A controversial thriller about a hitman forced to undergo gender reassignment surgery has been added to the lineup of next month’s Toronto international film festival.
(Re) Assignment, formerly known as Tomboy, a Revenger’s Tale, stars Michelle Rodriguez as a male assassin who undergoes a transition against his will at the hands of a rogue surgeon, played by Sigourney Weaver. The film, which is directed by The Warriors’ Walter Hill, was criticised last year by the LGBT group Glaad, which called the premise “sensationalistic” and said the film undermined the progress of transgender rights. The film festival’s press release makes no mention of the transgender theme, describing the story as “a trail of self-discovery and redemption against a criminal mastermind opponent”.
(Re) Assignment joins a slew of other world premieres announced by festival organisers. Other high-profile titles include Burn Your Maps, a drama about an eight-year-old boy (played by Room star Jacob Tremblay) who persuades his family to take him on an epic journey after becoming convinced he is a Mongolian goat herder.
Also appearing at the festival is Brain on Fire, director Gerard Barrett’s film about a New York Post journalist (Chloë Grace Moretz) who experienced seizures, hallucinations and violent outbursts. Meanwhile, in The Exception offers mind games with higher stakes as rival agents wrestle over the fate of the abdicated German Kaiser (Christopher Plummer) in the middle of the second world war. It also stars Lily James, Jai Courtney and Janet McTeer, and is the feature-film debut of the theatre director David Leveaux.
The Duelist, by Russian director Alexey Mizgirev, is about a St Petersburg gun-for-hire who takes on other people’s fights, while Rage, directed by Sang-il Lee, is a grisly three-part thriller that hops between Japanese cities and stars Ken Watanabe. The Long Excuse, also set in Japan, is a comedy-drama about a man (Masahiro Motoki) who offers to care for the children of another man who is widowed by the same crash that killed his own wife.
The Toronto film festival runs from 8-18 September.
