Film Capital of the Week

Plenty of what the industry thinks we should be interested in was on display a month ago at the 30th Toronto International Film Festival. More than ever before the industry reps casually took over the city as they previewed their latest “indie” and “art”–as opposed to mainstream–product.

Screenings this year are being held through October 20. Many directors and a few actors are scheduled to appear at screenings of their films. Check the festival Web site for up-to-date information.

Learning to Swallow

The title of this Russian drama, a Latin word for a ball game that dates back to ancient times, is a reference to a group of buddies who play pickup soccer games for money in hopes of buying a playing field. Alexei Guerman, son of the accomplished Russian filmmaker of the same name, is certainly a talented director, advancing his story in an engaging episodic fashion, even though some of the characters are blandly realized. Because it’s set on the eve of World War I, there’s the sense that life-altering events are imminent, but nothing much happens besides a senseless act of violence toward the end of the film. Still, cameraman Oleg Lukichov’s sepia-toned, deep-focus compositions are gorgeous to look at. With Evgeny Pronin, Danila Kozlovsky, and Chulpan Khamatova. In Russian with subtitles. 116 min. (JK) a River East, 6:45 PM

Mrs. Henderson Presents

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Slovene director Igor Sterk’s worthy venture into Bergman territory, a stylized contemplation on a disintegrating marriage, makes for heavy sledding, the couple’s winsome blond daughters providing the only grace notes of their sterile bourgeois co-dependency. Each partner drifts into infidelity. The husband’s surprise encounter with a high school sweetheart awakens long-dead emotions, which soon perish because he doesn’t act on them. The wife, given to nightly sobbing jags, essays an affair with a poet via cell phone messaging. Ennui, silence, and stasis weigh heavily as the husband and wife drag their baggage around like dysfunctional tortoises. In Slovene with subtitles. 68 min. (RS) a Landmark, 8:45 PM