Skip to main content
God Will Not Help film image; close on a woman among sheep

God Will Not Help

Bog neće pomoći

Vanguard

© Kinorama

This event has passed

North American Premiere

At the turn of the 20th century, a Chilean woman shows up in a remote Croatian community of shepherds, claiming to be the widow of the family’s eldest son who moved away years ago in search of a more prosperous life abroad. While her appearance is at first exciting, her otherness quickly sows seeds of discord among the clan, whose mistrust towards anything and anyone different brings deeply buried tensions to a boil.

Manuela Martelli and Ana Marija Veselčić are riveting in their meaty, defiant turns as two outcasts who form an unlikely bond in the face of social rejection, which earned the two actors a joint award for Best Performance at this year’s Locarno Film Festival. Evoking the work of cinema auteurs like Jane Campion, this wickedly moody, beautifully lensed feminist period piece is as formally accomplished as it is daring in its unique fusion of genre and ethnographic motifs.

 

Best Performance, Locarno 2025

Oct 5 & 6: Q&A

 

Supported by

Media Partner

Range logo

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Manuela Martelli, Ana Marija Veselčić, Filip Đurić, Mauro Ercegović Gracin, Nikša Butijer

Credits
Country of Origin

Croatia/Italy/Romania/
Greece/France/Slovenia

Year

2025

Language

In Croatian and Spanish with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
137 min
Drama Family Relations Women Directors
Kinorama

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Producer

Ankica Jurić Tilić

Screenwriter

Hana Jušić

Cinematography

Jana Plećaš

Editor

Jan Klemsche

Production Design

Laura Boni

Original Music

Stavros Evangelou, Iris Asimakopoulou, Vasilis Chontos

Hana Jušić headshot

Hana Jušić

Hana Jusic, born 1983 in Šibenik, Croatia, obtained her master’s degree in film and TV directing from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. She wrote and directed several short films prior to her feature film debut, Quit Staring at My Plate (2016), a Croatian–Danish co-production that won more than 30 awards including Best Director at the Tokyo International Film Festival, Grand Prix at the Crossing Europe festival in Linz, and Best Feature Film at Valladolid, among others. Jusic’s screenwriting credits include two feature films and the TV series The Last Socialist Artefact (2021), which she co-wrote.

Filmography: Transmania (2016)

Photo by Glorija Lizde

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

Yunan

Dir. Ameer Fakher Eldin
125 min

In this haunting mood piece, Munir is a middle-aged Syrian writer in exile in Germany. In crisis, he takes himself up to one of the Halligan islands in the North Sea, a suitable place to end it all...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Happy Holidays

Dir. Scandar Copti
123 min

Happy Holidays (the title is ironic) is an expansive, acutely observed sociopolitical family saga which thoughtfully considers the myriad intricacies of Israeli Arab life.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Track

Dir. Ryan Sidhoo
91 min

In the middle of a mountain forest above Sarajevo, three boys train for the Olympics in a bullet-ridden luge track abandoned since the 1984 Winter Games. An ambitious, hopeful look at the next generation striving to overcome the sins of their fathers.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Mother and the Bear

Dir. Johnny Ma
100 min

Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

It Was Just an Accident

Dir. Jafar Panahi
105 min

Having offered some late-night assistance to a stranger in the wake of an auto accident, a mechanic grows convinced that he recognizes the supposed stranger’s voice as that of his torturer during a grueling prison spell.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Breaking the Waves

Dir. Lars von Trier
158 min

Kicking off our 2026 Pantheon series of the greatest films ever made, Lars von Trier's 1996 masterpiece is a devastating melodrama featuring an indelible performance from Emily Watson as the woman whose love for her husband knows no bounds.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema