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Basri and Salma in a Never-Ending Comedy film image

International Shorts: Family Adventures

Image: Basri and Salma in a Never-Ending Comedy, VIFF 2023

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The challenges of relations with one’s family are the basis for the short films in this program.

 

October 3 & 5: Q&A with the film teams

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Basri and Salma in a Never-Ending Comedy
Khozy Rizal, Indonesia (15 min)

A husband and wife who run a carnival kids ride have been married for 5 years and are still childless, a fact that brings constant reminders of this from their family.

 


Southern Afternoon
Tian Lan, China (16 min)

A Uyghur father living in southern China accidentally finds an ornate letter to his teen daughter, he assumes it is from a boyfriend but he can’t read Mandarin.

 


The Family Circus
Andrew Fitzgerald, USA (18 min)

A Vietnamese-American family’s plan to cover up a drunk driving accident begins to unravel when their emotional baggage spills out in front of the police.

 


Where the Time Goes
Justin Tyler Close, USA/Canada (15 min)

Two young brothers navigate the challenges of their parents’ failed marriage, their deep bond helps them support each other and their mother.

 


Lovebugs
Teddy Alvarez-Nissen, USA (13 min)

“Would you like to hear a story?” From his cozy library inside the walls of a suburban home an intellectual snail tells of his life’s love, loss and change.

 


Just the Two of Us
Clara Lemaire Anspach, France (20 min)

A young woman’s mother, in the hospital seriously ill with cancer, asks her daughter to take her on a trip to the south of France. She reluctantly agrees.

 


In Too Deep
Chris Overton, UK (16 min)

A couple are deeply grieving the death of their young daughter in their own ways, but the father’s obsession with memories of her is becoming dangerous.

 

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2022-2023

Series

International Shorts

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
113 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

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

All the Lovers in the Night
All the Lovers in the Night film image; man and woman touching the backs of their hands together

All the Lovers in the Night

Dir. Yukiko Sode
139 min

A lonely proofreader's isolated world begins to open through an unlikely friendship with a gentle physics teacher. Based on Mieko Kawakami's acclaimed novel, this luminous drama is a delicate meditation on loneliness, intimacy, and self-discovery.

Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island International Village 9 Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only International Village 10
Clarissa
Clarissa film image; a woman peering out an open door

Clarissa

Dir. Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri
134 min

Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Clarissa brings Mrs. Dalloway to present-day Lagos, with Sophie Okonedo playing the titular society hostess opposite David Oyelowo, Ayo Edebiri, and India Amarteifio in a Nigerian vision of class, privilege, and past lives.

Image: © Courtesy of Elevation Pictures

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only The Park Theatre

Opening Gala: The Debut

Dir. Jesse Eisenberg
150 min

VIFF is honoured to open the festival with this special by-invitation screening of Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut. When meek Mona (Julianne Moore) lands a part in a musical, she fully inhabits her character, but grows increasingly untethered from reality.

Vancouver Playhouse

Árru

Dir. Elle Sofe Sara
95 min

Set against the mountains and fjords of northern Norway, Árru follows reindeer herder Maia as a proposed copper mine threatens her Sámi community, forcing her to fight to protect both her community and the land that sustains it.

SFU Woodwards Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only
The Beloved
The Beloved film image; two people walking through the desert

The Beloved

Dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen
135 min

When Esteban Martínez, an acclaimed director with violent tendences, invites his estranged daughter to star in his latest project, the stage is set for a familial reconnection. But as tensions flare, questions about his intentions rise to the surface.

The Rio Theatre The Park Theatre Vancouver Playhouse
MODES 1
Golden Island film image; man standing next to a structure in some water

MODES 1

115 min

Archive and the land reveal other ways of seeing, ensuring that what is meant to endure cannot be erased.

The Cinematheque International Village 8