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

Vivaldi and Me

Dir. Damiano Michieletto
111 min

Venice, 1716. Composer Antonio Vivaldi teaches at an orphanage for abandoned girls, and establishes a deep rapport with violinist Cecelia — but their collaboration is threatened by her impending arranged marriage.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Rear Window

Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
110 min

James Stewart is the man who sees too much. "Jeff" Jeffries is a sports photographer waylaid by a broken leg, doomed to spend the summer in a wheelchair in his New York apartment. That's how he comes to witness a murder in the dead of night (or does he?).

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Rose of Nevada

Dir. Mark Jenkin
115 min

This disconcerting film from the director of Bait and Enys Men feels like a message from another era: two men sign on to a Cornish fishing trawler, but when they return to port they are welcomed into the community 30 years before they left...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

To Die For

Dir. Gus Van Sant
106 min

Buck Henry (The Graduate) wrote this acidic black comedy about a ruthless weather girl on the make (Nicole Kidman in her breakout role). A young Joaquin Phoenix is the dim teen she seduces on her way to achieving stardom.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Camp

Dir. Avalon Fast
111 min

Reeling from two devastating tragedies, Emily (Zola Grimmer) takes refuge at a summer camp for troubled youth, where she has been offered a position as counsellor. She finds friendship, but also something more unexpected, something truly troubling...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Chungking Express

Dir. Wong Kar-Wai
102 min

Chungking Express is a fluid, poetic, almost throwaway film set in Hong Kong's edgy Chungking Mansions district, and comprising two simple, short story-like through-lines, both involving forlorn cops.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

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.