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Search VIFF Films By Country
Algeria, France, Ireland, UAE
Uplifting and entertaining, Safinez Bousbia’s doc celebrates the power and the passion of her native Algeria’s musical form known as "Chaabi" (a precursor to Rai) as well as the streets and courtyards of Algiers. "Toe-tapping and infectious on emotional and intellectual levels, El gusto is… Bousbia’s heartwarming tribute to her native country’s lost egalitarianism as much as to the elderly exponents of the popular music… Comparisons are being made to The Buena Vista Social Club…"—Variety
Argentina
John Hillary Palmer is an upper-class English anthropologist who went to live and work among the Wichí people of Argentina, and ended up an outspoken defender of their vanishing way of life. Ulises Rosell fashions an intimate look at the man and the culture. "Delicate, hushed and sensitive in every respect, this documentary beguiles with its low-key approach to fascinating material…"—Hollywood Reporter
While slaving as a maid for an inconsiderate family, a Wichí teenager is cajoled into betraying her indigenous people’s beliefs. Daniela Seggiaro’s debut feature "poses as a small-scale domestic drama but contains a subtle yet harsh critique of Argentineans’ ignorance and dismissal of the marginalized Wichí people."—Variety
Chile, Argentina, Brazil
The intense, remarkable life of the Chilean singer-songwriter Violeta Parra is explored with sensitivity and exquisite lightness of touch in Andrés Wood’s [drama]. Featuring a searching central performance from Francisca Gavilán, this beautifully lensed portrait moves elegantly back and forth in time to limn the life of a woman who perpetually struggled to find her place.—Variety. Winner, World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic, Sundance 2012.
Argentina, France, Netherlands
In Jazmín López’s mysterious and astonishing debut—a kind of Argentine Gerry—a group of five friends deep in a forest wander around like a lion herd. Lost in their word games, they play and seduce each other, while going back and forth into adult territory in a desperate search to avoid their already written story…
Australia
During a taxi ride, an immigrant driver tries to break through to his sullen passenger by telling of the tragic events that led him to flee Iraq during the war.
Vincent awakens disoriented and confused, but when his control-freak crime boss calls him in for yet another crazy job, he has no choice but to accept.
An isolated teenaged girl has an incident with some rowdy boys in town, but things get ugly when they show up seeking payback at her father’s remote wrecking yard.
The intensity of night-patrol operations in the hostile jungle of East Timor, as seen through the eyes and mind of an Australian Infantry soldier.
Abed Farhadi has just been gunned down by police. As time reverses, his final moments of flight across an urban landscape reveal the events that led to this tragedy.
Forced to deal with her parents’ tragic death Marie retreats into a world of photographs in an effort to make time stand still.
Held captive in a dark and dingy basement a young man is repeatedly beaten, but the interrogation turns weird when the clouds part to reveal a full moon…
Australia, Germany
In the wake of WWII, an OSS officer’s teenage daughter (Saskia Rosendahl) leads her siblings on a perilous trek through a Germany that’s descended into chaos. Cate Shortland’s thoughtful direction ensures that "the deep-feeling Rosendahl makes a major impression… We see the Nazi disaster filtered through her teenage decency and incomprehension."—Screen. Winner, Audience Award, Locarno 2012.
Switzerland, Germany, Austria
Millions of bees have disappeared worldwide over the past few years. Given the importance of bees to life on earth, are we facing a total system collapse? Looking for answers, Markus Imhoof travels from the Alps to the Arizona desert, interviewing experts ranging from beekeepers to scientists. Unlike earlier films on the subject, Imhoof’s offers up a possible solution…
Austria
After being racially profiled by police, a young father and son of Arabic origin board the subway—unaware that the most inexplicable happenings are yet to come…
Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s much-anticipated follow-up to their La Pivellina is again a gritty, semi-improvised serio-comic feature about how sudden connections can alter one’s structured life. Here the conflict is between an aging circus performer (award-winner Walter Saabel) and the nephew, a famous theatre actor (Philipp Hochmair), he visits. Winner, Best Actor, Locarno 2012.
France, Germany, Austria
Michael Haneke became one of the very few directors to cop the Palme d’Or at Cannes for a second time with this brilliantly acted, profoundly affecting exploration of love, starring three of France’s greatest thespians, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert. Trintignant and Riva are a couple in their 80s forced to face an uncertain future after she has an attack… Winner, Palme d’Or, Cannes 2012.
Austria, USA
When a foreign visitor (the inimitable Mary Margaret O’Hara) enlists a museum guard as her private guide to Vienna, Jem Cohen’s film becomes a multifaceted exploration of an iconic city and the evocative power of art. "Full of charm, intelligence and dry humor… an absorbing argument that dusty old artworks have plenty to tell us about contemporary life…”—Hollywood Reporter
Austria, Germany, France
The first installment in Ulrich Seidl’s (Import/Export) Paradise trilogy focuses on Teresa (the very game Margarethe Tiesl), a plump middle-aged Austrian vacationing on a “comfort safari” to Kenya, a land of zebra-costumed troubadours, wild monkeys, and “beach boys.” A dark culture-clash comedy where the exchange of sex for money raises questions about just who is "colonizing" whom…?
France, Belgium
Jacques Audiard follows up his electrifying Un prophète with this tender/brutal Côte d’Azur-set drama featuring the rising star Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead) and Marion Cotillard (La vie en rose). He’s a damaged boxer with a young son in tow and she’s a whale trainer at Antibes’ Marine Land who, after suffering a shocking accident at work, allows him into her life.