TIFF Short Cuts Highlights: Programs 5 and 6

In our final piece of TIFF coverage there are 3 shorts that really caught our eye in the final two programs 5 and 6. See our thoughts on Quota, Marion and Before They Joined Us below.

Quota, dirs. Job Roggeveen, Joris Oprins, Marieke Blaauw

What if your effect on the climate was tangibly measured at every second of everyday? 

Running at just under 3 minutes Quota doesn’t need much time to effectively ask and imagine this scenario. Quota takes place in a world where your cell phone monitors your carbon emissions. As everyone continues on their business, their percentage starts ticking down closer to closer to zero, with no one quite knowing what will happen when it reaches the end. 

Coming to you from dutch animation studio Job, Joris & Marieke, the trio of namesakes brings you a short that could easily be described as a dark comedy. However, the lightness of the animation helps deliver a message where you can laugh at what is going on but still self-reflect and see the seriousness of the issue. 

The premise works perfectly. More than ever the world feels like its racing into unknown territory when it comes to our climate. Despite signs, warnings and calculated predictions a lot people refuse to care and many politicians are actively fighting against climate policies.  It is refreshing to see animated shorts like this tackle the issue head on. Job, Joris and Marieke practice what they preach. They have chosen not to attend TIFF this year as they feel taking a flight over seas would be quite hypocritical. It is a very admirable action. 

The main voice of the “Quota app” in this short is provided by Carice van Houten (Game of Thrones) who is a climate activist herself. Last year she was arrested along with 1500 others in climate protests. She is also a strong proponent of ecocide being made a crime at the International Criminal Court. 

This is a short I really hope can reach the widest audience possible as we all could use a little self-reflecting when it comes to carbon emissions. If you have been watching short films for a while, you may remember one of Job, Joris and Marieke’s previous shorts A Single Life went on to be nominated for an Oscar. It would be wonderful for this one have the same success. Overall Quota is a short with brilliantly fun animation, a timely message and is, perhaps literally, a burst of laughter.

Review by: Brandon MacMurray

Marion, dirs. Joe Weiland, Finn Constantine

"Protect her. Watch over her."

These are the words spoken over our titular character Marion as she is praying at an alter. Words that will have greater meaning and echo through the short as we go on. Marion, directed by Joe Weiland and Finn Constantine, is a narrative story about the only female bull-jumper in France and the adversity she has to fight through to be there. Marion has already garnered a lot of attention with Cate Blanchett and Sienna Miller as Executive Producers, and having its premiere at Venice right before TIFF.

Marion is clearly living in a man's world in the sport of bull-jumping. As she dresses for her very first performance in a bathroom stall, she overhears the conversation of two male team members. They are talking about her and the fact they think she shouldn't be there. Back in the change room you can easily see how male dominated the sport truly is. It is the rowdiness you would expect from any male change room, as Marion meekly keeps to herself. As the coach enters, he addresses the room as "gentlemen" multiple times, not even weighing in the fact a woman is in their presence. Misogyny is seen and felt throughout the film as Marion constantly has to take a backseat to her male counterparts.

The stakes for Marion couldn't be higher. There is a full house of people there to watch and she has a lot to prove. To complicate things Marion receives a message on her phone in which she quickly gets up and leaves the arena. Outside waiting for her, is a man (assumed to be her ex) and her daughter. The man exclaims that he can't take the daughter right now leaving Marion to have to find a quiet place for her daughter to sit.

With that, she leaves her daughter in the change room and enters the formation to enter the arena. The action in the arena scenes to follow is enthralling and maybe the most locked into a short I have been. Marion has to fight for a chance to take a turn and finally she is up, just her against the bull. The next moment had me holding my breath as the slow motion scene plays out. It is a scene I am still confounded on how it was even filmed safely which is a testament to the film-making team who put it together. It demands your attention. Marion is played by real life bull-jumper Caroline Noguès-Larbère who you would never guess has no experience in acting. She dazzles in this.

Marion is truly a memorable short and now that TIFF has finished, it is the short that I have returned back to most in my mind. It is a short that reminds you that you are worthy of success, and if you fail to get right back up and try again. It's about a woman carving a way for the next generation and being a person her daughter can be proud of. Even if she has to take the men by the horns so to speak and force them to see, she is worthy.

Review by: Brandon MacMurray

Before They Joined Us, dir. Arshile Egoyan

In 1975, the civil war bloomed in Lebanon—the rising tensions between Muslims and Christians. Also, foreign support, militias, and drug smuggling played a part in the conflict that lasted until 1990. An estimated one hundred and fifty thousand people have perished, and almost a million have fled the country. Before They Joined Us by Arshile Egoyan narrates the escape of two young girls, Taline (Lorie Berberian) and Garine (Ava Andreakos). In the imminent escalation of the conflict, their parents send them to live with their aunties in Montreal. In only nine minutes, the director goes back and forth between Lebanon and Canada. The scenes cut between their tense flee and their challenging adaptation to Canadian culture. 

Based on the immigration story to Canada of Arsinée Khanjian, the mother of the director. The film aims to tell a different point of view on immigration. As in most of the stories about immigration, religion drives the narrative spine. During a checkpoint with soldiers, the family has to show their papers, tell that they are of Armenian descent, and show their crosses, while the father bribes the man. The symbolisms are present here physically and in the writing. When they arrive, their aunties establish the rules of not celebrating holidays. In a pivotal dialogue, Garine asks her older sister about Valentine's Day. When they look at the calendar, they see that all the days in the new year are crossed - an almost symbolic manner stating that the human days do not matter, only the date of the return of the Lord. 

The dichotomy of change is present in the two scenarios. Taline jokes about everything when in Lebanon. However, in Montreal, she became a serious person. The approach portrays her growth in a change of her most characteristic trait - her sense of humor. Thus, the performance of Lorie Berberian is impressive in enacting a character that feels the weight of responsibility. She is aware of the political and religious landscape of her homeland. In this sense, the jokes are almost her manifestation of being a teenager and provoking her younger sibling. The shift of countries is apparent in the angles Arshile chooses to use. In Montreal, the scenes are claustrophobic. Taline is sitting in the closet while she waits for the call from home. Contrasting with the expansive settings of the car sequence in Lebanon, The lack of space in the Canadian house emphasizes the suffocation of growing far from the parents. It represents their world colliding. 

In its ending, the parents ask Taline not to become like their aunties and to look out for Garine. It is a lot of responsibility for a younger teenager. But Arshile Egoyan delivers a masterful work - both in writing and directing - representing the suffocation and the pains of the departure.

Review by: Pedro Lima