TIFF

With the start of my grad classes and teaching two tutorials this week, I really didn’t think I’d have time to dip into the plenitude of the Toronto International Film Festival. Alas, I was wrong. Last night Riaz (who is working as the Media Room Co-ordinator for the festival) and I saw two features, Benedek Fliegauf’s Womb and the world premiere of Achero Mañas’ Todo Lo Que Tú Quieras (Anything You Want). Both were beautiful in different ways (Womb‘s glut of stark yet beautifully shot ocean images, and the entirety of Anything You Want‘s concept and realization), but I definitely left the festival with questions and blissful heartache.

Womb, starring Eva Green and Matt Smith, was really, really weird. At first I thought the characters were a bit underdeveloped (their childhood love story, his sad and sudden death), but when the film turned sci-fi, it got really perverse. Rebecca (Eva Green) has a genetic copy of her late boyfriend Thomas (Matt Green) implanted into her, and she proceeds to give birth to, and raise, his genetic copy. They live in a beautiful landscape on the northern shores of Germany, which is both timeless and much like an isolated purgatory, where he is raised and the incestuous Mommy-son stuff begins. Rebecca is a very loving mother, but perhaps too loving, as the sexual overtones become blatant incest. Once Thomas is older, and has a girlfriend, Rebecca dissolves into depression and silent jealousy, with her lover-and-son-in-one reciprocating the strange feelings. The Mommy-son baths and creepy overbearing isolation create a space where such a social taboo could exist, but it was still awful and heartbreaking. In the end, once he finds out he’s a copy of her late lover, there’s an odd sex scene wherein Rebecca, the virgin mother, is devirginized by her own son. The film culminates to Thomas leaving Rebecca shortly after the pseudo-incest rape, viewing her as a carrier more than a mother. Weird.

In the Q&A with Director Benedek Fliegauf after the film, the whole incest angle was glossed over. He asserted that he believes “Rebecca did something quite beautiful in giving life,” and that many people disagree with his interpretation. He also said that sexual feelings between parents and children is a normal part of life (also mis-quoting the Oedipus Complex as Orpheus Complex), but I disagreed with the extent of such a comment. Literal sex with someone’s mother? I mean, technically he didn’t have any of her genetic makeup, but she still carried him in her womb and raised him as a son. The baths, weird sex play, and Mommy issues with Thomas’ girlfriend were really unsettling.

Despite all of this, the movie was visually brilliant. The stark colours, setting, and ocean were a beautiful compliment to the weird story. Fliegauf truly succeeded in creating a timeless space where such a bizarre technological development could exist, and where the small family could thrive, away from the judgement of culture. Beautiful but odd, the film was definitely memorable.

The second film we saw (after poutine and smokes) was the world premiere of Achero Mañas’ Todo Lo Que Tú Quieras (Anything You Want). It was beautiful and poignant, following a father and daughter (Leo and Daphne) coping with the loss of their wife/mother Alicia. In an attempt to help his daughter cope with losing her mother, Leo begins to cross-dress and play “fake mom” for his young daughter. The whole film was a beautiful comment on the lengths to which a father would go for his daughter, as well as the cultural conventions that deem their “fake mom” game unhealthy and unrealistic.

I really have no criticism for this film. I cried at parts, laughed cathartically at others, and found the performances by Juan Diego Botto, José Luis Gómez, Ana Risueño, Najwa Nimri, Lucía Fernández, and Pedro Alonso completely spot-on. Little Lucía Fernández as Daphne was perhaps the cutest and sweetest child performance I have ever seen. It was a truly beautiful film about the strength of love, and the conventions of culture. Especially after seeing the perversity of Womb, this was a welcome dose of healthy, virtuous familial connection.

Overall, I’m just glad I had a chance to sample this year’s fare. I just returned from teaching my second tutorial for the week, and I am relieved to have passionate and engaged students in both of my classes. Even my own MA classes have been fantastic and engaging, with the most interesting syllabi I’ve encountered to date. Now, I’ll get back to my NOVALIS and send my love to all those who are still feasting at TIFF until the 19th.