THE FORGIVEN Q&A | TIFF 2021

The team behind THE FORGIVEN in conversation with TIFF in advance of its premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes lead a strong ensemble cast in this tense drama about the perilous fallout from a debauched weekend in Morocco.
The 46th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 9 to 18, 2021. For more, visit tiff.net.
Jessica Chastain, Ralph Fiennes, Caleb Landry Jones, Christopher Abbott, and Marie-Josée Croze lead a stellar ensemble cast in this wild foray into opulence, sin, and reckoning set deep in the Moroccan desert.
On the verge of divorce, wealthy couple David (Fiennes) and Jo (Chastain, also appearing at the Festival in The Eyes of Tammy Faye) are on their way to a lavish weekend party, and accidentally run over and kill a young Moroccan man trying to sell fossils by the roadside. They put his body in their car and arrive at the party at a mansion hosted by a worldly gay couple. Once the body is tucked away in the bowels of the villa, the partygoers return to the circus of dancing, drugs, and debauchery The next morning, David’s buzz becomes a hangover as he’s forced to reckon with the boy’s father and meet his own fate. For the others, the party must go on.
Making his TIFF debut, John Michael McDonagh (The Guard) applies a Felliniesque lens towards the bourgeoisie, showing how their vapid pursuits prey on (or ignore) the livelihoods of others, sometimes with deadly results. The shimmer of these events, contrasted with the bleakness of the working class and Moroccan help who observe from the periphery, allows McDonagh to explore fatalistic themes of hedonism, neocolonialism, and the negligence of privilege. A weekend of fun reveals a world of oppression in this bold and sly critique driven by star-studded performances.
John Michael McDonagh is a director and screenwriter born in London. He wrote the feature Ned Kelly (03). His credits as writer-director include The Guard (11), Cavalry (14), and War on Everyone (16). The Forgiven (21) is his latest film.

[@7thlevel90]

It was with s great pleasure to have shared the screen with Ralph and jessica and sir Michael!!

[@mofan232]

Can’t wait to watch this. Please release this year

[@honey87west]

Are you going to do one with Ralph and Jessica? They're my two favourite actors; I can't tell you how THRILLED I was to discover they're in an upcoming movie together.

[@susanalexander4683]

I read the book and totally enjoyed it. Why couldn't the film just end the way the novel does with both of them shot? When is the film coming to the US? How did the film deal with Driss' story and perspective?