What’s on Mar 8 - Apr 11, 2020 at the Vancouver International Film Centre Aquarius 1181 Seymour Street 604.683.3456 Discover more at viff.org Beanpole True North To Live To Sing Ash Easy Land Huo Zhe Chang Zhe ANDREW HUCULIAK, CANADA, 2019, 104 MIN. SANJA IVKOVI , CANADA, 2019, 88 MIN. JOHNNY MA, CHINA/FRANCE/CANADA, 2019, 100 MIN. FRI MAR 20 - 8:25PM • SAT MAR 21 - 9:15PM SAT MAR 21 - 7:15PM • SUN MAR 22 - 5:30PM SUN MAR 22 - 7:30PM • TUE MAR 24 - 8:10PM TUE MAR 24 - 6:10PM SAT MAR 14 - 4:30PM • SUN MAR 15 - 5:00PM WED MAR 25 - 8:30PM WED MAR 18 - 6:00PM • THU MAR 19 - 6:00PM Demonstrating a gift for subtle but deeply affecting story- Andrew Huculiak (drummer in We Are the City) follows up telling, Sanja Ivkovi ‘s feature debut compassionately ex- Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Johnny Ma enlisted a real life his acclaimed feature debut Violent with a brave, risky, ac- amines the psychological toll that relocation takes on im- opera troupe to play fictionalized versions of themselves complished psychological drama set against the burning migrants and refugees. Jasna, a trained architect at home, in this bittersweet tribute to the ailing traditions of musical hillsides of the Okanagan.. Local reporter Stan (a stunning is condemned to mind-numbing internships in Toronto. theatre. Trying to revive their glory days, the Jinli (“Golden performance from Tim Guinnee) seizes on the wildfires Meanwhile her teen daughter Nina faces the indignity of and Glittering”) Sichuan Opera Troupe limp from gig to gig, as his big break. Instead he suffers a nervous breakdown repeating her final year of high school. yet Ma captures the prevailing magic of the enterprise, as when a devastating guilty secret comes out. Cinematic and well as how the odds stack up against them. There are mo- “Everything that speaks to the struggles of recent immi- unapologetically personal, Ash challenges our moral certi- ments of droll, surreal absurdism and pageantry too. grants to Canada rings true... Easy Land has a big beating tude and requests compassion and understanding. heart.” Gate First Stories: Films by and about Indigenous Women The Body Remembers When Rustic Oracle Kuessipan the World Broke Open SONIA BONSPILLE-BOILEAU, CANADA, 2019, 101 MIN. MYRIAM VERREAULT, CANADA, 2019, 117 MIN. ELLE-MÁIJÁ TAILFEATHERS, KATHLEEN HEPBURN, CANADA/NORWAY, SUN MAR 29 - 8:40PM • WED APR 1 - 6:00PM SUN MAR 29 - 6:20PM • TUE MAR 31 - 8:20PM 2019, 105 MIN. After her teenage sister vanishes from their Mohawk com- “Freely inspired” by Naomi Fontaine’s novel, Myriam Ver- SUN MAR 29 - 4:10PM • WED APR 1 - 8:10PM munity, eight-year-old Ivy joins her mother Susan in a des- reault tells the story of two best friends in an Innu com- Discovering Rosie (Violet Nelson), a pregnant teenager, perate search that lays bare the indifference of the authori- munity. While Mikuan has a loving family, Shanis is picking sobbing on a rainy East Vancouver street, Aila (Elle-Máijá ties. As their investigation unfolds, Sonia Bonspille Boileau up the pieces of her shattered childhood. As children, they Tailfeathers) takes her home before working feverishly to uncovers instances of warmth and grace in this delicate promised each other to stick together no matter what. But get her access to proper support networks. Unfolding in real depiction of a child’s anguished rite of passage. as they near adulthood, their friendship is shaken when Mi- kuan falls for a white boy, and starts dreaming of leaving the time, this deft drama from Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hep- “This Canadian made film grabbed my heart and squeezed reserve. 2 CSA Nominations burn (Never Steady, Never Still) employs a riveting combi- tight... Films like this need to be seen, stories like this need nation of intimacy and immediacy as these two Indigenous to be told.” Leanne McLaren, iHeartradio “Quiet and mesmerizing and tragic and full of hope.” Globe women embark on a revelatory odyssey. & Mail 6 CSA nominations including Best Film, Director, Actress Exclusive First Run The Whistlers La Gomera Beanpole The Wild Goose Lake CORNELIU PORUMBOIU, ROMANIA/FRANCE/GERMANY, 2019, 97 MIN. KANTEMIR BALAGOV, RUSSIA, 2019, 137 MIN. Nan fang che zhan de ju hui FRI MAR 13 - 6:00PM • SAT MAR 14 - 6:40PM FRI MAR 13 - 8:10PM • SAT MAR 14 - 8:45PM DIAO YINAN, CHINA/FRANCE, 2019, 113 MIN. SUN MAR 15 - 7:00PM • WED MAR 18 - 8:10PM SUN MAR 15 - 2:00PM, 9:00PM FRI MAR 20 - 6:00PM • SUN MAR 22 - 3:00PM Riffing entertainingly on the conventions of the cop thriller, MON MAR 16 - 6:00PM • THU MAR 19 - 8:10PM MON MAR 23 - 6:00PM • WED MAR 25 - 6:00PM SAT MAR 28 - 9:20PM Police, adjective director