Skip to main content
Like a Fish on the Moon film image, director Dornaz Hajiha

Like a Fish on the Moon

This event has passed

North American Premiere

Ilya is a normal, healthy four-and-a-half year-old boy. He goes to daycare and enjoys playing. He comes from a stable background with loving parents. But for reasons known only to himself, he has stopped talking. Contrary to what you might expect, Dornaz Hajiha’s superbly acted film zeroes in on the boy’s mom and dad, Haleh and Amir (Sepidar Tari and Shahdiyar Shakiba). In the first scene, a pyschologist probes their relationship and recommends that they reverse roles, that is, Amir should take over responsibility for getting Ilya dressed, feeding him, and the thousand other little things that his wife routinely does for their son. He grudgingly agrees. But it’s Haleh who really struggles with the new arrangement. She feels helpless and redundant. And Ilya still isn’t talking.

In her spare, empathetic first feature film, Hajiha establishes such authenticity, it’s almost as if we are watching an observational documentary. As the distressed parents consult one specialist after another, all to no avail, their own mental health suffers and the marriage cracks apart, leading to a devastating climax.

A transfixing and brooding, unafraid film where there are no winners. But there are truths to be had.”—Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

 

Q&A Oct 2 & Oct 4

 

Media Partner

Director
Cast

Sepidar Tari, Shahdiyar Shakiba, Ali Ahmadi

Credits
Country of Origin

Iran

Year

2022

Language

In Farsi with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
78 min
Drama Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Frankenstein

Dir. Guillermo del Toro
149 min

Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro might have been made for each other. The movie does not disappoint, a ripping yarn of grand adventure, spectacle, hubris, passion and XXL body parts, a tale of the fantastic that rings the imagination. Screening in 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Ballad of a Small Player

Dir. Edward Berger
105 min

Colin Farrell stars in this noir film about a gambler running out of luck in Macau, from the director of Conclave and All Quiet on the Western Front. Tilda Swinton, Fala Chen and Deannie Yip costar.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Woman in the Dunes

Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara
147 min

Teshigahara's collaboration with novelist Kōbō Abe's is vividly strange, erotic and unsettling allegory about an amateur entymologist who is himself ensnared in a trap he only dimly understands. Screening in 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989

Dir. Göran Hugo Olsson
240 min

Drawing on 30 years of television archives, Göran Hugo Olsson relates the early history of the state of Israel, as reported by Swedish filmmakers, politicians and journalists. "An astonishing, invaluable document." William Mullally, The National

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Checkpoint Zoo

Dir. Joshua Zeman
107 min

The amazing true story of the rescue of thousands of animals trapped on the frontline at an Ecopark when Russia invades Ukraine in 2022.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Predators

Dir. David Osit
96 min

"Punk'd for pedophiles." That's what Jimmy Kimmel called Chris Hansen's true crime/reality TV show, To Catch a Predator (2004-07). Two decades on, David Osit examines why the show made such an impact, for good or ill, and sits down with Hansen himself.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Credits

Producer

Ehsan Rasoulof

Screenwriter

Dornaz Hajiha

Cinematography

Alireza Barazande

Editor

Ashkan Mehri

Director

Dornaz Hajiha headshot, Like a Fish on the Moon director

Dornaz Hajiha

Dornaz Hajiha received her Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design from Alzahra University, Tehran, and graduated with an MA in Film Production from the London Film School in 2015. She has written and directed several short films and documentaries, including Marlon (2017) and Marziyeh (2017). Like a Fish on the Moon is her debut feature. Hajiha is currently developing her second feature, Diaphanous.