For tickets and more information, please visit the VTIFF website here.
Amal
Directed by Jawad Rhalib
Belgium | 2023 | Fiction | 107 min.
Language: French and Arabic with English subtitles
Synopsis: In a Brussels secondary school, Amal, an idealistic literature teacher, encourages her pupils to cultivate a love of reading and freedom of expression. In the same school, a hard-line imam is teaching them radical Islamic views. In this volatile situation, Amal makes daring choices that lead to an explosion. “When one student is accused of homosexuality,” writes VTIFF’s commentator, “dangerous views and violent rhetoric breach the neutral territory of the school grounds. Amal finds herself on the front lines, trying to instill both compassion and logic in students who are being indoctrinated.”
Showtimes: Monday, October 21 @ 7:15pm; Thursday, October 24 @ 4:15pm
The Balconettes (Les femmes au balcon)
Directed by Noémie Merlant
France | 2024 | Fiction | 103 min.
Language: French with English subtitles
Synopsis: During a heat wave in Marseilles, three women are cooped up in their apartment. From the balcony, they look out at their neighbor, an attractive man, about whom they indulge all sorts of fantasies. He invites them over for a drink—but the simple invitation results in murder and mayhem. VTIFF’s reviewer comments: “Raunchy, violent, hilarious, gory, fun, supernatural, disturbing, sexual, and subversive as hell, The Balconettes is a genre mash-up that shifts tones so often and so wildly that you may suffer cinematic whiplash.”
Showtime: Thursday, October 24 @ 9pm
Dahomey
Directed by Mati Diop
Benin, Senegal, France | 2024 | Documentary | 68 min.
Language: French with English subtitles
Synopsis: During colonial times, France looted artistic treasure from the Kingdom of Dahomey (in today’s Benin) and held them in a museum. This documentary traces the story of twenty-six royal artifacts that were returned to Benin. The film was an international co-production between companies in France, Senegal and Benin. At the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, Dahomey won the the Golden Bear, the festival’s top prize. VTIFF comments: “The film deftly blends fact and fiction, presenting the surprisingly fraught case for the repatriation of these artworks, and the sometimes delicate dance involved in righting the wrongs of colonialism.”
Showtime: Saturday, October 26 @ 1:30pm
Universal Language (Une langue universelle)
Directed by Matthew Rankin
Canada | 2024 | Fiction | 89 min.
Language: Farsi and French with English subtitles
The film, set “somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg,” blends several seemingly unrelated stories: Negin and Nazgol find money frozen in ice and try to claim it; Massoud, a tour guide in Winnipeg, leads a confused and disoriented tour group; and Matthew quits his unfulfilling job with the Québec provincial government and travels home to Winnipeg to visit his mother. VTIFF comments: “Set in a fantasy version of Canada, where Persian and French are the two official languages and loneliness is the common currency, this gentle comedy is eccentric and open hearted.”
Showtime: Tuesday, October 22 @ 7 PM | FH
Who by Fire (Comme le feu)
Directed by Philippe Lesage
Canada, France | 2024 | Fiction | 161 min.
Language: French with English subtitles
Synopsis: Alfred, his film-loving son Jeff, and two more teenagers visit the home of Blake, a film director and Alfred’s former partner. During their stay in Blake’s large mansion in the woods, harmful power relations emerge among the adults. VTIFF comments: “As the wine flows freely, and long-simmering resentments rise to the surface, the mood frequently shifts on a dime. Isolated in the lush beauty of the French wilderness with a stockpile of hunting rifles, surging adolescent hormones, oversized egos, plentiful alcohol, unexpected guests, and bottomless animosity, what could go wrong?”
Showtime: Friday, October 25 @ 3:15pm