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VIFF2025 Reviews

The Little Sister Feature VIFF2025-30

Title: The Little Sister Foreign Title: La Petite Dernière Year: 2025 Country: France/Germany Language: In French and Arabic with English subtitles Awards: Director: Hafsia Herzi Cast: Fatima, a young French Muslim woman, is on the verge of graduating high school and continuing her studies. She’s the youngest of three sisters. Though very pretty, she lacks the polished femininity of her older siblings, who, although loving and caring for her, teasingly mock

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Silent Friend Feature Review VIFF2025-28

Title: Silent Friend Foreign Title:  Year: 2025  Country: Germany/France/Hungary Language: In German and English with English subtitles Awards: Director: Ildikó Enyedi Cast: If you choose to watch this film, and I highly recommend that you do, remember that cinema is a time-based art. Ildikó Enyedi, the veteran award-winning Hungarian director, never forgets this, and she uses it masterfully throughout Silent Friend. Although the film doesn’t fully belong to the tradition

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Bidad Feature Review VIFF2025-26

Title: Bidad Foreign Title: Bidad Year: 2025 Country: Iran Language: In Farsi with English subtitles Awards: Director: Soheil Beiraghi Cast:  As this is a film about music, it feels right to begin with two musical quotes: “Freedom is just another word for nothin’ left to lose” — Me and Bobby McGee (written by Kris Kristofferson, made immortal by Janis Joplin). “Rich man can’t imagine poor” — The Reckoning Song (written

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VIFF2025 Reviews

The Uniformed Shorts Review VIFF2025-25

Title: The Uniformed Shorts Review VIFF2025-25 Foreign Title: Die Uniformierten Year: 2025 Country: Germany Language: In German with English subtitles Awards: Director: Timon Ott Credits:  Armies are often seen as disciplined, organized machines with strict hierarchies and clear purposes. Uniforms erase individuality, submerging the person into the collective. The Uniformed unfolds within this context, during basic training. It follows an 18-year-old recruit who has committed to 17 years of service, training

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Khartoum Documentary Feature Review VIFF2025-18

Title: Khartoum Foreign Title:  Year: 2025 Country: UK/Sudan/Germany/Qatar Language: In Arabic with English subtitles Awards: Directors: Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed & Phil Cox Cast: Documentary is a universal language: it shares real stories and emotions with audiences across the world. Khartoum begins as a conventional documentary, following the lives of five citizens in Sudan’s capital during the fragile days after the coup that ended three

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Wind, Talk to Me Feature Review VIFF2025-16

Title: Wind , Talk to Me Foreign Title: Vetre, pricaj sa mnom Year: 2025 Country: Serbia/Slovenia/Croatia Language: Serbia/Slovenia/Croatia Awards: Director: Stefan Djordjevic Cast: There is hardly anything dramatic in this film, no overt conflict, no heightened drama. The dialogue is sparse, the acting minimal, the shots are long, and the camera doesn’t move much. And yet, it draws the viewer in, making them think and feel. Stefan is mourning the

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Ambush Shorts Review VIFF2025-14

Title: Ambush Foreign Title: Kameen Year: 2025 Country: Canada/Jordan Language: In Arabic with English subtitles Awards: Director: Yassmina Karajah Credits:  In the backstreets of Amman, Jordan, the old and new collide in a celebration of youth culture. On one rooftop, working-class locals sit smoking hookah, watching as a nearby warehouse transforms into a pop-up techno club. Across the street, a group of younger partiers drink vodka and pop pills. Despite

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Miroirs No. 3 Feature Review VIFF2025-13

Title: Miroirs No. 3  Foreign Title:  Year: 2025 Country: Germany Language: In German with English subtitles Awards: Director: Christian Petzold Cast: From the very first frame, it’s clear that something is amiss. Laura, a music student from Berlin, is traveling to the countryside with her inattentive boyfriend. She appears unsettled, unhappy. They join a couple of his friends for the trip, but upon arrival Laura abruptly asks to return home.

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Blind Into the Eye Shorts Review VIFF2025-11

Title: Blind Into the Eye Foreign Title: Blind, ins Auge Year: 2025 Country: Iran/Germany Language: In Farsi, German, Kurdish and Arabic with English subtitles Awards: Directors: Atefeh Kheirabadi , Mehrad Sepahnia Cast: The essay film remains one of cinema’s most intricate forms, combining heterogeneous materials—text, sound, and image—into a structure that transcends conventional narrative. Blind – Into the Eye situates itself firmly within this tradition. Using found footage, some captured in

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VIFF2025 Reviews

The Blue Trail Feature Review VIFF2025-10

Title: The Blue Trail Foreign Title: O último azul Year: 2025 Country: Brazil/Mexico/Chile/Netherlands Language: In Portuguese with English subtitles Awards: Director: Gabriel Mascaro Cast: Gabriel Mascaro’s Blue Trail is an elusive, genre-defying film that expands the director’s ongoing fascination with the intersection of body, society, and desire. As in his previous films, Neon Bull (2015) and Divine Love (2019), Mascaro keeps exploring themes of rural labor, erotic freedom and faith

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VIFF2025 Reviews

Happiness Shorts Review VIFF2025-2

Title: Happiness Year: 2025 Countries : Netherlands /Turkey Language: English Director: Fırat Yücel We live in a world where a parallel universe is quietly taking shape—a digital landscape of apps, feeds, and online conversations that increasingly define the lives of a younger generation. Happiness unfolds as a video-diary written entirely within this sphere. It chronicles the director’s days and nights, moving between political awareness and personal struggle. From the genocide

