TIFF 1 (Toronto International Film Festival )

Canadian Films, Multiculturalism and Cultural Sensitivity


Deepa Mehta's film "Water" was selected to open the Toronto International Film Festival this year. Usually, such an tradition is given to a Canadian film.

Mehta initially started to shoot her film in India, in the holy city of Varasani, where the River Ganges is located. She named her film after the Ganges. Her production site was shut down by Shyamdeo Ramchaudhary's Uttar Pradesh government, in protest to its contents.

The film deals with widows who live in the Varanasi 'widow houses' and who turn to prostitution. Many contend that this is an exaggeration of real events, and a sacrilege on the holy city.

She later secretly shot and completed her film in Sri Lanka.

Mehta, on this honor: "Why wouldn't it open the festival? Because I am Canadian, I'm just not an Anglophone or Francophone."

From the TIFF website. Noah Cowan, Festival Co-Director: "We are extremely pleased to have Deepa Mehta open the Toronto International Film Festival for the first time with this extraordinary film." Piers Handling, Director and CEO of the TIFF Group: "Canadian filmmakers are creating some of the world's finest cinema."

Shyamdeo Ramchaudhary on "Water", and the Ganges: "The Ganges is the most revered place for us, to call it Water is so insulting! Calling it plain Water!"

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