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Vancouver Foreign Film Society

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VIFF2024 Reviews

Shambhala Feature VIFF2024-30

This remarkable film by Min Bahadur Bham, director and co-author Abinash Bikram Shah, stunningly shot through the craft and skill of the most amazing cinematographer Aziz Zhambakiev, presents an iconic and transcendent story as old as The Ramayana’s tale of Rama and Sita. Entirely shot in the Himalaya Mountains, where the air is so thin only brush can grow. The attentive and thoughtful camerawork by Aziz Zhambakiev makes every scene

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VIFF2024 Reviews

Grand Theft Hamlet Feature VIFF2024-28

“All the world’s a stage….” and apparently, all worlds have stages.

The documentary, Grand Theft Hamlet, from Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls and Mark Oosterveen drops into the fictional world of Los Santos, a city in Rockstar’s online game Grand Theft Auto. (GTA). This is a flexible open world gaming platform, which allows for innovativeness and customization of the gamer’s individual goals and missions.
The overarching theme of the game

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VIFF2024 Reviews

Black Dog Feature Review VIFF2024-26

“Bao” has many meanings. One meaning is to protect and defend and another is return, revenge and reciprocity. Both underscore the motivations of the characters in this story.

This is the story of one man’s struggle to redeem his family’s honour and himself in order to restore balance in his life. Guan Hu (writer and director) sets the stage on which to play out this tale in a crumbling, decaying

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VIFF2024 Reviews

Hakki Feature Review VIFF2024-11

The Eastern Mediterranean has been a source of many cautionary tales over the course of history, dating from before Aesop to the present day. The director of Hakki, Hikmet Kerem Ozcan, brings us another one.

Hakki is a man who has lived a seemingly well-balanced life in a small village off the Aegean Sea. He is now middle-aged with good friends and a happy and loving family. He supports his

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VIFF2024 Reviews

Fishmonger Shorts Review VIFF2024-4

Writer/Director Neil Ferron along with co-author Alexandra Dennis-Renner bring “Fishmonger”, a dark comedic Irish tale to the screen.A masterly use of light, supported with skillful camera angles and composition by cinematographer Jack McDonald, creates an atmosphere of otherworldliness.
The audience follows along the wavering path of Christie ( The Christian) O’ Mallaghan as he stumbles between the horns of a dilemma. He is devoted to his overly close Mother,

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VIFF2024 Reviews

Bright White Lights Shorts Review VIFF2024-5

Montaigne, in the 16th century, wrote that he would never fear death again. He was unconscious after he was thrown off his horse.

Filmakers, Henna Valky and Essu Lehtole, have interwoven animated visuals with first person narratives to illustrate, that whihch can not be described; near death experiences. Or, as Dr. Joseph Geraci states in the film “ encounters with death”.

The subjects represent a wide cross-section of ages, backgrounds

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