Skip to main content
Octopus Skin film image

Octopus Skin

La Piel Pulpo

This event has passed

Ana Cristina Barragán crafts an achingly tender drama about three teenage siblings living with an emotionally stunted mother on a remote island off the coast of Ecuador. Attuned to the rhythms and creatures of the sea, they live by their own rules and conventions, cocooned and deeply mistrustful of the world outside their bubble. But dark secrets loom over the fragile clan and the pull of city life soon becomes impossible to ignore for the eldest, Iris, threatening the particularly close bond with her twin brother Ariel. Octopus Skin unfolds like an ode to a forgotten way of life, luring one into its ethereal depths like a siren. The follow-up to Alba, Ana Cristina’s feature debut and Ecuador’s 2016 Oscar submission, stuns with its soft, lyrical touch and distinct sense of visual texture. However, cushioned in its impeccable mise-en-scène is an emotionally raw and piercing meditation on life on the margins of society, with an especially nuanced take on familial codependency and forms of intimacy.

…astoundingly thought-provoking voyage into the heart of the human condition.
International Cinephile Society

 

Presented by

Director
Cast

Isadora Chávez, Juan Francisco Vinueza, Hazel Powell, Cristina Marchán, Paulet Arévalo

Credits
Country of Origin

Ecuador

Year

2022

Series

Vanguard

Language

In Spanish with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
Content Warning

Self Harm

18+
99 min
Drama LGBTQIA2S+ Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Executive Producer

Oderay Game

Producer

Isabella Parra

Screenwriter

Ana Cristina Barragán

Cinematography

Simón Brauer, Tomás Astudillo

Editor

Mayra Morán, Myrto Karra, Ana Cristina Barragán

Original Music

Pablo Mondragón

Art Director

Alisarine Ducolomb

Director

Ana Cristina Barragán headshot

Ana Cristina Barragán

Ana Cristina Barragan is a screenwriter and director. Alba, her first film, premiered at IFF Rotterdam, won 35 international awards in over 100 festivals. Alba was Ecuador’s representative for the Oscars and Goya and screened at the Moma in NY. Ana directed several short films, including Domingo Violeta, released in Locarno IFF 2010. She is currently in post production on a new feature, Sopor and Bird (2023) part of Locarno´s Open Doors 2022.

Filmography: Alba (2016); Octopus Skin (2022); Sopor and Bird (2023)

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

The Gleaners and I

Dir. Agnès Varda
82 min

This lovely essay film about the art of foraging is also a self portrait of the artist at 72.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Miracle Worker

Dir. Arthur Penn
107 min

Academy Awards went to Best Actress Anne Bancroft and Best Supporting Actress Patty Duke for their moving portrayals of Annie Sullivan and her remarkable blind and deaf pupil, Helen Keller. "A film that storms where most biopics respectfully tiptoe."

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

In the Mood for Love

Dir. Wong Kar-wai
107 min

Wong Kar-wai's most acclaimed and popular film is a love story about two neighbours (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) who are drawn together by the long absences of their respective spouses + a newly released short companion piece from 2001.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

In the Heat of the Night

Dir. Norman Jewison
110 min

Sidney Poitier in an indelible role a Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs, pulled in as a murder suspect when changing trains in Mississippi. He allies with bigoted local sheriff (Rod Steiger) to solve the case.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Rachel, Rachel

Dir. Paul Newman
101 min

The story of a shy schoolteacher whose sexual awakening in her mid-30s leads to a deeper re-evaluation of her life, the film is sensitive and sympathetic, as well as a surprising directorial debut from Paul Newman.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Ghosts of the Sea

97 min

Imagine an especially poetic true crime podcast about a sailor who built his own sailboat and lived on the high seas, but lost not one, but two wives along the way... Now imagine it told from the vantage point of his daughter: Ghosts of the Sea.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema