Skip to main content
Death Does Not Exist film image; animated boy standing in front of a giant golden wolf

Death Does Not Exist

La mort n’existe pas

Altered States

This event has passed

A small group of armed activists travel through the woods to siege the compound of a wealthy landowner. Hélène is tasked with providing cover from the bushes while the others storm the gates, but when she clams up and can’t pull the trigger, the mission ends in disaster. Knocked out during her retreat, Hélène awakens to a ghost who takes her on a spiritual journey and offers her a second chance. Will she be ready to do the right thing when the opportunity arrives?

The winds of revolution blow with an angry fervour through Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s exquisite feature. Animated in painstaking detail (over six years!) using a muted colour palette, hand-painted textures, and raw, kinetic energy, Death Does Not Exist is a metaphysical journey into the wilderness of the afterlife. A breathtaking work of 2D animation and a war cry for political change.

 

Supported by

ZAK logo

Media Partner

Community Partner

           

Director
Cast

Zeneb Blanchet, Karelle Tremblay, Mattis Savard-Verhoeven, Barbara Ulrich, Félix Dufour-Laperrière

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada/France

Year

2025

Language

In French with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
72 min
Action Animation Experimental & Avant Garde
Embuscade Films

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Producer

Nicolas Dufour-Laperrière, Félix Dufour-Laperrière, Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, Pierre Baussaron

Screenwriter

Félix Dufour-Laperrière

Editor

Félix Dufour-Laperrière

Original Music

Gabriel Dufour-Laperrière, Jean L’Appeau

Félix Dufour-Laperrière headshot

Félix Dufour-Laperrière

Félix Dufour-Laperrière is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer who co-founded Embuscade Films in 2013. His works include the documentary Transatlantique (2014) and the animated films Ville Neuve (2018) and Archipelago (2021). His most recent feature, Death Does Not Exist, premiered in the 2025 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Filmography: Transatlantique (2014); Ville Neuve (2018); Archipel (2021); Cette Maison (2022)

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

Agatha's Almanac

Dir. Amalie Atkins
86 min

Shot over six years on vibrant 16mm film, Agatha’s Almanac is an artful documentary portrait of filmmaker Amalie Atkin’s octogenarian aunt, who has fashioned herself an endearingly simple and self-sustaining lifestyle on her Manitoba farm.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Love Lies Bleeding

Dir. Rose Glass
104 min

A pumped Kristen Stewart is our touchstone in this sexily sinister queer neo noir from Rose Glass (Saint Maud).

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other

Dir. Manon Ouimet & Jacob Perlmutter
100 min

This intimate and candid film by a younger husband and wife artist team is a delicate and immensely moving dual portrait of two artists, husband and wife, together and apart, at that point in life when the end casts a shadow over even the sunniest day.

Image: © Manon et Jacob and Final Cut For Real

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Suburban Fury

Dir. Robinson Devor
120 min

Sara Jane Moore was a 1970s housewife who took the unusual step of trying to assassinate the President of the United States. An action that cost her dearly. This is her story.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Blue Road - The Edna O'Brien Story

Dir. Sinéad O'Shea
99 min

Judging by this candid, funny, passionate biographical documentary, it would have been a wild ride to have been Irish novelist Edna O'Brien, or even to have been in her circle of friends and lovers. Well, for an hour and a half we can pretend we were.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Erupcja

Dir. Pete Ohs
72 min

Charli xcx headlines this indie gem about a young English couple coming unmoored over a few days in Warsaw. Will means to propose. Beth has cold feet -- and an escape hatch she has barely admitted to herself... Think Before Sunrise 2025.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema