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Canada.com, Canada - The Toronto International Film Festival has announced its opening film for the 2008 incarnation of the world renowned fest, choosing Canadian filmmaker Paul Gross’s Passchendaele.
The First World War epic will kick off the 33rd annual festival on Sept. 4 and stars Gross, Caroline Dhavernas (Hollywoodland), Gil Bellows (The Shawshank Redemption) and Joe Dinicol (Diary of the Dead).
“It is rare that Canadians get to experience their own histories via the moving image, particularly on the big screen,” said Piers Handling, director and CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival Group in a statement. “We are honoured to open TIFF 2008 with a work as personal and passionate, as significant to both Canadian film and Canadian history as Passchendaele.”
The film follows Michael (Gross), a physically and psychologically wounded veteran of the war who returns home and falls in love with the nurse who cares for him (Dhavernas). After her brother (Dinicol) enlists, Michael returns to the front to protect him and the two are swept up in the climactic battle known as Passchendaele… [Full Story]
