Canadian Premiere
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.
Supported by
Media Partner
Community Partner
Gurgon Gyal, Kundrup Dorjee, Norbu Wangyal, Takbum Gyal
China
2023
In Tibetan with English subtitles
Animal cruelty
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits & Director
Producer
Tsemdo Thar
Screenwriter
Tsering Yangjyab
Tsering Yangjyab
Tsering Yangjyab was born in 1991 in a remote mountain village on the Tibetan Plateau. He graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 2012. In 2021, he won the Best Artistic Contribution Award at the 11th Beijing International Film Festival for his cinematography of The Lost (2021). The Boys and the Donkey (2024) is his debut short film.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Resident Orca
Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.
No Other Land
Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.
Misericordia
Edgy, eccentric, and unapologetically queer, this film goes from drama to comedy without putting a foot wrong. Sex and murder are the subjects, and writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) mines them for suspense and outrageous laughs.
There's Still Tomorrow
A critical and box office sensation in Italy, Paola Cortellesi's triumphant directorial debut is the tale of a Roman housewife in 1946, who stands up against the routine sexist abuse she suffers. Funny, heartbreaking and inspiring.
The Way, My Way
All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.