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
Ali Eldurssi, Aixa Kay, Helena Marie, Craig March, Araz Yaghoubi, Daniella Eldurssi
Canada
2024
In English and Arabic with English subtitles
Indigenous & Community Access
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
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
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
No Other Land
Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.
Misericordia
Edgy, eccentric, and unapologetically queer, this film goes from drama to comedy without putting a foot wrong. Sex and murder are the subjects, and writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) mines them for suspense and outrageous laughs.
The Way, My Way
All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.
Resident Orca
Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.
The Stand
This rousing doc explores a 1985 dispute over logging in the Haida Gwaii. Taking us from canny retrospective commentary to the thick of the action, director Chris Auchter employs animation and a wealth of archival footage to riveting effect.