Big City Life

You might have seen it on the news or in some glossy women´s magazine but the Toronto International Film Festival (called tiff) was on this week. And apart from film stars and famous people in general such as Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Jennifer Lawrence, Drake, Nicole Kidman, … I myself decided to mingle with the crowds.

The tiff is known to be one of the world´s biggest and most prestigious film festivals. Once a year major films are screened at various theatres throughout the city. Especially, the top prize the “People´s Choice Award” is one of the week´s highlights. It is a prize voted for by the audience and in previous years films such as “12 Years A Slave”, “The King´s Speech”, and “Slumdog Millionaire” won not only this prize but also the Oscars later in the year.

Naturally, this is an event nobody should miss out on. Especially, when living in Toronto. Carly and I got tickets for the show on Saturday evening. We made plans on spending the afternoon taking explorative walks around downtown and getting dinner before heading to the theatre. We walked around the city with no clue where we were going. Toronto was literally buzzing. There were people everywhere, musicians playing all kinds of music and lots of traffic going by. We found a few really interesting sights such as some impressive murals sprayed on a tall building showing well-known musicians. As we got hungry we choose a little Indian restaurant in a side street offering a huge buffet of all kinds of vegetables and chicken curries, chickpeas and chapati (homemade and delicious chapati!). We still had plenty of time to get to the theatre but somehow we got completely lost. It took us a while to get back on track but finally we made it to our destination.

We wanted to see a movie called “Félicité” by the director Alain Gomis. The movie has won a price at this year´s Berlinale and also several prices at the African Movie Academy Awards. The film plays in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is about a mother trying to finance and hold together her family after her son has a serious motorbike accident. Although the film was in French and did not include lots of dialogues it was very captivating. Also, there was beautiful music underlining some scenes. Even though a few parts of the film were a little too “arty” and confusing all in all I enjoyed it!

Some of the other Internationals suggested to go to the tiff on Sunday, as well. The film awarded with the “People´s Choice Award” would be screened again and there were free tickets! Getting to town from YorkU is a nightmare. Thanks to construction on the soon to come subway line you have to take the bus and then switch to the underground. The whole journey can take up to an hour (or even a little longer). Therefore, we left with plenty of time before the event would start. We were a happy little bunch of Internationals: Japanese, English, Ecuadorian, Welsh, German, … and it was really fun spending the day with them.

We arrived at the venue: a huge modern theatre right in the prime spot of downtown. Already, many people were queuing up, waiting to get some tickets. The queue was so long, we had to go around the whole building and walk up the street to get to the end of it. Still, we got tickets in the end. The experience of this event was somewhat unique. The CEO of tiff gave a speech and obviously this award was the real deal. The audience (all in all 2000 people!) was getting more and more excited about the film and cheering all through the sponsor´s advertisements which reminded me more of a football game than watching a movie. The movie came on and the people fell silent. “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing” is about a mother whose daughter was raped and murdered on her way back home one night. Living in a small town the police did not get far with their investigations and the case was put on the backburner. Of course, the mother would not accept such thing and put up three very provocative billboards. The story goes on about how the mother gets into a fight with the police and some of the local people. There is a very dark humor in the film which makes it appear very sarcastic, entertaining and gripping all at the same time. It´s definitely worth watching!

Because we felt we could not just go back home after a film like this it was decided to walk to Kensington, a part of Toronto that is well-known for its arty and alternative flair. We were told that there was a jazz festival going on that night.

Kensington is a really unique place. Although the houses are all rather small and shabby there are little shops, bakeries, cafés and bars all along the street with beautiful patios and nice places to sit. Obviously, art and music are highly cherished around here. There were graffities everywhere (and I am not talking about some stupid words smeared on the walls but actual artwork) and jazz bands were playing in all the bars and restaurants. You were able to hear music on every street corner. We went to a backyard where a band was playing traditional upbeat jazz. It was amazing! Everyone was dancing and swaying to the music of the brass band while the backyard was beautifully illuminated. This reminded me of a scene in “the Aristocats” where the cats go around all the streets singing and dancing. The only difference to that the CN-Tower in the background rather than the Eiffel-Tower.