Jamphel Gyatso, Leyki Palmo, Dorjee Chodon, Pema Wangmo, Tashi Dhundup, Dolma Tsamchoe
Canada
2022
In Tibetan, Tsangla, and English with English subtitles
Coarse language
Featured in:
VIFF Short Forum: Program 3
The camera eye knows no bounds in these stories that push the limits of gravity and grace.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Breaking the Waves
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.
The Track
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.
Yunan
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...
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
The Mother and the Bear
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.
Credits
Producer
Madeleine Davis
Screenwriter
Kunsang Kyirong
Cinematography
Peter Hagge
Editor
Alexander Farah
Director
Kunsang Kyirong
Kunsang Kyirong is a Canadian filmmaker and animator. Her work draws upon the experience of immigration. Through a hybrid method that integrates documentary elements within fictionalized narratives, she investigates personal relationships within the Tibetan diaspora. Her films use an observational style centered in community members’ natural environments. Her work has screened at Tricycle Magazine and at festivals such as the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the Dharamshala International Film Festival, and the Golden Ger International Film Festival.



