Skip to main content
The Fruit Tree film image, director Isabelle Tollenaere

The Fruit Tree

Canadian Premiere

For Sharleece, looking out of the window of a house for rent in a desert town where she lives evokes unexpected memories of her childhood home in Los Angeles. The passing of time is ever-present.

Director
Cast

Sharleece Bourne, Alexis Bolden

Credits
Country of Origin

Belgium

Year

2022

Language

English

Film Contact
14 min

Featured in:

Parasite Family film image, director Prapat Jiwarangsan

MODES 2

Looking closer at archival images and stories from the past, these artists re-examine and re-create to establish history anew. A daring mix of approaches that excavate new ways of seeing old perspectives.

 

MORE INFO

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

KAKU KAKU SHIKA JIKA fka Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey

Dir. Kazuaki Seki
126 min

Adapted from acclaimed manga artist Akiko Higashimura’s autobiographical manga is a funny and sharply observed coming-of-age story about the creative awakening of a master of manga.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

A Sad and Beautiful World

Dir. Cyril Aris
110 min

This Lebanese love story chronicles the romance between a level-headed businesswoman and a romantic restauranteur across several decades in wartorn Beirut. It's funny, charming, melancholy and you'll feel it all.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Blue Boy Trial

Dir. Kasho Iuzuka
106 min

Transgender filmmaker Kasho Iizuka revisits 1960s Japan and the sensational “Blue Boy Trial,” sparked by the arrest of a doctor performing sex reassignment surgeries. With trans actors in central roles, the film powerfully illuminates buried history, identity, dignity, and resilience.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Filipiñana

Dir. Rafael Manuel
100 min

A luxury golf course in the Philippines is the microcosm for Rafel Manuel's vastly assured feature debut, a striking composed comedy which mixes languid surrealism with pointed political satire.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Aruku - I Walk

Dir. Shiho Kataoka
105 min

This meditative documentary, captures the stories of four contemporary pilgrims on the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage as they follow in the footsteps of master Kūkai, the monk who shaped Japanese Buddhism. Each is burdened, in different ways, by exhaustion, solitude, or quiet disillusionment.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

How Dare You?

Dir. Mipo O
96 min

A bug-loving boy, a passionate classmate, and a troublemaker launch playful eco-protests against their town’s careless habits. As their missions escalate, they face real consequences in Director O’s witty, bittersweet Grand Jury Prize winner from the Toronto Japanese Film Festival.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Credits

Producer

Bo De Group, Hans Everaert

Screenwriter

Isabelle Tollenaere

Cinematography

Isabelle Tollenaere, Grimm Vandekerckhove

Editor

Isabelle Tollenaere

Original Music

Hendrick Lasure

Art Director

Nicklas Nilsson

Director

Isabelle Tollenaere headshot, The Fruit Tree director

Photo by Jana Coorevits

Isabelle Tollenaere

Isabelle Tollenaere is an independent filmmaker and artist from Belgium. Her work playfully moves between the codes and conventions of documentary and fiction, film, and contemporary art. Her films have been widely presented and awarded at the Berlinale Forum, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Centre Pompidou, Vienna International Film Festival, Visions du Réel, FID Marseille, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, and Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX).

Filmography: Battles (2015); Victoria (2020)