulugarjuk (Canada)
The Teacher - Farah Nabulsi (United Kingdom/Palestine/Qatar)
The Tundra Within Me - Sara Margrethe Oskal (Norway)
The Queen of My Dreams - Fawzia Mirza (Canada)
Valentina or the Serenity - Ángeles Cruz (Mexico)
Widow Clicquot - Thomas Napper (France)
Wild Woman - Alán González (Cuba)
Without Air - Katalin Moldovai (Hungary)
Yellow Bus - Wendy Bednarz (United Arab Emirates)

Midnight Madness

AGGRO DR1FT - Harmony Korine (USA)
Boy Kills World - Moritz Mohr (Germany/South Africa/USA)
Dicks: The Musical - Larry Charles (USA)
Hell of a Summer - Finn Wolfhard, Billy Bryk (USA/Canada)
KILL - Nikhil Nagesh Bhat (India)
NAGA - Meshal Aljaser (Saudi Arabia)
Riddle of Fire [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Weston Razooli (USA/France)
Sleep - Jason Yu (South Korea)
When Evil Lurks - Demián Rugna (Argentina)
Working Class Goes to Hell - Mladen Đorđević (Serbia)