When he introduced the world premiere of his film “Denial” at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday night, British director Mick Jackson pointed out that one of his main characters is called a liar, a racist and a demagogue.
“Does that sound familiar?” he added with a grin. “You might think this is a hastily assembled, ripped-from-the-headlines movie, but the story goes back decades.”
So no, “Denial” has nothing to do with a current presidential candidate — but if you want to go looking for parallels, you’ll no doubt find some. Instead, it’s about a real-life trial in London in the 1990s, when American historian Deborah Lipstadt was sued for libel by David Irving for calling him a Holocaust denier in one of her books.