Toronto Film Fest Adds Gael Garcia Bernal’s ‘Magellan,’ Rhayne Vermette’s ‘Levers’ to Wavelengths

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled its Wavelengths program for artist-driven experimental films that includes the latest work from directors Lav Diaz, Kahlil Joseph and Kamal Aljafari.

The sidebar has seven features in all, including North American premieres for Diaz’s Magellan, where Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal plays the titular Portuguese explorer in the epic historical drama that bowed in Cannes; Ben Rivers’ Mare’s Nest, about a young girl traveling through a dystopian world without adults; Alexandre Koberidze’s Dry Leaf, where a father searchs for his missing daughter in Georgia in a film shot on an antiquated Sony Ericsson phone; director Nicolás Pereda’s political thriller Copper; and The Seasons, the solo directorial feature debut for Maureen Fazendeiro.

There’s a world premiere for Rhayne Vermette’s Levers, a drama about humanity’s uneasy relationship with the natural world; and a Canadian premiere for Kahlil Joseph’s Sundance title BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, a feature debut and a multimedia tribute to black experimental thinkers.

The Wavelengths program will also pair two movies by Palestinian directors: a North American bow for Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan in Gaza, the Locarno competition opener and a journey round pre-war Gaza in 2001, with an international premiere for Basma al-Sharif’s It’s So Beautiful Here.

The Wavelengths will also present short films, including world premieres for shorts by Viktoria Schmid, Björn Kämmerer, Blake Williams, Friedl vom Gröller, Fredj Moussa, Kaiwen Ren and Eri Saito. There’s also an international premiere for another film by Basma al-Sharif, Morgenkreis.

On Friday, TIFF also announced the lineup for its Classics sidebar of film restorations, to include a 50th anniversary screening of Steven Spielberg‘s Jaws in 35mm; and 4K restorations of Manoel de Oliveira’s Aniki-Bobo (1942); Bahram Beyzaie’s Bashu, the Little Stranger (1986); Satyajit Ray’s Days and Nights in the Forest (1970); Michael Almereyda’s Nadja (1994); Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay (1975); and T’ang Shushuen’s The Arch (1968).

The 50th edition of the Toronto Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 4 to 14.