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
Sepidar Tari, Shahdiyar Shakiba, Ali Ahmadi
Iran
2022
In Farsi with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Art of Adventure
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.
Chasing Ice
This visually stunning film follows renowned National Geographic photographer James Balog on a harsh Arctic expedition where he captures a multi-year record of the world's changing glaciers — undeniable evidence that our planet is in crisis. The screening will be introduced by James Balog.
Dead Lover
A foul-smelling gravedigger's romance ends in tragedy, spurring her to attempt a resurrection through a madcap series of science experiments. Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie’s film is a zany DIY horror that zaps fresh life into Mary Shelley's classic.
Calle Málaga
Seventy-nine-year-old María Ángeles lives independently in Tangier's Spanish quarter. When her daughter pressures her into selling her apartment, she refuses to give in, finding in her old age a new resilience and an unexpected romantic connection.
Sansho the Bailiff
The third of the great Japanese masters (with Ozu and Kurosawa), Mizoguchi is a poet of suffering. There's plenty of that here in his exquisite telling of an ancient folktale about the enslavement of a woman and her two children.
Credits
Producer
Ehsan Rasoulof
Screenwriter
Dornaz Hajiha
Cinematography
Alireza Barazande
Editor
Ashkan Mehri
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.