Skip to main content
Apolonia, Apolonia film image

Apolonia, Apolonia

This event has passed

Canadian Premiere

A dazzling whirlwind, Apolonia Sokol seemingly lives an enchanted life: as the daughter of actor parents, she is surrounded by poets, artists, and intellectuals, and lives in a vast Parisian building home to an experimental theatre company. She puts on plays, hosts dinner parties for bohemians, and opens her dilapidated home to exiled Ukranian feminist activists. Apolonia is charming, captivating, and is the center of her social circle, switching effortlessly between French, English, Danish and Polish. She also happens to be an immensely talented artist with singular vision and drive.

Filming over 13 years, director Lea Glob follows the young French painter and chronicles her intense struggles to succeed in the patriarchal and capitalist art world. Apolonia, Apolonia is joyful, inspiring, and intimate; it is a portrait of the vibrant, charismatic force that is Apolonia, but is also a remarkable document of the friendship and creative interplay between the filmmaker and her subject.

The absorbingly intimate portrait of an artist as a young woman over the transformative span of 13 years.
Screen International

 

Presented by

Series Media Partner

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Apolonia Sokol, Oksana Shachko, Lea Glob

Credits
Country of Origin

Denmark/Poland

Year

2023

Series

Portraits

Language

In Danish, English, French with English subtitles

Film Contact
Content Warning

Self Harm, Suicide

18+
116 min
Art, Music & Photography Documentary Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Producer

Sidsel Siersted

Cinematography

Lea Glob

Editor

Andreas Bøggild Monies,Thor Ochsnerb

Original Music

Jonas Struck

Director

Lea Glob headshot

Lea Glob

Lea Glob was born in Mariager, Denmark. Her debut documentary, Olmo & The Seagull (2015), was co-directed alongside Petra Costa. The film won the Young Jury Prize at Locarno, as well as Best Nordic Dox at CPH:DOX. Afterwards, Glob co-directed Venus (2016) with Mette Carla Albrechtsen. The film premiered in IDFA’s First Appearance Competition and won the audience award in IndieLisboa IIFF. Apolonia, Apolonia (2023) is the director’s first documentary feature as a solo-director.

Filmography: Olmo & The Seagull (2015); Venus (2016)

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

Honeyjoon

Dir. Lilian T. Mehrel
75 min

A mother and her 20-something daughter take a holiday together in the Azores to mark the anniversary of the loss of their husband and father -- but maybe the honeymoon package wasn't the best idea...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Whispers in the Woods

Dir. Vincent Munier
94 min

A luxuriant, healing immersion in nature with ravishing wildlife photography, this is the cinematic equivalent of "forest bathing," a trip deep into the Vosges, France, with photographer Vincent Munier (The Velvet Queen), his father and his son.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Ask E. Jean

Dir. Ivy Meeropol
91 min

An inspiring and engaging portrait of E. Jean Carroll, the trailblazing journalist, author and advice columnist who stood up to power and beat Donald Trump in court, twice.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Last Seduction

Dir. John Dahl
96 min

In this sexy neo-noir thriller, Linda Fiorentino has a blast playing one of the most amoral women in film history -- and one of the most exciting.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

King Arthur's Night

Dir. John Bolton
110 min

John Bolton's film of Niall McNeil and Marcus Youssef's musical staging recreates Camelot at Harrison Hot Springs. It's a self-referential piece which joyfully reframes a classical narrative through the prisms of disability, inclusivity, and imagination.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Serial Mom

Dir. John Waters
95 min

John Waters' killer comedy features an uproariously funny, marvellously malicious performance from Kathleen Turner as a housewife with impeccable manners and very handy with a kitchen knife.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre