Skip to main content
The Wait film image

The Wait

La Espera

This event has passed

Canadian Premiere

In the arid desert of southern Spain, a labourer and recovering alcoholic, Eladio, with his beloved wife and young son, takes residence as the gamekeeper of a rural ranch. Three years into his tenure the family is on the brink of destitution. Forced to take a bribe to make ends meet, Eladio lets a hunting party make an unsafe hunt, and pays the a terrible price. Wracked with guilt, Eladio’s world begins to deteriorate as the debt comes due on his bargain. Director F. Javier Gutierrez brings his horror muscle to bear on what is fundamentally a rich character study and a felt tragedy. Sun-blistered cinematography, and the uneasy emptiness of the scorched Spanish country fuse elements of westerns, thrillers, visceral body horror, and psychological drama into a fresh Faustian folk tale.

 

Series Media Partner

  

Director
Cast

Víctor Clavijo, Ruth Díaz, Moisés Ruiz, Manuel Morón, Antonio Estrada

Credits
Country of Origin

Spain

Year

2023

Series

Altered States

Language

In Spanish with English subtitles

Content Warning

Graphic Violence, Self Harm, Drug & Alcohol Abuse

18+

At International Village

19+

At The Rio

99 min
Action & Suspense Drama

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Producer

Adrián Guerra, Antonio P. Pérez, F. Javier Gutiérrez

Screenwriter

F. Javier Gutierrez

Cinematography

Miguel A. Mora

Editor

F. Javier Gutierrez

Production Design

F. Javier Gutierrez

Original Music

Zeltia Montes

Director

F. Javier Gutierrez headshot

F. Javier Gutierrez

F. Javier Gutierrez is an award-winning filmmaker whose filmography crosses genres of horror, sci-fi and thriller. Before the Fall, Javier’s first feature, premiered in the the Berlin Film Festival. Rings, the third installment of The Ring franchise, opened #2 in the US box office and grossed $83M worldwide. Javier is member of the Directors Guild of America, and the European Film Academy, and serves as President of DR. T Producciones (Spain), and Unfiled Films (USA).

Filmography: Before the Fall (2008); Rings (2017)

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

There Will Be Blood

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
158 min

Paul Thomas Anderson's lacerating epic about the birth of the oil age: Daniel Day-Lewis is extraordinary as the prospector entirely consumed with his own enterprise, a Trumpian figure of naked self-assertion; Paul Dano the evangelist who may be his nemesis.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Mystery Train

Dir. Jim Jarmusch
110 min

Three oddball tales centered on a single seedy Memphis hotel, this may be the most accessible and purely enjoyable Jarmusch movie, a bittersweet evocation of crumbling Americana, haunted by the ghosts of rock n roll.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Down By Law

Dir. Jim Jarmusch
107 min

In this slowburn comedy from Jim Jarmusch, Tom Waits and John Lurie are surly jailbirds who share a cramped cell with Roberto Benigni's Italian tourist, with transformative results. Jarmusch is back at VIFF this year with Father, Mother, Sister, Brother.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

21st Century Classics Audience Choice: Parasite

Dir. Bong Joon-ho
132 min

South Korean master filmmaker Bong Joon-ho delivers an unpredictable comic suspense thriller with his Palme d'Or and Academy Award-winning film, Parasite.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Sex

Dir. Dag Johan Haugerud
125 min

Two chimney sweeps living in heterosexual marriages find their views on sexuality and gender challenged by a series of unexpected events. In a set of sharply scripted conversations, both men confront heretofore unexplored aspects of their identity.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Right Now, Wrong Then

Dir. Hong Sangsoo
121 min

A visiting filmmaker arrives a day early for a festival screening. He meets and courts a painter (Kim Minhee) and spends the evening with her. Halfway through, the movie starts over: Same people, same places, significantly different outcomes.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre