Film adaptation of The Breadwinner to premiere at Toronto International Film Festival
The first batch of films being shown at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival were announced on July 25, 2017. Among them was the adaptation of The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis.
The film is being directed by Nora Twomey and executive produced by Jolie Pas Productions, Angelina Jolie's production company.
"Millions of girls around the world have to grow up before their time, working to provide for their families at a very young age and in difficult circumstances. They have the strength to do what no one should ask little girls to do," Angelina Jolie told The Hollywood Reporter at the time the film was announced.
"I hope this film is able to bring this discussion to a broader audience."
First published in 2000, The Breadwinner is a young adult novel by Deborah Ellis about an 11-year-old girl named Parvana who lives in Kabul. Unable to earn money as a girl, Parvana disguises herself as a boy to support her family when her father is taken away by the Taliban.
Ellis has since written several books in the Breadwinner series, including Parvana's Journey, Mud City and My Name Is Parvana.
The Breadwinner is not Jolie's only adaptation at TIFF this year. She is directing First They Killed My Father, a film based on the 2000 memoir by Loung Ung, which chronicles the author's childhood during the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.
Other book-to-movie adaptations announced include:
- The Catcher Was a Spy, based on the 1994 biography by Nicholas Dawidoff
- Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, based on the 1987 book by Peter Turner
- The Mountain Between Us, based on the 2011 novel by Charles Martin
- Mudbound, based on the 2008 novel by Hillary Jordan
- Stronger, based on the 2017 memoir by Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman
- The Wife, based on the 2003 novel by Meg Wolitzer
- Call Me by Your Name, based on the 2007 novel by André Aciman
- The Children Act, based on the 2014 novel by Ian McEwan
- Disobedience, based on the 2006 novel by Naomi Alderman
- The Hungry, a New Delhi-set adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus
- Submergence, based on the 2011 novel by J.M. Ledgard
- Victoria & Abdul, based on the 2011 book by Shrabani Basu
Also announced were Mary Shelley, a film depicting the Frankenstein author's romance with Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Professor Marston & the Wonder Women, a film based on the Dr. William Moulton, the Havard psychologist who created Wonder Woman.
You can see the complete list of films announced at CBC News.
The Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 7-17. More films to be presented at the festival will be announced on Aug. 9, 2017.