by MATTHEW HAYS

As usual, many of the most promising films at this year's World Film Fest are documentaries. From international cops to fallen newspaper moguls to unusual alliances, various filmmakers have managed to mine unusual stories and characters to create the best kind of reality-based celluloid experiences.

Filmmaker Barry Lank's Women on Patrol is one of the most jarring films I've seen thus far. Here, Lank follows two women who are part of the largest Canadian contingent of female police officers ever deployed by the UN. We watch them over a nine-month period in East Timor, as they attempt to help citizens of that war-torn country rebuild after years of catastrophic turmoil. This NFB hour-long production manages to convey the great humanity of these two women while also illuminating the situation in East Timor. Not to be missed.

In an entirely different vein comes Mr. Mergler's Gift, a simple and charming doc about the bond formed between an elderly piano teacher and his promising young student. An entirely endearing portrait, the success of this film feels triumphant and not the least bit surprising, considering it's written and directed by NFB vet Beverly Shaffer, who won a richly earned Oscar for her incredible doc I'll Find a Way. Essential viewing for Beethoven fans.

Politics and education collide in Through These Eyes, Charles Laird's no-holds-barred look at the controversies that erupted in the '60s when a grade-school program was unleashed on students across North America. The program, Man: A Course of Study (MACOS), involved the profile of an Inuit family who were living in a remote Canadian Arctic outpost. But the sheer graphic nature of the images threw many educators and parents for a major loop, leaving the educational program in question. This film goes back to examine the controversy and why this program evoked such extreme reactions.

A shameful bit of Canuck history is examined in In the Shadow of Gold Mountain, in which filmmaker Karen Cho examines her family roots to learn more about severely racist Canadian immigration policies that limited Chinese citizens' entry into the country, while welcoming those of European descent. Never descending into the maudlin, Cho's film is an eye-opening look at a particularly unsettling piece of our nation's past.

Director Debbie Melnyk just happened to be making a documentary about Lord Conrad Black when his empire began to crumble beneath his feet. Thus she was poised to capture him in full fall-from-grace. Citizen Black is a feature-length doc about the man, who never actually sits down for an interview, but does answer the filmmaker's questions at various media-event scrums and press conferences. Melnyk effectively pushes the film beyond the Black-inspired headlines we've already read.

Other docs worth looking out for include Pinochet and his Three Generals, a film made but three years after Chile's democratically elected leader, Salvador Allende, was overthrown by Pinochet in a U.S.-backed military coup. In this film, three of his generals express their views about politics and their personal lives. Previously suppressed, the film is now being seen for the first time. Qaddafi's Female Bodyguards: Shadows of a Leader looks at the strange phenomenon of the Libyan leader's all-female personal security force. And Tying the Knot follows the complex history of marriage.

Global rundown

>> A Nazi Rocky tearfest, a Montreal mating comedy and more from the WFF

by SARAH ROWLAND, MARK SLUTSKY and MATTHEW HAYS

Napola

German director Dennis Gansel captures the horror of children killing children through the unlikely (and consequently doomed) friendship between two students at an elite academy for future leaders of the German Reich. The blond and brawn boxer Friedrich (Max Riemelt), who is riding a sports scholarship, comes from a loving working-class family. Whereas, the meek and mild poet Albrecht (Tom Schilling) is the son of a high-ranking Nazi official who is embarrassed by Albrecht's blatant displays of humanity. Schilling and Riemelt give such powerful performances, they'll leave you in a sobbing heap on the theatre floor with a vice clamp on your heart and a gnawing sense of unfulfilled nausea weighing you down. Enjoy! This is a must-see. (SR)

Elephant Shoes

First fuck. First fight. First fart. And that's all on the first date. Alexis (Stacie Morgain Lewis) and Manny (Greg Shamie) don't waste any time. Every stage of an average long term relationship is exlpored in their 12-hour affair, from the butterflies of flirting to the monotony of monogamy. Both lead characters can be irritating at times but that's only because they're so real. You've met these two before. Maybe you worked with one of them and their quirky ways made your shift go by faster but outside of work, you had nothing in common with them and quite frankly, you were a little embarrassed by the way they dressed. But as Montreal director Christos Sourligas proves, they need love too. The acting here is flawless and the dialogue will ring true for anyone who has ever dated someone as filler until something better comes along. Perfect romantic comedy rental. (SR)

Tom White

Tom White (Colin Friels) is your average family man with a house in the suburbs and a job as a draughtsman at an architectural firm. As Alkinos Tsilimidos' film begins, though, one fine day Friels just loses it, having a meltdown at work and wandering off into the city (that would be Melbourne, Australia). Tom White follows our hero on his quick descent from respectable professional to bedraggled homeless man, and it's an engaging, if not perfect film. Along his journey, Friels encounters a number of wise, world-weary souls, and his passage from one to another feels a little too picaresque. The ending comes across as somewhat convenient, as does the fact that most of the horrors of the street are inflicted on Friels' friends, not himself. But Friels is a terrific actor and he manages to make his character completely believable and watchable. He's reason enough to see this film. (MS)

One Perfect Day

This Aussie entry has one young iconoclastic lad toiling away at a conservative music school in London, U.K. He wows his uptight profs with semi-improvisatory renditions of operas, using a crew of homeless people. Then, back in Melbourne, his sister overdoses. So the lad does what any good young DJ/music student does: he returns Down Under and starts spinning some tunes! Sadly, Paul Currie's One Perfect Day starts out on the mawkish side and then slides further and further downhill from there. Though many have tried to make the ultimate rave or dance scene movie, this is yet another failed attempt; the conclusion, in which rave and revenge meet up, is one of the silliest finales I've seen in years. (MH)

The World Film Fest screens Aug. 26–Sept. 6.
Info: www.ffm-montreal.org

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