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
Isadora Chávez, Juan Francisco Vinueza, Hazel Powell, Cristina Marchán, Paulet Arévalo
Ecuador
2022
Vanguard
In Spanish with English subtitles
Self Harm
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
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
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
Amadeus
In which the celebrated court composer Salieri welcomes a much ballyhooed young prodigy to Vienna. To his dismay, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is an impudent, callow upstart. Worse, he's a genius. Winner of 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Lyd
Lyd is the Arab name for 5000-year-old town that is now the Israeli city of Lod. Made by a Palestinian and a Jewish American, this creative non-fiction film excavates the history of this place leading to a detailed examination of the events of 1948.
The Goldman Case
In 1976, Jewish radical Pierre Goldman was facing the death penalty, accused of committing a double murder during an armed robbery. Goldman admitted to a string of similar robberies, but denied murder. Instead, he put the cops on trial.
His Three Daughters
Three sisters -- Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olson, and Natasha Lyonne -- congregate to attend the final few days of their father's life. They bring with them years of barely-repressed jealousy and resentment, as well as wildly different personalities.
Filtration: Three Colours: Blue
Directly filtering the image that comes into a lens allows cinematographers to vastly alter how a scene looks and feels. We'll analyze the radical ways Kieslowski's closet collaborator, Slawomir Idziak, editorializes in such films as Three Colours: Blue.
Green Border
In her seventies Agnieszka Holland has made a ferocious, emotionally charged film about the brutal treatment of refugees arriving over the Polish land border from Belarus. This is a vehement denunciation of resurgent fascism and utterly compelling cinema.