Lazaro at Night by Nicolás Pereda
The 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced the lineup of films in the Wavelengths section, which will host the North American premieres of three features and three short films from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. Wavelengths is dedicated to highlighting visionary work from the worlds of international cinema and contemporary art.
This year's program includes Collective Monologue / Monólogo colectivo by British-Argentine director Jessica Sarah Rinland, Lazaro at Night / Lázaro en la noche by Mexican director Nicolás Pereda, and Pepe by Dominican director Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias.
Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director at the most recent Berlin Film Festival—marking the first time a Latin American filmmaker has received the award—Pepe takes a fascinating, highly unorthodox approach to the strange but true tale of the hippopotamuses that escaped from the menagerie of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar after his death in 1993. The film shuffles modes of storytelling, alternating between nonfiction and fantasy. In its sympathetic inquiry and aesthetic muscularity, Pepe poses provocative questions about the ever-shifting ecological stakes of life on Earth and the nature of being.
Through the gaze of director Rinland, Collective Monologue is composed of intimate, fragmented moments unfolding in a community of zoos and animal rescue centers across Argentina. As the histories of these institutions are uncovered, dedicated workers commit both day and night to caring for the remaining enclosed animals, fostering a mutual bond that transcends the imagined boundaries between humans and animals.
In Pereda’s Lazaro at Night, three friends in their early forties find themselves auditioning for a coveted role in a film. As they navigate the audition process, one of them interviews a former literature teacher, whose voice transports the audience into their past.
The Wavelengths Shorts section includes two Chilean projects and one Brazilian. The “Wavelengths 1: Eye & Ear Control” collection of shorts includes October Noon / Octubre al mediodía by Francisco Rodríguez Teare and Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya by Chilean experimental filmmaker Malena Szlam. The “Wavelengths 2: Ride the Wave” program features the Brazilian short Adrift Potentials / Potenciais à Deriva by Leonardo Pirondi, a pseudo-diary film made from found materials of an unfinished 16mm film.
The 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival will take place from September 5–15, 2024.
