The frenzy of pre-festival work is slowing down, but this week’s episode of Someone Else’s Movie has ties to TIFF in a couple of ways: My guest is appearing to promote a film that played there last year, and he chose to talk about a movie I saw there almost thirty years ago.

The guest would be Adeel Akhtar, whom you may know from Four Lions, Stranger Things, Enola Holmes and Sweet Tooth among dozens of screen credits, the latest of which is Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava — in which he plays a proper romantic lead opposite Clare Rushbrook —  and the film is Gurinder Chadha’s 1993 breakout Bhaji on the Beach, which arrived at precisely the right time to make him think about storytelling, representation and all the other things he didn’t believe were accessible to people that looked like him.

It’s a thoughtful, engaging conversation, and we also discuss Ali & Ava at length. That film is opening across Canada on Friday; in Toronto, we’ve got it exclusively at the Lightbox. Don’t miss out.

So once again I am asking you: Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever and get it instantly, or download it directly from the web.

And while you’re doing web stuff, subscribe to my Shiny Things newsletter for crying out loud! In addition to my reviews of Nope, the 4K release of Everything Everywhere All at Once and the Criterion edition of Devil in a Blue Dress, the latest edition has this nifty giveaway contest I’m sure you don’t want to miss out on.  Contest closes at noon tomorrow (Wednesday, July 27th); instructions are in the newsletter. C’mon, it’s so worth it.