World Premiere
The howling of wild dogs through the windows of a summer evening… In the middle of the night, a man talks to his dead wife on a disconnected telephone… Airplanes are swallowed up in the sky.
In rural Canada in the 1990s, a Korean family – a widower, his teenage son, and young daughter – attempts to find footing in a new land while navigating the dark forests of grief. Sonny has been hired to eradicate the feral canines plaguing the town, while sensitive Hajoon figures out what it means to be a man. Finally, young Hana, missing her mother, dreams up ways to make her return.
Gorgeous and brilliantly structured, Jerome Yoo’s first feature film is a lyrical and gut-wrenching tale of immigrant survival and resilience in Canada. Dreamlike, surreal, and filled with raw emotion, Mongrels is a remarkable study of family, loss, and hope in the midst of profound uprooting.
Sept 28: Q&A with director Jerome Yoo; producers Nach Dudsdeemaytha & Tesh Guttikonda; DOP Jaryl Lim; and actors Da-Nu Nam & Sein Jin
Sept 30: Q&A with director Jerome Yoo; producer Nach Dudsdeemaytha; editor Lawrence Le Lam; and Derek Kwan
Presented by
Media Partner
Community Partner
Sein Jin, Jae-Hyun Kim, Da-Nu Nam, Candyce Weir, Jedd Sharp, Morgan Derera
Canada
2024
In English and Korean with English subtitles
Animal cruelty
At International Village
At The Rio
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Jerome Yoo, Nach Dudsdeemaytha, Matt Drake, David Tomiak, Martin Glegg
Producer
Nach Dudsdeemaytha, Tesh Guttikonda
Screenwriter
Jerome Yoo
Cinematography
Jaryl Lim
Editor
Lawrence Le Lam
Production Design
Adriana Marchand
Original Music
Jude Shih, Tae-Young Yu
Jerome Yoo
Jerome Yoo is a Seoul-born filmmaker based in Vancouver. Drawing from his diverse upbringing in Canada, his work often explores the complexities of cultural identity and relationships with surreal elements. His short films, Gong Ju (2018) and Idols Never Die (2019), have garnered critical acclaim and been featured at festivals globally, including the Cannes Short Film Corner and TIFF’s Summer of Seoul program. Mongrels is Jerome’s debut feature and was funded by Telefilm’s Talent to Watch initiative.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Colour of Pomegranates + The House Is Black
This month's Pantheon screening is a double-bill, Sergei Parajanov's extraordinary evocation of the life and work of C18th Armenian poet Sayat Nova, and, The House is Black (22 min), the only film directed by the great Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad.
Left-Handed Girl
Co-written and edited by Sean Baker (Anora), Shi-Ching Tsou's heartwarming solo feature debut follows a single mom in Taipei who is too consumed with her noodle stand to keep tabs on her five-year-old daughter's burgeoning shoplifting habit.
The Librarians
Dispatches from the front line of America's culture wars (and ours too): librarians speak out about the war against ideas, history, freedom of expression and sexual identity, a campaign in which an open mind is the ultimate enemy.
Dawn Pemberton Sings Aretha + Amazing Grace Film Screening
These dates are going to knock your socks off: one of the all-time great concert films, Aretha Franklin performing at the New Bethel Baptist Church in 1972, and Canada's own Queen of Soul, Dawn Pemberton, performing live in Aretha's honour.
Caravaggio
In the latest from Exhibition on Screen, co-directors David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky shed light not only on Caravaggio's paintings, but his life, often kept half-hidden in the same chiaroscuro tones he shaded his masterpieces with.
Train Dreams
A lovely, ruminative movie set in the Pacific Northwest in the first half of the last century. Robert (Joel Edgerton) is a lumberjack, a taciturn man who comes to appreciate the life slipping between his fingers.