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$9.99 Review By: David Salvador The movie $9.99 had its world premiere on the first day of the Toronto International Film Festival. The stop-motion claymation animated feature is directed by Tatia Rosenthal and based on the short stories of Etgar Keret. Both were in attendance along with actor Geoffrey Rush and composer Christopher Bowen. It is a first as an Israel/Australia co-production. The story is transplanted from Tel Aviv to a Sydney apartment complex but could be anywhere as it is about people trying to find meaning in their lives. Visually stunning, the film's animation is rich in detail which can be seen in the characters' eyes and in the sweat of lovers' bodies. The labour-intensive stop-motion claymation technique has been seen before in films like The Corpse Bride and Wallace & Gromit. Making an object or a puppet appear to move by photographing it frame by frame with a still camera in a series of positions, which are then played in a continuous sequence, is an old technique that goes back to the beginnings of cinema. Out of the number of intersecting story lines, it is the character Dave Peck, an unemployed 28 year-old, who sees an ad to buy a book where he can learn the meaning of life for $9.99. He lives in an apartment with his father who meets the character of the Angel or homeless man. Lauded Australian actor Geoffrey Rush (Shine, Quills) is the voice of the Angel who we find out might just be "a liar with wings." By the film's end, bleakness has been left behind when Dave and his father learn to "swim like dolphins" also for under $10. It is the first feature of director Tatia Rosenthal, born in Tel Aviv, and now living in New York where she went to film school. It is part of a pattern in Israeli cinema of films moving from the political to the personal. Written by her and Israel's bestselling author Etgar Keret, he directed last year's film Jellyfish with his wife Shira Geffen, and had another story adapted into the movie Wristcutters. Suicide is a re-occurring theme in these works. Published in up to twenty-five languages, his sometimes macabre short stories are used in Israel's high school curriculum, and have gotten the graphic novel treatment by award-winning artists such as Rutu Modan. One can only hope for an early release date for this movie and for more offerings from both Rosenthal and Keret in the future. $9.99 is a truly magical cinematic experience.  
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