Corneliu Porumboiu sends cor- Set in a suburb of Wuhan, this Chinese gangster movie rupt detective Cristi (Vlad Ivanov) from miserable Bucharest Leningrad immediately after WWII. Lanky nurse “Beanpole” from the director of Black Coal, Thin Ice plunges us into a to the sunny Canary Islands on a mission to uncover a drug suffers from from PTSD blackouts. She pins her hopes on slippery underworld of criss-crossed allegiances, constant ring - or is he actually just out for himself? There’s a sexy the return of her beloved Masha from the front lines, but danger, and furtive intimacies. By wrapping his portrait of femme fatale, convoluted flashbacks, twists, turns, and an their intense relationship is marked by inconsolable, almost contemporary China in the trappings of film noir Diao Yinan unorthodox whistling code, all in the service of a spry, clev- unspeakable tragedy. Prospects for love and renewal con- gets away with a mordant, poetic and sometimes surreal er film noir which hides its deconstructionism in plain sight. tinually run into the dire circumstances of post-war depriva- take on our era of criminal capitalism. His atmospheric and tion. Rapturous visuals and unforgettable performances are evocative, rain-soaked nocturne is punctuated with synco- the hallmarks of a major work from an exciting new talent. pated shoot outs and a labyrinthine manhunt. “Brilliantly directed and acted drama.” NY Times Bacurau A White, White Day Matthew Barney’s KLEBER MENDONÇA FILHO, JULIANO DORNELLES, BRAZIL/FRANCE, Hvítur, Hvítur Dagur 2019, 130 MIN. “Redoubt” FRI APR 3 - 8:00PM • SAT APR 4 - 6:00PM HLYNUR PÁLMASON, ICELAND/DENMARK/SWEDEN, 2019, 109 MIN. MATTHEW BARNEY, 2019, 134 MIN. SUN APR 5 - 7:30PM • TUE APR 7 - 8:20PM SAT APR 4 - 8:35PM • SUN APR 5 - 3:00PM FRI APR 10 - 8:10PM • SAT APR 11 - 1:30PM WED APR 8 - 8:00PM • FRI APR 10 - 1:15PM TUE APR 7 - 6:00PM • THU APR 9 - 6:00PM SUN APR 12 - 3:15PM • TUE APR 14 - 8:10PM A few years from now... Bacurau, a small village in the Brazil- SAT APR 11 - 9:00PM The new film by acclaimed artist and director Matthew ian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who In a remote Icelandic town, an off-duty police chief begins Barney, creator of the CREMASTER Cycle and the film op- lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants (among them Sônia to suspect a local man of having had an affair with his late era River of Fundament, unfolds as a series of hunts in the Braga) notice that their village has literally vanished from wife, who died in a tragic accident two years earlier. Gradu- wilderness of Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains. The characters most maps and a UFO-shaped drone starts flying overhead. ally his obsession for finding out the truth accumulates and communicate a mythological narrative through dance, let- There are forces that want to expel them from their homes, inevitably begins to endanger himself and his loved ones. ting movement replace language as they pursue their prey. and soon, in a genre-bending twist, a band of armed merce- naries led by Udo Kier arrive in town picking off the inhabit- Following up his brilliant debut Winter Brothers, Pálmason “Breathtakingly beautiful…An emotional power that’s un- ants one by one. has created an intense, nailbiting, emotionally raw psycho- usual in any kind of art.” NY Times logical drama about a man on the edge, toppling headlong “ Stunning.,.. Viscerally satisfying, emotionally cathartic.” LA over it. Times Vancity Impact Talk Anime Day Capital in the Weathering With You Ride Your Wave Tenki no ko Kimi to, nami ni noretara Twenty-First Century MAKOTO SHINKAI, JAPAN, 2019, 112 MIN. MASAAKI YUASA, JAPAN, 2019, 94 MIN. JUSTIN PEMBERTON, NZ, 2020, 103 MIN. SAT MAR 14 - 12:10PM SAT MAR 14 - 2:30PM THU MAR 26 - 6:30PM - IMPACT TALK SAT MAR 28 - 10:00AM (RELAXED SCREENING) The latest from the prolific and inventive Masaaki Yuasa FRI APR 10 - 6:00PM • SUN APR 12 - 6:00PM In Japan, this dazzling magical realist love story from the (The Night is Short, Walk on Girl) is a love story in which a MON APR 13 - 6:00PM • TUE APR 14 - 6:00PM director of Your Name was the biggest homegrown hit last surfing student falls for a handsome firefighter. When the Be among the first to see Justin Pemberton’s film of French year and it’s easy to see why: its heart-stopping tale of teen latter perishes in an accident, Hinako is heartbroken - until economist Thomas Piketty’s best-seller, one of the most influen- love is bathed in spectacularly detailed but frequently fan- she sees her lover shimmering in the water... tial books of our time. Pikettty argues that capitalism is no longer tastical animation.