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 & Suspense 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

Black Butterflies

Dir. David Baute
83 min

This Goya-winning animated feature is based on the filmmaker's previous documentary, Climate Exodus, following the stories of three women forced into exile by climate change.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

La Grazia

Dir. Paolo Sorrentino
133 min

A contemplative, mournful but richly imagined movie about a retiring Italian President (Toni Servillo from The Great Beauty) facing two thorny ethical decisions that may define his legacy.

Image: © Andrea Pirrello

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Blue Star

Dir. Javier Macipe
129 min

In crisis, a popular singer quits Spain to backpack in Argentina. There he comes under the spell of a veteran musician, who teaches him the art of chacareras, zambas and vidalas. It's a journey of musical kinship and spiritual reawakening.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Mother and the Bear

Dir. Johnny Ma
100 min

Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

El 47

Dir. Marcel Barrena
110 min

Winner of five Goya Awards including for Best Film, this is the true story of a frustrated bus driver who hijacks his own bus to draw attention to the neglected shantytown on the outskirts of Barcelona where he made his home in the 1950s.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Afternoons of Solitude

Dir. Albert Serra
125 min

Pacification director Albert Serra turns his unflinching gaze on the subject of bullfighting, and in particular the famous young matador Andrés Roca Rey. The film challenges us to look its subject square in the eye and draw our own conclusions.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema