'Water' to open Toronto Film Festival

While new films from Ang Lee, Michael Cuesta and Zhang Yang will also be screening.

Jun 29 2005

Deepa Mehta's 'Water' has been announced as the opening night gala premiere at the 30th Toronto International Film Festival.

The film, which is the third part of Mehta's elemental trilogy (following 'Fire' in 1996 and 'Earth' in 1998), is set in pre-independent India and tells the powerful story of an eight-year-old child-bride who is sent into exile following her husband's death.

Other films that will be receiving their world premieres at the Canadian fest include 'Shopgirl', starring Steve Martin and Claire Danes (from Martin's own novella of the same name), and 'Mistress of the Spices', from 'Bend It Like Beckham' collaborators Paul Mayeda Berges and Gurinder Chadha.

Elsewhere, Michael Caton-Jones' 'Shooting Dogs', Zhang Yang's 'Sunflower', Michael Cuesta's 'Twelve and Holding' will also be screened.

Other celluloid entries that have piqued Time Out's interest in the festival are Richard E Grant's directorial debut 'Wah-Wah', Ang Lee's gay western 'Brokeback Mountain' and 'The Proposition', which stars Ray Winstone and Guy Pearce and was written by singer/songwriter Nick Cave.

The whole shebang kicks off on September 8, and for more information on the many festival hilights, click here.