North American Premiere
A woman roams an ancient garden and speaks to the wind. Restless and adrift, she is haunted by the feeling that something essential is missing.
Inspired by a work from 20th century poet Antonio Machado, Ben Rivers returns to VIFF and the short form with this mysterious, visual interpolation of inner feminine resolve that dissolves into the wisdom of the natural world.
Tang Wei
China/UK
2026
English
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Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Frida Liao
Producer
Lawrence Xiao, Lynn Xun
Cinematography
Ben Rivers
Editor
Ben Rivers
Ben Rivers
Ben Rivers is a London-based filmmaker, artist, and curator. Working primarily with 16mm film, his practice blurs the boundaries between fiction and documentary, using a cinematic language that is naturalistic, poetic, and experimental. His feature Two Years at Sea (2011) premiered in a parallel section at the Venice International Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI Prize. Krabi, 2562 (2019) was selected for the Moving Ahead section at the Locarno Film Festival, while Bogancloch (2024) premiered in the festival’s International Competition. In 2025, Rivers’s feature Mare’s Nest (2025) received the Pardo Verde (Green Leopard Award) at the Locarno Film Festival.
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