North American Premiere
A meditative, hybrid documentary centered on the resilient Afrin, a nomadic orphan living on rapidly eroding mud islands in the Brahmaputra River, who decides to embark on a quest to find her father. Director Angelos Rallis spent five years living with Afrin, collaborating with her on the film, abandoning the assumptions of objectivity for an unscripted, semi-fictionalized story, as she makes the onerous journey to Bangladesh’s capital city of Dhaka. Its ingenious style and structure allows for an immersive, empowering epic one moment, and a sobering vision of the effects of climate change and poverty across the landscape of Bangladesh the next. From the floodplains of the Brahmaputra River to the harsh city streets of Dhaka, this stunning hybrid-documentary captures the catastrophic effects of climate change upon the country’s people and landscape. The tale of twelve-year-old orphan Afrin and her personal odyssey becomes an allegory for the plight of millions of climate refugees across Bangladesh. A profound blend between intimate, verité documentary and the power of epic mythmaking.
WFF Award for Best Environmental Film, Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival
September 29 & 30: Q&A with director Angelos Rallis & crew
Greece/France/Germany
2023
Spectrum
In Bengali with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
David Piperni, Daniel Cantagallos, Hafiz Uddin Munna, Giorgos Rallis
Producer
Maria del Mar Rodriguez, Angelos Rallis
Screenwriter
Angelos Rallis
Cinematography
Angelos Rallis
Editor
Nadia Ben Rachid, Angelos Rallis
Original Music
Alexis Rault
Director
Angelos Rallis
Angelos Rallis started his career in TV and theatre in Greece before moving to Sweden and the UK to complete his graduate and post-graduate studies in Film, Anthropology and Photography. In 2006 he became an elected member of the International Federation of Journalists (UK). His early work in video and photography has been published in international newspapers such as Ethnos and The Guardian and has been used by press agencies and NGOs around the world. Angelos has also worked as a director for the Greek National Television (ERT).
Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Once Upon a Time in Harlem splices together footage shot by William Greaves in 1972 of a group of Harlem Renaissance luminaries in conversation at Duke Ellington’s townhouse. The film is a living archive of memory, disagreement, style, and Black genius.
Possible Love
Lee Chang-dong’s first film since Burning (2018) is a sardonic, slow-burning satire about two couples: a documentary filmmaker married to a wealthy businessman, and a working-class family struggling to make ends meet after the husband has been laid off.
House of Hope
"House of Hope" is the name of a Waldorf elementary school near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, founded by Manar and her husband Milad. This documentary follows their efforts to go about their lives before, during, and after the events of October 7.
Halloween Live! The Crypt Keepers + The Day of the Beast
Amp up your Halloween with a unique live set of holidays cuts from The Crypt Keepers, followed by Alex de la Iglesias's cult comic horror Day of the Beast, a wild ride about a sinful Catholic priest on the warpath against Satan.
Get Out
Guess who's coming to dinner? Daniel Kaluuya is the Black boyfriend justifiably anxious about meeting his white girlfriend's folks for the first time in Jordan Peele's satiric modern horror classic, one of a series curated by our VIFF+ Premium members.