A celebrated Canadian filmmaker curates a selection of international films that influenced their artistic journey
Across some 50 years of time and multiple border walls, these films — with poetry and with humour — explore themes of lonesomeness, alienation, political turmoil, the manufacturing of contempt, and the artificiality of image-making. In brief: our world today! But these films also contain something very precious, and that something is tenderness. These films all ask us a question that preoccupies me greatly as both a filmmaker and as a person, a question that is as vital as it is absurd: In this most cruel of all possible worlds, how do we build spaces of love?
— Matthew Rankin, Guest Programmer
Full Curatorial Statement
I am so humbled by this sweet invitation to guest-curate VIFF’s 2025 Leading Lights program. As a filmmaker working in Canada, I think VIFF is just the best thing going. In a cultural sector increasingly stressed out by commercial imperatives, VIFF has remained so deeply committed to art and the belief that sharing art makes us feel alive. I’m absolutely delighted to be part of this year’s event.
I’ve been asked to share with you four international films that inspired my second feature, Universal Language (2024). The list of inspirations for that film is LONG but I’ve chiseled it down to: a metaphysical poem by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, A Moment of Innocence (Iran, 1996); a proletarian noir by Aki Kaurismäki, Lights in the Dusk (Finland, 2006); a set of deadpan tableaux by Elia Suleiman, Divine Intervention (Palestine, 2002); and a structuralist essay-film by Chantal Akerman, News from Home (Belgium, 1976). I love all these films very dearly and I’m so excited to watch them with you.
Across some 50 years of time and multiple border walls, these films — with poetry and with humour — explore themes of lonesomeness, alienation, political turmoil, the manufacturing of contempt, and the artificiality of image-making. In brief: our world today! But they also contain something very precious, and that something is tenderness. These films ask a question that preoccupies me greatly as a filmmaker, a question as vital as it is absurd: In this most cruel of all possible worlds, how do we build spaces of love?
— Matthew Rankin
Matthew Rankin
A Moment of Innocence
Iranian master filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf stages a filmed reenactment of a political skirmish from his youth. Equal parts autobiographical comedy, Brechtian behind-the-scenes documentary, and metaphysical poem, A Moment of Innocence shines.
Lights in the Dusk
At once both funny and sad, Lights in the Dusk repurposes the cinematic language of film noir and gangster flicks to create a wholly singular proletarian satire of late-stage capitalism. This is Kaurismäki at his most angry and most tender.
News From Home
One part city symphony, one part introspective meditation, one part epistolary text, News from Home is a structuralist masterwork by Belgium’s genius of contemplation, Chantal Akerman.
Divine Intervention
Palestinian visionary Elia Suleiman is at the height of his powers with this series of deadpan, interconnected, absurdist vignettes about two Palestinian lovers on either side of an Israeli military checkpoint.