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European Union Film Festival

EUROPEAN UNION FILM FESTIVAL at the Royal (608 College), from tonight (Thursday, November 17) to November 30. eutorontofilmfest.ca. See Indie & Rep Film. Rating: NNNN


It’s back! The European Union Film Festival returns to the Royal for its seventh year, once again offering two weeks of free screenings of the finest European cinema.

As always, the programming is a grab bag of festival darlings, Oscar hopefuls and obscurities. One film per nation.

I was surprised, but not in a bad way, to see Spain reaching back to 2006 for its contribution, DarkBlueAlmostBlack (November 26, 8:30 pm). Daniel Sánchez Arévalo’s drama about a young man (Quim Gutiérrez) with an ailing father and a brother in prison is a solid character study with an unexpected sexual zing, and any excuse to put it back on the big screen is a good one.

Ireland sends Rebecca Daly’s The Other Side Of Sleep (November 29, 6 pm), a murder mystery revolving around a young sleepwalker (Antonia Campbell-Hughes). The film played both Cannes and Toronto but got lost among the bigger galas I’m looking forward to catching up to it now.

I’m also keen to see the Dutch entry, Stricken (November 29, 8:30 pm), about a man (Barry Atsma) whose perfect world collapses when his wife (Carice van Houten, of Black Book) falls ill. (The film’s also part of Breast Fest – see review, page 82.)

Representing Hungary and Slovenia, The Maiden Danced To Death is actually a Canadian co-production. Deborah Kara Unger, Stephen McHattie and Gil Bellows pop up in the story of a rivalry between two Hungarian brothers (Zsolt Lázsló and writer-director Endre Hules). It screens Saturday (November 19) at 6 pm, preceded by a conversation with producer Michael A. Dobbin at 4:30 pm.

normw@nowtoronto.com

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