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 Tree of Life
The Tree of Life follows Jack as he reflects on his 1950s Texas childhood and the death of his younger brother. Deeply spiritual and poetic, Malick’s film moves through grief, memory, time, and space. And there are dinosaurs.
Sometimes, I Imagine Them All at a Party
Fourteen years ago, Daniela Magnani Hüller survived an attempted femicide by a schoolmate. Now a filmmaker, she revisits the events surrounding that fateful incident, creating a moving collage of interviews, personal recollections, and archival material.
Image: © Bildersturm
Queen at Sea
An academic is pitted against her stepfather in a moral crisis over the care of her mother, who lives with dementia. Winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize and Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance at the 2026 Berlinale.
Image: © Seafaring
The Story of Documentary Film – The 2000s
The Story of Documentary Film – The 2000s enters a decade shaped by 9/11, war, fear, and politics. Through films such as The Cove and Grizzly Man, these chapters trace the documentary medium's encounter with modernity as it begins to unravel.
Image: © Iraq in Fragments, 2006, dir. James Longley, USA, Daylight Factory Typecast-Pictures
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.
