Today (Sunday), the Toronto Film Festival reaches the end of its fifty-first session, in an exceptional edition that can only be described as greater than the ability of even the most passionate and determined film fans to follow, given the intensity of its programs and the diversity of its films, which number more than 430 films shown in just 10 days.
Besides the ability to catch all (or half) of the shows, there is the fact that Canadian audiences have realized from the beginning that ticket prices are higher than they were last year and many times higher than they were ten or more years ago.
The price of a ticket to attend a movie in the “Gala” section, which is like the celebrated performances, was 106 Canadian dollars (about 56 US dollars). Thus, a movie lover who wants to watch 10 films in this section needs a budget of 1,060 Canadian dollars. One of those I asked while waiting to enter the screening of the movie “The Weight” (starring Russell Crowe and Ethan Hawke) about his opinion on the price increase commented sarcastically: “...they call it the People’s Festival.” But how can this be done when prices rise year after year, despite federal support?
Then he turned to me and asked my opinion. I hesitated to tell me that my journalistic work allows me to enter most shows for free, but his eye fell on the accreditation card hanging around my neck. He shook his head with a smile and said: “Maybe I will get a card like this next year.”
An audience that does not back down
But the Toronto film critic has a different “headache.” With this number of films, and even assuming that he had previously seen a large portion of them at the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice festivals, it becomes difficult to adopt the principle of writing about a specific genre or trend, as happens at other festivals.
This is not only due to the large number of shows, which makes it difficult to watch a quarter of the program, but also to the nature of the Toronto festival itself. The absence of an official competition and the lack of classification of films according to specific sections, as is the case in other festivals, leads many critics to watch the largest possible number of films, while seeking to conduct interviews with their makers and stars. However, this task is not guaranteed either, in light of the intense competition between hundreds of journalists and critics who are competing for the same appointments.
But what about those long lines that crowd in front of most of the films being shown? According to an official in the festival's press affairs department, the passion for watching films is still too strong to be affected by the rise in ticket prices. He says: “This happens every year.” Increasing prices does not lead to a decrease in the number of tickets sold, but it may prompt some patrons to reduce the number of films they intend to watch.”
Ten important films
Of the 38 films that the critic was able to watch in this session, each of which had its own identity and different subject matter, in addition to the difference in treatment and implementation methods between the traditional and the innovative, and between the tendency towards simplicity of language and immersion in its complexities, these ten films were chosen, without a preferential order, based on the artistic importance they represent or the level of their cinematic achievement, and sometimes the combination of both.
1- “Hombre al Agua”| “Man on Water” Directed by: Gael García Bernal (Mexico).
2- “The Stunt Driver” | “Dangerous Scene Driver” Directed by: Michael Dawes (Canada).
3- “Misty Green”| “Misty Green” Directed by: Chris Rock (United States).
4- Union Town| “Uniontown” Directed by: Barbara Koppel (United States).
5- “Citizen Osama”| “Citizen Osama” Directed by: Ahmed Hassouna (Palestine).
6- “Weight”| “The Weight” Directed by: Padraak McKinley (United States).
7- “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd”| “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shed” Directed by: Tim Blake Nelson (United States).
8- “Inwards and Sideways”| “Inside and Sideways” Directed by: John Madden (United States).
9- “Closing Night”| “Closing Night” Directed by: Cody Fern (Australia, Canada).
10- “A Talent for Murder”| “A Talent for Crime” Directed by: Anton Corbin (Australia).
“For whom the sun shines.” This is how King Ramesses II described his wife, Queen Nefertari, and built a tomb for her that is considered one of the most prominent tombs in the Valley of the Queens in Luxor. The cemetery returned to the forefront again, after talk about examining the possibility of reopening it to the public.
This came during the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Hisham Al-Laithi, following up on the condition of the cemetery, on a tour of archaeological areas in Luxor, and studying the scientific procedures necessary to preserve and protect its drawings and wall inscriptions.
The tomb of Queen Nefertari, wife of King Ramesses II, is one of the most prominent tombs in the Valley of the Queens. It was discovered in 1904 by an Italian mission headed by Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli, and went through several stages of demands for preservation and restoration, from the time of King Fouad in the 1930s, until the approval of a project to restore it in 1986.
Egyptian archaeologist and director of the Antiquities Museum at the Library of Alexandria, Dr. Hussein Abdel Basir, said that reopening the tomb to visitors must be based first on the results of examinations and careful scientific studies of its condition, inscriptions, and wall representations.
Seeing people, flowers, or patterns that do not exist in reality may be frightening, but experts confirm that these visions are often a well-known and harmless side effect of people who suffer from severe vision loss. This condition is known as “Charles Bonnet Syndrome,” and it causes clear and vivid visual hallucinations in people who have lost a large part of their ability to see.
