China202019 minChinese Sign Language and Shanghainese with English SubtitlesCanadian PremiereClosed Captions, Dance, Drama, Family, Women Filmmakers

Rated PG-13
CW: Homophobic statements

Beautifully poetic, Handscape tells the story of Xia Qing and his desire to dance despite his mother’s outright disapproval.

UK202090 minEnglish, Urdu with English SubtitlesToronto PremiereClosed Captions, Drama, Family

On the brink of his first international tour, Zed, a British Pakistani rapper, decides to fly home to the U.K. to reconnect with his family, only to find out his first big international break could be jeopardized by an unexpected and quickly debilitating autoimmune disease. As his condition worsens and his medical treatments intensify, Zed descends into a physical and emotional crisis. His days are marked by vivid hallucinations and long-buried childhood memories of his parents fleeing India during the Partition, forcing him to face resurfaced trauma.

A film co-written, produced by and starring Emmy Award-winning actor Riz Ahmed, Mogul Mowgli is a disquieting and electrifying exploration of identity, self-expression and intergenerational trauma. Bassam Tariq’s directorial lead and Ahmed’s transfixing performance create a gutsy, beat-packed drama authored by bi-cultural artists powerfully expressing their right to thrive in all spaces, especially those that have been built to reject them.

– Mariam Zaidi

Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, USA64 minEnglish and various languages with English subtitlesAction, Closed Captions, Comedy, Drama, Experimental, Fantasy, Horror, Open Captions, Thriller, Women Filmmakers

A retired hitman, telephone counselor, Ronggeng dancer, and pug take the lead in these four cult-worthy shorts that are bound to make you question everything you thought you knew.

Japan2019179 minJapanese with English subtitlesClosed Captions, Drama, Fantasy

Rated 18A
CW: war, sex, physical violence (beatings, executions), sexual violence (rape), attempted suicide

In the port town of Onomichi, Japan, the only movie theatre is bidding goodbye to its local audiences. The owners organize a nightlong screening devoted to historical Japanese war films. Noriko, a teenager who regularly helps in the theatre, walks toward the stage and astonishes the audience as suddenly, she mystically projects herself into an old musical. Film buff Mario, film-history nerd Hosuke, and aspiring yakuza Shigeru are also warped into the cinema screen in sequences that represent the second Sino-Japanese War, Boshin War and Hiroshima bombing. The four embark on an immersive, surreal and vicious cycle of damnation and salvation in the face of war's savagery.

Nobuhiko Obayashi's swan song Labyrinth of Cinema dives into the senselessness of wars, wrapped in cinematic oddities. His abstracted reconstruction of Japan’s darkest events points out that movies, though a fabrication of reality, epitomize suffering as universal truth.

– Rolando Basmayor

Canada2020 15 minEnglish with English Subtitles World PremiereClosed Captions, Horror, Thriller

Rating 14A
CW: Psychological horror, Manipulation

Addressing the harm racialized women as professional and informal caregivers face and can internalize, Tahirih Vejdani delivers a resonating performance as Sriyani, an overtaxed social care worker.