Thirty-something Immigration attorney Zaynab (played with wry humor by out Pakistani Muslim actor Fawzia Mirza) is balancing her work, love life, and taking care of her conservative TV-obsessed mother. A drunken night with the bold and assertive Alma (EMPIRE's charismatic Sari Sanchez) leads Zayneb to question just how to come to terms with her mom, her love life, and her new-found obsession with Lucha-style wresting. Jennifer Reeder’s feature is a funny and honest take on the complications of contemporary dating and the joys of wrestling.

The years-long friendship between two pre-teen boys in a small Icelandic village is threatened when they strike up romantic relationships with a pair of local girls, in the affecting and beautifully crafted debut feature from Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson. In a small village in rural Iceland, Thor and Christian are best friends whose home lives are unsatisfactory, to say the least. Thor is ruthlessly mocked by his elder sisters, while his mother can't be bothered to hide her frustration at having to sacrifice her pleasure for the sake of her children. While Thor suffers from absentee parenting, Christian's drunken and abusive father is, unfortunately for him, all too present. When the two friends strike up romantic relationships with a pair of girls, the events that follow threaten to destroy the longest and most meaningful relationship either has ever had. Evincing a real feeling for how kids relate to one another, Heartstone also offers a powerful portrait of the limits of small-town life. While Thor and Christian's relationship takes centre stage, Guðmundsson also skillfully integrates a wide range of supporting characters (from a possibly psychotic local bully to the seedy clerk at the local diner/ bar, whose crass insensitivity reaches epic levels) and casts a cold eye on the boys' parents, whose privation and boredom have left them ill-equipped to fulfill their roles as protectors and nurturers. Well-crafted and very affecting, Heartstone is the finest debut by an Icelandic director since Rúnar Rúnarsson's Volcano. Desc. courtesy of the Toronto International Film Festival.

A great un-shaming is uniting and healing Inuit and LGBTQ communities in the eastern Arctic. The territory of Nunavut was built upon decades of relocation, re-education, and Christianization of nomadic Inuit people. Colonization and shame have shadowed the community, hitting LGBTQ people especially hard, as the systematic destruction of native culture has driven the Inuit’s original complex, inclusive sense of sexual orientation and family structure underground. Directors Woods and Yerxa methodically trace colonization from the 1950s, through the gradual thaw leading to LGBTQ protections in the Nunavut human rights act in 2003, up to the current state of affairs. The moving story comes alive through the voices of returning LGBTQ Inuit adults and the new generation of youth; tribal elders reviving ancient inclusiveness; white LGBTQ activists and scholars; and an Inuit filmmaker and LGBTQ ally who’s making it all visible. As indigenous values and contemporary mores come together, the way opens up for Inuit people to lead this continuing and exciting journey. Desc. courtesy of Frameline: The San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival.