North American Premiere
Suspenseful and provocative, Tarik Saleh’s film explores the tension between Islam and the Egyptian state. It’s the story of Adam (Tawfeek Barhom), a young man who has been awarded a scholarship to Al-Azhar, the school and mosque that sits at the centre of Islamic thought. Adam looks forward to a bright future, but there are powerful men with other plans. Soon, he finds himself a pawn in the struggle between State Security agents and radical religious leaders.
Boy from Heaven has the shrewd plotting of a thriller, with intrigue, betrayal, murder, and more. It’s also a fascinating exploration of religion and politics, and the uneasy relationship between the two. Saleh directs with brio and a sure sense of place, and his lead actor is superbly expressive: the wide-eyed Barhom radiates angst and repressed energy, claiming our sympathy from the first moments of the film.
Compelling… an intriguingly damning portrait of the corruption currently hitting Egypt on all levels.”—Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
Best Screenplay, Cannes 2022
Tawfeek Barhom, Fares Fares, Mohammad Bakri, Makram J. Khoury, Sherwan Haji, Mehdi Dehbi
Sweden/France/Finland
2022
In Arabic with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
The History of Concrete
After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.
La Bola Negra
A big, old-school historical melodrama gets a thrillingly modern, queer makeover from Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who artfully juggle three gay protagonists across stories set in 1932, 1937, and 2017. Winner: Best Director, Cannes. Screening on 35mm.
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.
The Mad Dog of Europe
The story of an unmade screenplay from the writer of Citizen Kane. In 1932, Herman Mankiewicz wrote a film that foretold the persecution of the Jews and the war in Europe. But Hollywood wouldn't take the risk and The Mad Dog of Europe was never made.
The Mortal Storm
In this explicitly anti-Nazi melodrama directed by Frank Borzage (Three Comrades) a year before the US entered the war, Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart fall in love as their friends and family fall prey to the rise of Hitler's Nazi party in Germany.
Three Comrades
Scripted by F Scott Fitzgerald, Three Comrades (1938) was the first US studio film to chronicle the rise of European fascism in the 30s. Three German veterans open up a repair shop and try to regain a normal life, but political extremists have other ideas.
Credits
Producer
Kristina Åberg, Fredrik Zander
Screenwriter
Tarik Saleh
Cinematography
Pierre Aïm
Editor
Theis Schmidt
Production Design
Roger Rosenberg
Original Music
Krister Linder
Director
Tarik Saleh
Tarik Saleh was one of the top graffiti artists in Stockholm in the 1980s. He directed the documentaries Gitmo: The New Rules of War (2005) and Sacrificio: Who Betrayed Che Guevara (2001) together with Erik Gandini. His film debut Metropia (2009), a dystopian animation, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. He directed and wrote the screenplay for The Nile Hilton Incident (2017), which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. He directed episodes of the HBO series Westworld (2018), the Showtime series Ray Donovan, and the action thriller, The Contractor (2022), starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster, and Kiefer Sutherland.
Filmography: Gitmo: The New Rules of War (2005); Metropia (2009); Tommy (2014); The Nile Hilton Incident (2017)