What's On
The Blue Trail
77-year-old Tereza makes a break for the Brazilian jungle in this trippy septuagenarian fantasy, the latest from Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro is a quirky picaresque, lushly photographed and filled with mordant humour.
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.
Two Prosecutors
In the midst of Stalin’s purges, a naïve prosecutor sets out to investigate a prisoner’s innocence, unaware of the labyrinthine bureaucracy awaiting him. A Kafkaesque procedural thriller about the pursuit of justice in the face of corruption.
Image: © SBS Productions
The Criminal Life of Archivaldo de la Cruz
Wealthy aesthete Archie de la Cruz has a confession to make (several in fact). Luis Buñuel's kinky black comedy is an elegant study in perversity, steeped in Freud and revelling in the repressed.
El Suavecito
Victor Parra is Roberto, "el Suavecito", the smoothie. Sprinkling his Spanish with slang and English, and sporting a Zoot suit, he's a gangster-wannabe, an obnoxious macho who isn't quite as tough as he likes to make out...
Krystle dos Santos + Dawn Pemberton: Meet Me at Vi's + Union Street
Enjoy a sneak preview of Krystle dos Santos's upcoming musical celebration of the Hogan's Alley Black community in Strathcona, with songs performed by Krystle and Dawn Pemberton, followed by Jamila Pomeroy's documentary Union Street.
Salón México
Cheated by her pimp, Mercedes recklessly steals his wallet and is only saved from a severe beating by the intervention of a kindly policeman. Hard-hitting social realism sits beside patriotic sentimentality and multiple red hot dance sequences.
Crepúsculo
A brain surgeon (Arturo de Córdova) begins to doubt his own sanity when the woman he's in love with (Gloria Marin) marries his brother — and he starts fantasizing about murder.
Stranger by the Lake
Stranger by the Lake unfolds like a slow-burning spell. Set around a secluded cruising beach, Alain Guiraudie's modern classic explores desire, danger, and the strange intimacy between strangers.
I Am the Blues + Robert Connely Farr Live
This VIFF Live event brings together Robert Connely Farr, performing an hour-long set of authentic Mississippi blues, followed by Daniel Cross's documentary I Am the Blues (106 min.) about the old time Delta Blues.
Heartbeats
With Heartbeats, Xavier Dolan captures the beautiful absurdity of unrequited love: a friendship unravels when both sides fall in love with the same enigmatic stranger.
Look Out for Hope + Bill Frisell: A Portrait
Look Out For Hope celebrates the unique guitar sound of Bill Frisell who has been inspiring audiences and musicians all over the world since the 1980s. After their set, enjoy Emma Franz's 2017 film about Frisell.