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VIFF2025 Reviews

L’ mina Shorts Review VIFF2025-1

Movie Title: L’mina Year:2025 Countries: Morocco/France/Italy/Qatar Language: In Dajira with English subtitles Awards: Director: Randa Maroufi The film follows the work of local miners in Jerada. The mine officially closed more than two decades ago, yet the townspeople continue to excavate in secret. Not long ago, a collapse triggered riots demanding better work and education. The protests led to arrests, military intervention—and little change. At first glance, it might sound

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VIFF2024 Reviews

Rosinante Feature VIFF2024-29

Social realism has been a significant genre in cinema since the emergence of Italian Neo-Realism in the late 1940s. Through small, intimate stories about the day-to-day lives and struggles of families worldwide, filmmakers have revealed the beauty and fragility of humanity. These stories—centered on minor struggles and small victories—allowed audiences across the globe to connect with characters and themes, no matter where the films were set. In a way, this

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VIFF2024 Reviews

78 Days Feature Review VIFF2024-25

The title, 78 Days, refers to the period during which NATO bombed Serbia, a part of the former Yugoslavia, in an attempt to end the Kosovo War. From late March to mid-June 1999, European states fought a war for the first time inside Europe. The film is set in a small village outside Belgrade and centers around one family, particularly the three daughters: Sonja, Dragana, and Tijana.
Sonja, a

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VIFF2024 Reviews

Sauna Day Shorts Review VIFF2024-21

In “Sauna Day,” a group of men unwind in a sauna after a grueling workday, their conversation minimal. As the heat intensifies and the steam hisses, most of them leave, leaving only two behind. One of the men uses a bundle of herbs to strike the other’s back. The camera lingers, capturing the intensity and pleasure of this ritual, culminating in their immersion in a local stream, where they find

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VIFF2024 Reviews

You Can’t Get What You Want but You Can Get Me Shorts Review VIFF2024-20

Samira Elagoz and Z Walsh met in Berlin, fell in love, and made a documentary about their love affair. From the first date, through the struggles of long-distance relationships, meeting the families, Z’s operation, it’s all documented, in the spirit of the generation, in digital forms.
In the spirit of Nan Goldin’s slide show art, the film is composed only of still images and text messages, the film provides

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VIFF2024 Reviews

Gloria! Feature Review VIFF2024-19

At its heart, Gloria! is a feel-good film. Strip away its 19th-century Venetian orphanage setting, and what remains is a familiar narrative: a group of teenagers uniting to overcome a corrupt system, a tyrannical leader, a male-dominated environment, and personal obstacles. Along the way, they discover their voices (one quite literally), gain creative and personal freedom, and even find love.
What sets Gloria! apart is its basis in truth.

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VIFF2024 Reviews

No Other Land-Feature Review VIFF2024-16

Set against the backdrop of an ongoing occupation, No Other Land is a gripping documentary whose power lies in its simplicity, honesty, and unflinching realism. The film avoids any sense of manipulation or over-dramatization, delivering a genuine portrayal of life in Masafer Yatta, a region in the southern West Bank.
Masafer Yatta is home to 12 small villages where families live modest, cooperative lives, raising animals and farming the

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VIFF2024 Reviews

Sleeping With A Tiger Feature Review VIFF 2024-13

Movie Title: Sleeping With A Tiger Foreign Title: Mit einem Tiger schlafen Year: 2024 Country: Austria Language: In German, English and French with English subtitles Directors: Anja Salomonowitz Awards: German Screen Actors Award 2024 Nominee DSP Award Best Leading Role (Beste Hauptrolle) Birgit Minichmayr A biopic, typically strives to capture the essence of a prominent figure’s life, highlighting the key moments that shaped their journey. However, sleeping with a Tiger,

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VIFF2024 Reviews

When We Lost To The Germans Feature Review VIFF 2024-12

Movie Title : When We lost To The Germans Foreign Film Title:Toen we van de Duitsers verloren Year: 2023 Country: Netherlands Language: In Dutch with English subtitles Directors: Guido van Driel Coming-of-age films can be challenging to watch and even more difficult to review. They often need to strike a delicate balance: tapping into universal emotions that resonate with audiences everywhere while also weaving in deeply personal narratives tied to

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VIFF2024 Reviews

Soundtrack to a Coup d’État Feature Review VIFF2024-9

Soundtrack to a Coup d’État is far from a conventional film. The director, known for his exploration of moving images and archival footage, crafts works that challenge the boundaries of cinema and media art.
His 1997 piece DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, which debuted at Documenta in Kassel, blurred the lines between documentary and essay film, combining found footage, home videos, and Don DeLillo’s texts to critique the relationship between airplane hijackings

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If the Sun Drowned into an Ocean of Clouds Shorts Review VIFF2024-6

Set against the backdrop of a waterfront construction site, Raed, a lowly security guard, struggles in vain to keep passersby, vehicles, and a photographer away from the premises. As his apathetic co-worker idles and his superior frequently shifts objectives and relocates his mobile office, Raed finds himself ensnared in a Kafkaesque reality, where he drifts between dreams and desire accepting the absurdity of his life. Beautifully shot and edited, the

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VIFF2024 Reviews

Explosions Near the Museum -Shorts Review VIFF 2024-1

This film features deliberately slow, monotonous, camera movement and static shots within a deserted museum. The camera meticulously captures empty pedestals, plinths, and display cases, while a voiceover narrates the history of the artifacts that once filled these spaces, now looted by Russian forces just before Kherson’s liberation.
The voiceover, though descriptive, speaks in an intimate and future tense, detailing not only their shapes but also the past uses

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