TIFF 25: The President’s Cake dir. Hasan Hadi

Set in the 1990s, young Lamia (Baneen Ahmad Nayyef) lives under Saddam Hussein’s regime with her grandmother, Bibi (Waheeda Thabet) and her pet rooster. Hussein’s 50th birthday is two days away, and every year, one child from each class is selected to make a birthday cake, no matter their circumstances. Lamia, Bibi and the rooster…

The Virgin Spring (1960) – Ingmar Bergman

Taking its inspiration from a centuries old ballad, as well as Kurosawa’s Rashomon and in turn inspiring Wes Craven’s revenge horror thriller, Last House on the Left, Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring comes up on the What Else to Watch list following my screening of The Seventh Seal. Dk Canada’s The Movie Book continues to…

Hot Docs 2016: Beware the Slenderman – Irene Taylor Brodsky

  Having its international premiere last night at the Lightbox,  Irene Taylor Brodsky’s film is a slick looking, unnerving and surprisingly emotional look at the blurring of fiction and reality in the modern age, as two young girls, Anissa and Morgan succumb to the terrors and stories of the internet created character of the Slenderman,…