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
Mireille Perrier, Robinson Stévenin, Lubna Playoust, Anatole Karmitz
France
2021
In French with English subtitles
Featured in:
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.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
One of only a handful of live action children's films to capture the imaginations of generations, E.T. has a luminous warmth; it's a suburban symphony of emotion, and it's fascinating to revisit it in the light of The Fabelmans.
Turner & Constable
Filmed as a supplement to a blockbuster exhibition at Tate Britain happening right now, this doc in the popular Exhibition on Screen series allows us to view these competitive, complementary English landscape artists side by side.
The President's Cake
Nine year old Lamia and her friend Saeed venture into the city to scrounge ingredients for a cake to celebrate Sadaam Hussein's birthday — a quest fraught with real peril in precarious times. Winner, Camera d'Or, Cannes.
Montreal, ma belle
In this Valentine to discovering love later in life, the ever-elegant Joan Chen plays Feng Xia, a 53-year-old Chinese immigrant and mother in Montreal whose world is turned upside down when she meets and falls in love with a young Quebecoise.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly + Talkback with Special Guests
The third and the best of the so-called 'Dollars' trilogy amplifies Leone's baroque style: crane shots, shock cuts and Morricone music all vying for attention as three rogues hunt buried gold in a series of triangular variations. + Intro and Talkback
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
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.