Skip to main content
Hatch film image; person looking down into a hole with a ladder

Hatch

VIFF Short Forum

World Premiere

A group of Afghan refugees hide inside a water tanker as they attempt to cross the border to safety.

 

Supported by

    

Media Partner

Community Partner

Directors
Cast

Ali Eldurssi, Aixa Kay, Helena Marie, Craig March, Araz Yaghoubi, Daniella Eldurssi

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2024

Language

In English and Arabic with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
11 min
Action BC Spotlight Human Rights & Social Justice Shorts
PK Studio Production

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Panta Mosleh

Producer

Sina Nazarian, Panta Mosleh, Alireza Kazemipour

Screenwriter

Alireza Kazemipour

Cinematography

Mikah Sharkey

Editor

Saeed Vahidi

Production Design

Gwendolyn Margetson

Original Music

Mehrdad Jafari Raad

Alireza Kazemipour headshot; Hatch director

Alireza Kazemipour

Alireza Kazemipour, Iranian-Canadian filmmaker, with 2-decades of experience as a screenwriter in Iran. He holds a master’s in Cinema studies and has directed award-winning shorts including The Gold Teeth (2022) and Split Ends (2022), recognized in over 150 film festivals worldwide, championing social justice, women’s rights, and immigrant issues.

Panta Mosleh headshot; Hatch director

Panta Mosleh

Panta Mosleh is a Queer Middle Eastern-West Asian-Canadian Director, Writer, Producer who splits her time between Vancouver and LA. Currently working as a TV movie director, she has directed for A&E, Lifetime, TF1, NBC Peacock and Hallmark. Panta currently has two tv series in development; one scripted and one unscripted. Panta hopes to make her own theatrical feature film someday.

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

Yugo Goes to America

Dir. Filip Grujić, Aleksa Borković
87 min

In Yugo Goes to America, millennials from Belgrade drive a Yugo — Yugoslavia’s notoriously unreliable vehicle — from New York to Los Angeles. Their freewheeling road trip traces the car’s volatile history alongside the breakup of Yugoslavia itself.

International Village 9 SFU Woodwards

Elephants in the Fog

Dir. Abinash Bikram Shah
108 min

In a remote Nepalese village, Pirati takes charge in the search for a missing girl belonging to her family of third-gender Kinnar women. A densely atmospheric thriller and a moving portrait of an embattled but resilient community.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only
MODES 1
Golden Island film image; man standing next to a structure in some water

MODES 1

115 min

Archive and the land reveal other ways of seeing, ensuring that what is meant to endure cannot be erased.

International Village 8

Who Moves America

Dir. Yael Bridge
87 min

Who Moves America follows UPS teamsters through their 2023 contract negotiations. Director Yael Bridge turns meetings, rallies, votes, and everyday conversations into a clear-eyed portrait of solidarity and building power.

International Village 10

The Wind's Thirst

Dir. Alejandro Valbuena
86 min

In The Wind’s Thirst, three Indigenous Wayuu guardians confront mining and energy corporations exploiting Colombia’s La Guajira desert to defend their water, sacred sites, and right to remain.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
All the Lovers in the Night
All the Lovers in the Night film image; man and woman touching the backs of their hands together

All the Lovers in the Night

Dir. Yukiko Sode
139 min

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.

Vancouver Playhouse International Village 10