Je veux voir (I Want to See)—Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Lebanon. Their first film since the 2005 critically acclaimed A Perfect Day, filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige ask the question "what can cinema do?" and translate that into a version of reality in Je veux voir. Catherine Deneuve and Rabih Mroué star as themselves, traveling to Beirut and driving through the regions devastated by the 2006 war in Lebanon. This unpredictable adventure aims to reveal the beauty in an area ravaged by war. Cineuropa offers an alternate synopsis. At The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson gathers the critical response from Cannes08. "Seeing means traveling to the most hard-hit parts of Lebanon to witness the aftermath of the recent war, the pockmarked buildings and caved-in brick walls," Ali Naderzad dispatches to Screen Comment, though he adds that "the film's intentions are a bit hazy." Preceded by the short film Expectations (South Korea/France). Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's follow-up to the 2006 award-winning Daratt (Dry Season) charts the journey of a man fleeing his debts by attempting an arduous desert crossing. North American Premiere.

Liverpool—Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/France/Netherlands/Spain/Germany. During an Atlantic crossing, Farrel asks the captain of the freighter he is sailing for permission to go ashore at the next port. He wants to visit the place where he was born to find out if his mother is still alive. At The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson gathers the critical response from Cannes08. North American Premiere.

Salamandra—Pablo Agüero, Argentina/France/Germany. In the valley of El Bolson in Patagonia—a haven for renegades from all over the world—Alba and Inti try to build a normal life as mother and son. indieWIRE interviewed Agüero at Cannes07 when the project was in development via the Atelier de la Cinefondation. At Cannes08 Milos Stehlik—dispatching to Facets Features—found Salamandra to be a "wonderfully exciting surprise" and added he would go see the film again if it were showing anywhere. Harry Tuttle practices a more distanced critique at Screenville. At Variety, Justin Chang admits that Salamandra marks Agüero as "a talent to watch", praises rising Argentine actress Dolores Fonzi as "beautiful" in her "chain-smoking, vanity-free abandon" and draws comparisons to the work of Lucrecia Martel. At The Hollywood Reporter, Duane Byrge observes that Salamandra is "a horror-of-personality story, carved and gutted from a mother-son relationship." North American Premiere.

Service (Serbis)—Brillante Mendoza, Philippines/France. The Pineda family operates a run-down movie house that shows sexy double features. While they endure each other's sins and vices, the matriarch, Nanay Flor, receives a long-awaited court decision on the bigamy case filed against her estranged husband. Movie Jungle offers an expanded (spoilerish!) synopsis. At The Greencine Daily, Dave Hudson gathers the critical response from Cannes08. At The New York Times, A.O. Scott pounces upon the film's strategic use of a goat to describe "the metaphorical goats, as it were, [that] can be found in the screening rooms, where audiences gather, sheeplike, to witness the frustration, misery and disorder of real life in various parts of the world." At The Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt complains the film is "a headscratcher" and judgmentally suspects the film was at Cannes "for one reason—to give the festival its annual jolt of graphic oral sex." This is a bad thing? At Macleans.CA, Brian D. Johnson deduces that "[t]he blow job is the new French kiss" and judges Serbis as "a shabby piece of video verite from the Philippines." At Lessons From the School of Inattention, Francis Cruz admits that Serbis is "hardly a perfect film" but he "was undoubtedly fascinated" by the film's narrative complexity ("[t]he storyline is as complicated as the labyrinthine corridors of the theater") and appreciative of the film's intended aim of "mixing reality and fiction and blurring the fine line between film viewing and voyeurism." North American Premiere.

The Sky Crawlers (Sukai kurora)—Mamoru Oshii, Japan. Celebrated animated film director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) delves into a world that is eradicated by war, where private contractors enlist fighter pilots known as Kildren to perform in an endless war that people watch on TV. Kildren do not age, living in a state of eternal adolescence until they die in action. Embracing the reality with which they are faced, the Kildren are conscious that each new day could very well be their last. AsianBeat has an informative profile on Oshii with an anticipatory focus on The Sky Crawlers. Jason Gray weighs in with an appreciative review. At Japan Times, Mark Schilling writes that "the film's air battles, which put the audience in the passenger's seat for each meticulously rendered climb, roll and plunge, [and] are thrilling in a primal, adrenaline-pumping way" but disclaims that Oshii is trying to make a typical fighter-pilot film. "Instead," Schilling asserts, "he is conducting an investigation into the consequences of messing with the core definition of humanity. What happens when you wipe out a person's past? Make him ageless? Enlist him in a war that never ends—and a life that has no future?" Underscoring that the film's true tragedy lies "not [in] an aborted future, but [in] the lack of a past." North American Premiere.

Süt (Milk)—Semih Kaplanoğlu, Turkey/France/Germany. Young Yusuf is upset when he learns that his mother Fatma is having a secret affair with the town's railroad stationmaster. He must decide whether to behave in accordance with the traditional male-dominated culture of the town, or to develop a newly open perspective that is more modern. indieWIRE interviewed Kaplanoğlu at Cannes07 when the project was in development via the Atelier de la Cinefondation. North American Premiere.

Uncertainty—Scott McGehee and David Siegel, USA. Starring up and comers Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Brick, The Lookout), Olivia Thirlby (The Wackness, Juno) and Lynn Collins (The Merchant of Venice), this film offers two stories about the same young couple in love who find out that they are pregnant and are not sure what to do. The man flips a coin and there follows two versions of what happens next—but both stories end up with the same consequences. World Premiere.

The Unspoken—Fien Troch, Belgium. Five years ago, 14-year-old Lisa disappeared from the lives of her parents Lukas and Grace, with no clear reason, no goodbye. Her parents have managed to get their lives back to some semblance of normality, until Benjamin, a former friend of Lisa's, pays them a visit and a series of strange occurrences ensue. Gradually, Lisa's presence begins to seep back into her parents' lives, whether they like it or not. This film marks the second feature for director Fien Troch, whose previous film, Someone Else's Happiness, was at TIFF05. World Premiere.

Vinyan—Fabrice du Welz, France/United Kingdom/Belgium. Eastern spiritual themes of despair are paired with maternal concerns in du Welz's second film after his 2004 Midnight Madness debut, Calvaire. Starring Emmanuelle Béart and Rufus Sewell, Vinyan concerns a couple who are torn after the loss of their son Joshua. Glimpsing a boy who resembles Joshua in video footage from a village of orphaned children on the Thai-Burmese border, Jeanne (Béart) becomes consumed by the belief her son was kidnapped by traffickers in the chaos that followed the 2004 tsunami. The Gomorrahizer offers an alternate synopsis at Gomorrahy.Com. Bloody Disgusting scores an interview with du Welz. North American Premiere.

Trailers for Birdsong, Serbis, Sky Crawlers, Unspoken and Vinyan can be found at the Twitch TIFF Trailer Park.

Cross-published on The Evening Class.