In random order:
The Old Bachelor, the Iranian film in the Competition – a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions (and I'm not talking here about its mammoth 195-minute duration, which I swear you do not feel), with a pulverizing ending;
Seven Hills Seven Seas – a visual feast of rare inventiveness, in which the rat’s fate will have you bawling even if your heart is made of stone;
Day Tripper – as if Tati crossed with Roy Andersson made Shortcuts in China, deliciously absurd;
the bombshell documentary Conflict Zone – about war from the riskiest possible angle: tourism;
Upon Open Sky – a top-notch Arriaga;
the actress Lubna Azabal – phenomenal in the radical Amal;
the Ukrainian Grey Bees – terribly nuanced and bravely funny in the minefield of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict;
the Indian thriller Stolen – with the most riveting car chases in recent memory;
the documentary The Contestant – a maximum generator of anger at TIFF.23;
The Summer with Carmen – the sexiest film in the festival;
Confidence (I know, I just said that earlier!);
The Monk – with "the most perfect" ending;
and, last but not least, the binomial of the aforementioned Writer and Louis Malle's 1981 cult classic – and improbably prophetic –- My Dinner with Andre, probably the most explosive two-part conversation film ever made, essential to understanding the irretrievable madness of our contemporary times.