Some TIFF 2023 Film Reviews brought to you by Creative Multimedia and Writing plus an online link to an interview with Karsten Wall for Modern Goose.

1. Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Film Reviews 2023
Photo by: TIFF
The following are films we got to review while being very fortunate to also get to speak with some of
the directors of these films. Please look out for our upcoming interviews.
Aphasia
Directed by: Marielle Dalpe

2. Photo by: Sandra Larochelle
Aphasia is not a story. It’s an experience of Alzheimer in an animated medium. Inspired by Dalpe’s
grandmother, the short film depicts the travails of a woman who is ever deteriorating to the point of
having trouble with word formation. The film seeks to raise awareness of the disease as 1 in 5 Canadians
is affected by it. The animation for the film has been adapted from Dalpe’s drawings and edited onto a
home-based software like Adobe Pro. There is a reverberation of colors and wavelengths being
exhibited to display the vulnerability of the woman both neurologically and compassionately.
Photo by: Sandra Larochelle
Modern Goose
Directed by: Karsten Wall

3. Photo by: TIFF
Set in Winnipeg, we are invited to set out on a journey of modern geese as they get hit by urbanization
as a natural habitat gets hit by suburban sprawl. As humans keep outdoing themselves in the way of real
estate development and big box stores, we witness a gradual displacement of animals and
environmental degradation. By navigating constantly till they get surrounded by nature as it is supposed
to be, these geese potentially show us humans how far we are removed from it and where we need to
be. This silent film is an innovative and engaging way for us as humans to wake up. It’s not all for the
birds. It’s for us to learn from them.
YouTube link of the interview with Karsten Wall: https://youtu.be/APhEriMJpzo
Photo by: Ian McCausland
Bloom
Starring: Jodi Balfour
Directed by: Kasey Lum

4. Photo by: TIFF
Starring the Canadian Screen Award winner Jodi Balfour, Bloom is a short film which takes us through a
woman’s quest to connect with nature in her urbanized apartment after a breakup. She blends in with a
houseplant so much so that it starts inhabiting her dreams and appearing in the most unexpected
places. Balfour has projected a tone of histrionics which makes her unlikely scenario appear natural. The
film appears as a social commentary on how unsynchronized we are from nature in the face of urban
density and high rises. The film is surreal yet highly relevant.
Seagrass
Starring: Ally Macky, Luke Roberts
Directed by: Meredith Hama-Brown

5. Photo by: TIFF
As winner of the best Canadian feature at TIFF, the film explores the effects of historical incidences we
don’t normally come across in mainstream Canada. As a family go on a couples counseling get away, we
see many emotions unfurling. Judith (Macky), who is of Japanese origin, is married to Steve (Luke
Roberts) with two children.
While the children are going through their experiences of the growing years, the couple is going
through group couples counseling. As they do so, many things start coming up for Judith. As the child of
Japanese Canadians who were put in Canadian internment camps during the 1940s after Pearl Harbour
was bombed just because they were of Japanese origin, Judith is coming face to face with many
repressed realities.
Through her, we see a lot of what has been kept under wraps even though she may not have gone
through the camp herself. This is because she has been raised by those who have gone through such
torture and punishment. In Judith, we witness the pressure an ethnic minority faces to assimilate into
the larger mainstream which doesn’t have anything by which to relate to the discriminatory or culturally
relevant experiences.
We see this through the marriage of Steve and Judith. Steve may be seen as ignorant or unaware of the
impact of some of what he says or does while Judith’s emotions can seem unprocessed and therefore
difficult for the person in front to deal with. But it isn’t because either means anything by it. It is just a
biproduct of circumstances.
The film is a provocative tale told ever so subtly. It brings to light many questions as we see the impact
of colonialization and whitewashing of Canada’s modern history. For many years, people were not
taught about Japanese internment and many other historical mishaps with BIPOC through textbooks.
Given this, the film brings about many questions.

6. While moving forward is important, is forgetting the past and its impact the way to go? Does love
matter? Have many points such as language, culture, internment camps and history been too
suppressed? In the name of moving on and coping with trauma, should we not acknowledge the
imprints trauma leaves us? Can an inter-racial couple experience racism in marriage from each other?
How big is a cultural gap between two people? Can these gaps be overcome?
Xie Xie (Thank You) Ollie
Starring: Oliver Chiang
Directed by: James Michael Chiang
Photo by: TIFF Photo by: TIFF
Ollie is a bi-racial man raised in the Toronto area. He is seen as living in two worlds. He seems too white
for his Chinese counterparts while being seen as Chinese with his white counterparts. Ollie decides to
learn Mandarin well to impress the Chinese side of his family. He then plans a speech in Mandarin at a
family gathering at a restaurant. Will he be embraced or snubbed?

