TIFF 2021: Encounter Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Encounter is a special watch for many reasons. Riz Ahmed offers a brilliant performance, child actors Aditya Geddada and Lucian River-Chauhan are well cast, the intricate build-up of tension within a modest runtime provides wonderful pacing, but its most unique quality is its ability to completely subvert the audience’s expectations through an agile narrative that appears to travel down a path to a very compelling conclusion only to make an extremely emotional pivot that opens up into a truly remarkable space.

Encounter Malik Khan (Ahmed), a former marine, who is made aware of an alien threat and chooses to save his two sons Bobby (Geddada) and Jay (River-Chauhan) while working towards a solution for the imminent threat. As their journey progresses, truths are discovered that will alter all of their futures to the point where nothing will ever be the same. From this, the largest draw for the film is its premise, a sci-fi thriller with a highly unique perspective. The fear of an impending unknown threat led to a slow turning of the screw and building of tension. Meanwhile, it’s easy to form an emotional attachment with Khan through his love of his sons. It cleverly uses this relationship as a lens that forces the viewer to rationalize his decisions in real-time as in his mind, it was all for his sons. However, the film nimbly adjusts this perspective through small revelations during its first and second acts that completely upend the larger narrative, delivering such an emotional impact it can become increasingly difficult to justify anything beyond that point.

Without exploring further details, that beautifully-executed turn essentially changes the entire experience and thrusts the film into a space that is completely removed from its opening moments that somehow results in an even more heart-stopping conclusion. When a film succeeds and supplants audiences preconceptions, it can be almost poetic and Encounter accomplishes this in a subtle masterstroke leading it to be one of the best films of the festival. The heart of the film lies with the unbreakable bond between Kahn and his sons, but it is how it uses this as a tool to educate the viewer on a much more poignant issue is truly striking.

In the end, Encounter is remarkable and unlike anything else that has premiered during this festival and is a must-watch whenever and wherever possible.

still courtesy of TIFF

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