In a small town on Mount Lebanon, a young boy tests God after his mother’s sudden death.
Karim Hani, Mounir Malaeb, Adham Boukaroum
Lebanon
2025
In Arabic with English subtitles
Animal cruelty
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Darine Hotait, Hanna Atallah
Screenwriter
Samah El Kadi, Nadim Chammas
Cinematography
Lluis Ferrer, Marcel Pascual
Editor
Gerard Daccache, Nicolas Khoury
Samah El Kadi
Samah El Kadi is a Lebanese director and screenwriter. He has recently received an international Emmy nomination for his short film Stardust among Shahid’s 6:07 series. After graduating from NYFA in Los Angeles, Samah went on to direct several short films and commercials with brands such as Samsung, Tesla, and Vodafone. His recent projects in development have won the ART distribution award at Red Sea Lodge, and the Sunbird Stories award. His upcoming releases include the short films Ghostland and Baadarane. Samah is currently developing his debut feature film The Olive Press.
Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
You Had to Be There
In a strange quirk of fate, the legendary Toronto '72 production of the musical comedy Jesus hit Godspell launched a constellation of comedy stars, all unknown at the time but now known to us as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, et al
House of Hope
"House of Hope" is the name of a Waldorf elementary school near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, founded by Manar and her husband Milad. This documentary follows their efforts to go about their lives before, during, and after the events of October 7.
Atonement
A former Marine suffering from PTSD seeks a meeting with the Iraqi family to which he did great wrong ten years earlier in the Gulf War. Atonement navigates challenging, politically-charged psychological territory with diligence and sensitivity.
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.
The Arvind Ramdas Connections Quartet + The Connection
Arvind Ramdas and a stellar line up of musicians (Cory Weeds!) pay tribute to Freddie Redd's hard bop score to the seminal indie movie The Connection (1961) in this VanJazz co-presentation. Live music at 7:00 pm, film at approximately 8:15 pm.
Day of Wrath
Anna, the young second wife of a well-respected but much older pastor, falls in love with her stepson when he returns to their small seventeenth-century village. Stepping outside the bounds of the village's harsh moral code has disastrous results.