To have the best film in the Toronto International Film Festival’s Short Cuts Canada program is no mean feat; to do it two years running at the age of 24 is nothing short of remarkable.
Such is the achievement of Ryerson University graduate Kazik Radwanski, who has followed up last year’s excellent Princess Margaret Boulevard with another intimate and affecting character study called Out in That Deep Blue Sea.
Like its predecessor, Out in That Deep Blue Sea adopts a laser-like focus on a single character — a struggling real estate salesman (a superb Peter Bavis) in the throes of personal and professional paralysis. There are no Willy Loman-style theatrics here: Radwanski prizes a naturalistic approach to drama, lavishing close, at times even uncomfortable, attentions on his protagonist’s downtime.
“We like to focus on moments that can’t be written in advance,” says Radwanski, who conceived the film with his producer and regular collaborator Daniel Montgomery. “The moments in this film had to be discovered. A lot of what we do is intuitive, and comes from the way we work the camera. I think that sometimes, it’s like the camera is standing in for a character, or adapting to the scene as it plays out. It’s sort of a documentary aesthetic.”
• For more on Short Cuts Canada program, visit www.tiff.net.
