Mongrel Media announces 3 films for Toronto Film Festival

Three films have been announced for the upcoming Toronto Film Festival. Mongrel Media will be presenting three canadian films at the upcoming 2005 Toronto Film Festival. Here are the details.

Water (Opening Night Gala) – Dir: Deepa Mehta – Canada
Deepa Mehta’s Water – the Toronto writer/director’s final film in her trilogy, following Fire and Earth – stars Lisa Ray (Bollywood Hollywood) and Bollywood star John Abraham, who both rose to fame as Indian supermodels.  Set in 1938 Colonial India, against Mahatma Gandhi's rise to power, the story begins when eight-year-old Chuyia (newcomer Sarala) is widowed and sent to a home where Hindu widows must live in penitence.  Chuyia’s feisty presence affects the lives of the other residents, including a young widow (Ray), who falls for a Gandhian idealist (Abraham).  Also starring is Seema Biswas (Bandit Queen).  The film was shot secretly in Sri Lanka in 2004, after Hindu fundamentalists shut down the production in India in 2000.  In Hindi with English subtitles.

Lucid (Contemporary World Cinema) – Dir: Sean Garrity – Canada
Lucid is a psychological thriller, which marks the second feature from Winnipeg director Sean Garrity, following Inertia, which won the CityTV Award for Best First Canadian Feature at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival.  Joel (Jonas Chernick) is an insomniac.  Maybe it’s because his wife just left him, or because his daughter has become despondent, or because he’s been assigned three psychotherapy patients (Callum Keith Rennie, Michelle Nolden and Lindy Booth).  As Joel begins to help his patients, perhaps he can help himself.  Now if he could only stay awake behind the wheel of a car.  The film, which was co-written by Garrity and Chernick (who won the best actor award at the 2002 Blizzard Awards for his role in Inertia), was shot in Winnipeg.

Eve & the Fire Horse (CanadaFirst!) –- Dir: Julia Kwan – Canada
Vancouver writer/director Julia Kwan digs into her Chinese-Canadian roots to bring us Eve & the Fire Horse, a charming tale about a Chinese immigrant family that suffers misfortunes when mom (Vivian Wu of The Joy Luck Club) goes against superstition and cuts down a tree.  Eve and her sister (Phoebe Kut and Hollie Lo) decide to seek help by embracing both Buddhism and Christianity.  But will even that be enough?  Set in the’70s, shot in New Westminster, BC, and told through the eyes of young Eve, the story is revealed with fantastical images, including a singing goldfish (grandma reincarnated?).  Kwan’s short film Three Sisters on Moon Lake won the Audience Award at the 2002 Worldwide Short Film Festival.  In English, and some Cantonese with English subtitles.