TIFF programmer Dorota Lech introduced Vaclav Marhoul's film as a
"plunge into the darkest corners of the human soul," before around 40
people left the 522-seat theater. (522=9)
Vaclav Marhoul's grim and violent adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski's novel
The Painted Bird
lived up to its controversial billing at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival
after a notorious Venice bow by prompting a mass walkout at Bell
Lightbox on Wednesday night.
The audience exodus started soon after the black-and-white epic
Holocaust movie began its North American premiere in the Bell Lightbox 1
auditorium. By the one-hour mark, around 30 viewers had departed, and
another dozen had left by the end of the movie.
That's despite TIFF programmer Dorota Lech having introduced
Marhoul's film as a "plunge into the darkest corners of the human soul,"
as she urged the audience to stay until the end of the movie. "It is
sometimes very difficult to watch atrocities onscreen, but it is very
important to bear witness," Lech said.
The Bell Lightbox 1 theater has 522 seats. The balcony wasn't open for the
Painted Bird screening,
and many ground-floor seats remained unfilled as the film got underway.
There was no post-screening Q&A, as director Marhoul is promoting
the film in Europe.
The Painted Bird, which prompted similar walkouts when
debuting in Venice, portrays a nameless boy, played by newcomer Petr
Kotlar, wandering Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe during World War II. It
also stars Stellan Skarsgard and Harvey Keitel. The story seen through a
child's eye is based on Kosinski's 1965 novel, which caused controversy
and criticism for an unflinching portrayal of wartime horrors enacted
by Polish peasants, not German Nazis.
