Skip to main content
The Cormorant film image, director Lubna Playoust

The Cormorant

Le Cormoran

Canadian Premiere

A mother and son live in a secluded house on an isolated island, where memory merges with the present, intertwining two moments of their lives—youth and maturity. This is a quiet film about the evolution of a relationship, and how, even in a parent-child situation, that intimate bond can become fleeting. Terrific cinematography captures the rugged seascapes and helps create a melancholic tone emanating from the loss she feels. This is a deep examination of the ties of relationship, escape, and need, and the complex layers that get created over time. It is a lovely, reflective work about human bonds, at times so strong, at others so fragile.

 

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Mireille Perrier, Robinson Stévenin, Lubna Playoust, Anatole Karmitz

Credits
Country of Origin

France

Year

2021

Language

In French with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
23 min

Featured in:

Island of Freedom film image, director Petr Januschka

International Shorts: Connect/Disconnect/Reconnect

The films in this shorts program are all about connections. People connecting with one another, dealing with change, or rediscovering a part of themselves and their past.

 

MORE INFO

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

No Other Land

Dir. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor
96 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Way, My Way

Dir. Bill Bennett
93 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Heart of Gold
Heart of Gold film image; woman crouching by a burning miniature house

Heart of Gold

Dir. Patricia Gruben
80 min

Writer-director Patricia Gruben explores the history of an American deserter in 1969 who escapes to BC and finds shelter with a Russian dissident community.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Resident Orca

Dir. Sarah Sharkey Pearce & Simon Schneider
97 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Misericordia

Dir. Alain Guiraudie
103 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Stand

Dir. Christopher Auchter
95 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Credits

Producer

Nathanaël Karmitz, Juliette Schrameck, Jeanne Ezvan, Marthe Lamy

Screenwriter

Lubna Playoust

Cinematography

Marine Atlan

Editor

Gabriel Gonzalez, Nicolás Longinotti

Art Director

Louise Le Bouc Berger, Laura Bücher

Director

Lubna Playoust headshot, The Cormorant director

Lubna Playoust

Born in Italy and raised in Paris, Lubna Playoust is a French director and actress. Her first professional experiences in art, fashion, and marketing fed her fierce passion for every aspect of filmmaking. She trained in filmmaking with Abbas Kiarostami in Cuba, and Lucrecia Martel in Barcelona. Her short film Waltz For Three (2014) stars French New Wave actors Jean-Pierre Marielle and Agathe Natanson. She is currently developing her first feature film.