Canadian Premiere
In her elegant feature debut, film artist and choreographer Sarah Friedland delivers a deceptively conventional study of an elderly woman’s transition to assisted living. Filmed at an actual care home, the attention to mundane detail and peripheral workplace dynamics are particularly resonant, anchoring and contextualizing the character’s dementia-driven spiral.
Drawing from her previous, movement-focused work, the director is interested in the physical expression of cognitive decline, mining the moments of stillness, apparent clarity, and repetitive tasks that the body and mind cling to when one starts to lose one’s grip on reality. Kathleen Chalfant commands the screen with absolute poise in her thoughtfully mannered portrait of a woman trying to hold on to her dignity. Each gesture, line, and action are precisely calibrated to convey her altered perception. This is a rare, poignant take on the subject that looks from the inside out with an impressively sober lens.
Best Director: Orizzonti, Venice 2024; Best Actress: Orizzonti, Venice 2024; Lion of the Future Award for Debut Film, Venice 2024
Presented by
Media Partner
Kathleen Chalfant, Carolyn Michelle Smith, Andy McQueen, H. Jon Benjamin
USA
2024
English
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Alexandra Byer, Sarah Friedland, Matthew Thurm
Screenwriter
Sarah Friedland
Cinematography
Gabe C. Elder
Editor
Aacharee “Ohm” UngsriwongEntered
Production Design
Stephanie Osin Cohen
Sarah Friedland
Sarah Friedland is a filmmaker and choreographer working at the intersection of moving images and moving bodies. Her projects have been presented at festivals like the New York Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, BAM, and in venues such as MoMA and Performa19 Biennial. A Brown University graduate, she was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film 2023”. Her debut feature, Familiar Touch, premiered at the 81st Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti Competition.
Photo by Anna Ritsch
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Foreigner
An Iranian teenager who recently immigrated to Canada is desperate to make friends at her new high school. Pressured to dye her hair blonde, she unleashes a demonic force rooted within her. A humourous coming-of-age horror from Ava Maria Safai.
Clan of the Painted Lady
Jennifer Chiu’s engrossing documentary explores the Hakka — a people, a language, and a culture that have been obscured for far too long. Tracing her own lineage back to from Canada to China, the director creates an illuminating, bravely personal film.
Finch & Midland
Timothy Yeung’s film tells the story of four Hong Kong immigrants living in Scarborough, Ontario. With exceptional performances from its four leads, the film explores the Asian diaspora, social malaise, and the hardships of life under late capitalism.
The Essence of Eva
Tragically dying years before she’d rise to global fame, Eva Cassidy was an uncompromising artist whose transcendent voice still resonates. With never-before-heard recordings and footage, this intimate portrait captures the person behind the legend.
4: Um, womanhood
Shorts from: Canada, Columbia, France, Netherlands, Sweden.
The Strange Little Cat
This droll, perfectly executed comedy chronicles a day in the life of a multigenerational family prepping a celebratory dinner in their cramped Berlin apartment. Putting daily life’s absurdities on display, it's an exciting choreography of the quotidian.