World Premiere
Luci, a queer Peruvian-Canadian woman, gives her beloved nephew the Christmas gift of his dreams: a beautiful sequined dress. But when he tries to show the rest of the family, Luci finds herself enacting the same restrictions and shaming she has experienced herself.
Supported by
Community Broadcast Partner
Community Partner
Sydney Kuhne, Desmond Zavier Sivan, Alexandra Lainfiesta, Juan Rodas, Fernando Figueiredo
Canada
2022
In English and Spanish with English subtitles
Featured in:
VIFF Short Forum: Program 2
Fear, doubt, and loneliness give way to pleasure, empowerment, and reclamation—or, is it the other way around?
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
All the Lovers in the Night
A lonely proofreader's isolated world begins to open through an unlikely friendship with a gentle physics teacher. Based on Mieko Kawakami's acclaimed novel, this luminous drama is a delicate meditation on loneliness, intimacy, and self-discovery.
Clarissa
Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Clarissa brings Mrs. Dalloway to present-day Lagos, with Sophie Okonedo playing the titular society hostess opposite David Oyelowo, Ayo Edebiri, and India Amarteifio in a Nigerian vision of class, privilege, and past lives.
Image: © Courtesy of Elevation Pictures
Opening Gala: The Debut
VIFF is honoured to open the festival with this special by-invitation screening of Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut. When meek Mona (Julianne Moore) lands a part in a musical, she fully inhabits her character, but grows increasingly untethered from reality.
Árru
Set against the mountains and fjords of northern Norway, Árru follows reindeer herder Maia as a proposed copper mine threatens her Sámi community, forcing her to fight to protect both her community and the land that sustains it.
The Beloved
When Esteban Martínez, an acclaimed director with violent tendences, invites his estranged daughter to star in his latest project, the stage is set for a familial reconnection. But as tensions flare, questions about his intentions rise to the surface.
MODES 1
Archive and the land reveal other ways of seeing, ensuring that what is meant to endure cannot be erased.
Credits
Executive Producer
Colin Ng, Françoise Girard
Producer
Sofia Bant
Screenwriter
Beth Warrian
Cinematography
Zachary Clark
Editor
Tommy Pal
Production Design
Lori Si
Original Music
Hari Sivan, Giran Findlay
Director
Beth Warrian
Beth Warrian is a writer-director based in Toronto who, fascinated by inner worlds, liminal states, and the spiritual dimensions of queer experience, draws from a background in theatre and a hard-knocks decade as a sous chef. Warrian is a recent graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Image Arts film program, where she received accolades, including the Norman Jewison and Promising Filmmaker awards. Adore is her second collaboration with producer Sofia Bant.


