
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
Loti Kovačič, Mackenzie Mazur, Gregor Baković, Claudia Karvan
Australia/Slovenia
2022
In English and Slovene with English subtitles
Coarse language
Open to youth!
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Graduate
In The Graduate Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman, 30 playing 20 with masterly understatement) comes home from college and is surprised to be seduced by the wife of his father's business partner, Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft).
blur: To the End
Now in their late 50s, Britpopsters blur (of Song 2 fame) do a celebratory lap of Great Britain culminating in their first ever Wembley Stadium show in this appealing observational doc. A companion piece to the concert film Live at Wembley Stadium.
Midnight Cowboy
Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are street hustlers on different ends of the innocence / experience spectrum who establish something more than a business partnership in the seedy world of late 60s New York City in John Schlesinger's New Hollywood classic.
Sinners
This year's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.
The Headless Woman
The pictures tell the story -- and you better not blink -- when Veronica (the superb Maria Onetto) hits something on the road home. But what? She is too traumatized, or panic-stricken, to go back and look, and her fears are too terrible to acknowledge.
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
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.