The 43rd edition of the Toronto International Film Festival drew to a close on Sunday after 11 days of screenings that included likely Oscar contenders Damien Chazelle’s “First Man” and Barry Jenkins’s “If Beale Street Could Talk”.

The Grolsch People’s Choice Award went not, as expected, to “A Star is Born” but to Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen putting the director of the 90’s comedy hits “There’s Something About Mary” and “Dumb and Dumber” in line as a possible winner at the Oscars.

Though the buzz was mainly focused on the upcoming awards season, the festival also presented many Asian titles including three Thai films.

Works from masters like Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang were among those presented. Pen-Ek, who was in Toronto last year with “Samui Song”, brought his 60-minute episode for HBO Asia’s Original drama series “Folklore” to the Primetime programme, a category dedicated to television series considered cinematic enough to be presented on a big screen.

For “Folklore”, directors from six countries were assigned by HBO Asia to make an episode about ghosts or mythology in their own country with Singapore’s award winning director Eric Khoo serving as producer. The Thai contribution, Pen-Ek’s “Pob” uses the famous Phi-Pob as the main character. In his episode, which was filmed in black and white, a photojournalist visiting his mother in hospital has an encounter with this scary ghost. Also showing in this category was another episode in the series – “A Mother’s Love” by Indonesia’s Joko Anwar, whose latest release “Satan’s Slave” was a hit throughout Southeast Asia.

Kazakh director Emir Baigazin’s “The River” examines the threat to paternalism from the arrival of technology.

Even though he has little experience in directing horror films, “Pob” is one of Pen-Ek’s best works in recent years. Audiences in Thailand can view it through AIS Play next month.

The festival’s Wavelengths section, a showcase for the year’s best experimental cinema, saw Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s new short film “Blue” screened in the Wavelengths 1: Earth, Wind & Fire segment. “Blue” was made as a part of the Paris Opera’s digital platform 3e Scene that invites artists from around the world to create and present their artworks. Unlike Pen-Ek, Apichatpong didn’t attend the festival.

Venice Film Festival award winner Phuttiphong Aroonpheng screened his “Manta Ray” in TIFF’s Discovery section and was on hand, along with his producer Mai Meksawan, to witness its successful North American premiere.

Ho Wi Ding’s “Cities of Last Things” was shot in his preferred 35 mm medium.

“I started this project back in 2009. It was a long time in development,” Phuttiphong told the audience during the Q&A session following the screening.

“Compared to my previous works, I tried to focus on a wider-reaching topic like nationalism. I went to the border between my country and Myanmar and I travelled from the North to the South.” The result was ‘Manta Ray’, the first Thai feature to have a Rohingya individual as the main character. In this film, a young fisherman saves an injured stranger and brings him back home. After the mysterious disappearance of the fisherman, and the sudden return of the fisherman’s wife, the stranger starts to act like him and replaces him in his life.”

Audiences in Toronto showed interest in the film and praised its high artistic standard. After Toronto, the film will continue its journey to San Sebastian, Vancouver, Busan and to other events on the festival circuit.

In general, 2018 was a good year for Asian films in Toronto, with Malaysian filmmaker Ho Wi Ding winning the Platform Prize in the festival’s only juried competition section for feature films.

Filipino Carlo Francisco Manatad’s “The Imminent Immanent” was in TIFF’s Short Cut competition.

Ho Wi Ding, who has worked in Taiwan, Singapore and Mainland China and now resides in Taiwan was in Toronto for the first time with his new feature “Cities of Last Things”, which was shot in 35 mm.

“I shot in 35 mm, because I was trained to shoot in 35 mm, and my first short film and first feature film were both shot in 35 mm.  People say that 35 mm is dead, but for me it is still alive. I feel confident in this medium. I don’t like people to tell me that the film is dead. We use expired film stock from Fuji, which is another way to be environmentally friendly,” Ho Wi Ding told the audience at the Q&A session.

Vietnamese director Ash Mayfair’s “The Third Wife” won the NETPAC award.

“Cities of Last Things” is similar to the films of Wong Kar-Wai in terms of colour and atmosphere,  but is considerably more violent. It tells the story of Zhang, a former policeman tormented by his relationship with his wife, and explores his life in reverse chronological order. It now travels to the Busan International Film Festival.

