Toronto film festival kicks off with cold tale of North

TORONTO (AFP) - The 31st Toronto International Film Festival opened with stars treading the red carpet and screaming fans eager to see the world premiere of "The Journals of Knud Rasmussen" about a clash of cultures.

Canadian directors Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn's highly anticipated film follows Danish scientists who in 1922 record the lives of an Inuit shaman and his rebellious daughter, their traditions threatened by the rise of commerce and Christianity with the arrival of the first Europeans to Canada's far north.

It is based on true events. Rasmussen was a Danish ethnographer who collected over 20,000 Inuit artifacts and scribbled thousands of pages in journals about his Arctic adventures.

"We are artists. We are not social workers. We are political artists but we are not politicians. We make things visible. Other people fix them," Cohn told AFP, highlighting the devastation of Inuit culture over the past century due to colonization that has been "either denied or suppressed."

"Showing this movie here is so important because ... aboriginal people are speaking directly to the privileged, richest and most powerful in this country tonight," he said. "For too long, aboriginal people were pictured as cartoons in Canada."

The cast, many of whom appeared in the duo's other collaborations, abandoned their fur hats and seal-skin coats in Igloolik, Nunavut where the film was shot, for tuxedos and gowns on the red carpet some 3,600 kilometers (2,200 miles) south.

"We're very excited to be here," said actor Pakak Innukshuk. "The film will help people understand how Inuit survived."

An Oscar preview for many Hollywood films, the annual film festival from September 7 to 16 covers themes from friends and family, to politics and war, amid "a very violent and politically divisive age," according to festival co-producer Noah Cowan.

Britain's Channel 4 is hoping to find a US distributor here for its controversial "Death of a President," by filmmaker Gabriel Range.

The fictional drama told in documentary style about the 2007 assassination of Bush in Chicago amid Iraq war protests mixes archival footage with narrative elements to explore the loss of civil liberties, the ramifications of war and the manipulation of mass media. It will be aired in Britain in October.

Michael Moore will be on hand to further fan anti-Bush sentiments with a sneak preview of his unfinished "Sicko" about the US healthcare system, and to share his experiences on the 2004 US presidential election campaign trail.

As well, "Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing," which recalls the Texas-born country singers' tiff with Bush over the Iraq war, will become the first documentary to be included in the festival's prestigious gala lineup.

The world premiere of Ridley Scott's "A Good Year," starring festival newcomer Russell Crowe; "Babel," starring Brad Pitt; "All the King's Men," with Sean Penn and Jude Law; and "Infamous," featuring British actor Toby Jones as Truman Capote, have already created some Oscar buzz.

Toronto has become a key event for Oscar-conscious studios and distributors and is attended by a sizable contingent of North American media.

Indeed, three of the five films nominated for best picture at the 2006 Academy Awards -- "Capote," "Brokeback Mountain" and "Crash," which won -- had their international or North American premieres at the Toronto festival.

Litanies of Hollywood movie stars are expected to attend the festival to help promote the contenders, including Pitt, Sharon Stone, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Hanks, Anthony Hopkins, Penelope Cruz, Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony.

Last year, the festival broke a record for total distribution deals, worth a whopping 52 million Canadian dollars (47 million US), led by "Thank You for Smoking" which went to Fox Searchlight for 6.5 million dollars (5.9 million US) after a messy fight with Paramount Classics.

Hoping to match or beat it this year are Werner Herzog's Vietnam War epic "Rescue Dawn", Eytan Fox's "The Bubble" about gay love between an Israeli and a Palestinian, and Sang-il Lee's comedy "Hula Girls" based on a true story about a man trying to save a dying Japanese coal mining town by transforming it into a Hawaiian resort and teaching coal miners' daughters the hip dance.

A total of 352 films from 61 countries will be screened at the festival this year, including 261 feature films.