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Kastner is probably best known for 2019’s which uncovered a fraud ring that passed off phony paintings as originals by the popular Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau, before shifting into a shocking story of residential-school abuse. The film revealed how collectors had no idea there were up to 10 times more Morrisseau forgeries on the market than there were authentic pieces, a discovery that helped police arrest and convict several of the counterfeiters.

With his latest film, “The Spoils,� the director follows the frustrating attempts by executors and university beneficiaries who moved to Montreal just before the Holocaust.

Kastner, largely filming in Germany, uses Max Stern and his collection of hundreds of paintings from the Galerie Stern to shine a light on how museums and galleries continue to grapple with the consequences of retaining items many scholars argue were taken from their owners when the Nazis wrested businesses away from Jewish Europeans.

“Let’s just call it a coincidence I’m again doing a film about the art scene,� Kastner told the Star from his home near Main Street and Danforth Avenue. “I find the art world fascinating, sure, but I often don’t like repeating myself.�

The story came on his radar after a journalist friend who watched “There Are No Fakes� mentioned it.

What resonated with Kastner about the film’s theme is “how it’s a juicy story that the general public could get into, and there’s a brawl at the center of it. Drama is conflict.�

That tension bubbled over in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2017 when an exhibition of Stern’s collection, organized by Canadian scholars working with the Max Stern Art Restitution Project, was cancelled by the city’s mayor, Thomas Geisel, and other officials. Kastner said it appeared that Geisel and his advisers were worried the exhibition was presenting information about paintings once in the Galerie Stern “that might open a can of worms for their current Düsseldorf owners, be they museums or collectors.â€�

Officially, Geisel and his deputies offered multiple explanations for the cancellation, including conflicts of interest in light of active Stern restitution claims against the city, imbalances between Canadian and German scholarship and a lack of preparation on the part of the Düsseldorf museum’s director.

The show was revived in 2021 at the same museum, Stadtmuseum, with a German curator selected by city officials, shunning Canadian expertise. The Jewish community of Düsseldorf didn’t endorse the exhibition, and it was poorly attended.

Returning Nazi-looted art to their rightful owners isn’t always a smooth road. What one side calls “the last prisoners of war,� the other considers dubious claims.

“The Spoilsâ€� trains its lens on two paintings by the artist Wilhelm von Schadow that were once owned by Stern: a self-portrait restituted to the Stern estate in 2014 and now on loan to Düsseldorf, and “Portrait of the Artist’s Children,â€� brought back to the Stern estate and then sold to Düsseldorf. Stadtmuseum hired the lawyer Ludwig von Pufendorf, who is often enlisted to defend against restitution claims. In the film, von Pufendorf’s scoffing dismissal of claims is reminiscent of wartime German attitudes, a stark contrast to interviewees who stress how Stern was forced to liquidate his property under extreme duress.

Under the Allied restitution principles, now viewed as general rules for cases of redress, the person or estate making a claim for a piece of art must prove that it changed hands under persecution or duress.

Around 500 claims launched by are still pending.

“Once I started hearing arguments from the anti-restitution side,� Kastner said, “they would ask questions like, ‘How much was this Jew suffering in 1933 compared to 1934? Could Jewish people sit on park benches or not at that point in time?’ These lawyerly dissections of oppressions made them all seem so tone deaf, to put it charitably.�

Examining the in-fighting within niche communities is familiar territory for Kastner. In 2024’s “Nobody Wants to Talk About Jacob Applebaum,â€� the titular hacker and cybersecurity expert is seen by some as a free speech advocate in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities for aligning himself with Julian Assange, and by others as a sexual abuser (he has denied allegations). A battle between Toronto real estate developers and conservationists plays out in 2023’s “Charlotte’s Castle.â€� And “There Are No Fakes” pits auction-house owners against collectors and art experts seeking to verify the legitimacy of Morrisseau paintings.

“My job is to get each side to reveal themselves as frankly as possible,� Kastner said about “The Spoils,� although he could he could have been remarking on his entire oeuvre. “Journalistic balance is core to everything I do.�

The filmmaker became involved with documentaries while working on such CBC programs as “Undercurrents,� but non-fiction storytelling runs in the family.

His late uncle, four-time Emmy-winner John Kastner, directed breakout documentaries such as “NCR: Not Criminally Responsible� and “Life With Murder.�

Kastner has dedicated “The Spoils” to his

With his independent production company Cave 7 Productions, Kastner has made a career out of filmmaking, thanks to funding he’s secured from Bravo, CBC, TVO and Telefilm Canada. Financing his films has consistently been challenging, he said, but he’s been able to win over backers (not to mention audiences) with a sharp eye for what works on the screen.

“Documentaries have to be entertaining, not laugh-a-minute funny, but entertaining in some way, and I think a lot of documentaries have forgotten about that,� Kastner said. “I like to make films that can be entertaining but also get people thinking, asking questions.�

“The Spoils” plays at TIFF Lightbox on April 3 and Hot Docs Cinema on April 5 and 6, and opens at Empress Walk on April 4.