Another winner in the Platform competition was Emir Baigazin’s latest film ‘The River’, which won an Honourable mention. The new film by the young Kazakh director whose “Harmony Lessons” was screened in competition at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013, earlier won the Best Director prize in the Orizzonti section at Venice Film Festival.

A scene from Indonesian filmmaker Yosep Anggi Noen’s latest short “Ballad of Blood and Two White Buckets”.

“The River” talks about paternalism in Kazakh society and how it is being threatened by the arrival of technology and the modern world through the tale of a family in rural Kazakhstan, where the sons who are heavily controlled and monitored by their father encounter a new friend from the city who arrives with his iPad.

“The Third Wife” from Vietnam was another winner in Toronto, picking up the NETPAC Award from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema. Female director Ash Mayfair, who studied filmmaking at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, tells the story of Vietnamese women in the 19th century through May, who is chosen to be the third wife of Hung, a wealthy landlord and is forced to move into his mansion.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s new short film “Blue”

“The Crossing” by another female filmmaker Bai Xue also won an honourable mention from NETPAC. It focuses on a Chinese girl who decides to smuggle mobile phones across the border between Hong Kong and China in order to raise money for a trip to Japan with her friends.

The festival screened many other works by young Asian filmmakers, such as “Bulbul Can Sing”, a new film by female Assamese filmmaker Rima Das, who also presented her previous film “Village Rockstars” in Toronto. Filipino filmmaker Carlo Francisco Manatad brought his new short “The Imminent Immanent” to TIFF’s Short Cut competition where it screened alongside Indonesian filmmaker Yosep Anggi Noen’s latest short “Ballad of Blood and Two White Buckets”.

All of these titles will soon be travelling on the festival circuit and show, once again, that Toronto is not only about American films, but serves as a great platform for filmmakers from around the world.

The series will be available on HBO GO via AIS Play and AIS Playbox.

“Camping” follows a group of old friends as they arrive at the underwhelming Brown Bear Lake campsite to celebrate a landmark birthday, sparking heightened emotions, latent tensions (sexual and otherwise) and memories they’d rather forget.

To celebrate her husband Walt’s 44th birthday and so the obsessively organised and aggressively controlling Kathryn gathers together her meek sister, her holier-than-thou ex-best friend and a free-spirited tagalong to the party. What was supposed to be a delightful back-to-nature camping trip quickly becomes a weekend of tested marriages and woman-on-woman crime that won’t soon be forgotten.

Other series regulars include Juliette Lewis, Arturo Del Puerto, Ione Skye, Janicza Bravo and Brett Gelman.

The show is written and executive produced by Lena Dunham (creator and star of HBO’s “Girls”), Jenni Konner (executive producer of “Girls”) and John Riggi, and is based on the British series of the same name created by Julia Davis and produced by Baby Cow Productions.

Also on the bill are “Once”, “In the Name of Peace: John Hume in America” and “Song of the Sea”.

All will be screened with their original English dialogue, plus Thai subtitles.

Admission is Bt120 (Bt90 for members, students and children).

“Once”, whose soundtrack included the track “Falling Slowly”, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, is a 2007 romantic musical written and directed by John Carney.

The film stars that tune’s composers, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, formerly of the band the Swell Season, as Guy and Girl, struggling musicians in Dublin.

They travel across the city, forming a connection as they perform music, then attempt to produce a record even as they must step lightly around the romantic complications of one another’s past.

“My Left Foot” is a biographical comedy-drama co-written and directed by Jim Sheridan. It tells the story of Christy Brown (Day-Lewis), an Irishman born with cerebral palsy who could control only his left foot but became a gifted writer and artist.

Day-Lewis’ co-star Brenda Fricker won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and there were nominations for the adapted screenplay, director and as Best Picture.

“John Hume in America” is a 2017 feature documentary about the Nobel Peace laureate inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.

He enlisted American presidents and other world leaders in an effort to secure peace in Northern Ireland. Narrated by Liam Neeson, the film includes interviews with Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and John Major.

“Song of the Sea” is a 2014 animated fantasy directed by Tomm Moore, from his original story written for the screen by Will Collins. The Irish-Belgian-Danish-French-Luxembourg co-production is about a 10-year-old boy named Ben who lives in a lighthouse with his father, who enchants him with tales of selkies – seals that turn into humans.

Ben’s mother dies giving birth to an unusual little sister, Saoirse, who speaks not a word until her sixth birthday. Their father, still grieving, sends them to Dublin to live with their grandmother, separating Saoirse from the ocean that is her life force and Ben from his beloved hound. They set off for home on a perilous journey, encountering mythical demons along the way.

 It has taken more than a year of painstaking work to restore the classic Thai film “Plae Kao” (“The Scar”) but now at last it’s ready. The timing couldn’t be better: Tomorrow marks what would have been the 87th birthday of its director, the late Cherd Songsri, and what better way to celebrate the occasion than to organise a screening at Scala Theatre?

Sanchai Chotirosseranee, deputy director of the Thai Film Archive, which is behind the project, says the success in restoring “Santi Vina”, the first film ever to win an award for Thailand and which was found quite by accident after being missing for 60 years, provided the impetus for “The Scar”. “Santi-Vina”, which was shown at Cannes in 2016, later went on limited release and was well received by the public.

“We saw with ‘Santi-Vina’ that this was a good way to promote and raise recognition of movie restoration and preservation. So we looked at a few potential films that were popular in their heyday and ‘Plae Kao’ was the obvious choice,” Sanchai adds.

“The Scar” was an overwhelming success at the box office when it was released in 1977, earning Bt13 million before being introduced to international audiences. It started its journey on the festival circuit in London, where it was shown alongside the independent film “Prachachon Nok” by veteran director Manop Udomdej, in 1981. It went on to share the Golden Montgolfiere with “They Don’t Wear Black Tie” by Brazilian director Leon Hirszman at the Festival des Trois Continents in Nantes, France, and was voted as one of the world’s 360 classic movies by the Museum of the Moving Images in London, Sight & Sound magazine and film directors and critics in 1998.

It was remade in 2002 in Thailand as “Kwan-Riam” and again under its original name in 2014 starring Chaiyapol Poupart and Davika Hoorne in the lead roles.

Yet despite the relative successes of both these films, Cherd’s original is hailed as the best and most memorable version.

The late director Cherd gave his negative films to the archive 30 years ago. But even with careful storage, the quality deteriorated dramatically with the colours fading to blue when it was reprinted in 2006 for a screening at the “Tout a fait Thai” event in France.

“We check the negative films we have once in a while but restoration can usually wait as we are equipped with cold storage to preserve the film quality,” Sanchai says.

Fading and deterioration are common in old negative films but not every movie has to be restored immediately. Sometimes, the experts say, it is better to wait for new technology to come along to make the project feasible.

“The Scar” was on the shortlist for restoration to promote the Thai Film Archive’s work along with other classics including the 1959 version of “Mae Nak Phra Khanong” starring Preeya Rungruang and Mitr Chai Bancha’s most successful film, 1970’s “Monrak Luk Thung”.

However, both films are older and in a much worse state than “The Scar”.

“We even sent them to a specialist laboratory in Italy we used for ‘Santi-Vina’ to restore but the quality is still not good enough,” Sanchai says.

“So we are putting the two movies on hold until someone comes up with the technology that will revive the quality to the level we have been able to achieve with ‘Santi-Vina’ and ‘The Scar’. Moreover, “The Scar” is a more contemporary film and many people over the age of 40 will have seen the original. We are really pleased with the restoration, which has made the film as good as new,” he continues.

Much of the work on “The Scar” has been carried out by L’ Immagine Ritrovata, and this time the archive sent Thai staffers who had attended the Film Restoration Summer School to Bologna.

While the laboratory has the technology required to remove scratches from the film, the colour grading requires several pairs of eyes and from its experience with “Santi-Vina”, the archive realised that the Italian company knew little about the colour temperature of Thai film or the skin tones of different Thai actors.

This time, they scanned negative print into digital format, then sent some references to the Italian team to show the colour temperature as well as references of the actor’s skin tone.

These references they provided included scenes from Cherd’s other movies like “Luead Suphan” and a behind-the-scenes segment of the first Thai feature animation “Sud Sakorn” showing actress Nantana Ngaokrachang.

The Thai archive even did some colour grading itself as an example. They also discussed night shots as Thai movies at that time used day-for-night filming, which could also result in the wrong grading tone.

Cherd produced the film with the idea of showing Thai culture to the world. Investors though were not interested and he ended up making the film with his own money and casting relative newcomers, among them rookie actress Nantana Ngaokrachang. The romantic tragedy was also considered a risk as cinemagoers in the late ’70s tended to prefer action movies or comedies. And Cherd also faced difficulties in getting the venues to screen his film as theatre owners feared losing money. He however proved them all wrong and the movie became a big hit.

The film is based on the novel of the same name by Mai Muengderm but adds more detail to the story. It is set in 1936 Bang Kapi, at that time a rural area and home to rice farmers. Kwan (Soraphong Chatree) and Riam (Nantana) are the son and daughter of rival village chiefs. Riam gives in to Kwan’s charms and the two pledge their love for each other at a spirit shrine on an island in the river. Riam’s father disapproves of the relationship. He wants Riam to marry Joi (Settha Sirachaya), the son of a wealthy local nobleman.

Her father then decides to send Riam to Bangkok, where she will be sold into as a maid for Mrs Thongkham (Suphan Buranaphim), a money lender who holds the deed to Riam’s father’s land. When the woman sees Riam’s face, she is struck by Riam’s resemblance to her dead daughter. So Riam is adopted by the woman, who introduces her to high-class Bangkok society, including the son of a wealthy nobleman, Somchai (Chalit Fuang-arom). After hearing that her mother is near death, Riam returns to the village for her final days. Kwan comes to bid his last respects, and Riam agrees to meet him the next day at noon, on the spirit island. Kwan does everything he can to prevent Riam from leaving, angering Somchai, Riam’s father and older brother, Roen and leading to the denouement.

After the screening at Scala tomorrow, the movie will travel to the Busan International Film Festival where it will be shown in the new Busan Classic category and introduced by veteran film critic Tony Raynes, the man who selected “The Scar” for the London Film Festival 37 years ago.

It will go on release at Scala and SF World Cinema from October 18.

NEXT UP FROM THE ARCHIVE

•   In addition to selecting old classic movies to restore, the archive is organising the second edition of the “Tueng Nang Loke” (“World Class Cinema”) screening series.
•  For updates, visit Facebook.com/ Thai Film Archive.

The other big story of the gala, television’s answer to the Oscars, was the huge success of eight Emmys overall for best comedy series “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel,” Amazon’s story of a 1950s housewife-turned-stand up comic.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” — last year’s best drama and an early favorite for more hardware — went home empty-handed from the event at the Microsoft Theater, having won three minor awards handed out a week ago.

The ceremony hosted by “Saturday Night Live” regulars Colin Jost and Michael Che took on a decidedly political hue, with a barrage of edgy jokes on hot-button issues such as diversity in Hollywood, #MeToo and President Donald Trump.

The gala also saw a handful of sentimental favorites take home their first Emmys.

Matthew Rhys won for best drama actor for spy thriller “The Americans,” Claire Foy was named best drama actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in “The Crown” and Henry Winkler triumphed for supporting comedy acting on “Barry.”

But the coveted drama prize went to “Game of Thrones,” which was ineligible for last year’s Emmys. Peter Dinklage took home the best supporting actor prize for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister.

“Writing for these actors behind us is the honor of a lifetime,” said series co-creator David Benioff

“But we didn’t invent these characters. That was George R.R. Martin. The show could not be without the mad genius of George.”

It won nine Emmys this year, meaning the blood-spattered tale of the battle for the Iron Throne — which returns in 2019 for an abbreviated eighth and final season — now has 47 awards overall.

That breaks the program’s own record as the most decorated fictional show since the Television Academy first handed out prizes in 1949.

‘Mrs Maisel’ breaks through

In the comedy categories, “Mrs Maisel” bested all comers in its first year of eligibility, sweeping the female acting prizes (star Rachel Brosnahan and co-star Alex Borstein) and best series honors.

Earlier this year, the series won two Golden Globes.

“One of the things I love the most about this show, while I have you captive for another two seconds — it’s about a woman who is finding her voice anew,” Brosnahan said.

“It’s something that’s happening all over the country right now. One of the most important ways that we can find and use our voices is to vote. So if you haven’t already registered, do it on your cell phone right now.”

HBO dark comedy “Barry” notched two acting wins — for Winkler and series star Bill Hader.

Politics and #MeToo

The show opened with a daring song-and-dance number poking fun at myriad controversies including diversity in Hollywood.

“We solved it!” crooned “Saturday Night Live” nominees Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson, with back-up from pop stars John Legend and Ricky Martin — and even RuPaul.

They then yielded the stage to Jost and Che — who let the zingers fly.

“This year, the audience is allowed to drink in their seats. Hope you’re excited about that — because the one thing Hollywood needs right now is a bunch of people losing their inhibitions at a work function,” Jost said, a reference to #MeToo.

An Emmy-winning proposal

Looking to boost audience ratings, Emmys organizers said they were hoping to shake up the broadcast — and indeed they did, intentionally and unintentionally.

A surprise marriage proposal from Emmy-winning director Glenn Weiss won over the audience — and the internet.

As Weiss accepted his award for directing the Oscars, he asked Jan Svendsen, who was sitting in the audience, to marry him.

“You wonder why I don’t like to call you my girlfriend? Because I want to call you my wife,” he added to cheers, applause and a few teary-eyed actors in the audience.

Svendsen then joined Weiss on stage as the director got on one knee and formally proposed.

The moment was especially poignant as Weiss revealed his mother had recently passed away — and offered Svendsen the ring his father had given his mom.

Drama showdown

Other big winners included FX’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” which won Emmys for best limited series and best lead actor in a limited series for Darren Criss, who took a dark turn as the designer’s killer Andrew Cunanan.

Thandie Newton won the best supporting actress in a drama statuette for her work on HBO’s futuristic western “Westworld.”

“I don’t even believe in God but I’m going to thank her tonight,” Newton quipped.

“Saturday Night Live” won the award for best variety sketch series.

In the emerging battle of traditional networks vs new platforms, streaming giant Netflix and HBO ended in a dead heat at the top — at 23 Emmys each.

“Saturday Night Live” nominees Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson led a group of actors including pop stars John Legend and Ricky Martin — and even RuPaul — in the amusing song-and-dance number touching on the hot-button issues.

They then yielded the stage to hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che, who are also regulars on the veteran NBC comedy sketch show — and let the zingers fly.

“This year, the audience is allowed to drink in their seats. Hope you’re excited about that — because the one thing Hollywood needs right now is a bunch of people losing their inhibitions at a work function,” Jost said to hearty laughs.

In describing “The Handmaid’s Tale,” one of the evening’s top nominees, Che said the Hulu show “takes place in an imaginary future where an entire group of people is violently forced to work and make babies against their will.”

“It’s what black people call history. It’s ‘Roots’ for white women,” he quipped, referring to the landmark 1970s television mini-series about slavery.

The glittering gala in downtown Los Angeles will see “The Handmaid’s Tale” face off with record-breaking HBO fantasy epic “Game of Thrones” for top honors — especially the coveted best drama prize.

Others in the best drama race include FX spy thriller “The Americans,” HBO’s futuristic western “Westworld,” Netflix favorites “The Crown” and retro sci-fi mystery “Stranger Things,” and NBC family saga “This is Us.”

The first awards of the night went to sentimental favorite Henry Winkler – the Fonz himself — for best supporting actor in a comedy for “Barry,” and to Alex Borstein for Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel.”

THE TORONTO International Film Festival, one of the world’s largest and most important public film events is also the most varied, bringing films of every genre to eager audiences.

One of its 14 sections, TIFF Docs, focuses on documentaries covering different issues and this year has included Errol Morris’s “American Dharma” about former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and the latest documentary by Michael Moore “Fahrenheit 11/9”, which examines Trump’s triumph in the 2016 presidential election.

