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Mast-del film image

MODES 2

Image: Mast-del, VIFF 2023

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Questioning the nature of our material world, artists from South Africa, Spain, Iran and Brazil invite conditional realities to ponder memory, history and the length of existence. Witness and wonder, prepare to confront the possible meaning of it all.

 

This short film program includes the following films:

A Bird Called Memory
Leonardo Martinelli, Brazil/United Kingdom (15 min)

Returning to MODES with his latest lyrical offering, Leonardo Martinelli (Fantasma Neon, VIFF ’21) explores the existential longing and interior world of Lua, a trans woman on a wistful search for a missing bird amidst the streets of Rio de Janeiro.

 


Mast-del
Maryam Tafakory, Iran/United Kingdom (18 min)

An intimate mid-night moment between two Iranian women, Mast-del explores threat posed to forbidden bodies and desires.

 


Loving In Between
Jyoti Mistry, South Africa/Austria (19 min)

Repurposed archival footage from the Eye Film Museum, and animation encapsulate a portrait of social norms, religious persuasions, and political interventions that dictate and punctuate how and who we love. Yet, emancipation is found in the erotic.

 


Aqueronte
Manuel Muñoz Rivas, Spain (27 min)

Passengers settle in for a reflective and contemplative voyage aboard a ferry from one port to another. Destination unknown. The journey seems to expand, as the impending and distant shore is postponed. Observations are sharp, yet the magnitude of space becomes blurred.

 

Series Media Partner

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2023

Series

MODES

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
79 min

Book Tickets

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Prosecution

Dir. Faraz Shariat
113 min

When a young German prosecutor of Korean origin is attacked, she suspects a racist conspiracy and pursues the truth in defiance of her superiors. Prosecution is a film for our moment: a thriller that confronts the far-right head-on.

International Village 8
Rebecca Horn – the Secret Life of Things
Rebecca Horn film image; woman in a empty room holding out her arms with makeshift scissorhands

Rebecca Horn – the Secret Life of Things

Dir. Claudia Müller
90 min

Rebecca Horn's extraordinary biography is interwoven with her surreal oeuvre. An essential document of one of the 20th century's most influential artists, Rebecca Horn – The Secret Life of Things celebrates the unsung legacy of a pioneering visionary.

Image: © Rebecca Horn

International Village 10
What Remains
What Remains film image; woman looking out at the water

What Remains

Dir. Yeşim Ustaoğlu
126 min

Stuck in a big city in a mind-numbing domestic routine, a young poetess finds herself at crossroads when her role as a mother and wife starts to overshadow her identity as an artist.

International Village 9
School for Defectors
School for Defectors film image; person standing by a desk speaking

School for Defectors

Dir. Jeremy Workman
92 min

School for Defectors is an intimate and quietly uplifting documentary that follows a group of 20 teenagers, children of North Korean defectors, as they adjust to life and education at Jangdaehyun School in Busan, South Korea.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only

Fruit Gathering

Dir. Aung Phyoe
97 min

Achingly sensual and graced with fine performances, Fruit Gathering depicts embattled desire in a conservative society. Two working-class women fall into a romantic relationship in contemporary Myanmar — but is their love real, or borne of desperation?

International Village 10
Short Forum 7: War at Home
Rotation film image; upside down image of woman sitting in a field

Short Forum 7: War at Home

107 min

Truly, no one is safe until everyone is safe.

International Village 8