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
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.
Afternoons of Solitude
Pacification director Albert Serra turns his unflinching gaze on the subject of bullfighting, and in particular the famous young matador Andrés Roca Rey. The film challenges us to look its subject square in the eye and draw our own conclusions.
The Plague
At a water polo camp, Ben is plunged into the deep end of toxic peer pressure. Terrified of incurring his campmates’ wrath, he joins them in tormenting a kid whose skin rash has been branded “the plague”. But then he experiences a breakout of his own...
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.