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Muljil: Diving film image; person riding a moped down a deserted street

5: The absurd & spiritual

VIFF Short Forum

Image: Muljil: Diving

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Shorts from: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Portugal.

 

Oct 7 & 8: Q&A

 

This short film program includes the following films:

The Light of Immortality
Mikołaj Janik, Poland (25 min)

A man’s obsession with collecting vintage lamps slowly unravels the shadow of what is real and what is not, as his family, for decades, has quietly supported and adapted to his ever-growing fantasy.

 


Tears Burn to Ash
Natalie Murao, Canada (15 min)

An encounter with a doppelganger in Japan cracks open the edges of reality, as a return to the homeland becomes a search through memory, absence, and the ghosts of identity.

 


My Dad is an Astronaut
Bianca Rose Cheung, Canada (14 min)

Through dreamy textures and thermal imaging, the film hums with quiet longing, lost signals, and the strange intimacy of distance.

 


Mother of Dawn
Clara Trevisan, Belgium/Brazil/Finland/Portugal (9 min)

In the dead of night, a hungry creature searches for food — until something breaks the cycle.

 


Bleat!
Ananth Subramaniam, Malaysia/Philippines/France (16 min)

An elderly couple faces a dilemma when their male goat, destined for ceremonial slaughter, turns out to be pregnant.

 


Muljil: Diving
Young Eun Yoo (Yooye), South Korea (26 min)

Yang Young-sam, a 77-year-old haenyeo (female freediver) battling dementia, prepares for a final ritual goodbye.

 

Supported by

Community Partner

         

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2024 & 2025

Language

Various

Content Warning

Animal cruelty, graphic violence

18+
105 min
Animation BC Spotlight Cinemas of Asia Documentary Drama Experimental & Avant Garde Family Relations LGBTQIA2S+ Shorts Women Directors

Book Tickets

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

Late Fame

Dir. Kent Jones
96 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Memory of Princess Mumbi

Dir. Damien Hauser
80 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Rosetta

Dir. Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne
93 min

A teenager tries to change her dire circumstances in this overwhelming naturalistic drama from the Dardenne brothers, winner of the Palme d'Or and Best Actress awards at Cannes, 1999.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Lessons of Darkness
Lessons of Darkness film image; smoke pillars rising from the ground

Lessons of Darkness

Dir. Werner Herzog
54 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Beau Travail

Dir. Claire Denis
93 min

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).

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
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But I'm a Cheerleader

Dir. Jamie Babbit
85 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre