Toronto shows off 'Their Finest'
British actors Gemma Arterton and Sam Claflin open their new film 'Their Finest' at the Toronto International Film Festival. British actors Gemma Arterton and Sam Claflin led the charge for their new film 'Their Finest' at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday (September 11). Directed by 'An Education's' Lone Scherfig, the film is about the people making a propaganda film during World War Two to inspire women to help with the war efforts. Arterton, who had arrived at the premiere directly from serving on the jury at the Venice film festival, didn't feel too nervous about the world premiere and said "I love the Canadian audiences, they tend to be quite supportive so I hope they love the film. I'm really proud of it. I think it's so charming and such a lovely British film so fingers crossed." 'The Hunger Game's Claflin plays the screenwriter of the film who is assisted by Arterton in its production. "What fascinated me so much was that my history of that era was solely in the war and actually this is another way of fighting that war but in a writer's room," said Claflin. "It was a real opportunity, a real insight into a world we haven't had the opportunity to explore before so sort of navigating that and learning to type on a typewriter, these are all things that were very new to me but hopefully skills that I will keep for the rest of my life." Bill Nighy is one of the actors hired for the production who adds a comical element to 'Their Finest'. He joked "They were looking for someone to play a chronically self-absorbed actor in his declining years and they thought of me which is hard to process on certain days but some mornings are trickier than others." Despite being Danish, Scherfig has made four films about the UK since her 2009 hit 'An Education'. Once again her fascination with British culture led her to these World War Two propaganda films. "I didn't know exactly how beautiful and wonderful and important those films were at that time which this new film is a tribute to," she said at the premiere. "I'm hoping it can somehow live up to some of it. Some of it we shot on Technicolor. We tried to get that same look. It's not a nostalgic film but it is a film for film lovers."
