THALE Premieres Tonight!

Aleksander L. Nordaas' Thale premieres tonight at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema at 6:00 PM. Head over to our previous post to see the film's trailer and poster.

Tickets can be purchased:

• ONLINE: TIFF.net/thefestival
• BY PHONE: 416.599.TIFF or 1.888.599.8433 (Toll-free) 
• IN PERSON
• Festival Box Office; 225 King St. West
• Bloor Hot Docs Cinema Box Office; 506 Bloor Street West

Further information about Aleksander L. Nordaas' Thale can be found on the Festival website, as well as on the Thale website, Facebook page, and IMDB page.

THALE screening times:

• Wednes., Sept. 12, The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema 6:00 PM
• Thurs., Sept. 13, Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 2 8:45 PM
• Sat., Sept. 15, Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 7 4:15 PM

90 MINUTES Premieres Tonight!

Eva Sørhaug's 90 Minutes premieres tonight at the Cineplex Yonge & Dundas at 9:00 PM. Head over to our previous post to see the film's trailer and poster.

Tickets can be purchased:

• ONLINE: TIFF.net/thefestival
• BY PHONE: 416.599.TIFF or 1.888.599.8433 (Toll-free) 
• IN PERSON
• Festival Box Office; 225 King St. West
• Cineplex Yonge & Dundas Box Office; 10 Dundas Street East

Further information about Eva Sørhaug's 90 Minutes can be found on the Festival website, as well as on the 90 Minutes IMDB page.

90 MINUTES screening times:

• Sat., Sept. 8, Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 2 9:00 PM
• Sun., Sept. 9, Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 10 9:00 AM
• Sun., Sept. 16, Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 2 11:45 AM

THALE Director Profile: Aleksander Nordaas

Young Norwegian writer-director Aleksander Nordaas is bringing his feature Thale to Toronto after a number of screenings at other North American festivals. Audiences at SXSW in Austin and the Seattle International Film Festival have already been wowed by Nordaas' "thale" of a mythical creature called a huldra accidentally discovered by two forensic cleaners.

Nordaas has previously directed one feature (2005's Sirkel) and one other short film (2008's In Chambers, which is embedded below).  As reported by Twitch, Nordaas recently released an animated short film featuring pieces of driftwood in an aquarium. You can see Kind of Fishy below or download a longer version at its own dedicated web site.

THALE Screening Times:

• Wed., Sept. 12th, 6:00 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
• Thurs., Sept. 13th, 8:45 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 2
• Sat., Sept. 15th, 4:15 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 7

90 MINUTES: The Headhunters Behind The Movie

 At last year's Toronto International Film Festival, Morten Tyldum's Headhunters was a smash with audiences and critics. Many of the folks involved with this film also contributed to Eva Sorhaug's 90 Minutes, which is playing at this year's Festival.

Askel Hennie cries over spilled milk in Headhunters.

Although the tone of the films is quite different, some of the cast and crew remain the same.

Askel Hennie, who portrays Trond in 90 Minutes, also serves as Executive Producer. About Hennie's role as Roger in Headhunters, Sound On Sight said he "paints a brilliant, intricate portrait of a man trapped deep within his image."

90 Minutes: Askel Hennie spilled the milk again?!

Hennie isn't the only Headhunters alum to be involved with Sorhaug's 90 Minutes. Vidar Flatauken (editor), Dylan Richard Hopkin (visual effects), and Monja Wiik (costumes) all worked on both films.

Additionally, Senior Production Designer Nina Bjerch Andresen has both Headhunters and 90 Minutes on her resume, and her work on the former film grabbed positive attention.

Below the Line noted how Andresen's "production design efficiently conveys a number of settings from the Scandinavian modern corporate offices at the beginning of the picture, to the richly decorated homes involved in several art heists and then to more rough-hewn interiors and exteriors as the film opens up."

Quiet Earth gushed "Headhunters is a beautiful film to watch. From the architecture featured in Roger’s home to the art that he steals, the production design is astounding."

With a roster of talent like this, we're sure 90 Minutes will be a feast for the eyes.

90 MINUTES Screening Times:
Sat., Sept. 8th 9:00PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 2
Sun., Sept. 9th 9:00AM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 10
Sun., Sept. 16th 11:45AM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 2

90 MINUTES: Director Profile: Eva Sørhaug

Eva Sørhaug's 2008 feature debut, Cold Lunch, played at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008. This challenging film was nominated for the Bronze Horse at the Stockholm Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Film at the Rouen Nordic Film Festival.

Clearly Cold Lunch is not a show on the Food Network. So what is it? 

Cineuropa describes Sørhaug's "remarkable feature debut" like this: "With its classic but unpredictable plot, Cold Lunch retraces—in six chapters—the lives of five people in a residential area of Oslo over the course of 48 hours. The five 'cold stories' are all subtly interlinked."

The Eternal Sunshine of the Logical Mind blog has more insights, saying, "while not a happy fun time at the cinema, [Cold Lunch] offered surprises and an austere but strangely lovely look and feel."

Fringe Report raves about the film, explaining that Cold Lunch is a ""powerful, funny and gentle study of extreme human manipulation" that is "made up of the awful games people play repetitively to achieve the upper hand in the sad cruel components of the day." It's a film that "sways between the extremely sinister . . . to the stunningly gentle."

Austere, lovely, sinister, and funny. All adjectives that both complement and comprise the films of the Vanguard programme. But who is Eva Sørhaug?

According to the Norwegian Film Institute, Sørhaug received her Bachelors Degree in social sciences from the University of Oslo and her M.F.A. in film making from the San Francisco Academy of Art University. Plus she attended the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts for one year.

Perhaps her education in Norway and the United States both contribute to Sørhaug's studied, analytical approach to the characters in her films as well as their Hitchcockian elements. Cold Lunch pays homage to The Birds in visual, narrative, and ultimately shocking ways.

You can see traces of Cold Lunch in the trailer for Sorhaug's 90 Minutes, a film which she wrote, directed, and produced. Soft shades of grey, rose, ice blue, and cream contrast with sharp angles and extreme close-ups. The lyrical pacing of the images in the beginning of the clip gives way to brief glimpses of violence.

This year's Festival is proud to present the World Premiere of Eva Sørhaug's uncompromising sophomore feature film, 90 Minutes.

90 MINUTES Screening Times:

Sat., Sept. 8^th 9:00PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 2

Sun., Sept. 9^th 9:00AM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 10

Sun., Sept. 16^th 11:45AM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 2

90 MINUTES Poster and Trailer

Following up her memorable Festival debut, Cold Lunch (08), Eva Sørhaug's second feature reinvents the success of Cold Lunch's triptych structure to focus on the subject of domestic violence. Starring Aksel Hennie, 90 Minutes presents the last hour and a half before three men commit murder.

Below are the poster and trailer for 90 Minutes, which plays the Toronto International Film Festival within the Vanguard programme.

Further information about Eva Sørhaug's 90 Minutes can be found on the Festival website, as well as on the 90 Minutes IMDB page.

90 MINUTES screening times:

• Sat., Sept. 8, Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 2 9:00 PM
• Sun., Sept. 9, Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 10 9:00 AM
• Sun., Sept. 16, Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 2 11:45 AM

THALE Poster and Trailer

First-time writer-director Aleksander L. Nordaas explores the myth of the "huldra" -- beautiful, long-haired women with animal tails -- in Thale (pronounced "tall-eh"), a "hauntingly atmospheric supernatural drama," says Festival Programmer Colin Geddes, with a "tantalizing" premise (TWITCH). 

Below are the poster and trailer for Thale, which plays this year's Toronto International Film Festival within the Vanguard programme.

Further information about Aleksander L. Nordaas' Thale can be found on the Festival website, as well as on the Thale website, Facebook page, and IMDB page.

THALE screening times:

• Wednes., Sept. 12, The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema 6:00 PM
• Thurs., Sept. 13, Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 2 8:45 PM
• Sat., Sept. 15, Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 7 4:15 PM