“The team behind CARMEN in conversation with TIFF in advance of its premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Melissa Barrera and Paul Mescal are dazzling in Benjamin Millepied’s modern-day retelling of one of history’s most famous love stories and operas.
The 47th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 8 to 18, 2022. For more, visit .
Transported across time and space from its original staging in Seville, Spain circa 1820, first-time filmmaker Benjamin Millepied’s Carmen — a reimagined tour de force of one of history’s most famous operas — is a bold and adventurous modern-day love story set in the Sonoran Desert spanning the Mexico–United States border. To escape a murderous cartel, the captivating young Carmen (Melissa Barrera) is northbound, her route traversing an area patrolled by the US government and fanatical Americans who hunt people for sport. Mixed into the horde is local veteran Aidan (Paul Mescal, also at the Festival in Aftersun), dr