The International Diaspora Film Festival (IDFF) is taking place in Toronto, Canada, 1-6 November 2011. It provides audiences with an opportunity to experience the cultural mosaic of the present world through the medium of cinema.

The IDFF is organized by director Shahram Tabe and co-director Paul de Silva, who is also a member of WACC's Board of Directors. De Silva served on the Ecumenical Jury at the 2011 Montreal World Film Festival.

For 2011 the festival's directors chose the following themes: Burmese Night; Can Muslims and Jews Ever be Friends (Again)?; Children of Violence; Dutch Dreaming; Gaza Women Film festival; Here or There?; Spotlight on Muslim and Arab Women's Stories.

This year's IDFF began with an Evening with Deepa Mehta, the Indian-Canadian director until recently best known for her Elements Trilogy (1996-2005) and Bollywood Hollywood (2002) which was screened on the opening night. All that is about to change, since she is currently putting the finishing touches to Midnight's Children, adapted from Salman Rushdie’s novel.

An invited audience saw a short preview of the film after which Mehta took part in a Q&A session. Asked about working with Salman Rushdie, who collaborated on the screenplay for the film, she replied that it had been a great joy and privilege. However, the film is not the same as the book and she had taken final decisions about the film's content and direction.

Midnight's Children was shot in Sri Lanka. Mehta explained that India has been totally transformed over recent decades while Sri Lanka - in part owing to the tragic civil war - has not. Suitable locations were much easier to find.

Among 23 films being screened at the IDFF was Lessons for Zafirah, directed by Carolina Rivas and Daoud Sarhandi (Mexico, 2011). It won the Best Film Prize - Mexico Today at the International Film Festival UNAM 2011.

Presented as a story told to the director's young daughter Zafirah, it is a documentary depicting the desperation and courage of migrant workers crossing from Guatemala into Mexico and the difficulties they face. It uses Michaelangelo's fresco of The Flood in the Sistine Chapel, Rome, as a metaphor for the rising tide of violence in Mexican society.

The film depicts women and men who face the hazards of starvation, discrimination and murder when they venture into southern Mexico as illegal immigrants. After a stark beginning, the story focuses on the efforts of a local priest to offer help. It also shows a group of women whose days are spent collecting unwanted or discarded food, bagging it up, and trying to pass it to immigrants clinging to a moving freight train that goes through the town.

Many of these "passengers" are badly injured trying to scramble on or off the train. Some are sent to the local hospital for treatment where unnecessary amputations are done without consent. Two of the amputees are trying to sue the hospital with the help of a local journalist who publicises their plight.

Lessons for Zafirah is a powerful film, whose lessons are for all of us and whose spirit of hope comes to dominate its bleakness.

Further information about the festival can be found here.

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