
Amir Zavosh, Maziyar Khatam, James Choy, Sina Djamshidiat
Canada
2022
In Farsi and English with English subtitles
Coarse language; violence
Featured in:

VIFF Short Forum: Program 6
Cinematic form is given to life’s big mysteries: luck and fate, love and loss, and the spiritual supernatural.
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No Other Land
Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.
The Way, My Way
All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.
Resident Orca
Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.
Misericordia
Edgy, eccentric, and unapologetically queer, this film goes from drama to comedy without putting a foot wrong. Sex and murder are the subjects, and writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) mines them for suspense and outrageous laughs.
The Stand
This rousing doc explores a 1985 dispute over logging in the Haida Gwaii. Taking us from canny retrospective commentary to the thick of the action, director Chris Auchter employs animation and a wealth of archival footage to riveting effect.
Credits
Producer
Anya Chirkova, Maziyar Khatam
Screenwriter
Maziyar Khatam
Editor
Maziyar Khatam
Directors

Anya Chirkova
Anya Chirkova is a Ukrainian-Russian film director/producer. In her work, she’s always looking to tell painful, yet cathartic stories that feel strikingly personal. She is the co-founder of Toronto-based production company Funny Bone Pictures and is a Humber College alumna. Chirkova is currently in pre-production for her first feature film.

Meran Ismailsoy
Meran Ismailsoy is a Toronto-based Azerbaijani filmmaker with a directing and acting background. Ismailsoy approaches film as the art side of philosophy.