“100 Sunset” had its world premiere at TIFF on September 6, spotlighting the diasporic Tibetan community in Parkdale. The film is the feature debut for Tibetan-Canadian director Kunsang Kyirong.
The movie centres around its namesake apartment building and the young Kunsel (Tenzin Kunsel), a withdrawn teenager who takes up petty theft in her spare time. A newly discovered handheld camcorder opens a new avenue for people-watching, allowing the story to unfold with the arrival of new tenants in the complex.
Spying over the courtyard and across balconies, Kunsel is intrigued by her new neighbour, Passang (Sonam Choekyi), who’s bolder, upfront, and married to a man who could be her father. The two contrasting young women build a friendship, and begin to explore the winterscape in Toronto to its boundaries by subway and train.
Putting the film together in Parkdale was an exercise in building and nurturing relationships in the community; most of the cast are locals with no previous acting experience.
“We were all more comfortable because we got to speak our own language,” Kyrigong said, “A lot of the cast were family friends, everyone sort of knew each other.”
The audience gets a glimpse into the rich culture in Little Tibet through traditional food, garments, and the rotating communal credit system known as dhikuti, acting as a significant element in the plot. It’s a system where households contribute monthly to a communal pot of money that rotates paying out to the highest secret bidder.
Kyirong brings the characters to life through a balance between the more intimate and voyeuristic perspective of Kunsel’s camera, and a more traditional wide angle film shot. The creative filmmaking results in a visual product that closely echoes the personalities of the two leads.
“In a lot of the film, there are these contrasts; the interiority of perspective between Kunsel and her camera versus the community and also our primary camera,” Kyirong explained.
The visual style, at times creating a feeling of distance and detachment for the viewer, plays into the film’s strong use of music, sounds, and silence. An ambience of geese honking, trains passing by, and the announcements in the subway system lend a dynamic personality to the neighbourhood and Toronto.
The environmental sounds are paired with music that acts as a bridge between scenes and builds tension. Kyirong said that the film’s score, composed by Tashi Dorji, was laid out before scenes were shot.
“The sound and music motifs were integrated into the script, so there was really a backbone of music,” she said.
100 Sunset is a showcase of talent by a cast of newcomers to the screen, and a package of creativity in visuals and sound by director Kunsang Kyirong. It provides a look at Toronto’s Tibetan enclave in a Tibetan-language film which is not often seen internationally.
The story development at times is slow and almost meditative, but it’s a successful picture that draws on creativity and community to bring across a story that leaves me asking what happens next.