‘Raw’ Director Was ‘Shocked’ That Two Viewers Fainted During Cannibal Movie at TIFF

When news broke that two viewers fainted during a Toronto Film Festival screening of cannibal movie “Raw,” it immediately became one of the biggest stories of the fest. Director Julia Ducournau responded to the coverage when she visited the Variety Studio presented by Orville Redenbacher’s at the Sundance Film Festival, saying that she was “very shocked” to hear the news.

“I didn’t see that coming,” she said. “I didn’t see that it could go to this extent. I just asked, like, how they were and I hoped that they were well and stuff because I felt a bit guilty, of course.”

She went on to talk about the “snowball effect” of the media coverage of the news, saying, “At one point… they were not talking about my movie, because I could not recognize my movie in what was being said. But I still feel sorry for these two poor people because everyone keeps asking me about them.”