Sawt Falasteen - Toronto film fest kicks off with politics

North America's biggest film festival is celebrating its 50th edition. Stars including Daniel Craig, Sydney Sweeney and Matthew McConaughey are set to unveil their latest movies over the next 11 days.

But the arrival of actors and filmmakers from the United States comes against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump's threats to take over his northern neighbor.

Taking the stage before TIFF's opening film, a documentary about homegrown comic John Candy, Carney warned that "our sovereignty, our identity has come under threat."

"And when Canadians heard those threats, they channeled their inner John Candy," he said, of the beloved "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" comic -- to raucous cheers.

Also Thursday, former US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle introduced "The Eyes of Ghana," a new documentary from the movie production company they set up after leaving the White House.

The film unearths long-lost footage of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, who was overthrown in a coup after creating a personality cult around himself as the "Redeemer".

The movie paints a more positive image of Nkrumah's legacy, but focuses on the power of making and preserving cinema shot from the perspective of the colonized.

"We're making history tonight by sharing some of [this] footage for the very first time," said Barack Obama, in a video message.

- Craig, Sweeney -

TIFF dwarfs more famous film festivals like Venice and Cannes for sheer scale, if not glitz and glamor, drawing an estimated 400,000 annual visitors to the Canadian metropolis.

Over 11 days of red-carpet galas, the "audience-first" fest showcases splashy crowd-pleasers in front of giant public audiences, while also serving as a key launchpad for Oscars campaigns.

This year, Netflix's popular "Knives Out" whodunit franchise returns, with former 007 actor Craig back investigating the latest murder in "Wake Up Dead Man" in a Saturday night world premiere, alongside Glenn Close, Mila Kunis and Josh Brolin.

Sweeney aims to pivot from her recent jeans ad controversy to Academy Award contender with Friday's premiere of "Christy," a gritty, raw biopic of US female boxing pioneer Christy Martin.

In another harrowing true-life tale, launching Friday, McConaughey rescues schoolchildren from California wildfires in the emotionally searing action-thriller "The Lost Bus."

Paul Mescal, Angelina Jolie and Anya Taylor-Joy will all hit the screenings and soirees.

French directors are sure to bring a European flair.

Matt Dillon appears in Claire Denis' drama "The Fence," about a mysterious death on an African construction site, while Arnaud Desplechin launches love story "Two Pianos" starring Charlotte Rampling.

Alice Winocour directs Jolie for Paris fashion drama "Couture."

Romain Gavras's celebrity climate-change satire "Sacrifice" stars Taylor-Joy and Chris Evans as an eco-terrorist and a waning movie star, respectively.

Elsewhere, Russel Crowe gives what organizers describe as a nuanced and eerily charismatic performance as Nazi Hermann Goering on trial in historical drama "Nuremberg," opposite fellow Oscar-winner Rami Malek.

Keanu Reeves plays an incompetent angel in Aziz Ansari's body-swapping farce "Good Fortune," while Channing Tatum portrays a real-life fugitive who lives clandestinely inside a toy store in "Roofman."

And Brendan Fraser plays a lonely actor for hire at funerals and weddings in Tokyo-set "Rental Family."

Toronto follows hot on the heels of the small but influential US-based Telluride festival, and invites a selection of movies to make a bigger, second splash.

Among them, Mescal plays a young William Shakespeare in literary adaptation "Hamnet" from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao.

The film earned rave reviews and plenty of Oscar buzz in Telluride.

TIFF runs until September 14.

Q.Jaber--SF-PST