Another global issue presented through documentaries in this section is migration, as explored in the Danish film “Heartbound”. Directed by Janus Metz and Sine Plambech, it looks at Thai women from the country’s Northeast or Isaan who migrate to Denmark to marry Danish men.

Though the phenomenon known as “Koey Farang” (Western sons-in-law) is widely known in Thailand, few films have touched on this subject. In 2011, Thai director Chinores Kamwandee’s “White Buffalo” told the story of a young man who returns to his village and discovers it has been almost overrun by these koey farang.

Award-winning director Aditya Assarat also has a film project with a similar name. “The White Buffalo”, which is yet to be made, is about an Englishman married to an uneducated bar girl.

And so Metz and Plambach’s “Heartbound” might be the first time for audiences to see the real lives of Thai women who travel far from home to start their new lives with European husbands.

“For 15 years, I have been working with the Thai community in Denmark and in Isaan,” Sine Plambech tells XP after the documentary’s world premiere in Toronto.

A researcher and anthropologist at the Danish Institute for International Studies, she came up with the idea for the documentary project conducting field work with a group Thai women living in a remote area of Denmark.

“As an anthropologist, I was curious why they were here, what they were doing and where they came from in Thailand. I started interviewing them in 2003, and I asked them if I could go to visit their families in Isaan.”

With their agreement, Plambach went to their hometowns to learn more about the women who had left their families behind to marry Danish men in a country they knew little about.

“It was my first visit to Thailand. Some of the families picked me up in Korat, and took me in their pick-up truck to a small village in the middle of Isaan. In the village, they showed me the farang houses. It was interesting as it showed how much the villages had changed because of these mixed marriages.”

While it has not been too difficult for these Thai women to blend in with Danish society, the current spread of nationalism and immigrant sentiment all over Europe means that foreign wives could well face prejudice.

“On one hand, the Thai women have been welcomed into the local community and in Danish society and they all have jobs in factories and in the service sector. On the other hand they do face prejudice because they have come to Denmark to create a better life for themselves and their children – and not because they were in love. The love between Thai women and Danish men usually grows as the years progress.”

“I tried to understand how people are navigating the global world. We have new opportunities, but I wanted to know how that was understood at the local level. The marriage between Thai women and Danish men was an intimate place for a conversation about globalisation to begin,” says Janus Metz, co-director of the film who in 2006, was making films about African immigrant in Europe. After meeting Sine, he decided to work with her and help her transform her research on Thai women into a documentary.

“It’s essentially the same story,” he says. “It’s about women who migrate through marriage, but are looking for ways to help their families back home. It’s a fairy-tale type of story. I saw the opportunity to tell this story through a documentary.”

“Heartbound” explores the lives of several Thai women from Isaan who married Danish men and moved to Denmark. Metz and Plambach started filming the documentary in 2006 and it follows the lives of the characters from then until today

One of them, Sommai, moved to Denmark 25 years ago and has become a matchmaker who helps Thai women find Danish husbands.

“Sommai is the main protagonist of the film, and one of the key persons in my research. When I started working on it, everyone was talking about Sommai, telling me I needed to meet her because she was one of the first women to come to that area. I arranged a dinner with all the people. We hit it off and they all agreed to be in the film,” Plambach explains.

“It was also important for Sommai. Over the years, she has taken this on as a kind of political project. She wants to tell her story. The day we had a private screening in Denmark, which the people from the Thai Embassy attended, Sommai gave a speech in Thai to Thai women, telling them that the documentary narrates their real lives, their real stories. It has not been directed, and they should not be ashamed of their lives and how they came to Denmark.”

Kae, Sommai’s niece, is one of the women who came to Denmark to marry Kjeld, a factory worker.

“We met Kae for the first time at Copenhagen airport, and we met her on camera,” says Metz who filmed Kae from the moment she arrived in Denmark until 2016, when her now grown son from a previous marriage who had lived with the couple, moved to Copenhagen to work in a restaurant.

“We tried to talk to Kae through Sommai. She’s in the film because Sommai told her that she has to be in the film,” says Metz. Indeed, it was not the first time that Kae and Kjeld had appeared on screen. Their lives were the subject of a documentary for Danish television back in 2007 called “Love On Delivery” (“From Thailand to Thy”).

