Skip to main content
Moja Vesna film image, director Sara Kern

Moja Vesna

This event has passed

North American Premiere

TIFF Talent Lab and Cannes Cinéfondation alumna Sara Kern makes a stirring debut with this touching portrait of a family in mourning, centering on 10-year-old Moja, who takes it upon herself to pick up the pieces of her broken family after the sudden loss of their mother.

The filmmaker employs a distinctly soft lens in her poignant interrogation of maternal instinct and female empathy, operating in the insular world of a wounded yet resourceful young girl who finds comfort in taking care of everyone around her. This is further highlighted by the film’s thoughtful use of interior settings, and the way these spaces inform the characters’ sense of sanctuary and emotional armour. Anchored in the deeply affecting performance by the young Loti Kovačič, the film gently peels off layers of trauma embedded in the fractured family routine, while expertly harnessing the sense of cultural dichotomy in its portrayal of shifting family dynamics.

 

Presented by

Director
Cast

Loti Kovačič, Mackenzie Mazur, Gregor Baković, Claudia Karvan

Credits
Country of Origin

Australia/Slovenia

Year

2022

Language

In English and Slovene with English subtitles

Film Contact
Content Warning

Coarse language

PG

Open to youth!

77 min
Drama Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

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

The Life of Chuck

Dir. Mike Flanagan
111 min

The winner of the coveted Audience Award at TIFF last year, The Life of Chuck keeps us guessing about what it's up to and where it's going... Trust us, it's a keeper.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Children of Men

Dir. Alfonso Cuarón
109 min

2027: 18 years since the last baby was born, disillusioned Englishman Theo (Clive Owen) becomes an unlikely champion of the human race when he is asked by his former lover (Julianne Moore) to escort a young pregnant woman out of the country.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Ghosts of the Sea

97 min

Imagine an especially poetic true crime podcast about a sailor who built his own sailboat and lived on the high seas, but lost not one, but two wives along the way... Now imagine it told from the vantage point of his daughter: Ghosts of the Sea.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Oldboy

Dir. Park Chan-wook
120 min

The second movie in Park's Vengeance Trilogy. Choi Min-sik stars as Dae Su, inexplicably held captive by he-knows-not-who for 15 years, and then, just as inexplicably, released. Not surprisingly, after all this time, he has only one thing on his mind...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Gleaners and I

Dir. Agnès Varda
82 min

This lovely essay film about the art of foraging is also a self portrait of the artist at 72.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Miracle Worker

Dir. Arthur Penn
107 min

Academy Awards went to Best Actress Anne Bancroft and Best Supporting Actress Patty Duke for their moving portrayals of Annie Sullivan and her remarkable blind and deaf pupil, Helen Keller. "A film that storms where most biopics respectfully tiptoe."

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Credits

Producer

Gal Greenspan, Rok Bicek, Sharlene George

Screenwriter

Sara Kern

Cinematography

Lev Predan Kowarski

Editor

Haim Tabakman, Hayley Miro Browne

Production Design

Maddison Haywood

Director

Sara Kern headshot, Moja Vesna director

Sara Kern

Sara Kern is a Slovenian-Australian writer and director. She graduated in film directing from the University of Ljubljana’s Academy of Theatre, Film, Radio, and Television in 2013. Kern worked as a screenwriter for the Slovenian National Television’s Children and Youth Program for several years before moving to Australia. Her 2016 short Good Luck Orlo premiered at the 73rd Venice Film Festival and went on to screen at the Toronto, Chicago, and Seattle International Film Festivals.