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
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
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
American Doctor
One of the most powerful documentaries of the year, this puts us smack in the open wound that is Gaza, filtered through the eyes of three American surgeons (of Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian backgrounds) compelled to do their utmost to alleviate harm.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
In 2093, a filmmaker arrives in the African village of Umata, where he meets Princess Mumbi, a woman torn between love, legacy, and the future of storytelling. It's a fabulous genre-blending fable about memory, invention and cinematic resistance.
Joan Crawford in... Letty Lynton
This would be your first chance to see one of Joan Crawford's prime pre-Code films since 1936, a salacious melodrama about a socialite (Joan Crawford) accused of poisoning her ex lover.
Jack Johnson: Surfilmusic
This new documentary chronicles Jack Johnson's evolution from surfer to filmmaker to world-renowned musician. The film traces how Jack's early years making surf films with close friends became a foundation for a much broader creative life.
Late Fame
Based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Eyes Wide Shut) this is a sly, poignant comedy about vanity and art from director Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe as a mailman belatedly acclaimed for a book of poetry he wrote in his youth.
Franz
Veteran Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland takes the bull by the horns to craft a Kafka biopic that's Kafkaesque and then some, artfully layering scenes from Kafka's life and works along with ironic present-day footage for a truly surreal counterpoint.