Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils starring Amanda Seyfried will receive its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 10.
The opera-inspired feature also stars Rebecca Liddiard, Douglas Smith, Mark O’Brien, and Vinessa Antoine, as well as Ambur Braid as Salome and Michael Kupfer-Radecky as John the Baptist.
Braid and Kupfer-Radecky both starred in the Canadian Opera Company’s most recent production of Salome, which Egoyan also directed after first directing the opera for the Company in 1996.
Seven Veils sees Egoyan reunite with his Chloe star Seyfried, who plays Jeanine, an earnest theatre director tasked with remounting her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, Jeanine allows her repressed trauma to colour the present as she returns to the opera world after many years away.
“We are honoured to premiere Atom Egoyan’s extraordinary film at this year’s festival,” said Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF. “Egoyan’s cinematic works are unmatched, and we’re excited to bring Seven Veils to our TIFF audiences and to the city of Toronto, his home.”
“Amanda is a phenomenal actress, and here she brilliantly plays a woman dealing with complex and explosive relationships in her past, present, and future,” said Egoyan. “To have the world premiere of this film at TIFF and to be partnering with the Canadian Opera Company really brings my two great passions together in such a beautiful way.”
“Atom’s production of Salome electrified the stage when it debuted in 1996 and has evolved with each remounting,” said producer Niv Fichman of Rhombus Media. “The opera explores themes that resonate through Atom’s body of work, and Seven Veils is an exciting and provocative next step in this ongoing evolution.”
Prior to the TIFF Special Presentation world premiere screening there will be an “avant-première” of the film presented in partnership with the Canadian Opera Company on September 8 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
Seven Veils marks Egoyan’s 18th film to premiere at TIFF. It is an Elevation Pictures and XYZ Films presentation, produced by Rhombus Media and Ego Film Arts, with the participation of Telefilm Canada and Ontario Creates, in association with IPR.VC, Cinetic Media, Crave, and the Canadian Opera Company. XYZ Films is handling world sales and Elevation Pictures will distribute in Canada.
As previously announced, Taika Waititit’s Next Goal Wins has been selected to receive its world premiere at TIFF.
Further festival selections will be announced in the coming weeks. TIFF runs September 7-17.
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