Isabel Coixet’s “Learning to drive” awarded first runner-up prize at Toronto film festival 2014
Whilst the press buzz may have focused its attentions elsewhere, we are proud to announce that Isabel Coixet’s “Learning to drive” was awarded the first runner-up prize at this year’s Toronto film festival. Starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson, who also starred in Coixet’s film “Elegy”, this film is based on Katha Pollitt’s 2002 essay for “The New Yorker”.
This tender film deals with how a Manhattan writer (Clarkson) finds solace in her bi-weekly driving lessons with her Sikh instructor (Ben Kinglsey) after her long-term husband (played by Jake Weber) unceremoniously dumps her. Denial turns to grief, anger and then hard determination so that she can learn to drive to visit her daughter Tasha at college in Vermont.
“Learning to drive” reflects intimacy in the unlikeliest of situations and also shows how a woman can regain control of her life after it falls to pieces.
For a list of TIFF prizes see here.
EWA Network had the pleasure to interview Isabel Coixet last winter, you can read it here
