Moving through often uncharted (subaltern) territory, these works and their subjects carry the remnants of emotional and physical labour on their shoulders, both literally and figuratively.
This short film program includes the following films:
Samba Infinito
Leonardo Martinelli, Brazil/France (16 min)
Amid the revelry of Rio’s Carnival, a wandering boy chances upon a weary street sweeper whose long-repressed grief derails his humble obligations.
Force Times Displacement
Angel WU, Taiwan (12 min)
Along the endless arch of incessant work, workers ache for change.
L’mina
Randa Maroufi, Morocco/France/Italy/Qatar (26 min)
Although the practice of coal extraction was halted in 2001, a treacherous mine in Jerada, Morocco remains informally active and is manned by the town’s residents, who collaboratively act out a performance of their labour.
BOA
Alexandre Dostie, Canada/France (25 min)
When tragedy strikes the church, young Leonidas careens toward a brotherhood of an entirely different order, shedding the old ways to become something more intentional.
+10K
Gala Hernández López, Spain/France (32 min)
Pol lives in Miami with his grandmother, endlessly pursuing personal growth schemes and online coaching seminars to master Crypto investing. He is becoming the best version of himself, but he’s not sure when his labours will bear fruit.
Community Partner
Various
Various
2024 & 2025
Various
Book Tickets
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All the Lovers in the Night
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.
Clarissa
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
Opening Gala: The Debut
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.
Árru
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.
The Beloved
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.
MODES 1
Archive and the land reveal other ways of seeing, ensuring that what is meant to endure cannot be erased.