Controversial Bush Film Is Honored In Toronto

(September 18, 2006) — Mexican-born director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde’s feature film debut, the unheralded “Bella,” took the top audience prize at the 31st Toronto International Film Festival. International critics gave an award to the controversial British TV movie “Death of a President,” which centers on a fictionalized assassination of President Bush.

The romantic film “Bella” tells the story of a former Mexican soccer star turned chef (Mexican actor Eduardo Verastegui) and a troubled waitress (American stage actress Tammy Blanchard) whose lives converge and turn upside down during a single day in New York. It was the surprise winner of the People’s Choice Award voted on by festival audiences.

“This festival has been so, so amazing,” Monteverde said as he accepted the award at the festival’s closing reception Saturday night at the Hilton Hotel. “They treat the little ones and the big ones the same. … Thank you Toronto film festival for allowing filmmakers like myself who come from nothing to come here.”

Monteverde was born in Mexico but moved to the United States as a teenager.

Last year’s People’s Choice Award winner, the South African film “Tsotsi,” won the Oscar for best foreign-language film.French director Patrice Leconte’s buddy film “Mon meilleur ami” (”My Best Friend”) was the first runner-up for the People’s Choice Award. It was followed by Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck’s documentary “Dixie Chicks: Shut up and Sing,” which chronicles the trio’s transition from country music darlings to bold symbols for freedom of expression after their criticism of Bush sparked a strong backlash.

British director Gabriel Range’s “Death of a President” stirred up a strong reaction even before it premiered at the festival and won the Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize). The jury of film critics cited the film “for the audacity with which it distorts reality to reveal a larger truth.”

“Death of a President,” which was bought by Newmarket Films and is slated to air Oct. 9 on an offshoot of Britain’s Channel 4 network, chronicles the sniper shooting of Bush on Oct. 19, 2007, during a trip to Chicago and the ensuing investigation.

The film blends archival footage of the president interspersed with fierce anti-war protests and other fictional scenes crafted by the filmmakers. Actors posing as administration officials and Secret Service agents were digitally grafted into some images of the president and his entourage. The filmmakers said they chose to use Bush rather than substitute a fictitious president to heighten the authenticity.

“I’m thrilled that the film is going to be shown in theaters both here and in the U.S. in the near future,” Range said Saturday. “That’s proof that people can see beyond the premise and see that it’s a film about this post-9/11 world that we live in.”