Toronto film festival: Director Guy Nattiv draws on personal experience for an 80s-set tale of a woman abandoning her family for a creepy commune

We remain fascinated and horrified by the hows and whys of cult narratives, how someone could be so seduced by something so unknown and why they would then risk everything for it. Oscar-winning writer-director Guy Nattiv has been personally affected by these questions for most of his life, his grandmother joining a cult when he was a child and never coming back.

His attempt to try to understand who she was and why she acted in such a way has led to unsettling drama The Liberation, a fictionalised tale that acts as a form of therapy for him and a mostly successful antidote to more sensationalist cult stories for us. Enough Netflix docuseries and schlocky horror movies have given us a more extreme and often violent idea of how cults infect and destroy vulnerable people but Nattiv opts for a more thoughtful slow-burn. He’s recruited a suitably thoughtful actor in Carrie Coon, no stranger to this particular psychology having broken out in The Leftovers, one of the more intelligent cult dramas in recent years.

The Liberation is screening at the Toronto film festival and will be released later this year

Seeing a pallid, washed-out face in the mirror? Prepare to be diagnosed …

Name: Ferritin face.

Age: The name is new, but the symptoms are old.

The first console I ever bought, it was hyped as a threat to the PlayStation, then mocked as a flop. But now, as it marks its 25th anniversary, it’s looked back on with misty-eyed reverence

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Nintendo GameCube, the first console I ever bought with my own money. I vividly remember getting on the bus after school with a year’s worth of savings safely zipped into the pocket of my bag and going to a branch of Currys, where I dumped a bunch of notes, coins and vouchers on the counter to collect my pre-order. (It turned out that some of the vouchers from the previous Christmas had expired, but the guy at the checkout clearly felt so sorry for me that he redeemed them anyway. If you’re out there, Currys guy: thank you for taking pity on a desperate 13-year-old.)

If it hadn’t been for the ill-fated Wii U console, whose failure to take off in 2012 resulted in the first unprofitable periods in Nintendo’s game-making history, the GameCube would be remembered as the company’s biggest flop aside from the infamous Virtual Boy, from 1995. Released in Japan this week in 2001 (and in May 2002 in Europe), this surprisingly powerful purple cube sold much less than the Xbox and the PlayStation 2. With its squat, colourful form and unusual controller, arranged around a big traffic-light-green A button and small analogue sticks designed for small hands, it had a hint of Fisher-Price about it.

El Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza de Madrid tendrá una segunda sede a pocas calles de su ubicación actual, cerca del barrio de las Letras. En el conocido como el Palacio de Hielo y del Automóvil, en el centro de la capital, se desplegará TBA21, la colección de arte contemporáneo de la fundación creada por Francesca Thyssen, hija del barón. El Ministerio de Hacienda cede una parte de este espacio a la institución, según ha explicado Arcadi España, titular de la cartera, la mañana del miércoles, junto a Ernest Urtasun, ministro de Cultura, Borja Thyssen, y la propia Francesca Thyssen, quien hace una donación de 186 obras, valoradas en más de 115 millones, que pasarán a la colección Thyssen-Bornemisza.

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La Federación de Cines de España (FECE) ha asegurado este miércoles que las salas de cine de seis comunidades autónomas perderán 3,5 millones de euros en ayudas por un error del Ministerio de Cultura, que desmiente la acusación y señala a Hacienda. El enredo se debe, según la Federación de Cines, a un cambio interpretativo sobre las ayudas de 2025 que deja sin fondos en 2026 a las salas de Andalucía, Comunidad Valenciana, Navarra, Castilla-La Mancha, Islas Baleares y Canarias.

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Rescue workers say search for dozens of people hampered by lack of heavy machinery

A building housing about 100 displaced Palestinian families has collapsed in Gaza City, killing at least 20 people, as rescuers search the rubble for dozens of people believed to be trapped, including children.

A rescue team from Gaza’s civil defence said they had recovered the bodies of five children among the victims, while 25 injured people were taken to hospital. Medical sources said rescuers could hear the voices of people trapped beneath the rubble as they tried to reach them.

Commission president says EU must ‘urgently reimagine our partnerships’ as she makes unprecedented offer

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Canada has been invited to become the first “associate member” of the EU by the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.

In an unprecedented offer, von der Leyen said on Wednesday that the EU and Canada “see the world with the same eyes” through shared democratic values and common approaches to many big issues, from AI to climate breakdown, the Ukraine war and geopolitics.

Thaçi held criminally responsible for war crimes during the violent break from Serbia in the 1990s

Von der Leyen says “kickstarting Europe’s economy is our number one priority,” as Europe needs to tap into its huge market, world class industries and services.

She says its single market remains too fragmented and needs to reform further, with the aim of completing it by the end of next year.

“Do we want to rally around our European idea that together we can decide our own destiny? Or do we let our democracies be undermined by the proxies and puppets of authoritarians?

Whether it is the ultra nationalist or the anti-European, whether it’s Russian interference or disinformation, the names may be different, but their goal is the same.

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El gesto de Vinicius, Mbappé y Konaté en el Elche - Real Madrid de anoche ha llegado al Congreso. Distintos grupos parlamentarios han comentado la decisión de los tres futbolistas del Madrid de no secundar al comienzo de ese partido la campaña de apoyo a Ceuta consistente en ponerse una camiseta con el lema “todos somos caballas”. Mientras que los compañeros de Vinicius, Mbappé y Konaté sí se pusieron la camiseta, estos tres se la dejaron a medias, con el lema semi tapado, y se la quitaron rápidamente. Especialmente dura contra los tres jugadores blancos ha sido Ester Muñoz, la portavoz parlamentaria del PP, quien ha afirmado que esta acción le dio “bastante vergüenza ajena”.

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PM responds to criticism from former Bank of England chief economist

Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, has posted this on social media ahead of Andy Burnham’s meeting with the Nato secretary general Mark Rutte later.

Today I am reminded of the words of my Labour predecessor Denis Healey:

“Once we cut defence expenditure to the extent where our security is imperilled, we have no houses, we have no hospitals, we have no schools. We have a heap of cinders.”

[Britain] is leading, along with Nato allies, the push back against Russia’s dangerous and reckless campaign against us.

Collectively we will continue to strengthen our ability to deter and defend all allies, against any threat. Nato will not be intimidated by Russia’s campaign of hostile actions. Russia wants to stop us helping Ukraine – but their actions will only lead us to do more for Ukraine. Russia’s actions are a sign of weakness, and a symptom of Putin’s failure in Ukraine.

To stay transatlantic, Nato is becoming more European. A Nato with Europe, and Canada, spending more, producing more, and doing more for their security. This is the idea of Nato 3.0.

Building for the future. A stronger Europe, in a stronger Nato.