Canadian Premiere
Marcelo Pena is a distinguished professor of philosophy at a university in Buenos Aires. His mentor, the beloved head professor Caselli, has suddenly died, leaving a coveted vacancy. On paper, Marcelo seems like the perfect man to take up the job and carry on Caselli’s legacy. The trouble is that with every passing day Marcelo’s life is becoming messy, humiliating, and tiresome. To make matters worse, there is a new philosopher in town, one trained in Europe who is younger, better-looking, wealthier, and Marcelo’s new arch-nemesis. Puan presents a compelling story of a man equipped with the answers to life’s greatest moral, ethical, and existential quandaries, who is helpless in the face of political, bureaucratic, and social chaos. Co-directed by Maria Alché and Benjamin Naishtat (Rojo), the film wittily questions the pertinence of philosophy in the life of a modern man in the modern world. Like Plato after the death of Socrates, lead actor Marcelo Subiotto convincingly portrays a man who has lost his guiding light.
Supported by
Marcelo Subiotto, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Julieta Zylberberg, Alejandra Flechner, Andrea Frigerio, Mara Bestelli
Argentina/Italy/France/
Germany/Brazil
2023
Panorama
In Spanish with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Bárbara Francisco Mendivil, Barbara Sarasola Day, Federico Eibuszyc
Screenwriter
María Alché, Benjamín Naishtat
Cinematography
Hélène Louvart
Editor
Livia Serpa
Directors
Maria Alché
María Alché is an Argentine director, script writer and actress. She studied Filmmaking at ENERC, where she currently teaches directing actors, and studied Philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires. She directed the short films Noelia, Gulliver, Invierno 3025 and Quién se metió con Mayra?, presented at several international film festivals. She wrote and directed the feature film Familia Sumergida, which won Best Film in Horizontes Latinos at the San Sebastián Film Festival and several other international prizes.
Filmography: A Family Submerged (2018)
Benjamin Naishtat
Benjamín Naishtat studied film in Universidad del Cine, Buenos Aires. He furthermore took part in the Contemporary Arts program of Le Fresnoy, France, and was granted a Radcliffe/Film Studies Center Fellowship from Harvard University. He wrote and directed Rojo (2018) which was selected in Official Competition at the San Sebastián Film Festival, awarded with the Concha de plata for best direction, best cinematography and best actor for Darío Grandinetti. Benjamín wrote and directed El movimiento (2015), Best Argentine film at the Festival de Mar del Plata and the Jury Award-winner at the Valdivia Festival.
Filmography: Historia Del Miedo (2014); El Movimiento / The Movement (2015); Rojo (2018)
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.