World Premiere
Writer-director Brishkay Ahmed’s In the Room is a visually stunning, informative, and deeply personal exploration of cultural identity and resilience. Told from Ahmed’s perspective as an Afghan expat, the film traces her journey from rejecting her heritage — which she initially connected with victimhood — to embracing it in a celebration of the heroism of Afghan women.
Featuring documentary subjects Nelofer Pazira-Fisk, Vida Samadzai, Sahar Parniyan, Mozhdah Jamalzadeh, and Shogofa Sediqi, Ahmed’s film weaves images of the past and present into intimate interviews, creating a rich, layered portrait of these women’s lives. The subjects’ voices are compelling and heartfelt, making the experiences both powerful and urgent, and Ahmed’s cinematography captures the raw beauty of these stories, reflecting 35 years of courage and perseverance. In the Room is an important film that reminds us that human rights are fragile and must be actively protected.
Oct 7 & 10: Q&A
Supported by
Community Partner
Canada
2025
In English, Dari and Farsi with English subtitles
Gender or sexual discrimination
Open to youth
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Shirley Vercruysse
Producer
Teri Snelgrove
Screenwriter
Brishkay Ahmed
Cinematography
Diana Parry
Editor
Jessica Dymond
Original Music
Zhovan Zoleikhapour
Brishkay Ahmed
Brishkay Ahmed is a documentary filmmaker whose projects have been supported by the NFB, CBC, Super Channel, RTA, Bravo, and Cinema Politica. Her feature documentary, In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland, was a nominee for the 2021 DGC Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary and won the Outstanding Feature Film Award at the 2021 Reelworld Film Festival. Additionally, Ahmed is the creator and co-director of the Afghan prime-time legal drama Between You and Me for Tolo TV, and worked as a writer and director on several police and legal procedurals in Kabul from 2011 to 2019.
Filmography: Story of Burqa: Case of a Confused Afghan (2012); Unveiled: The Kohistan Video Scandal (2016); In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland (2021)
Photo by Angel Lynne
Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Once Upon a Time in Harlem splices together footage shot by William Greaves in 1972 of a group of Harlem Renaissance luminaries in conversation at Duke Ellington’s townhouse. The film is a living archive of memory, disagreement, style, and Black genius.
Possible Love
Lee Chang-dong’s first film since Burning (2018) is a sardonic, slow-burning satire about two couples: a documentary filmmaker married to a wealthy businessman, and a working-class family struggling to make ends meet after the husband has been laid off.
House of Hope
"House of Hope" is the name of a Waldorf elementary school near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, founded by Manar and her husband Milad. This documentary follows their efforts to go about their lives before, during, and after the events of October 7.
Halloween Live! The Crypt Keepers + The Day of the Beast
Amp up your Halloween with a unique live set of holidays cuts from The Crypt Keepers, followed by Alex de la Iglesias's cult comic horror Day of the Beast, a wild ride about a sinful Catholic priest on the warpath against Satan.
Get Out
Guess who's coming to dinner? Daniel Kaluuya is the Black boyfriend justifiably anxious about meeting his white girlfriend's folks for the first time in Jordan Peele's satiric modern horror classic, one of a series curated by our VIFF+ Premium members.