The spirits of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli run clear and deep in this limpid, hand-drawn animated feature from French comic book artist and illustrator Ugo Bienvenu. Set in the year 2075, technology has eclipsed a natural world afflicted by environmental crises. Yet, this is not the dystopian sci-fi we might expect. Iris is a young girl predominantly raised by a live-in robot, Mikki. Chasing a rainbow through the woods, she comes across Arco, a boy who’s stolen a time-travelling suit from his scientist parents and crash-landed in Iris’s time. Can Iris help him get back to the future?
Three things stand out above all in Bienvenu’s film: its unsentimental yet hopeful vision; the director’s love of bold primary colours (especially in Arco’s rainbow suit); and Arnaud Toulon’s sweeping, emotional score. This is a sweet, futuristic fantasy.
Community Partner
Natalie Portman, Alma Jodorowsky, Swann Arlaud, Vincent Macaigne, Louis Garrel
France
2025
English
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Audrey Tondre
Producer
Félix de Givry, Sophie Mas, Natalie Portman, Ugo Bienvenu
Screenwriter
Félix de Givry, Ugo Bienvenu
Cinematography
Ugo Bienvenu
ANIM
Adam Sillard
Editor
Nathan Jacquard
Production Design
Fabio Besse
Ugo Bienvenu
Filmography: Maman (2013); L’entretien (2019)
Photo by Remembers – MountainA
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Pictures of Ghosts
A companion piece to Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent, Pictures of Ghosts is a lovely, relaxed, ruminative riff on movies, memory, the imaginative space conferred by that place we call Cinema, seasoned with love and boundless anecdotes.
It's a Wonderful Life
Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings. This Christmas classic is whimsical, sure, but it has the depth to stand up to multiple watches, and it really should be a communal experience, because that is what it's about.
The Nutcracker at Wethersfield
Back in the long, dark Covid winter of 2020, there was no way the New York City Ballet could mount their traditional Christmas production of Tchaikovsky's fairytale. But choreographer Troy Schumacher had a dream to save the show -- reimagining a classic.
North of Ourselves
In the depths of winter, two adventurers set out to cross Quebec from one end to the other on bike and skis, exploring its staggering geography and meeting its inhabitants (human and otherwise) along the way.
Hundreds of Beavers: A Northwoods Christmas
The funniest, and certainly the furriest movie you will see this year, Hundreds of Beavers channels the zany slapstick shtick of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Bugs Bunny through a videogame quest narrative to retell the eternal saga of Man v Nature.
The Secret Agent
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.

