Montreal World Film Festival

[Magnolia]

Montreal World Film Festival
The GazetteAugust 28, 2009

Capsule reviews from The Gazette's film reviewers, from the cinemas of the Montreal World Film Festival, which runs Aug. 27 to Sept. 7.

Tatara (three stars, Poland): Fans of director Andrzej Wajda – at 83, the patriarch of Polish cinema – will be moved by his latest effort, a bleak drama about love and death. It doesn’t completely satisfy, however. Adapted from a novella, it feels rather contrived and – with a running time of only 84 minutes – too short. The wife of a country doctor in postwar Poland falls for a young man at a village dance. It’s an ill-fated match, and not only because of the age difference: the wife has cancer. Grafted onto this melodrama is the real-life story of the lead actress, Krystyna Janda, as she grieves for her husband, acclaimed cinematographer Edward Klosinski, who died before shooting began.

In Polish with English subtitles. Screens at Imperial Cinema Wednesday at 7 p.m.; and at Quartier Latin Thursday at 5 p.m. and Sept. 5 at 12:20 p.m.

[Krystyna Janda]

Dziękuję.