03/08/2023 - Six of the films are European productions

Maren Eggert in Not a Word from Slovenian-German director Hanna Slak (© Beta Cinema)

The Platform section of the Toronto International Film Festival (taking place from 7 to 17 September 2023) often features the boldest and most interesting offerings at the festival, celebrating and showcasing “films with unique directorial perspectives,” per the press release. This year’s selection looks to deliver on that promise, opening with Dear Jassi, the new film from Indian director Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, the man behind mind-melting work such as The Cell (2000) and The Fall (2006). 

The ten feature films making up the selection — all of which will be having their world premiere at the festival — will be competing for the Platform Prize, an award of $20,000 CAD given to the best film in the programme as selected by a three-person, jury this year composed of American director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Lebanese actor and director Nadine Labaki (Capernaum [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), and Canadian actor and director Anthony Shim. 

Six of the ten films are European productions — though the Nicolas Cage-starring Dream Scenario is directed by Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli (Sick of Myself [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kristine Kujath Thorp
interview: Kristoffer Borgli
film profile]), it is billed as a US production. 

Among the European films is the second feature from Italian director Ginevra Elkann, titled I Told You So and featuring a star-studded cast including Valeria Golino, Alba Rohrwacher, Riccardo Scarmacio and American actor Danny Huston. 

Slovenian-German director Hanna Slak will be in the line-up with her fourth feature, titled Not a Word and starring German actress Maren Eggert (I’m Your Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maria Schrader
film profile]) as an ambitious mother who takes a break from her career to head to her vacation home with her teenage son, confronting years of silence and misunderstandings. 

The Rye Horn, the second feature from Spanish director Jaione Camborda, is set in rural Galicia in the early 1970s, and centres on a woman forced to flee to Portugal via an old smugglers’ route. 

Sisterhood, the debut feature from Franco-Moroccan director Nora El Hourch, follows three inseparable teens who, after an incident, are forced to notice the social and cultural divides which exist between them. 

Swedish director Axel Petersén will be presenting his latest film Shame on Dry Land, described as a thriller in which a former con man finds more trouble than he bargained for among a hedonistic community of Swedish expats in Malta. 

Finally, Spirit of Ecstasy from French director Héléna Klotz stars French pop star Claire Pommet as a young non-binary person determined to make their mark in the world of finance, not for glory or for a life of luxury, but to win her freedom. 

The full line-up of the Platform section: 

Dear Jassi - Tarsem Singh Dhandwar (India)
Dream Scenario - Kristoffer Borgli (USA)
Great Absence - Kei Chika-ura (Japan)
I Told You So - Ginevra Elkann (Italy)
The King Tide - Christian Sparkes (Canada)
Not A Word - Hanna Slak (Germany/Slovenia/France)
The Rye Horn - Jaione Camborda (Spain/Belgium/Portugal)
Sisterhood - Nora El Hourch (France)
Shame on Dry Land - Axel Petersén (Sweden)
Spirit of Ecstasy - Héléna Klotz (France)