Skip to main content
Before Birth film image, co-directors Álex Mena and Carmen Jiménez

Before Birth

Antes de nacer

World Premiere

A documentary/diary film that focuses on one of the directors, Álex Mena, who journeys to her grandmother’s village looking for a closure never realized after she died. This is a beautiful farewell letter that explores the symbiotic relationship between memory and place, and our evolving perception of love after a death. The film poses as many questions as it answers about life’s transient nature and our journey through it, all framed by the minute details of the village and surroundings and a mix of voice-over thoughts and conversations.

 

Community Partner

Directors
Credits
Country of Origin

Spain

Year

2022

Language

In Spanish with English subtitles

Film Contact
20 min

Featured in:

Ponto Final film image, director Miguel López Beraza

International Shorts: Personal Journeys

The films in this shorts program are all about discovery. Beautiful and thought-provoking voyages of internal and external discovery that honour relations and history, while encountering stimuli that promote a new understanding of self.

 

MORE INFO

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

The Mother and the Bear

Dir. Johnny Ma
100 min

Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Yunan

Dir. Ameer Fakher Eldin
125 min

In this haunting mood piece, Munir is a middle-aged Syrian writer in exile in Germany. In crisis, he takes himself up to one of the Halligan islands in the North Sea, a suitable place to end it all...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Track

Dir. Ryan Sidhoo
91 min

In the middle of a mountain forest above Sarajevo, three boys train for the Olympics in a bullet-ridden luge track abandoned since the 1984 Winter Games. An ambitious, hopeful look at the next generation striving to overcome the sins of their fathers.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Breaking the Waves

Dir. Lars von Trier
158 min

Kicking off our 2026 Pantheon series of the greatest films ever made, Lars von Trier's 1996 masterpiece is a devastating melodrama featuring an indelible performance from Emily Watson as the woman whose love for her husband knows no bounds.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Happy Holidays

Dir. Scandar Copti
123 min

Happy Holidays (the title is ironic) is an expansive, acutely observed sociopolitical family saga which thoughtfully considers the myriad intricacies of Israeli Arab life.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

It Was Just an Accident

Dir. Jafar Panahi
105 min

Having offered some late-night assistance to a stranger in the wake of an auto accident, a mechanic grows convinced that he recognizes the supposed stranger’s voice as that of his torturer during a grueling prison spell.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
More info

Sold Out

Credits

Producer

Andrea Gautier

Screenwriter

Álex Mena

Cinematography

Almudena Sánchez

Editor

Maia De Zan

Directors

Carmen Jiménez headshot, Before Birth co-director

Carmen Jiménez

Carmen Jiménez is a screenwriter and director who has developed shows for Suma Content, Netflix, and Legendary, among others, and is currently working on a British/Spanish series with producer Tanya Seghatchian (The Crown). She is the writer of the Sony International feature Adiós (2019) and the US/Portugal TV show Vanda. Carmen has directed several short films with successful international festival runs, and was awarded by the Directors Guild of America, among others.

Álex Mena headshot, Before Birth co-director

Álex Mena

Álex Mena is a photographer and designer with a multitude of individual and collective exhibitions to her credit. She has been an assistant to the photographer and activist Angélica Dass, and manager and coordinator of fairs and exhibitions at the Elvira González Gallery in Madrid, among other activities related to the world of art. She currently combines her work as a UX/UI designer with the development of her last two projects, Hieratic White and Before Birth.