Skip to main content
The Light of Immortality film image; man holding up two lit lanterns in the dark

The Light of Immortality

Światło Nieśmiertelności

VIFF Short Forum

International Premiere

A man’s obsession with collecting vintage lamps slowly unravels. For decades, his family has quietly supported and adapted to his ever-growing fantasy, blurring the lines between care, complicity, and imagination.

 

Supported by

Director
Featuring

Janusz Chmielniak

Credits
Country of Origin

Poland

Year

2025

Language

In Polish with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
25 min
Documentary Family Relations Shorts
Wonderer - Andrzej Pałka

Credits & Director

Producer

Andrzej Pałka

Screenwriter

Mikołaj Janik, Martyna Wojtkowska

Cinematography

Kamil Kozik, Mikołaj Janik

Editor

Jakub Rados

Original Music

Michal Drabczyk

Mikołaj Janik headshot

Mikołaj Janik

Mikołaj Janik is the director and screenwriter of films that have appeared at more than 70 international festivals. He was awarded second place in Poland’s largest screenwriting competition, Imagine, and was a finalist in the Papaya New Directors competition. Janik received a scholarship from the Pilecki Institute in Berlin, and works as a university lecturer and film educator. In his free time, he escapes to the mountains. He is currently working on his feature-length documentary debut, High Enough.

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

NAZA
Naza film image; two people sitting in a foggy night with skyscrapers in the background

NAZA

Dir. Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
80 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
The Sandbox
The Sandbox film image; perspective from inside an open box with a face peering into it

The Sandbox

Dir. Kenya-Jade Pinto
90 min

Borders are the faultlines of the world. Kenya-Jade Pinto's doc examines how modern surveillance technology, bio-metrics and AI are combining to make land and sea borders as impenetrable as air travel, and suggests the unspoken cost is our own humanity.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Atonement
Atonement film image; person running through smoke

Atonement

Dir. Reed Van Dyk
118 min

A former Marine suffering from PTSD seeks a meeting with the Iraqi family to which he did great wrong ten years earlier in the Gulf War. Atonement navigates challenging, politically-charged psychological territory with diligence and sensitivity.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Pervert's Guide to Ideology

Dir. Sophie Fiennes
136 min

Slavoj Zizek re-teams with director Sophie Fiennes for another wildly entertaining romp through the crossroads of cinema and philosophy. From The Sound of Music to Titanic, Jaws to The Dark Knight, Zizek offers new ways to understanding Hollywood.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Pervert's Guide to Cinema

Dir. Sophie Fiennes
150 min

The Pervert's Guide to Cinema takes the viewer on an exhilarating ride through some of the greatest movies ever made (Hitchcock, Lynch, Tarkovsky et al). Serving as guide is Slavoj Zizek, the superstar Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

You Had to Be There

Dir. Nick Davis
98 min

In a strange quirk of fate, the legendary Toronto '72 production of the musical comedy Jesus hit Godspell launched a constellation of comedy stars, all unknown at the time but now known to us as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, et al

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre