Spotlight: 2023 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival

ACTRA Toronto members are in the spotlight again at the 27th edition of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival!

From November 8 to 19, Reel Asian will showcase two ACTRA Toronto shorts and one feature film.

Below you’ll find a round-up of ACTRA Toronto productions at this year’s festival and the talented casts of ACTRA Toronto Members who bring these stories to life.

EITR

Grinding away at the inherited family business, Mohamed works tirelessly making sales of knock-off perfume, while living as a knock-off version of his true self.

Featuring: Guled Abdi, Augusto Bitter.

Part of Shorts Presentation: LET’S BE FRIENDS. Premieres November 11, 2023, at 12 p.m.

When 13-year-old Ilyas’s parents yank him out of his comfortable Islamic private school and force him to adjust to life in public school, he develops a plan to change their minds. After a staged fondness for non-halal food and explicit music fails to sufficiently scandalize his parents, Ilyas asks his whip-smart former classmate, Yasmeen, to help devise a more foolproof plan. However, underneath those faux concerns, what really preoccupies prepubescent Ilyas is his wispy, dark mustache growing much sooner than that of his peers, prompting a self-loathing born and reinforced by the taunting and teasing of classmates.

Featuring: Reetu Bambrah, Melody Cao, Amariah Faulkner, Armaan Jawandha, Ehsan Kamal, Krishna Manivannan, Ayana Manji, Eric Osborne, Shaheryar Rana, Mojeane Sadr, Meesha Shafi, Don Stockford (stunt coordinator).

Premieres at the Centerpiece Gala Presentation on November 12, 2023, at 7:30 p.m.

UNIBROW

An Iranian Canadian girl reluctantly makes a new friend when the new student from Iran offers to help fix her ruined unibrow — for her, a symbol of the Iranian heritage she tries desperately to hide from the world.

Featuring: Lina Sennia, Randy Thomas.

Part of the Shorts Presentation: UNDER THE INFLUENCE. Premieres November 11, 2023, at 7:30 p.m.