Toronto International Film Festival: Jennifer Aniston

For most, a trip to India is a spiritual experience. This was certainly the case when Sydney filmmaker Claire McCarthy (above) and her sister worked as volunteers with Mother Teresa's nuns for six months in Calcutta. Although she made a documentary of their time there for the ABC called Sisters, McCarthy was inspired by the individual stories of the couples who came to the mission to adopt. Those stories are coming to life on the big screen in her latest film The Waiting City.

The first Australian film to be shot entirely in India, it stars Australian acting talents Radha Mitchell, Joel Edgerton and Isabel Lucas. McCarthy said as well as the couple's `love story', they set out to capture the mayhem and exotic chaos of India in the film.

``It was certainly challenging to shoot in almost semi-documentary style, not using sets and trying to integrate our actors into real situations in one of the most populated cities,'' she said.
``We had a crew of about 120, with five different languages spoken on set.
``But it was one of the highlights of my career working in someone else's country.
``We didn't want to feel like we were coming in and taking over, we wanted it to feel like we were doing things more like a local film than an international film.''

However, they encountered more than a few hurdles. Shot throughout India in 2014 and 2015, McCarthy said they were `really tested' when the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks occurred.

``We had the terrorist attacks happen at the mid-point of shoot and a lot of the crew were form Mumbai and directly affected.
``We had friends staying at the hotel, it was quite full on.
``Things like that can make or beak the situation and it definitely brought us together.''But McCarthy said they also encountered some luck during production, particularly with the film's star Radha Mitchell (above), who is also a producer on The Waiting City.
``I was making a music video for Old Man River on the banks of the Ganges and one of the production crew asked me who my fantasy leading lady would be for The Waiting City and I said Radha,'' she said.
``It somehow got out to The Times of India and she was Googling herself one day and was like `what the hell? I'm supposed to be shooting a film in India and I've never heard of it.'
``She got in touch with her agent who found a copy of the script and then she came onboard.
``This is really a love project for her and her support was totally invaluable - she worked for us for a lot less than what she would work for America.''

Another rising Aussie star in the film is Joel Edgerton (below), who was most recently seen in Animal Kingdom. McCarthy said during the auditions she had her eye on Edgerton.

“I’ve seen him do quite macho roles and he did a knockout audition,” she said.
“I wanted to cast an actor who could be really likable, naturally funny, sing and be quite manly – he has all of these qualities that I thought the film needed.
“And since filming his star has really risen and he’s in quite a few coveted roles in America.”The Waiting City premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in cinemas on Thursday.