Set in 2004, Yasamin (Rose Deghan) is an Iranian teenager who has recently immigrated to Canada with her family. Desperate to fit in, she practices her English by studying sitcoms and succeeds in befriending three popular girls at school — mean girls with permanent smiles and soulless eyes. When her new friends convince Yasamin she needs to dye her hair blonde to be accepted, she takes their advice, but gets more than she bargained for when her new hair colour awakens a demon lurking inside her.
Vancouver-based artist Ava Maria Safai’s first feature is a humorous coming-of-age horror story that reimagines the immigrant high school experience as an internal conflict akin to demonic possession. Rose Deghan’s enchanting performance perfectly balances the darkly humourous and lighthearted tonal shifts of Safai’s screenplay — think Heathers meets Carrie. Foreigner is a charming and entertaining thrill ride, and a vengeful power fantasy that should prove satisfying for anyone who’s been told to go back to where they came from.
Oct 6 & 11: Q&A
Supported by
Media Partner
Rose Dehgan, Chloë Macleod
Canada
2025
In English and Farsi with English subtitles
Violence, frightening scenes
Open to youth
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Nic Altobelli
Producer
Nicco Graham, Ava Maria Safai
Screenwriter
Ava Maria Safai
Cinematography
Saarthak Taneja
Editor
Ava Maria Safai
Production Design
Hannah Grace Nicholls
Original Music
Finka Wood
Ava Maria Safai
Ava Maria Safai is a Canadian-Iranian filmmaker from Vancouver, known for blending sharp genre instincts with heartfelt storytelling. Her short film ZIP (2023) made history at Crazy8s and screened at Oscar-qualifying festivals like Uppsala and CINEQUEST, earning her a Leo Award. She is the artistic director of The Harlequin Theatre Society. Foreigner is her debut feature film.
Filmography: Inhuman/e (2021)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Agatha's Almanac
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.
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other
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
Blue Road - The Edna O'Brien Story
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.
Erupcja
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.