TOWER
Canada, 2012, 78’
director – Kazik Radwanski
producer – Dan Montgomery
screenplay – Kazik Radwanski
Cinematographer: Daniel Voshart, Rich Williamson
editor: Ajla Odobasic
sound: Gabe Knox, Matthew Chan
production designer: Eva Michon
starring – Derek Bogart, Nicole Fairbairn
Synopsis
Already well-known on the Festival circuit for his signature short films, Toronto filmmaker Kazik Radwanski makes his feature debut with this off-kilter and slyly funny character study about a thirty-something loner who tries to keep the world at arm’s length.
“an awkward loner made mesmerizing”
- Eric Kohn, Indiewire
“One of the year’s most jarring and accomplished debuts”
- Mark Peranson, editor of Cinema Scope
“Kazik Radwanski’s captivating feature debut, framed tightly and in shallow focus, pulls us face-to-face with a character who seems about to explode at any moment.”
- Peter Howell,The Toronto Star
Radwanski’s portrayal of Canadian complacency, mundanity and vapid politeness… Radwanski provides us with a wholly convincing portrait of normality…. impressively polished cinematography… the most Canadian breakup scene in cinema history.”
- Adam Cook, Film Society Lincoln Center
“Sparse in story telling and minute in execution, Tower is an accomplished feature debut for one of Toronto’s next directing talents.”
- Sound on Sight
“Clearly having absorbed the lessons of the Dardenne brothers, Radwanski employs an agile, tightly controlled camera and editing style to lend a surprising urgency and considerable poignancy to this perceptive and often startling character study.”
- Jason Anderson, The Grid
BIO
Radwanski and Montgomery of MDFF Films have taken bows for their short films since their 2007 debut Assault. That and subsequent films have earned them awards and multiple invitations to the world’s top film festivals, including: the Berlinale, Edinburgh, Krakow, Melbourne and Toronto International Film Festivals. Their 2008 short film, Princess Margaret Blvd., generated numerous awards and accolades including Best International Short Film Award at the 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival, and a nomination for Best Live Action Short Film at the 2010 Genie Awards. Their short Out in that Deep Blue Sea (2009) was in competition at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival, and received a Special Mention at the 2010 Krakow Film Festival. MDFF presented two short films at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival – Green Crayons and Woman Waiting. More recently, MDFF’s Kazik Radwanski won the Ingmar Bergman Award at the Uppsala International Short Film Festival and a K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Film and Video.
