North American Premiere
Stunning archival footage from Iran and Romania serves as the visual backdrop for this sophomore feature from director Vlad Petri. This is an epistolary tale of two fictional women, Zahra and Maria —the former from Iran, and the latter from Romania— who form a bond potentially transcending friendship at the Medicine University in Bucharest in the 1970s. Drawn to the promise of the Iranian Revolution against the Shah, Zahra returns to her home country, leaving Maria behind. She soon grows fearful of the push for an Islamic Republic that sees her intellectual leftist father disappeared. Meanwhile, in Romania, Maria endures increasing hardship and disillusionment under Ceausescu’s tyrannical communist regime. However, neither Maria’s father, nor the watchful eye of the Secret Police, can dissuade her from writing to Zahra. Inspired by documents from the Romanian Secret Police’s archives, Lavinia Braniște’s script —quoting poems by Nina Cassian and Forugh Farrokhzad— weds a haunting lyricism with ever-pertinent themes of longing for freedom from repressive political and patriarchal systems.
Victoria Stoiciu, Ilinca Harnut
Romania/Croatia/Iran
2023
Spectrum
In Romanian and Farsi with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan
Screenwriter
Lavinia Braniște, Vlad Petri
Editor
Dragoș Apetri, Cătălin Cristuțiu, Vlad Petri
Original Music
Filip Sertic
Director
Vlad Petri
Vlad Petri is a director interested in political and social subjects, often mixing personal images with official archives. His films exist at the border between documentary and fiction. His feature, Where Are You Bucharest? (2014) was nominated for Best Feature Film at the Transilvania International Film Festival. Petri’s most recent film, Between Revolutions (2023) received nominations for both the Caligari Film Award, and the Teddy Award, as well as won the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlinale International Film Festival.
Filmography: New Year’s Eve (2008); Where Are You Bucharest? (2014); La Pas Pe Litoral (2016); Journey Around The Home in 60 Days (2020)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes
A beautiful portrait of E.J. Hughes, who quietly helped reshape the artistic landscape of British Columbia in the 20th century. This extraordinary documentary explores Hughes’s legacy not only as an artist, but as a devoted, humble human being.
Agatha's Almanac
Shot over six years on vibrant 16mm film, Agatha’s Almanac is an artful documentary portrait of filmmaker Amalie Atkin’s octogenarian aunt, who has fashioned herself an endearingly simple and self-sustaining lifestyle on her Manitoba farm.
The Art of Adventure
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.
Intimate Moments: Short Films by Brendan Prost
Vignettes of loneliness, desire and fleeting connection, immerse yourself in the short, bittersweet films of Brendan Prost — who will also be filming proceedings for potential inclusion in his self-reflexive doc, The Performance of a Lifetime.
Winter Kept Us Warm
Often described as the first LGBTQ+ film ever to screen at the Cannes Film Festival, David Secter's lovingly observed portrait of a burgeoning queer romance came at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in the country