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We Deserve an Empire film image; lake in purple lighting at night with canoe

VIFF Short Forum 7

VIFF Short Forum

Image: We Deserve an Empire

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Shorts from Armenia, Canada, Tibet, Colombia, Japan, and Turkey.

 

Oct 3 & 4: Q&A with filmmakers

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Grizzly Bear Country
Mave Ky, Canada (6 min)

Masculinity and male friendships are explored through three friends who go on a backcountry hiking trip in the Alberta Rockies.

 


Magic Candies
Daisuke Nishio, Japan (21 min)

Somewhat of a loner, Dong-Dong is content playing marbles on his own. One day, he goes to buy new marbles but leaves the shop with a bag of magic candies instead. Based on the Korean picture book, Magic Candies by Heena Baek.

 


The Egg
Vahan Grigoryan, Armenia (12 min)

A struggling actor decides to steal an egg at the grocery store.

 


Morî
Yakup Tekintangaç, Turkey (20 min)

When a new teacher starts at school, Morî is convinced that he is her long-lost father.

 


The Boys and the Donkey
Tsering Yangjyab, China (21 min)

In the Tibetan Plateau, four friends roughhouse with a neighbour’s donkey, leading to a nasty scratch on one of their faces. They resolve to punish the beast.

 


Culture Shock
Barry Bilinsky, Canada (15 min)

While Joey struggles to fit in at Culture Camp—where she is sent after defacing a mural—the mural artist’s sister is there also, looking for the vandal.

 


We Deserve an Empire
Mauricio Maldonado, Colombia (23 min)

Scrap metal thieves prepare to excavate an abandoned mine for gold.

 

Supported by

    

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2023-2024

Language

Various with English subtitles

Content Warning

Animal cruelty

18+
118 min
Animation BC Spotlight Cinemas of Asia Drama Experimental & Avant Garde Indigenous Cinema LGBTQIA2S+ Q&As at VIFF Shorts

Book Tickets

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

It Was Just an Accident

Dir. Jafar Panahi
105 min

Having offered some late-night assistance to a stranger in the wake of an auto accident, a mechanic grows convinced that he recognizes the supposed stranger’s voice as that of his torturer during a grueling prison spell.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Track

Dir. Ryan Sidhoo
91 min

In the middle of a mountain forest above Sarajevo, three boys train for the Olympics in a bullet-ridden luge track abandoned since the 1984 Winter Games. An ambitious, hopeful look at the next generation striving to overcome the sins of their fathers.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Breaking the Waves

Dir. Lars von Trier
158 min

Kicking off our 2026 Pantheon series of the greatest films ever made, Lars von Trier's 1996 masterpiece is a devastating melodrama featuring an indelible performance from Emily Watson as the woman whose love for her husband knows no bounds.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Happy Holidays

Dir. Scandar Copti
123 min

Happy Holidays (the title is ironic) is an expansive, acutely observed sociopolitical family saga which thoughtfully considers the myriad intricacies of Israeli Arab life.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Yunan

Dir. Ameer Fakher Eldin
125 min

In this haunting mood piece, Munir is a middle-aged Syrian writer in exile in Germany. In crisis, he takes himself up to one of the Halligan islands in the North Sea, a suitable place to end it all...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Secret Agent

Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
158 min

Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema