Skip to main content
Flowers film image; blurred face

Flowers

Flores

MODES

North American Premiere

Recently winning the International Grand Jury Award at the Sheffield DocFest, director Jose Cardoso’s deeply personal and mesmerizing tapestry of internet and news footage is collected and absorbed, consciously and unconsciously, woven together–– indicative of the stuff that fuels our daily web feeds. He streams disparate details of a war in Ukraine “justified” by a string of seemingly unconnected events, as an ethnocide perpetrated by Brazil’s extreme right-wing unfolds in the Amazon. The duties of parenthood routinely interrupt the onslaught of tense imagery, granting gentle moments in the garden with his young son. All the while, the popular Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh offers ancient teachings to embrace one’s enemy as the object of our collective compassion.

 

Community Partner

Director
Featuring

Vladímir Putin, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Seydú Cardoso, María García Freire, Wynn Alan Bruce, Jair Bolsonaro

Credits
Country of Origin

Ecuador/South Africa

Year

2024

Language

In Spanish, English, Portuguese, Vietnamese and Tupí with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
Content Warning

Graphic violence, self harm

18+
30 min
Documentary Experimental & Avant Garde Human Rights & Social Justice Shorts

Credits & Director

Producer

Adrian Van Wyk, María Fernanda García

Editor

José Cardoso

Original Music

Boris Vian

José Cardoso headshot; Flowers director

José Cardoso

His previous works such as Iwianch, The Devil Deer (2021) and What the Soil Remembers (2023) was awarded at Ann Arbor Film Festival, IFFR Rotterdam, Regina, CSFF and Ningbo China, among others and selected at Sitges, La Habana, Oberhausen, e-flux, Kurzfilm Hamburg, BlackStar Film Festival, ImagineNative, among others.

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

Nickel Boys

Dir. RaMell Ross
140 min

To tell the story of two friends serving time at a brutal racist Florida reform school, director RaMell Ross puts us inside their heads. It's a radical masterstroke in a powerful film, nominated for Best Picture.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Silver Screamers

Dir. Sean Cisterna
94 min

In this funny, touching doc, a group of retirees are persuaded to get off the couch and make a horror movie about a killer rug...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Miroirs No. 3

Dir. Christian Petzold
86 min

Following a car crash that kills her boyfriend, piano student Laura is physically unhurt but emotionally distraught. A local woman takes her in, but she gradually realizes she's in the midst of an eerie, mysterious family situation.

Image: © Schramm Film A4 Kopie

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Things You Kill

Dir. Alireza Khatami
113 min

Thirty-something professor Ali leads an apparently stable life. But when his ailing mother dies under ambiguous circumstances, he starts to unravel, resulting in an act that shatters our understanding of his person.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The BFG

Dir. Steven Spielberg
118 min

An orphan little girl befriends a benevolent giant who takes her to Giant Country, where they attempt to stop the man-eating giants that are invading the human world.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Fabelmans

Dir. Steven Spielberg
151 min

Nominated for 7 Academy Awards, Steven Spielberg's bittersweet movie memoir is a portrait of the artist as the product of his artsy mom (Michelle Williams), his techy dad (Paul Dano), and a broken home.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre