North American Premiere
Approaching the end of her childbearing years, Milagro (Julia de Castro) starts to question her impetus to conceive and impulsively embarks on a road trip to shake the sudden onset of existential dread. She is joined by her best friend Jonathan, who is working through his own unfinished business with a former flame, and a mysterious mermaid they pick up on a visit to the aquarium. Their journey becomes a whirlwind of roadside drama, song, dance, steamy trysts, and unexpected self-discoveries. Rooted in Spanish surrealist and absurdist cinema, On the Go is a cinephile’s joyride full of deceptively random plot twists that ultimately fall into place in the most delightful and insightful ways. Its chaos is skillfully contained, lyrically paced and the directors’ storytelling wit is entirely disarming. With their finger firmly on the millennial pulse, they playfully tap into generational angst and turn it into a celebration of life and sensual pleasures. A thrill ride from start to end, this has the makings of a new cult favourite.
Special Mention, Cineasti del presente, Locarno 2023
September 30: Q&A with director María Gisèle Royo
October 2: Q&A with directors María Gisèle Royo & Julia de Castro
Presented by
Omar Ayuso, Julia De Castro, Chacha Huang, Manuel De Blas, Gonzalo García Pelayo
Spain
2023
Vanguard
In Spanish and English with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
María Gisèle Royo, Julia De Castro
Screenwriter
María Gisèle Royo, Julia de Castro
Cinematography
Ilton K. Do Rosario
Editor
Paola Álvarez, Sergio Jiménez
Directors
María Gisèle Royo
María Gisèle Royo has been awarded an Oscar and an Emmy in their student categories. María has presented her work at a public hearing in the European Parliament, and at the UNHCR Global Refugee Forum in Geneva. She is a born collaborator : among other movies, she has worked in El Silencio de Otros, winner of two Emmys and the Peace and Audience awards at Berlinale. She also participated in H. as Art Director, winner of an Independent Spirit Award. She is currently also teaching in Berlin at the BA and Master of Film at the Catalyst Institute for Creative Arts and Technology.
Julia de Castro
Julia de Castro created and directed De La Puissima, a stage project that toured the world for a decade with 70 musicians and for which she was nominated as best actress for the prestigious Valle Inclán Awards. She has released two albums and written a book on prostitution, La Retorica Delle Puttane. It doesn’t matter which expression she chooses; music, literature, theatre or cinema, everything that comes from Julia has interest.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
All the Lovers in the Night
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.
Clarissa
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
Opening Gala: The Debut
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.
Árru
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.
The Beloved
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.
MODES 1
Archive and the land reveal other ways of seeing, ensuring that what is meant to endure cannot be erased.