The Count of Monte-Cristo is Saturday’s Cinefest gala film

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Here is Saturday’s Cinefest schedule. The 36th edition of Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival takes place Sept. 14-22. For more, go to cinefest.com.

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A THOUSAND CUTS

Features Canada

Screening at 3 p.m.

Starring Jonas Chernick, Storm Steenson, David Hewlett, and Moracco Latimore

Sponsored by OLG

Tonight, on a live TV special, Roberta (Steenson) and her co-host Frasier (Chernick) will attempt to solve the notorious murder of famous horror novelist Bernard Balance, who 30 years ago was stabbed to death in his mansion, as his young son, Noah (Latimore), disappeared — with only his remains found in a bonfire on the property. Sidney Balance, the wife of Bernard and mother of Noah, was cleared of the crime but wasted her life away in the crumbling mausoleum to one of the world’s most infamous unsolved true crime cases. Over the course of this stormy night thirty years later, Roberta and Frasier interview special guests and witnesses intimately involved in the case, discover missing clues, and investigate never-before-told secrets to solve the murder as they open the doors to the Balance Home for the first time in decades. By the climactic end of the live TV special, Roberta and Frasier encounter a devastating series of twists that will forever change their relationship, the case, and all that came before.

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NOS BELLES-SOEURS (SISTERS AND NEIGHBORS!)

Special Presentations

Screening at 4 p.m.

In French with English subtitles

Starring Geneviève Schmidt, Guylaine Tremblay, Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Debbie Lynch-White, and Véronic DiCaire

Sponsored by Le Loup 98.9

Set in Le Plateau-Mont-Royal district of Montreal in the late 1960s, Germaine Lauzon (Schmidt) is the lucky winner of a million stamps in a sweepstakes which will enable her to buy all the appliances, furniture, clothes and other accessories she’s ever dreamed of. When the housewife invites her daughter, sister and neighbours to a party to help her glue the stamps into the numerous order books in exchange for the prizes, petty jealousy grows among these women from an era that is long past. Nos belles-sœurs is an adaptation of Michel Tremblay’s celebrated play.

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40 ACRES

Special Presentations

Screening at 4:45 p.m.

Starring Danielle Deadwyler, Kataem O’Connor, Michael Greyeyes, and Milcania Diaz-Rojas

Sponsored by Collingwood Cinema Club

After several tours in distant wars, disillusioned war veteran Hailey Freeman (Deadwyler) moved back to rural Nova Scotia to raise her son Emmanuel (O’Connor) and committed herself to help her father maintain their generational farming legacy near Birchtown, a legendary destination of the Underground Railroad. After her father is killed by a passing drifter, Hailey recruited Gavin (Greyeyes), a soldier from her battalion, and turned her farm into a fortified stronghold. Now fifteen years since the tragedy that claimed her father, Hailey is tested again when her son, a month before his arranged marriage to another farm, disobeys his mother’s order when he allows a suspicious drifter to escape unharmed. A few days later Dawn (Diaz-Rojas), a girl claiming to be Emmanuel’s betrothed, shows up to the farm asking for asylum because her family farm has been overrun by mercenaries. Filmed in Greater Sudbury, 40 Acres is a stunning, socially conscious thriller, that examines race, family, and legacy, through the sci-fi lens of a worldwide hunger crisis of a near world dystopian future. 

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LE COMTE DE MONTE-CRISTO (THE COUNT OF MONTE-CRISTO)

Saturday Night Gala Film Presentation

Screening at 7 p.m.

In French, Romanian, and Italian with English subtitles

Starring Pierre Niney, Bastien Bouillon, Anaïs Demoustier, Anamaria Vartolomei, and Laurent Lafitte

Sponsored by Cineplex

The target of a sinister plot, young Edmond Dantès (Niney) is arrested on his wedding day for a crime he did not commit. After fourteen years in the island prison of Château d’If, he manages a daring escape. Now rich beyond his dreams, he assumes the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo and exacts his revenge on the three men who betrayed him. The Count of Monte-Cristo is based on the classic French novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas.

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Please note that there will be no reception following this Gala Film Presentation.

BIRD

Special Presentations

Screening at 8 p.m.

Starring Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski, Jason Buda, and James Nelson-Joyce

Twelve-year-old Bailey (Adams) lives with her brother Hunter (Buda) and her single father Bug (Keoghan), who raises them alone in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time to devote to his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere. The drudgery of everyday life is thrown off kilter when she meets Bird (Rogowski). Bird is directed by BAFTA and Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrea Arnold whose previous narrative features include American Honey, Wuthering Heights, Fish Tank, and Red Road.

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DIE ALONE

Features Canada

Screening at 10 p.m.

Starring Carrie-Anne Moss, Douglas Smith, Frank Grillo, and Kimberly-Sue Murray

Sponsored by CMPA

Ethan (Smith) is a young man with amnesia who wakes to discover that humanity has destroyed the earth and nature is reclaiming itself with moss-covered roaming dead. In this nightmarish post-apocalyptic future, Ethan clings to one purpose, finding his girlfriend Emma (Murray). He soon finds himself in the crosshairs of Mae (Moss), a tenacious and eccentric survivalist. Unable to rely on his own fragmented memories, Ethan forms an uneasy alliance with Mae. Under constant attack from the moss-covered “reclaimed”, Ethan also crosses paths with Kai (Grillo), a mysterious figure who may hold the secret to his fractured memories.

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Shown earlier today:

PORCELAIN WAR

World Doc

In Ukranian and Russian with English subtitles

Amidst the chaos and destruction of the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, three artists defiantly find inspiration and beauty as they defend their culture and their country. In a war waged by professional soldiers against ordinary civilians, Slava Leontyev, Anya Stasenko, and Andrey Stefanov choose to stay behind, armed with their art, their cameras, and, for the first time in their lives, their guns. Despite daily shelling, Anya finds resistance and purpose in her art, Andrey takes the dangerous journey to get his young family to safety abroad, and Slava becomes a weapons instructor for ordinary people who have become unlikely soldiers. As the war intensifies, Andrey picks up his camera to film their story, and on tiny porcelain figurines, Anya and Slava capture their idyllic past, uncertain present, and hope for the future. Porcelain War won the Grand Jury Prize for the U.S. documentary category at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. 

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REINAS

World Cinema / Films étrangers

In Spanish with English subtitles

Starring Abril Gjurinovic, Luna Vega, Jemina Lindo, Gonzalo Molina, and Susi Sánchez

Sponsored by Agilis Networks

Everything happens very fast in Lima in the summer of 1992. Lucia (Gjurinovic), Aurora (Vega) and their mother Elena (Lindo) are about to leave. They are apprehensive about saying goodbye to a country, to family and friends, but above all to Carlos (Molina), a father and ex-husband who has all but disappeared from their lives. In the midst of Peru’s social and political chaos, this announced departure will give rise to contradictory feelings, reviving old regrets and generating new illusions. Facing the uncertainty of their future head on, their frustrations and fears are mixed with excitement and expectation, as the family faces the difficult truth about the losses this departure implies. Reinas is an intense, choral and moving tale of initiation, in the spirit of the 90s.

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NEVER LOOK AWAY

Special Presentations / Présentations spéciales

In English and French with English subtitles

Sponsored by The Sudbury Star

CNN combat camerawoman Margaret Moth walks the razor’s edge between sanity and chaos. Her mystery and beauty bewitches lovers, and her confidence intimidates powerful men. Moth stares down danger and she confronts those that perpetuate it. In vivid, emotional dioramas, we see what Moth and her camera crew felt; the nightmare dreamscapes of war. In footage — both what she shot, the production shot, and others —we go on a rollicking ride through love, truth and war. Early on in her career she covers conflicts in the Middle East before fatally, she is sent to Sarajevo to cover the Bosnian war.

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