World Premiere
On the way to the airport a teen girl jumps from a moving car to flee a sex trafficking abduction; while she escapes, she records it all on a stolen cell phone. This is a terrifyingly real and brilliantly original first-person run-for-your-life thriller. The phone camera perspective puts us right in the action, offering a believable, constantly shifting, and relentless documentary of her abduction evidence. Tight direction and solid ensemble performances create a tense, frightening episode—a small example highlighting a worldwide sex trafficking problem that exploits and destroys the lives of many young women.
Community Partner
Afroditi Baharnikou, Efthalia Papacosta, Aris Servetalis, Nikolakis Zeginoglou
Greece
2022
In Greek with English subtitles
Sexual Violence
Featured in:
International Shorts: Having a Bad Day
Misadventures, bad choices, and a series of unfortunate events are all present in this program of short films. There is some serious drama and a bit of comedy on display in these exhilarating, thoughtful, and unpredictable tales.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
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
Executive Producer
Phaedra Vokali
Producer
Phaedra Vokali, Orestis Plakias
Screenwriter
Andreas Vakalios, Fili Olsefski
Cinematography
Fili Olsefski
Editor
Andreas Vakalios, Fili Olsefski
Production Design
Sofia Vaso, Anna Vokali
Directors
Fili Olsefski
Fili Olsefski was born in Łódź, Poland, and raised in Athens. She studied painting at the Fine Arts School of Aristotle University. She works as a cinematographer.
Andreas Vakalios
Andreas Vakalios was born in Budapest and raised in Athens. He obtained an MFA in Digital Arts at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He works as a screenwriter and a director.