TIFF 2016: “In Between,” “Denial,” “Manchester by the Sea”

It takes an especially strong picture to disrupt the daze of a festivalgoer caught in a bleary-eyed watchathon, and that is precisely what Maysaloun Hamoud’s debut feature, “In Between,” did for me. The film’s concluding dedication to the late Ronit Elkabetz, co-writer/director and star of 2014’s brilliant “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem,” is wholly earned. I imagine Elkabetz would have greatly admired Hamoud’s depiction of young Palestinian women attempting to assert their independence in the repressed society of Tel Aviv. Close friends Laila (Mouna Hawa) and Salma (Sana Jammelieh) are dismayed to find that their loved ones are not as progressive as they had claimed, while their new roommate, Nur (Shaden Kanboura), gradually develops second thoughts about her impending marriage.

There’s a scene at about the film’s midpoint that is so well-acted and directed that it kept the audience pinned to their seats until the end credits rolled (which is an achievement for press and industry screenings). Nur is confronted by her fiancé, who believes her new roommates have corrupted her and wants to move up the date of their wedding. Her husband’s sexual frustration and need for control are clearly fueling his supposed moral righteousness, and the body language of both actors brings an enormous tension to the scene, as Nur senses her fiancé transforming into a predator. Kanboura’s performance is devastating. We feel the pain of her disillusionment but also the joy in her liberation as she privately partakes in a dance by herself at the apartment. How the three female leads come together in support of one another forms the heart of the picture. Like “Mustang,” this meditation on female identity could be applied to any culture, and it establishes Hamoud as a filmmaker of considerable promise.

Mick Jackson’s “Denial” is about a man who compulsively lies, believes feelings are more important than facts, and claims his right to freedom of speech is being infringed upon whenever he attempts to spread misinformation. Sound familiar? Even though this film technically isn’t a biopic about the current Republican presidential nominee, the parallels are so glaring that they practically overwhelm the narrative itself, which is told in the form of a solid yet routine courtroom drama. After delivering excellent work earlier this year in “The Lobster” and “The Light Between Oceans,” Rachel Weisz would seem to be in a shoo-in for the Best Actress Oscar race with her portrayal of real-life historian Deborah Lipstadt. She was sued for libel by David Irving, a man she rightly charged as being a Holocaust denier. The courtroom battle that ensued forced Lipstadt and her team to prove that the Holocaust took place, and Irving had a field day baiting the press with inflammatory soundbites. Since the dialogue during the court scenes is taken directly from the original transcripts, Weisz is forced to sit on the sidelines during much of the film’s tensest moments, leaving co-star Tom Wilkinson to do most of the talking.

As with 2008’s “The Reader,” which was also scripted by David Hare, the historical subject matter is what resonates the least in “Denial.” The early scenes of a young man’s sexual awakening in “The Reader” were much more potent than the trial and epilogue that followed. Aside from one fleeting shot inside a gas chamber, images of the Holocaust are conspicuously lacking from “Denial,” much like how survivors weren’t allowed to testify during the trial. With his profane irreverence and squinty expressions, Spall is deliciously hatable, and his scenes opposite Wilkinson are the film’s highlights. Yet one wishes Jackson had approached the material in a way similar to his greatest achievement, the 2010 HBO movie, “Temple Grandin.” That picture fully immersed the viewer within the mind of its heroine by utilizing every cinematic technique at its disposal. “Denial” keeps its heroine and its emotions at arm’s length far too often, though as an allegory on the era of Trump, it is frighteningly spot-on.