Skip to main content
A Very Straight Neck film image; someone lying unconscious on the ground

A Very Straight Neck

North American Premiere

After waking from a haunting dream with horrible neck pain, a woman struggles to maintain her routine in a crumbling world.

Director
Cast

Sakura Ando, Kodachi Kitagata

Credits
Country of Origin

Japan

Year

2025

Language

In Japanese with English subtitles

18+
11 min
Cinemas of Asia Comedy Drama Human Rights & Social Justice Shorts
Nowness China

Credits & Director

Producer

Lawrence Xiao

Screenwriter

Neo Sora

Cinematography

Kaori Oda

Editor

Manaka Nagai

Neo Sora headshot

Neo Sora

Neo Sora is a filmmaker, artist, and translator living in Tokyo and New York. As a filmmaker, Neo has directed, shot, and produced short narrative films, documentaries, music videos, fashion spots, and a concert film. Filmmaker Magazine named Neo one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film, and he was a fellow at the 2022 Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Lab. His first fiction feature, Happyend (2024), premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and played in festivals around the world.

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

The Kneeling Goddess
The Kneeling Goddess film image; young bride with a veil draped across her face

The Kneeling Goddess

Dir. Roberto Gavaldón
82 min

In which wealthy industrialist Arturo de Cordova purchases the titular nude sculpture of his lover (María Félix) as an anniversary gift for his innocent, adoring wife. Soon enough the wife is dead, though untangling just how and why is part of the fun.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
More info

Sold Out

The Blue Trail

Dir. Gabriel Mascaro
86 min

77-year-old Tereza makes a break for the Brazilian jungle in this trippy septuagenarian fantasy, the latest from Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro is a quirky picaresque, lushly photographed and filled with mordant humour.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Two Prosecutors

Dir. Sergei Loznitsa
119 min

In the midst of Stalin’s purges, a naïve prosecutor sets out to investigate a prisoner’s innocence, unaware of the labyrinthine bureaucracy awaiting him. A Kafkaesque procedural thriller about the pursuit of justice in the face of corruption.

Image: © SBS Productions

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Crepúsculo
Crepúsculo film image; man staring down at a cross head stone

Crepúsculo

Dir. Julio Bracho
108 min

A brain surgeon (Arturo de Córdova) begins to doubt his own sanity when the woman he's in love with (Gloria Marin) marries his brother — and he starts fantasizing about murder.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Stranger by the Lake

Dir. Alain Guiraudie
97 min

Stranger by the Lake unfolds like a slow-burning spell. Set around a secluded cruising beach, Alain Guiraudie's modern classic explores desire, danger, and the strange intimacy between strangers.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Victims of Sin

Dir. Emilio Fernández
84 min

This movie is a hot scramble of piety and passion, sentimentality and sleaze. Ninón Sevilla plays Violeta, a rumba sensation who oversteps when she rescues a newborn from the trash. This gets her fired and wins the enmity of the pimp who fathered the kid.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre