CONTENT ADVISORY
Depictions of war and conflict, blood and gore
Pakistan202498 minUrduToronto PremiereAnimation, Family-friendly
A young, gifted Vincent and his father Tomas run the finest glass workshop in the country, creating delicate, magnificent pieces of art. Their close bond is soon put to the test with the arrival of an army colonel and his young, aspiring violinist daughter Alliz, to their hometown. Amidst the rumblings of an impending war, Vincent and Alliz eventually fall in love, a relationship that is continually opposed and challenged by their fathers.
Using precise and absorbing hand-drawn animation, bursting with rich detail and colours, The Glassworker is a groundbreaking production, pieced together over a decade by Mano Animation Studios, Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animation studio. Much in the vein of a Studio Ghibli feature, which director Usman Riaz credits as inspiration, The Glassworker uses each frame with deep intention to tell a heart-tugging story about the fragility of life, particularly one lived through conflict.
– Mariam Zaidi
Art Malik
Sacha Dhawan
Anjli Mohindra
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Annecy International Animation Film Festival, 2024
Usman Riaz
Usman Riaz is a film director, animator, and composer born and raised in Pakistan. At 22, he was chosen as a TED senior fellow, speaking at conferences across the globe. Riaz studied graphic design at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi and later founded Mano Animation Studios, Pakistan’s first ever hand-drawn animation studio.
17 Nov, 2024 1:00 pm
TIFF Lightbox C3PG
CONTENT ADVISORY
Depictions of war and conflict, blood and gore
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This film is scheduled to be presented with subtitles for all spoken dialogue (no sound cues indicated). Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to book accessible seats.
Information on available captions will be added soon, thank you for your patience.
CREATURA is a multimedia cross-programming stream at the 28th Reel Asian Film Festival, spotlighting the strange, wild, and untamed — concepts historically used to marginalize. This session will explore how these concepts manifest through stories of endangered traditions and reimagined realities. The documentary THE LAST OF THE SEA WOMEN provides a vivid portrayal of South Korean fisherwomen preserving an ancient practice amidst modern developments. Meanwhile, UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, set in a reimagined Canada where Farsi and French are official languages, presents a surreal world where societal norms are upended and loneliness is a common experience. Both films vividly embody the spirit of CREATURA by pushing the boundaries of human experience and challenging conventional perspectives.
Deep in debt, with a house and a university-bound kid, plus a marriage on the rocks, reformed gambler Lucky sees his luck run out after getting scammed in a tax-fraud scheme. Ashamed and desperate to keep it from his family, he returns to underground backroom gambling dens, playing for big payouts to relieve the debt and win back his family’s favour. Meanwhile, each family member, unaware of Lucky’s troubles but feeling the money crunch, too, resorts to unsavoury means to dig out of their hole.
Pulling you in closer, these films traverse the ebbs and flows of infatuation, fascination, longing, desire, and the release of letting go — all this to possibly feel our true selves more intimately.
Founded in Toronto in 1997, Reel Asian is Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival and a year-round cultural organization dedicated to championing Asian and Asian diasporic artists and storytellers. What began as a grassroots film festival has grown into a national platform supporting filmmakers and audiences through screenings, education, industry initiatives, artist development, and community programming presented across Toronto, the GTA, and online across Canada.
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