08/09/2016 - The Dutch contingent at the Canadian festival comprises a total of ten films, including five Dutch minority co-productions

Four Dutch features, one short film and another five Dutch minority co-productions have been selected for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), North America’s most prestigious gathering, the 41^st edition of which kicks off today and will unspool until 18 September.

Director Martin Koolhoven is travelling to the TIFF straight from Venice, where his latest film, Brimstone [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Martin Koolhoven
film profile], has just screened in competition. Now one of the Canadian festival’s Special Presentations, Brimstone is an epic thriller told in four chapters, about a young woman and her family, whose lives change drastically when a diabolical preacher comes to town. Dutch outfit N279 Entertainment and Germany’s X-Filme Creative Pool joined forces to co-produce this English-language drama, whose international sales are managed by Embankment Films. For Koolhoven, this is a return to Toronto, where his 2008 children's film Winter in Wartime [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] was also selected.

Also a TIFF regular, Mijke de Jong’s new film, Layla M. [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], will be shown in the Platform competition section. Similar to several real-life cases widely reported on by the media in recent years, the film centres on a Dutch girl with Moroccan roots, who joins a group of radical Muslims. Topkapi Films produced the movie, while Beta Cinema is handling its international sales. This is de Jong’s fifth time taking part in the Canadian gathering, his latest participant being Frailer in 2014.

TIFF Docs will screen Alex Pitstra’s Bezness as Usual [+see also:
trailer
film profile], in which the director lays bare his failed expectations that bound him to his long-absent Tunisian father, and his relationship with his Dutch mother. This Selfmade Films production was seen recently at Locarno.

The Day My Father Became a Bush [+see also:
trailer
film profile] will have its world premiere in the TIFF Kids section. Nicole van Kilsdonk’s film tells the story of a young girl forced to undertake a long journey on foot after war breaks out in her country. Lemming Film is producing, while Beta Cinema is managing the sales.

Ena Sendijarevic’s short Import, a Pupkin Film production, will be seen in the Short Cuts competition.

The Dutch contingent at Toronto also includes five minority Dutch co-productions: Thomas Vinterberg's The Commune [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile] (Special Presentation), Mahmoud Al Massad’s Blessed Benefit [+see also:
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film profile] (Discovery), Deepak Rauniyar’s White Sun [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Contemporary World Cinema), Anocha Suwichakornpong’s By the Time It Gets Dark [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Belit Sağ’s Ayhan and Me, both part of the Wavelength section.