100 Sunset

In this mesmerizing film by Kunsang Kyirong, the deepening bond between two young women threatens to have repercussions throughout a community of Tibetan immigrants living in an apartment complex in west Toronto.

Indeed, one of the most impressive aspects of this fully realized first feature is Kyirong’s ability to combine a detailed portrait of this wider network of intersecting lives with a similarly specific and empathetic look at two people resisting the roles they’ve been assigned.

Those deft shifts between macro and micro perspectives are mirrored by the activities of Kunsel (Tenzin Kunsel), the taciturn introvert at the film’s centre. Kunsel’s fascination with others manifests in her two primary pursuits: spying on her neighbours with a newly acquired video camera and committing petty thefts. But after she meets Passang (Sonam Choekyi) — an enigmatic newcomer with a much older husband — Kunsel must venture beyond her comfortable position as a wary, watchful outsider.

Working in collaboration with many members of Toronto’s Tibetan-Canadian community, along with some of the city’s sharpest film talents — including cinematographer Nikolay Michaylov, whose many films at the Festival include TIFF ’24 selections Measures for a Funeral and Matt & Mara — Kyirong establishes herself as one of Canadian cinema’s most exciting new filmmakers with this stunning feature debut. In her hands, this noirish tale of mystery and desire becomes a means to capture an under-represented corner of Toronto in all its richness and to explore her characters’ feelings of cultural dislocation and, even more poignantly, their desires for escape.

JASON ANDERSON