Deepa Mehta, the director of “Fire,” “Earth,” “Water” and the screen adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children,” will be honored by the Toronto International Film Festival with a 10-film retrospective of her career titled “Heaven on Earth” (October 8–15).
The Indian-Canadian helmer will also join TIFF Director & CEO Piers Handling in an on-stage conversation on October 10.
Describing her as a “a strong female filmmaker [who] never shies away from controversial topics,” TIFF argued for the importance of Mehta’s voice thusly: “Though she doesn’t claim to be a social activist, she brings social issues, from racism to domestic violence, to light through her films. When her film ‘Fire’ (which profiles same-sex desire between two sisters-in-law) opened in India in 1996, there were protests against it, demonstrations for it and editorials both for and against. ‘Fire’ became a much larger issue — a springboard for a dialogue about the fact that women in India don’t have choices. In an interview a few years later, Deepa said, ‘I am not a politician, I am a filmmaker, and although you should be able to distance yourself from your own work and be objective about it, there is so much of your own personal emotions and involvement put into a film.’”
Learn more about Mehta’s work and the “Heaven on Earth” screenings here.
