The Grand Seduction premieres at TIFF
Remake of French-Canadian hit set in tiny Newfoundland outport
Taylor Kitsch, Gordon Pinsent and other stars of The Grand Seduction, a remake of a French-Canadian comic hit, walked the red carpet Sunday night for the premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The film stars Kitsch as a young doctor who is wooed to stay in a Newfoundland outport, and the tactics that residents deploy to keep him.
The film, which also stars Irish actor Brendan Gleeson, Toronto actor Liane Balaban and actor-director Mary Walsh, was filmed last year on location in New Bonaventure, a tiny community in Newfoundland's Trinity Bay.
Director Don McKellar said it was important that the entire film be shot in Newfoundland and Labrador, even though that meant building sets from scratch.
"I didn't have to work hard to make it fit in Newfoundland," McKellar told CBC News.
"I decided just to go with the Newfoundland tone and rhythm and humour and it really feels like it's set there. That immediately makes it seem like a different movie," he said.
The Grand Seduction will make its local premiere in Newfoundland and Labrador when it opens the St. John's International Women's Film Festival on Oct. 22.
The film will also be screened this week at the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax.