Dreams and nightmares, truth and lies, friends and enemies, families that help and hinder — the human condition in other words — drive the 10 series that make up the Toronto International Film Festival’s television program this year.
The Primetime lineup is but a drop in the bucket among the festival’s 280-plus feature films and shorts, but it is still a means to experience interesting TV from around the globe, sometimes before anyone else.
This year, more than half of the series are world premiering at TIFF, including “The Lowdown,” “A Sámi Wedding,” “Gandhi,” “Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League,” “Black Rabbit” and “Wayward.”
That latter is a hot ticket as the drama-writing, directing and producing debut of Toronto-born comedian Mae Martin.
A couple of other shows — “Black Rabbit” and “The Lowdown” — also feature the kind of A-list talent that will “get people off of that couch and into a cinema to see a series,” as Primetime programmer Geoff Macnaughton said when we spoke last year.
But it doesn’t take a big-name cast or creator to make a series worthy.
Macnaughton said in an email that the shows screening this year, chosen from just under 100 submissions, represent more countries than ever before and all stood out to him for different reasons.
“For instance, ‘The Lowdown’ stood out to me as Sterlin Harjo’s much anticipated followup to ‘Reservation Dogs.’ It completely exceeds expectations with an incredible lead performance by Ethan Hawke. A series like ‘Portobello’ stood out to me as a series from Italian master Marco Bellocchio about the true story of popular Italian TV host Enzo Tortora and his ‘connection’ to organized crime.”
The one downside is that it sometimes takes months, even years, for shows seen at TIFF to reach the small screen in Canada.
(Last year’s “Mussolini: Son of the Century” comes to MUBI on Sept. 10, while “Bad Boy” from 2023 just hit Netflix in May.)
Nonetheless, here’s a look at the TV shows coming to the festival, including screening — and streaming — dates, where applicable.
“Black Rabbit” (U.S.)
“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” the saying goes, which certainly applies to Jake Friedken (Jude Law) in this drama. Jake is on the cusp of greatness in the competitive New York restaurant scene with the Black Rabbit when his brother and co-founder, Vince (Jason Bateman), comes back to town. In debt, and with a serious gambling addiction, Vince’s penchant for attracting chaos threatens everything Jake has built. Bateman, an Emmy winner for “Ozark,” also directs two episodes. Screens at TIFF Sept. 7, 3:30 p.m., and Sept. 8, 9:30 p.m.; on Netflix Sept. 18
“Gandhi” (India)
This is the only Primetime entry I didn’t get to preview. According to TIFF, it’s about revered civil rights champion Mahatma Gandhi when he was just Mohandas Gandhi, a young Indian man with a wife and a child on the way, hoping to study law in London. It’s based on the books “Gandhi Before India” and “Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World.” Screens at TIFF Sept 6, 11 a.m., and Sept. 13, 4:45 p.m.
“The Lowdown” (U.S.)
Ethan Hawke is the rakish, uncompromising Lee Raybon in this comedic drama from Sterlin Harjo, co-creator of “Reservation Dogs,” described by TIFF as an ode to film noir. Lee is a self-styled “truthstorian,” relentless in his investigative journalism no matter how uncomfortable it makes the Tulsa elites he pursues or how much danger it puts him in. Screens at TIFF Sept. 4, 9:30 p.m., and Sept. 6, 7 p.m.; on Disney Plus Sept. 23
“Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League” (Rwanda, U.K., U.S.)
This docuseries is nothing less than the tale of a seemingly impossible dream become reality: the creation of a league of 12 basketball teams representing 12 diverse nations on the African continent. Featuring interviews with heavy hitters like BAL president Amadou Gallo Fall, former Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri and former U.S. president Barack Obama, the series elucidates the transformative power of sport as well as the peoples and cultures of a continent little understood by North Americans. Screens at TIFF Sept. 8, 2:30 p.m.; Sept. 9, 6:45 p.m., and Sept. 14, 4:30 p.m.
“Portobello” (Italy, France)
Italian organized crime meets show business in this truth-is-stranger-than-fiction period drama about a TV host falsely accused of being part of a Neapolitan crime syndicate in the early 1980s. Enzo Tortora (Fabrizio Gifuni) was host of the wildly popular game/variety show “Portobello” when Giovanni Pandico (Lino Musella), a low-level member of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata with a petty grudge against Tortora, named him as part of a drug ring, setting off a years-long legal battle. Marco Bellocchio, one of this year’s TIFF luminaries, wrote and directed. Screening at TIFF Sept. 11, 9:30 p.m., and Sept. 12, 3:25 p.m.
“Reunion” (U.K.)
Daniel (Matthew Gurney), a deaf man released from prison after doing his time for the murder of a good friend, sets off on a mysterious quest for revenge involving a school reunion. At the same time, he refuses to explain the killing to anyone, even his now-adult daughter, Carly (Lara Peake). Meanwhile, the victim’s widow (Ann-Marie Duff, “Bad Sisters”) is desperate to speak to Daniel and ask him why he did it. The series, created by William Mager and produced by the team behind likely Emmy winner “Adolescence,” also stars Eddie Marsan (“Ray Donovan”) and Rose Ayling-Ellis (“EastEnders”). Screening at TIFF Sept. 5, 9:30 p.m., and Sept. 14, 12:30 p.m.
“Rise of the Raven” (Hungary, Austria, Germany)
This historical epic concerns the real-life battles between the Hungarians and the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, dramatized for TV with muscular warriors, plucky heroines, wily royals, scheming courtiers and the like. The cast — led by Hungarian-Romanian actor Gellért L. Kádár as real-life hero János Hunyadi — speaks Hungarian, Czech, German, Italian and Turkish. The series has a Canadian connection in executive producer Robert Lantos. Screening at TIFF Sept. 8, 8:45 p.m., and Sept. 11, 3 p.m.
“A Sámi Wedding” (Norway)
In this comedy-drama set in Kautokeino in northern Norway, Garen (Sara Margrethe Oskal), the middle-aged matriarch of a lower-income family, is determined to pull off a huge traditional wedding in just a month when her only son becomes engaged to the daughter of a wealthy reindeer-herding clan. Nothing will deter Garen, whether it’s stresses to her health, the scorn of her neighbours or the disapproval of her fractious younger siblings. Screening at TIFF Sept. 8, 3:10 p.m., and Sept. 9, 9 p.m.
“The Savage” (Iran)
In this drama from Iranian actor, writer and director Houman Seyyedi, mine worker Davood (Javad Ezati) is a seemingly good son, friend and co-worker whose well-meaning decision to help two children walking along a dangerous road results in a tragedy that makes him a wanted man. The series is inspired by the true story of Ali Ashraf Parvaneh, an Iranian prisoner and escapee. Screening at TIFF Sept. 12, 9:15 p.m., and Sept. 13, 7:45 p.m.
“Wayward” (Canada)
Creator Mae Martin mined their own experiences as a troubled teen and those of a friend sent to a reform school for this drama about two Toronto adolescents who end up at a sinister institution in the fictional town of Tall Pines, Vermont. After police officer Alex Dempsey (Martin) moves to town with their pregnant wife (Sarah Gadon) and encounters a runaway from the Tall Pines Academy, he begins to suspect there’s something not quite right about the school and its leader, Evelyn Wade (Toni Collette). Screening at TIFF Sept. 9, 9 p.m., and Sept. 11, 9:45 p.m.; on Netflix Sept. 25
