TORONTO: North America`s largest film festival opens Thursday in Toronto with a focus on disturbing abuses of human rights and modern clashes of civilization.
The Toronto International Film Festival also welcomes back screen legends Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood, returning for the first time in decades to unveil their latest movies "The Conspirator" and "Hereafter," respectively.
"We`ve all seen filmmakers address human rights abuses in documentaries, but we`re also seeing it in fiction this year," festival co-director Cameron Bailey told AFP.
"They`ve made a triumphant effort to champion the rights of people that have been trampled."
Shlomi Eldar`s "Precious Life" chronicles the struggle of an Israeli pediatrician and a Palestinian mother to get treatment for her sick baby.
Kim Longinotoo`s "Pink Saris" is about combating violence against women in India, while Larysa Kondracki leaps into Bosnia`s sex-trafficking underworld in "The Whistleblower."
These are "disturbing and powerful" stories about "the sometimes surprising world we live in," commented Bailey, pointing also to Gabriel Range`s "I am Slave," inspired by the shocking real life London slave trade.
Other films offer "new perspectives," he said on recent cultural clashes such as the 492 Tamils who arrived in Canada in August and the much-criticized expulsion by France in June of nearly 1,000 Roma to Bulgaria and Romania.
"The movement of people affects the entire world," Bailey said. Festival programmers picked several films to present this year that explore "how that happens, what it means and how do people really feel about it," he added.
Iciar Bollain explores the Spanish conquest of America in "Even the Rain," while Emre Sahin`s "40" is set in the crossroads of continents and civilization of Istanbul.
The fictional Khan family`s return from England to the Punjab is the subject of Andy De Emmony`s "West is West," the sequel to his 1999 acclaimed "East is East".
The festival is the biggest in North America and has traditionally been a key event for Oscar-conscious studios and distributors because it is attended by a sizable contingent of North American media.
Unlike the Cannes and Berlin festivals, Toronto does not award jury prizes.
But moviegoers who bought some 500,000 tickets for the event in 2009 awarded an audience prize for best motion picture to Lee Daniels` "Precious," based on the 1996 novel by Sapphire about an obese, illiterate girl from Harlem dealing with abuse and incest.
The film went on to win Oscars for best supporting actress and screenwriting at the 82nd Academy Awards.
This year the festival, which opens Thursday evening with Michael McGowan`s "Score: A Hockey Musical" and runs until September 19, will showcase 258 feature films and 81 shorts from 59 countries, including 112 world premieres.
Audiences are also to be treated to panel discussions with documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, basketball star Steve Nash and singer Bruce Springsteen.
Stars including Nicole Kidman, Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Catherine Deneuve, Kevin Spacey, Matt Damon, Michael Sheen, Mickey Rourke, Bill Murray, Will Ferrell, Megan Fox, Uma Thurman and Olivia Newton-John are expected to grace the red carpet.
Eastwood`s "Hereafter," penned by Peter Morgan ("The Queen," "Frost/Nixon) and starring Matt Damon, chronicles people`s fears, anxieties and insecurities related to death.
Festival programmer Piers Handling described the script as "iconoclastic," and the film as marking "a considerable change of pace for Eastwood as a director."
In "The Conspirator," Redford returns to his independent filmmaking roots to chronicle the true story of the lone woman charged in the assassination of US president Abraham Lincoln.
Played by Robin Wright ("Forest Gump," "Unbreakable"), the accused Mary Scott is the mother of John Surratt, who was suspected of collaborating with Lincoln`s assassin John Wilkes Booth.
James McAvoy ("Atonement," "The Last King of Scotland") as Frederick Aiken is tasked with defending her in court.
And India`s Aamir Khan has already stirred up "a lot of commotion," said Bailey, over the upcoming world premier of his "Mumbai Diaries."
BDST 1138 HRS, SEP 09, 2010
