Skip to main content
The Cavalry film image; red silhouette of two people riding horses

The Cavalry

MODES

North American Premiere

Subjected to loud noises, violent abrasions, water dousing, and unpredictable conditions, the horses of an Israeli police unit face harsh conditioning in the West Bank. With a semi-documentary approach, including the use of treated archival footage, newcomer Alina Orlov visualizes the desensitization process used for controlling these majestic animals, begging questions of how and why certain tactics are enacted and enforced beyond training.

 

Community Partner

Director
Credits
Country of Origin

Canada/USA/Israel

Year

2024

Language

In Hebrew with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
Content Warning

Animal cruelty

18+
17 min
Documentary Experimental & Avant Garde Human Rights & Social Justice Shorts Women Directors

Credits & Director

Cinematography

Alina Orlov

Editor

Alina Orlov

ANIM

Alina Orlov

Music

Patrick O’Shea

Alina Orlov headshot; The Cavalry director

Alina Orlov

Alina Orlov, born in 1990, is an artist and filmmaker. She earned her MFA from the school of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020 and a BFA with honors from Bezalel Academy in 2015. Her Work has been showcased internationally, including at the Locarno Film Festival, Galerie Historischer Keller in Berlin and YARAT in Baku. The Cavalry (2024) is her first film.

 

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

Vengeance Is Mine
Vengeance Is Mine film image; woman sitting on a plane

Vengeance Is Mine

Dir. Michael Roemer
118 min

Michael Roemer’s Vengeance Is Mine follows Jo, a troubled young woman returning to her Rhode Island hometown to confront childhood wounds. An attempt to confront one family's past gradually becomes entangled with another family's dysfunction.

The Cinematheque
Gasmask
Gasmask film image; people lying down on grass by water

Gasmask

Dir. Harry Cepka
61 min

Part post-apocalyptic fable, part film essay, Harry Cepka's Gasmask is an enigmatic meditation on memory, ritual, and art. Evoking Chris Marker's La Jetée, it asks what remains of cinema after the world that created it has disappeared.

International Village 8 VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
La Gradiva
La Gradiva film image; man standing next to a large marble statue

La Gradiva

Dir. Marine Atlan
145 min

Winner of the Grand Prize at Cannes’ Critics’ Week, Marine Atlan's feature debut follows a class of French high-school students on a trip to Naples. While learning about the ruins of Pompeii by day, a different kind of education takes place at night.

Image: © Films du poisson, Bibi Film TV, Arte France Cinema

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema Alliance Francaise International Village 9 Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island
Trial of Hein
Trial of Hein film image; large crowd of people standing on a beach looking out to the water

Trial of Hein

Dir. Kai Stänicke
122 min

After 14 years on the mainland, Hein returns to the cloistered fishing village where he grew up. But when he arrives, he goes unrecognized. Amid mounting suspicion and hostility, the community holds a three-day trial to verify his identity.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only

We Are All Strangers

Anthony Chen
157 min

Anthony Chen tells the soulful story of a father and son in contemporary Singapore, each of whom gets married for very different reasons. This is a film about the human cost of poverty — poignant, relatable, and profound.

Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island International Village 9 The Park Theatre
Shame and Money
Shame and Money film image; people gathered at a dinner table

Shame and Money

Dir. Visar Morina
129 min

Shaban and his wife make their living as dairy farmers in a rural Kosovan village, but when an act of betrayal upends their livelihood, they are forced to move to the capital to make ends meet. As pressures mount, Shaban is pushed to the brink.

Image: © Janis Mazuch

International Village 10