Having already suffered the humiliation of losing her job, Ren (Carmen Madonia), an aspiring writer, must now endure a week of summer vacation with her overbearing parents (Ramona Milano and Joey Parro) and extroverted, overachieving younger sister (Paige Evans). A 20-something trans woman eager to prove her self-sufficiency, Ren is instead forced to share a bed with her sister and wile away her time with resort activities intended for children or seniors. In the summer haze, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between rebellion and regression.
With its intricate family dynamics, Luis de Filippis’ debut feature is disarmingly intimate and exceedingly well-observed. She empathetically illustrates how familiarity can breed cluelessness, leaving kin to rely on assumptions about one another rather than genuine understanding. The film’s deceptively rigorous structure sees each character transformed by week’s end, with Ren arriving at the realization that adulthood needn’t entail putting away all childish things.
Changemaker Award, TIFF 2022; Sebastiane Award, San Sebastian 2022
Q&A Oct 4 & Oct 6
Presented by
Media Partner
Carmen Madonia, Ramona Milano, Paige Evans, Joey Parro
Canada/Switzerland
2022
In English and Italian with English subtitles
Drug & Alcohol Abuse
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Super Happy Forever
This beguiling film depicts a man’s return to the Japanese seaside town where he met his now-deceased wife five years earlier. He tries to relive the past, and in the film's final section -- a flashback to 2018 -- the audience is afforded that privilege.
Inedia
Liz Cairns makes a mesmerizing feature debut that sees a young woman suffering from mysterious food allergies join a remote island community practicing alternative healing methods. She soon realizes that not everything is as it seems.
Drop Dead City
New York, 1975. The city is minutes away from bankruptcy and President Gerald Ford wants no part of it. Sanitation workers are on strike and cops are telling tourists it's not safe to visit. The town is going up in flames and they can't pay the firemen.
Boxcutter
The first feature from former Toronto Flow OTA Live host and producer Reza Dahya is a boisterous, sometimes bruising day-in-the-life of wannabe rapper Rome (Ashton James), set on meeting megastar Richie Hill (Rich Kidd).
Hud
Landmark modern western with Brandon de Wilde from Shane worshipping the wrong hero, Paul Newman’s eponymous heel. According to Paul Schrader, this movie marks the birth of the cynical (anti-)hero in American cinema.
Credits
Executive Producer
Michaela Pini, Kevin Chinoy, Francesca Silvestri, Jennifer Konowal
Producer
Luis De Filippis, Jessica Adams, Harry Cherniak, Michael Graf, Rhea Plangg
Screenwriter
Luis De Filippis
Cinematography
Norm Li
Editor
Noemi Prieswerk
Production Design
Matthew Bianchi
Original Music
Ella Van Der Woude
Director
Luis De Filippis
Luis De Filippis is a Canadian-Italian filmmaker whose work has played at festivals such as TIFF, Rotterdam, and Sundance, where her short film For Nonna Anna (2017) received a Special Jury Prize. De Filippis’ films explore the complexities of family, the bond between generations, and the realities of living as a trans woman. Her debut feature, Something You Said Last Night, is executive produced by The Florida Project’s Kevin Chinoy and Francesca Silvestri.