7. At 9 minutes long, the film is a stitched set of vignettes exploring bi-cultural identities with messages
being very subtly laid out. It brings to light what people of bi-racial background may go through when
they engage with people from either side. They are not on the outside looking in because they are
insiders in both cases. But either side is projecting them as being an outsider.
Through small incidences, the film successfully displays some of the complexities of a bi-racial person in
a short timeline. It also challenges the notion that everything that gets made into a film needs to be
extreme and heavily dramatic. It is also displaying a point of view not normally seen in Canadian society
even if it is using small examples like the ones used. We need more of them.
Photo by: Steph Martyniuk
A Road to a Village
Starring: Dayahang Rai, Pashupati Rai, Prasan Rai
Directed by: Nabin Subba

8. Photo by: TIFF
The film is an exploration of what causes village outmigration. There is a village in a very remote part of
Nepal which has now got a road. With it, people think more opportunities will open up as people get
introduced to many consumer goods. Instead, a consumeristic pressure starts pervading in a village
where already survival is hard and harsh because of the weather and rugged terrain people live in.
Therein comes the quest of Maila (Dayahang Rai) to provide for his family amidst all this.
Maila is a man who didn’t leave the village many years ago because his wife Maili (Pashupati Rai) was so
sentimental towards staying. What followed however were many years of struggle and a lot of
frustration. The new road has not brought that much more promise. If anything, it’s eroded the
tranquility of the village and introduced cravings for things which weren’t once there. This craving for
new things has now crept into Maila’s son Bindre (Prasan Rai) who embraces the new things and asks his
father repeatedly for things. In the quest to appease Bindre, Maila takes the difficult decision to leave
the village and the family to come back periodically.
What follows are challenges to survive in the city for Maila while Bindre experiences separation anxiety
and misses his father a lot. The film forces us to face the cruel and uncomfortable truth about survival
for people in these villages while also making us laugh through little Bindre’s mischievous antics. The
landscape depiction is a dream to watch though the pace of the film can be a bit slow. But then through
slow everyday sequences, a climax is gradually built to show us the bigger picture.
The script unfolds itself very subtly much like a short story. The film could have been shorter and kept
more compact. It is however very much worth the watch as it very clearly highlights many socially
relevant issues without straying from the main point the film is trying to make.

9. The Tundra Within Me
Starring: Risten Anine Gaup, Nils Ailu Kemi
Directed by: Sara Margrethe Oskal
Photo by: TIFF
The reindeer is at the helm of creation in the Sami culture. It is believed that creation sprung forward in
its different dimensions from the deer species. Alas, however, reverence for this sacred animal has little
place in the industrialized context of modern-day Norway. This then sets the trend towards out-
migration from northern Norway to go towards the city in search of greater opportunities.
Our heroine Lena (Gaup), however, feels the urge towards a sojourn from Oslo onto her Sami roots
through a gender-based research project. She explores two areas in her research. One is gender identity
in her artwork and the other is interviewing women about being in a male-dominated industry of
reindeer herders. In the midst of this research project, Lena gets introduced to Mahtte (Kemi) who
works with reindeer herd while interviewing his mother.
A romance culminates between Lena and Mahtte. His mother though becomes skeptical about the
relationship. She sees Lena as taking Mahtte away from both her and a traditional way of life.
Simultaneously, Mahtte struggles tremendously to sustain himself there. Alongside this are the lack of
opportunities for a pronounced creative feminist like Lena. Can they come to an agreement?
The Tundra Within Me is a romantic tale set amidst industrialized complexities of the marketplace. The
minute a place ceases to produce financial value, a way of life gets deemed unfeasible. This therein sets
the trend for people to search for work in the cities while leaving a centuries old lifestyle behind. The
film brings up the question about how much we associate independence or sustainability with finance vs
the actual work involved.
Through Lena’s character we also see the lack of tolerance some small towns have for those not doing
what has always been done whether for a lack of opportunity or limited thinking. Using people from the
actual respective professions to lend an air of realness gives a rather Nairesque touch to the film a la

10. Salaam Bombay. The film is engaging while being relatively fast-paced and relaxing at the same time.
The cinematography is breath-taking.