International Premiere
A film student and her family drive to the desert to shoot a scene for her latest film, but things quickly deteriorate and nothing goes as planned. In this dry comedy, family dynamics and prickly relationships foster a tense situation where it’s unclear whether they will ever manage to cooperate and become a team. Starring Maya Yadlin’s real family, this is a simple film that works thanks to excellent direction, a smart script, and fine performances that create great chemistry between the actors, especially the hilariously deadpan father. Convincing from the first scene and a wonderful surprise.
Community Partner
Israel Yadlin, Stella Yadlin, Dana Yadlin, Maya Yadlin
Israel
2021
In Hebrew with English subtitles
Featured in:
International Shorts: Family Ties
The bonds of family form the basis of this program of short films. Bonds with history and responsibility—sometimes close, sometimes strained—now and for the future.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Late Fame
Based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Eyes Wide Shut) this is a sly, poignant comedy about vanity and art from director Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe as a mailman belatedly acclaimed for a book of poetry he wrote in his youth.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
In 2093, a filmmaker arrives in the African village of Umata, where he meets Princess Mumbi, a woman torn between love, legacy, and the future of storytelling. It's a fabulous genre-blending fable about memory, invention and cinematic resistance.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.
Credits
Producer
Encore Films
Screenwriter
Maya Yadlin
Cinematography
Omer Weiss
Editor
Maya Yadlin
Art Director
Lital Gerzy, Ella Harrison
Director
Maya Yadlin
Maya Yadlin studied at the Minshar School of Art in Tel Aviv and has been working as a freelance editor since 2014. Most of her films are about her family, in which she acts along with her real family members. Her first short film Fine (2018) screened at the Warsaw Film Festival and Filmschoolfest Munich. Her second short film As You Like (2020) premiered at the Show Me Shorts Film Festival in New Zealand. In 2022, her short film Killing Ourselves premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival, where it won Best Live Action Film.