TIFF 2025 Review: The Cost of Heaven – “a slow deconstruction of a person going through increasingly hard times”

In order to maintain the standard of living his family has become accustomed to Nacer must navigate through financial ambition, misfortune and deceit.

Sitting in a luxury car at a Lexus dealership and subsequently pretending to speak to Santa Claus at the dinner table to discover what everyone in his family wants for Christmas, Naser is consumed by consumerism.  The trouble is that money is not so easy to obtain and maintain, so when an investment in the stock market tumbles, so does everything else, leading to a series of desperate decisions that cross ethical boundaries.

There is no shouting from Samir Guesmi, instead he portrays Nacer’s simmering of frustration through his words, facial expressions and posture.  A key line of dialogue is when Nacer tells his wife that the world is not as perfect as she thinks, which is why they have to park their Dodge out of view from those associated with an exclusive private school that their children attend.  There is also the technical aspect of the filmmaking that supports the performance of Guesmi.  The lighting is moody throughout, reflections are everywhere, flares are blinding in the opening shot, and the camera turns on itself, representing a figurative and literal emotional turning point.

The slow deconstruction of a person going through increasingly hard times and digging themselves even further into trouble as desperation rather than logic takes over is not surprising for social conscious filmmaker Mathieu Denis.  The trouble is that the pacing makes the premise laborious, as one knows that things are going to go from bad to worse.  I am not sure if reflecting more on the impact on the family would have provided a different spin on the proceedings, but then again, this is a burden that the protagonist wants to shoulder alone and hide from the ones he loves. As for the inverting camera shot, it goes from being emotionally effective to forcing the editor into a no way out situation that causes the visual trick to overstay its narrative welcome.

The 50th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 4-14, 2025, and for more information visit tiff.net.    

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.