sic novel All the King's Men. Talia
Balsam, the daughter of the late Jewish
actor Martin Balsam and actress Joyce
Van Patten, plays Penn's wife (in real life,
Talia was married to heartthrob George
Clooney from 1989-1993 and is cur-
rently married to actor John Slattery).
Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly,
whose mother is Jewish, co-stars in
Little Children, an intense character
study about three people whose lives
intersect in a small community.
Stranger than Fiction is a comedy
about an IRS auditor (Will Ferrell) who
suddenly finds himself the subject of a
narration only he call hear. Co-starring
are Jewish actors Dustin Hoffman and
Maggie Gyllenhaal.
British Jewish actress Rachel Weisz,
who won an Oscar this year, stars in
The Fountain, a very ambitious film
that combines elements of science
fiction and theology It's about a man
(Hugh Jackman) who takes a thou-
sand-year journey to save the life of the
woman he loves (Weisz).
The Fountain is written and direct-
ed by Darren Aronfsky, Weisz's Jewish
fiance and the father of her new baby.
Sure to raise controversy is the wild
satire Borat: Cultural Leanings of
America for Make Benefit of the
Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Written by and starring British Jewish
comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, this is
a mock documentary in which Borat,
a minor representative of the Central
Asian country of Kazakhstan, comes
to the United States to study and film
Americans. In one scene, Borat sings an
anti-Semitic song in front of a real audi-
ence and some join in.
Sacha Cohen's fiancee, Australian
actress Isla Fisher, who has been study-
ing to convert to Judaism, co-stars in
The Pleasure of Your Company.
Fisher plays a quirky waitress who gets a
marriage proposal out of nowhere from
a guy whose heart has recently been
broken. Pleasure, a comedy, is written
and directed by Michael Ian Black (part
of the all-Jewish Stella comedy troupe).
Jewish actress Joanna Gleason (daugh-
ter of Let's Make a Deal host Monty
Hall) has a supporting role.
Jewish writer-director Brad Silberling
(Moonlight Mile) penned and helmed
his Toronto offering, Ten Items or
Less. It's about a celebrity (Morgan
Freeman) who gets lost in a Los Angeles
minority community and meets a gro-
cery clerk who helps both of them turn
their lives around.
Our Australian landsman, Paul
Goldman, is the director and co-writer
of Anarchy. He told the Australian
Jewish News: "It's about a young girl
who is totally relentless in her pursuit of
her own personal gratification and stops
at nothing and causes absolute mayhem
and anarchy around her. Morally, it's
very challenging."
French Jewish actress-turned-direc-
tor Zabou Breitbart brings her film
L'Homme de sa Vie to Toronto. It's
about a gay affair between a married
man and a friend of his. Breitbart's pre-
vious film, The Things I Remember
Well, was a French box-office and criti-
cal smash.
Polish-born director Agnieszka
Holland, who now lives in France, is
best known for her 1990 film Europa,
Europa, about a Jewish boy who sur-
vives the Holocaust by pretending to
be a German. Based on a real story,
Europa earned Holland a best screen-
writing Oscar and a National Jewish
Cultural Award.
Born to a Jewish father and a Catholic
mother, Holland identifies as a Jew in an
ethnic sense but is a practicing Catholic.
Her new film, Copying Beethoven,
is a period piece about a young woman
who works for Ludwig Von Beethoven,
writing down his musical notes as he
composes. Ed Harris plays Beethoven.
Jewish Canadian filmmaker Kal
Mann covers the life of legendary
American designer Ed "Big Daddy" Roth
(who wasn't Jewish) in the largely ani-
mated documentary, Tales of the Rat
Fink. In the '60s, Roth not only became
famous for designing hot rods but for
creating a cartoon character called "Rat
Fink',' who became a pop culture icon of
the decade. Many big stars, including Jay
Leno, agreed to narrate the film.
Barbara Kopple, the Jewish documen-
tarian who has won two Oscars, comes
to Toronto with Dixie Chicks, a film
about the famous three-woman country
band. Another veteran Jewish documen-
tary maker, Liz Mermin, is showing her
film, Office Tigers, about the cultural
interaction of South Indian employees
and their American bosses.
Jewish filmmaker Tony Kaye, best
known for American History X, about
a neo-Nazi, takes on another charged
subject in Lake of Fire. It is an in-
depth look at the American debate
about abortion.
Jeff Garlin, the Jewish come-
dian who co-stars on TV's Curb Your
Enthusiasm, is the director of This
Filthy World, a filmed record of cult
film director John Waters' one-man-
show about his life and career. Word is
that it is very funny. ❑
For more information on the
Toronto International Film
Festival, go to
www.e.bell.canilmfest/2006.
Mimi Cohen Markofsky
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