Mary Harron’s Dalíland, with Ben Kingsley playing the surrealist painter Salvador Dali, will close the 47th Toronto Film Festival with a world premiere on Sept. 17.
Canadian director Harron, best known for American Psycho and I Shot Andy Warhol, will host Kingsley and her film’s cast, including Barbara Sukowa, Christopher Briney, Rupert Graves and Suki Waterhouse, at the Roy Thomson Hall screening.
Dalíland tells the story of Dali’s later years and of his marriage to his domineering wife and muse, Gala, as their seemingly unshakable bond begins to stress and fracture. Set in New York and Spain in 1973, Daliland is told through the eyes of James, a young assistant keen to make his name in the art world and who helps the eccentric and mercurial Dalí prepare for a big gallery show.
“We couldn’t be prouder that Harron is a Canadian who has taken her singular explorations of iconic eccentrics to the world stage,” TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said in a statement about his closing night film pick.
Harron directed Daliland based on a screenplay written by John C. Walsh. The film was developed by Edward R. Pressman of Pressman Film, a producer on American Psycho, and David O. Sacks, who previously partnered on Jason Reitman’s Thank You For Smoking.
The producer credits are also shared by Daniel Brunt, Chris Curling and Sam Pressman.
TIFF earlier announced that the Netflix film The Swimmers, writer-director Sally El Hosaini’s drama about real-life sisters on an inspiring odyssey as refugees from war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics, will open the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 8 at Roy Thomson Hall.
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