Morals are being challenged on many fronts. The protagonists in this program of short films are all faced with difficult moral choices and they don’t always make the right decisions.
Q&A Oct 3 & Oct 5
This short film program includes the following films:
The Silent Ones
Basile Vuillemin, France/Belgium/Switzerland (20 min)
At the end of an unsuccessful fishing trip, a small trawler’s desperate captain and crew ultimately agree they have to do something risky, but potentially lucrative, to change their fortune.
Solar Eclipse
Alireza Ghasemi, Raha Amirfazli, France/Iran (15 min)
A teen girl and her two friends and are off for an afternoon in the largest park in Teheran to photograph a rare total solar eclipse.
A Moral Man
Paul and Simon Wade, UK (19 min)
A right-to-die evangelist must wrestle with his faith and morality when his latest client turns out to be not what she claimed.
For Real
Ernest Lorek, Poland (19 min)
A young man’s house party takes an unexpected turn when his gangster neighbour breaks into his apartment.
Perspective
Alaa Algburi, Iraq/Jordan (10 min)
A symbolic examination of how men treat women in most of the Middle East from a young woman’s perspective.
The Lone Wolf
Filipe Melo, Portugal (24 min)
A talk show radio host has chosen emotions as his theme for tonight’s show, which proves surprisingly banal until he gets a call from an old friend.
Community Partner
Various
Various
2021-2022
Various with English subtitles
Domestic Violence, Gender or Sexual Discrimination, Sexual Violence, Child Abuse
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
The Ice Tower
In Lucile Hadžihalilović's spellbinding fantasy drama, an orphan (Clara Pacini) becomes enthralled by a movie star (Marion Cotillard) playing the Snow Queen in a fairy tale film adaptation. Winner of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution.
Where to Land
Hal Hartley's first new film in a decade is a melancholy farce about mortality and what we'll call "late middle-age". Bill Sage is a semi-retired filmmaker who isn't dying faster than the rest of us but who behaves like he might be.
La Grazia
A contemplative, mournful but richly imagined movie about a retiring Italian President (Toni Servillo from The Great Beauty) facing two thorny ethical decisions that may define his legacy.
Image: © Andrea Pirrello
The Blue Star
In crisis, a popular singer quits Spain to backpack in Argentina. There he comes under the spell of a veteran musician, who teaches him the art of chacareras, zambas and vidalas. It's a journey of musical kinship and spiritual reawakening.
The Mother and the Bear
Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.