Skip to main content
Nightsiren film image, director Tereza Nvotová

Nightsiren

Světlonoc

This event has passed

Canadian Premiere

Tereza Nvotová follows up her critically acclaimed feature debut, Filthy, with this lush, atmospheric genre piece that masterfully mines regional superstitions and witch lore as she continues to interrogate female trauma and toxic patriarchal structures at the heart of destructive social dynamics.

The film centers on Šarlota, a young woman that shows up in a remote Slovakian mountain village looking for answers about her tragic family past. But her sudden presence is met with suspicion and mistrust from the small community. This draws out Mira, a local loner who takes an interest in the mysterious newcomer and decides to take her under her wing. As the two women bond and start challenging the wider status quo, their fearless and independent ways ruffle some feathers, and it’s not long before the pitchforks are out for them.

A heady mix of arresting visuals, genre thrills, rich character dynamics, and sharp social commentary, Nightsiren occupies that coveted space of mainstream appeal and intimate, character-driven storytelling that casts a potent cinematic spell.

 

Pardo d’oro for Best Film, Locarno 2022

 

Presented by

Director
Cast

Natália Germáni, Eva Mores, Juliána Brutovská, Iva Bittová, Jana Oľhová, Marek Geišberg

Credits
Country of Origin

Slovakia/Czech Republic

Year

2022

Language

In Slovak with English subtitles

Links
Content Warning

Gender or Sexual Discrimination

18+

At VIFF Centre — Vancity Theatre

19+

At The Rio

109 min
Award Winners Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

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

Let's Get Lost
Let's Get Lost film image; man holding trumpet leaning against a window

Let's Get Lost

Dir. Bruce Weber
120 min

One of the essential jazz films, this is an achingly tender record of jazz icon Chet Baker shortly before he died, still playing beautiful music and looking back on a life of might-have-beens. A love letter to a lost soul.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Bird

Dir. Andrea Arnold
119 min

In Andrea Arnold's latest, 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) lives in a squat near the English seaside. Neglected by her chaotic father (Barry Keoghan), she pursues an adventure with a magnetic stranger named Bird (Franz Rogowski).

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

All We Imagine as Light

Dir. Payal Kapadia
115 min

What Wong Kar-wai did for Hong Kong, Payal Kapadia does for Mumbai: the Cannes Grand Prix winner is a romantic heartbreaker about three nurses at different stages of life. It's a future classic.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Never Look Away

Dir. Lucy Lawless
84 min

A piercing portrait of CNN combat camerawoman Margaret Moth, who fearlessly captured images from Desert Storm, Bosnia, Rwanda, Lebanon, and never backed down, even after a near fatal bullet to the head.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Ghost Cat Anzu

Dir. Yôko Kuno & Nobuhiro Yamashita
94 min

When fifth grader Karin is deposited with her grandfather for the summer she takes out her unhappiness on his giant talking cat, Anzu -- who looks out for her even so. This wildly original anime riffs on Spirited Away with pleasing irreverence. Rated: PG.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

Memoir of a Snail

Dir. Adam Elliot
94 min

A stellar Australian cast voice this charming and emotional animated feature by Adam Elliot, the tale of a lonely foster kid befriended by an eccentric elderly woman who turns her life around. (Not for kids!)

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Credits

Producer

Miloš Lochman

Screenwriter

Barbora Námerová, Tereza Nvotová

Cinematography

Federico Cesca

Editor

Pavel Hrdlička, Thibault Hague

Production Design

Tomáš Berka

Original Music

Pjoni, Rob

Director

Tereza Nvotová headshot, Nightsiren director

Tereza Nvotová

Tereza Nvotová was born in Trnava, Czechoslovakia in 1988. Her debut film, Filthy (2017), premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam and won many awards at festivals worldwide. Her HBO documentary, The Lust for Power (2017), was critically acclaimed and has caused heated debate about populism and corruption in politics. She is currently working on her third feature, Father, and the TV miniseries Convictions and The Nurse.

Filmography: Filthy (2017); The Lust for Power (2017)