“The documentary became very popular with more than one million viewers watching it. After that I continued my research, and seven years later, we decided to go back and film again as there are many dramatic things going on in the lives of these people.”

The film also examines the life of one woman who wants to find a foreign husband but ends up as a sex worker in Pattaya.

“As documentarians, we wanted to look at reality as it is, and not try to make a polished image of the situation. This is the reality of what is going on right now.”, Metz explains.

The world premiere of “Heartbound” was packed to the gills and a hit with the audience. The characters in the film, though unable to come to Toronto, were all excited to see their stories being told to an international audience.

“All the Thai women in Denmark have been texting me asking about the premiere in Toronto. Everyone is very proud to be part of this story. It was too much for them to come to Toronto. Some of them have children, work or bad knees, but Sommai will come with me for the screening of the film in Zurich,” Plambach says.

After Toronto, the film will travel to other festivals, and the directors hope that “Heartbound” will be able to reach Thai filmgoers soon.

“We are negotiating right now with film festivals in Thailand”, says Plambach. “We have been working a little with a local film distributor in Isaan and hope that the film can be screened for the local community.”

But the Fox reboot, which cost $88 million to make, will look to earn back some money in international markets, as its estimated $24 million haul did not meet expectations.

The movie, which comes more than 30 years after the franchise’s original film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, courted controversy before its release when the studio cut a scene featuring an actor who was a registered sex offender.

Star Olivia Munn had requested the change, saying she was unaware of the actor’s past when the scene was filmed. Director Shane Black initially said he hired the actor because he was a friend, but later issued a strong apology.

Dropping to second place was last week’s top draw, horror movie “The Nun” — the latest fright fest in the popular “Conjuring” series. It earned an estimated $18.2 million in its second week, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said.

“Nun” stars Taissa Farmiga — whose sister Vera headlined two “Conjuring” films — in a story about a young nun, an exorcist and a guide stumbling onto a dark secret deep in Dracula country: the Romania of 1952 — Transylvania, no less.

Opening in the third spot was “A Simple Favor,” a tale about a mommy blogger (Anna Kendrick) investigating the disappearance of her friend (Blake Lively). The Lionsgate film raked in $16.1 million on the back of positive reviews.

Matthew McConaughey’s new film “White Boy Rick” opened in fourth place with $8.8 million. The movie, based on a true story, stars the Oscar winner as the father of a teenage boy who became an informant for the FBI in the 1980s.

Glitzy rom-com “Crazy Rich Asians,” another Warner Bros product along with “The Nun,” fell to fifth place. The film, with a nearly all-Asian cast led by Henry Golding and Constance Wu, took in $8.7 million, building on a crazy-good run.

Its North American take stands at nearly $150 million, with another $28 million earned overseas.

Rounding out this weekend’s top 10 were:

“Peppermint” ($6.1 million)

“The Meg” ($3.8 million)

“Searching” ($3.2 million)

“Unbroken: Path to Redemption” ($2.4 million)

“Mission Impossible — Fallout” ($2.3 million)

But winter could come early for HBO’s blood-spattered smash hit if it fails to snare the coveted best drama series prize, with last year’s winner “The Handmaid’s Tale” hotly tipped to defend its crown.

Both shows have already picked up some Emmys hardware: “Game of Thrones” won seven statuettes in technical categories at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, while “The Handmaid’s Tale” scooped up three.

And both are likely to add to that haul at Monday’s glittering gala in downtown Los Angeles, but the race for the top prize still seems to be a crapshoot, with dark horse pick “The Americans” also in the hunt.

Can “Handmaid” — Hulu’s bleak take on a totalitarian America where women are oppressed, based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel — again win over voters, especially in the #MeToo era?

Will “The Americans” — the gripping FX thriller about Soviet sleeper agents in the United States during the Cold War — finally earn some Emmys love after a critically acclaimed six-season run?

Or will “GoT,” the cinematic tale of noble families vying for the Iron Throne, reign supreme once again, on the back of its whopping 22 nominations?

Others in the best drama category include HBO’s futuristic western “Westworld,” Netflix favorites “The Crown” and retro sci-fi mystery “Stranger Things,” and NBC family saga “This is Us.”

