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
Schindler's List
One of the most acclaimed films of the 90s, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark is the story of a German industrialist whose conscience is stirred to save his Jewish workers from the camps.
Free event.
Whispers in the Woods
A luxuriant, healing immersion in nature with ravishing wildlife photography, this is the cinematic equivalent of "forest bathing," a trip deep into the Vosges, France, with photographer Vincent Munier (The Velvet Queen), his father and his son.
Three Colours: Blue
The first of Kieslowski's acclaimed Three Colours Trilogy, inspired by the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and the French flag, the Tricolour. Blue stars Juliette Binoche as a young woman grieving her husband and child.
