Many years after a viral zombie outbreak, three brothers are forced to fend for themselves, living off the land in a cabin in the woods. With their parents long gone, the eldest, Salvador is tasked with feeding and protecting his brothers, but his amputated leg means he needs assistance from the younger Oliver and Benjamin. Together they hunt wild animals and fortify their base. Still, how long until outside dangers invade their safety? The infected roam the outskirts of the woods, a murderous cult of bandits called The Trumpets are roving the land, and what to make of the monstrous sounds emanating from the basement?
Director Isaac Ezban returns to the fest (his films The Incident, The Similars, and Parallel all screened at VIFF) with a gory coming-of-age fable about an unconventional family unit finding ways to survive the end of the world. Thanks to Ezban’s careful world-building and pitch-black humour, Párvulos strikes a miraculous balance between heartwarming and darkly cynical.
Sept 29 & 30: Q&A with director Isaac Ezban
Supported by
Media Partner
Community Partner
Felix Farid Escalante, Leonardo Cervantes, Mateo Ortega, Norma Flores, Horacio Lazo, Carla Adell
Mexico
2024
In Spanish 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
Carolina Franco, Francisco Aguilera, Francisco Sánchez Solís, Franz Alvarez Novotny
Producer
Natalia Contreras, Javier Sepulveda, Eduardo Lecuona, Isaac Ezban
Screenwriter
Isaac Ezban
Cinematography
Rodrigo Sandoval, Vega Gil
Editor
Oscar Figueroa
Production Design
Adelle Achar
Original Music
Camilla Uboldi, Edy Lan
Isaac Ezban
Isaac Ezban’s first film The Incident (2014) premiered at Cannes and 50 more festivals, gaining support from Del Toro. His second film The Similars (2015) won Best Latin American Film at Sitges, making him the first Mexican with two films in two straight years in Fantastic Fest and Sitges. He then was hired by BRON Studios to direct his first English-language film Parallel (2018), broke box office records with Mal De Ojo (2022), and premiered his new movie Párvulos (2024) at Fantasia and Fantastic Fest.
Filmography: The Incident (2014); The Similars (2015); Parallel (2018); Mal De Ojo (2022)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Sentimental Value
A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.
The Ice Tower
In Lucile Hadžihalilović's spellbinding fantasy drama, an orphan (Clara Pacini) becomes enthralled by a movie star (Marion Cotillard) playing the Snow Queen in a fairy tale film adaptation. Winner of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution.
La Grazia
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
Innocence
Lucile Hadžihalilović's first feature is a suggestive, subversive fairy tale set in a private school for young girls, the kind of film David Lynch might have made, if he'd been born a French woman in the early 1960s.
Where to Land
Hal Hartley's first new film in a decade is a melancholy farce about mortality and what we'll call "late middle-age". Bill Sage is a semi-retired filmmaker who isn't dying faster than the rest of us but who behaves like he might be.
La venue de l'avenir
Four cousins are tapped to investigate an abandoned house that is their joint inheritance. As they explore, they learn their story of their ancestor Adele (Suzanne Lindon) and her foray into Paris in the age of Impressionism.