The Television Academy’s 22,000-plus members have already cast their ballots for the 70th Primetime Emmys, the small-screen answer to the Oscars — so it’s time for red carpet glamour and heartfelt speeches.

For Robert Thompson, professor of pop culture and television history at Syracuse University in New York, there are no “obvious winners” on the drama side — but a plethora of innovative, quality comedies.

“As peak TV settles into middle age, half-hour comedies are television’s red Corvette,” Thompson said — a shiny new toy for viewers.

With perennial heavy hitter “Veep” out of contention this year, FX’s “Atlanta” — a quirky look at the rap scene in the Georgia capital — is squaring off with Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel” for top honors.

“Atlanta” star and creator Donald Glover, a winner last year for best lead comedy actor, is tipped to repeat. Overall, the show earned 16 nominations.

TV history in making

In 2016, “Game of Thrones” made history, picking up 12 awards and becoming the most decorated fictional show since the Television Academy first handed out prizes in 1949.

With the seven statuettes it won last weekend, “GoT” — which will return in 2019 for an eighth and final season — now has 45 Emmys overall.

On Monday, beyond the best drama trophy, cast members Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage are nominated, along with the show’s directors and writers.

Other major contenders include FX’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” which racked up 18 nominations.

Darren Criss is the favorite to win the star-studded race for best actor in a limited series or movie for his searing portrayal of Versace’s killer Andrew Cunanan.

But he faces stiff competition from a clutch of boldface names including Antonio Banderas, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeff Daniels and John Legend, the pop crooner who has already made some history of his own.

The “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert” headliner joined the musical’s co-producers Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice as the latest showbiz personalities to earn EGOT status.

Each now has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. Only 12 others have achieved the distinction.

Another bit of Emmys history: streaming giant Netflix ended HBO’s 17-year streak of leading the nominations, with 112 to the premium cable network’s 108.

After last week’s Creative Arts Emmys, HBO has won 17 statuettes to Netflix’s 16.

Politics and ratings

Another major contender is veteran comedy sketch show “Saturday Night Live,” just behind “GoT” with 21 nominations.

Show regulars Michael Che and Colin Jost will host the Emmys at the Microsoft Theater, to be broadcast on NBC, and series creator Lorne Michaels will produce the event for the first time in 30 years.

With awards show audiences dwindling in the age of Twitter, can the “SNL” team breathe new life into the format?

“If anyone can do live TV and try to keep the format relevant, I suppose it’s Lorne Michaels,” Thompson said.

Jost has said he wants the Emmys to be “less political than normal” — but that seems unlikely only a week after CBS chairman and CEO Les Moonves left in a cloud of sexual misconduct allegations.

For Thompson, television’s best and brightest “tend to be politically conscious folks” and given that the #MeToo movement erupted after last year’s Emmys gala, a few well-placed comments appear inevitable.

 “Under Construction”, the second movie in River City Film Club’s September Film Series hails from Bangladesh and is being screened tomorrow at 4pm.

The film, which has won awards from festivals around the world, opened the recent Dhaka International Film Festival.

Its director Rubaiyat Hossain studied in the US and is currently following a film studies course at the Tisch School of Arts in New York. She hops between Bangladesh and the US, and has started a film production company in Dhaka, Khona Talkies, to support talented film-makers from her country.

“Under Construction” is a woman-centric film, using both mainly female actors and crew. It follows Roya who tries to break out of stereotypes, both in her personal life as a middle-class housewife and in her professional life as a stage actress. She does not want to be a typical housewife at home, including having a child, which disturbs her otherwise-cool husband. At work, she tries to re-interpret the role of the female protagonist Nandini, in the famed play “Red Oleanders” by Nobel Laureate author Rabindranath Tagore, which shocks her stage- director. The only person who seems to understand her is the US-based theatre curator Imtiaz, and they are strongly drawn to each other.

The film is Bengali with English subtitles and admission is free.

The film-event is supported by the Embassy of Bangladesh, who will host a Reception after the screening. Ambassador Saida Muna Tasneem, will introduce the film.

The film screening will be held at the River City Forum on the second floor of River City Shopping Centre.

Book your seat at rcbfilmclub@gmail.com.