June 28, 2005

Six Films Announced For Discovery Line-Up

Toronto – Today, six films were announced for this year's Discovery line-up for the 30th Toronto International Film Festival®, including one world, two international, and three North American premieres. Launched in 1996, Discovery points both public audiences and industry professionals toward hot new directors. With programmes like Discovery, the Festival continues to showcase the most talented new directors from around the world.

DREAMING LHASA (India), directed by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, tells the story of a young woman who has grown up in New York City and then returns to her roots in McLeod Gunj, Dharamsala, home to the exiled Dalai Lama, to make a film about about India's Tibetan community. Along with her assistant, a disaffected local youth, she meets an ex-monk who has escaped political imprisonment. Their journey into Tibet's fractured past becomes the young woman's own voyage of self-discovery. DREAMING LHASA has its world premiere at this year's Festival.

LOOK BOTH WAYS (Australia), an international premiere, is the first feature from writer-director Sarah Watt. The film chronicles the lives of a collection of characters over an uncomfortably hot weekend who are confronting various crises in the wake of a train accident. Meryl, an artist, is dealing with her father's recent death. Nick, a news photographer, has just learned that he has cancer. The film intersects their stories with those of other characters to imaginatively explore the way humans react to the inexplicable.

SISTERS (Argentina) is the feature debut of writer-director Julia Solomonoff. The film tells the story of two sisters, Natalia and Elena, who are reunited in suburban Texas. The two women soon discover that their late father, an intellectual and journalist, has left behind an unpublished novel that is the veiled story of their family during the years of the military dictatorship. Unanswered questions and troubling memories from the past force a tension between the sisters as they attempt to face the truth with their eyes and hearts wide open. SISTERS is an international premiere.

The feature debut of director Perry Ogden, PAVEE LACKEEN (Ireland) is an intimate portrait of a resilient and spirited young girl and her proud and dignified family. Set in the "traveller" (gypsy) community, the film presents a tough but luminous portrayal of a marginalized group often living in poverty in a modern, prosperous Ireland. Filmed with a cast of mostly non-professionals, the film uses travellers depicting lives near to their own. PAVEE LACKEEN is a North American premiere.

A PERFECT DAY (France/Lebanon), a North American premiere, is co-directed by Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas. The film chronicles a day in the life of Malek, a 26-year-old man who suffers from sleep disorders and is obsessed with thoughts of his ex-girlfriend. His overprotective mother, Claudia, continues to struggle with the disappearance of her husband, who was kidnapped more than 15 years ago during the civil war. Malek and Claudia finally decide to officially announce his disappearance so that they may begin to mourn their loss.

YOU BET YOUR LIFE (Austria) is the debut of first-time director Antonin Svoboda. A story of a compulsive gambler named Kurt who is forced to take a chance with his own life, the film explores the age-old delusion of living life by the roll of the dice. YOU BET YOUR LIFE is a North American premiere.

For more information, please contact the Press Office at 416-934-3200.