Skip to main content
Hidden Tremors film image; surprised-looking man lying on the ground with a light shining on him

Hidden Tremors

Bhoothalam

Focus

This event has passed

World Premiere

Set against the serene yet fragile landscape of Kanjirappally, Hidden Tremors is a deeply personal and emotionally resonant portrait of a community in transition. As frequent landslides and subtle seismic shifts threaten both land and life, a quieter crisis unfolds within a family struggling to hold on — to land, to memory, and to each other. Through evocative performances, the film captures the emotional depth of separation, resilience, and longing.

In ecologically vulnerable regions of Kerala, climate change and unregulated development have destabilized lives. Through its restrained storytelling and compelling visuals, Sreekanth Pangapattu’s film captures the fragile balance between people and the ecosystem, and the emotional dislocation that follows. Shot under challenging climatic conditions, Hidden Tremors doesn’t just depict the physical instability of land, but the invisible quakes that stir within the human spirit — echoes of loss, love, and survival in a changing world.

 

Presented by

Media Partner

Community Partner

     

Director
Cast

N.S. Thara, Indrans, Kalabhavan Rahman

Credits
Country of Origin

India

Year

2025

Language

In Malayalam with English subtitles

18+
81 min
Cinemas of Asia Drama Family Relations Human Rights & Social Justice
Ladder Media Entertainments

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Screenwriter

Sreekanth Pangapattu

Cinematography

Nikhil S. Praveen

Editor

Vishal V.S.

Original Music

Erik Johnson

Art Director

K.T. Sujeer

Sreekanth PG headshot

Sreekanth Pangapattu

P.G. Sreekanth is an architect, writer, and filmmaker who works as chief architect for PG Group Designs, a home design firm in Central Travancore. He has assisted the production designer Sabu Cyril in many films and authored a number of books, including five short story collections, one biography, and one architecture book. Bhoothalam is his debut feature film as director.

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

All the Lovers in the Night
All the Lovers in the Night film image; man and woman touching the backs of their hands together

All the Lovers in the Night

Dir. Yukiko Sode
139 min

A lonely proofreader's isolated world begins to open through an unlikely friendship with a gentle physics teacher. Based on Mieko Kawakami's acclaimed novel, this luminous drama is a delicate meditation on loneliness, intimacy, and self-discovery.

Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island International Village 9 Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only International Village 10
Clarissa
Clarissa film image; a woman peering out an open door

Clarissa

Dir. Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri
134 min

Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Clarissa brings Mrs. Dalloway to present-day Lagos, with Sophie Okonedo playing the titular society hostess opposite David Oyelowo, Ayo Edebiri, and India Amarteifio in a Nigerian vision of class, privilege, and past lives.

Image: © Courtesy of Elevation Pictures

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only The Park Theatre

Opening Gala: The Debut

Dir. Jesse Eisenberg
150 min

VIFF is honoured to open the festival with this special by-invitation screening of Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut. When meek Mona (Julianne Moore) lands a part in a musical, she fully inhabits her character, but grows increasingly untethered from reality.

Vancouver Playhouse

Árru

Dir. Elle Sofe Sara
95 min

Set against the mountains and fjords of northern Norway, Árru follows reindeer herder Maia as a proposed copper mine threatens her Sámi community, forcing her to fight to protect both her community and the land that sustains it.

SFU Woodwards Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only
The Beloved
The Beloved film image; two people walking through the desert

The Beloved

Dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen
135 min

When Esteban Martínez, an acclaimed director with violent tendences, invites his estranged daughter to star in his latest project, the stage is set for a familial reconnection. But as tensions flare, questions about his intentions rise to the surface.

The Rio Theatre The Park Theatre Vancouver Playhouse
MODES 1
Golden Island film image; man standing next to a structure in some water

MODES 1

115 min

Archive and the land reveal other ways of seeing, ensuring that what is meant to endure cannot be erased.

The Cinematheque International Village 8