Skip to main content
Salem on the Road film image; woman wearing pink fuzzy sleep mask

Salem on the Road

Salem sur la route

VIFF Short Forum

World Premiere

While experiencing a major depersonalization episode, Salem embarks on a solo cycling journey across the Gaspé Peninsula with the intent of ending her life.

 

Supported by

    

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Lyna Khellef, Rémi Goulet, Stéphane Breton, Étienne Galloy

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2024

Language

In French with English subtitles

Film Contact
Content Warning

Self harm

18+
19 min
Drama Shorts

Credits & Director

Producer

Étienne Galloy, Laura Michaud

Screenwriter

Étienne Galloy, Lyna Khellef

Cinematography

Barry Russell

Editor

Laurent Ouellette

Original Music

Jean-Raphaël Côté

Art Director

Laurence Girard, Étienne Galloy, Lyna Khellef, Laura Michaud

Étienne Galloy headshot; Salem on the Road director

Étienne Galloy

Étienne Galloy is one of the youngest winners of Telefilm Canada’s Talents en vue program. He co-wrote, co-directed and co-produced his first feature film The Marina (2019) and is distributed by Les Films Opales in 2021, now available on the CRAVE platform. Étienne has also directed and produced several short films, including I am in love with my memories (2021), that won several festival awards. His next short film Salem on the Road (2024) will premiere at the 43rd Vancouver International Film Festival.

 

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

Short Forum 2: Anthropomaxx
The End film image; stop motion anthropomorphic animals ordering from a cafe counter

Short Forum 2: Anthropomaxx

112 min

Dogs, frogs, hogs, and more!

International Village 8
The Liberation
The Liberation film image; woman leading a group of people down a street

The Liberation

Dir. Guy Nattiv
124 min

Haunted by her past, Rita (a magnificent Carrie Coon) is lured to an all-female commune by a magnetic, manipulative spiritual leader (Lily James). An unsettling yet deeply empathetic exploration of personal freedom, devotion, and control.

Image: © Bleecker Street

Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island
Tender Loving Care
Tender Loving Care film image; three women chatting by a window

Tender Loving Care

Dir. Mike Leigh
107 min

Mike Leigh’s film depicts the lives of Amy and Rosie, best friends and fellow social workers, who care for the dispossessed with all the strength they have. Sometimes it's funny, tragic, and often it's balancing both, this is a work of humble compassion.

Vancouver Playhouse The Rio Theatre
The Story of Documentary Film – The 2010s & 2020s
The Story of Documentary Film film image; man walking into a black smoking battleground

The Story of Documentary Film – The 2010s & 2020s

Dir. Mark Cousins
181 min

In The Story of Documentary Film – The 2010s & 2020s, Mark Cousins follows nonfiction into phones, GoPros, YouTube, TikTok, live streams, and feeds to look at bodily autonomy, surveillance, racism, borders, and truth after vérité.

Image: © Fire of Love, 2022, dir. Sara Dosa, Canada, USA, Sandbox Films, Cottage M, Intuitive Pictures, National Geographic Documentary Films

International Village 9 SFU Woodwards
A Girl Unknown
A Girl Unknown film image; woman crouching by a child on the beach

A Girl Unknown

Dir. Zou Jing
128 min

In this tender, compassionate drama, we see the hardships endured by a young girl adopted in the early 1980s during China’s one-child policy. As a teenager in the 90s, she’s still fighting to find a sense of belonging and assert her worth.

SFU Woodwards International Village 8
Concrete Land
Concrete Land film image; person sitting on a grassy hill

Concrete Land

Dir. Asmahan Bkerat
101 min

Filmed over eight years, Concrete Land follows the Najar family, one of Jordan’s last Afro-Palestinian-Bedouin families, as luxury villas close in on their grazing space outside Amman. Asmahan Bkerat preserves their way of life in the face of erasure.

Alliance Francaise