VIFF 2024 reviews: Ruthless drama, monumental sculpture, breathless joyrides, and more
Quick takes on Brief History of a Family, Anora, Viva Niki, and Who by Fire, plus documentaries about everything from design mavericks to Haida logging protests to the children of overseas nannies
Viva Niki—The Spirit of Niki de Saint Phalle.
Anora.
Who by Fire.
WITH THE VANCOUVER International Film Festival officially in full swing, here are some quick takes on some of the most intriguing offerings—from portraits of artists and designers to dark family dramas, adrenalized joy rides, and more.
BRIEF HISTORY OF A FAMILY (China/France/Denmark/Qatar)
September 26 at 6:15 pm at Fifth Avenue Auditorium and October 4 at 8:45 pm at International Village 9
In this quietly ruthless drama, an act of kindness brings havoc to a model Chinese family. Fifteen-year-old Wei invites his schoolmate Shuo to dinner after a playground accident and the diffident youth wins the affection of Wei’s parents. Father is taken with Shuo’s studiousness and his love of Bach while Mom clearly yearns for another child. Both are troubled by his apparently violent home-life. When Shuo’s father perishes in an accident, he’s adopted by the increasingly smitten adults and Wei realizes—as do we—that he’s likely being replaced. Going all the way back to Teorema in 1968, young men with unwholesome designs have regularly infiltrated “good” homes, but Jianjie Lin’s debut feature is built on suggestion, leaving us to project our own suspicions onto the mostly passive figure of Wei and lampooning the glacial emotions and claustrophobic propriety of China’s professional class. The film also delights in twisting the knife planted in Wei, trained to contain his fears as surely as the film pours over its precise compositions and efficient use of time. It’s a great debut with a micro and macrocosmic view of nature’s great patterns (quite literally) and the courage to exploit a truly horrible thing: disappointment with our own children. AM
ANORA (U.S.)
September 27 at 8:45 pm and October 1 at 9:15 pm at the Vancouver Playhouse
Pull down your lap bar for director Sean Baker’s breathless ride through high-end strip clubs, Coney Island candy shops, and tricked-out mansions. Cannes’ buzzed-about Palme D’Or winner really is all that—a sort-of Cinderella story, if Cinderella wore 10-inch-heel thigh-high boots and tinsel-streaked hair extensions. In a bit of genius casting, Mikey Madison plays the streetsmart title character, a business-savvy sex worker who hooks up with young, goodtime-manchild Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the wayward son of a zillionaire Russian oligarch. A blur of humping, bong-ripping, fur-shopping, and champagne-shooting ensues, but immediately we have questions: Where is the money coming from and who’s footing the bills? And who are the vaguely sinister-looking dudes telling partiers to get off the designer couches? We’ll find out as things spin comically out of control—with the tough Anora holding her own against everyone from bumbling Armenian baddies to the mother from hell. Clearly at the top of his game, Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine) hits a frenzied pace, ever undercutting laughs with gut-punching sadness, and infusing the action with wildly entertaining tangents. Rising above clichés, objectification, and judgment, the titular heroine is never quite what anyone assumes. She may even find her Prince Charming—but to give away any more would spoil the ride. JS
The Stand.
THE STAND (Canada)
October 3 at 8:45 pm at SFU Woodward’s and October 5 at 3:15 pm at International Village 9
This absorbing effort from the NFB is a trip into a lost world. In 1985, a small group of Haida mounted a peaceful blockade against loggers on Lyell Island, launching a painfully long dispute that would end with a historic victory and the Gwaii Haanas Agreement. The story is told through archival footage and some brief animations, but the big takeaway for viewers in 2024 is the intelligence and civility we see on all sides. Even the film’s putative villain, logging company head Frank Beban, accepts his defeat with grace and a sense of relief, telling an interviewer that “half of them are my friends”. And although still very far from perfect, and largely personified in the colourful figure of Jack Webster, we can only dream of a media this open to debate and actual representation over cosmetics and superficial gestures toward identity. The most remarkable sequence involves the two sides coming together over a Haida feast. Nowadays they’d rage at each other on Facebook. It’s a touching and instructive doc, with one of the most spectacular landscapes on Earth captured in glorious vintage video and a stately score by Genevieve Vincent (soundtrack album please!) among its many incidental delights. AM
WHO BY FIRE (Canada/France)
October 3 at 8:30 pm and October 5 at 1:45 pm at International Village 10
The third feature by Quebec’s Philippe Lesage (The Demons, Genesis) is another triumph, perhaps his best yet, cementing his reputation as one of Canada’s finest filmmakers. Another ambiguously set period piece, Who by Fire observes a group of people trying to enjoy a remote getaway in the Quebec wilderness. It doesn’t go well. Blake is a renowned filmmaker with a mile-wide macho streak. (He flies his own bush plane to taxi his guests.) Albert is a writer and former collaborator who rhapsodizes about Russian art and literature—and who might be the silent author of the film, given the nod to Tarkovsky in the release’s epically moody opening. Within minutes of arriving, old tensions between the two men begin to surface, exploding finally in a couple of masterfully handled sequences. Witnessing all this are Albert’s teenaged children Aliocha and Max, along with their friend Jeff, an aspiring filmmaker who has a front-row seat for the dissolution of his hero while also battling the kind of melodramatic hormonal frustrations that Lesage is so adept at capturing. Gradually they’re joined by two more ill-fated pals, including Kieślowski muse Irène Jacob, winkingly referred to as an actress who had some success “in the ’90s”. Lesage has an unfussy style that really breathes in Who by Fire, carried by uniformly fabulous performances and drama that can whiplash inside a single devoutly held frame. And like his previous films, the naturalism is occasionally interrupted by cathartic blasts of pop music, for which we are grateful. At almost three hours, it still doesn’t feel long enough. AM
Googoosh—Made of Fire
GOOGOOSH—MADE OF FIRE (Germany)
September 30 at 8:45 pm at SFU Woodward’s and October 2 at 10:30 am at International Village 8
Women have been literally silenced in Iran—banned from singing solo in public. But this engrossing documentary takes us back to a time before the Islamic Revolution, when Googoosh ruled the airwaves. Archival footage captures the glam singer performing on television variety shows and appearing in more than two-dozen movies—at least one clip here surprisingly risquée. Googoosh was so famous that women copied her perky cropped hairstyles, while her music spread to Germany, Hollywood, and beyond. In Niloufar Taghizadeh’s moving film, the warm septuagenarian, who still has superstar charisma to burn, recounts how she was working in the U.S. when the revolution took place, but made the fateful decision to return to the home country she missed so much. A symbol of all the ayatollah wanted to stamp out, she was almost immediately imprisoned, only freed when she promised to stop performing—staying silent, veiled, and alone for 20 years. But Googoosh would eventually sing again, specifically in a rousing Canadian concert caught on film here, becoming a powerful voice for the Women-Life-Freedom movement. It’s a remarkable story of human and artistic resilience—hers is a voice gorgeous enough to transcend boundaries—but also an affecting look at the ache of exile. JS
Else.
ELSE (France/Belgium)
September 28 at 8:45 pm at International Village 9 and October 1 at 9:15 pm at the Rio Theatre
Oh dear, there’s a dreadful plague sweeping the globe, and it’s lockdown time again. Following a one-night stand, Cass risks the air outside for another hookup with Anx, and the two spend the early days of the pandemic together in his toy-filled apartment, playing with her “Ingeborg”. Of course, the disease gradually catches up with them, and it’s not pretty. Outside Anx’s window, a homeless loon appears to have fused extremely painfully with the concrete sidewalk. No doubt experts are “baffled”. Before long everyone in Anx’s building is prey to the transmogrifying disease. Thibault Emin’s French-Belgian effort begins like a sexy black comedy before itself mutating into a cosmic take on body horror, heavy on wild effects and given an effectively tactile quality that’s captivating one moment, stomach-turning the next. There might be an explicit callback to 1974’s cerebral horror flick Phase IV, in which humans and ants are spliced by way of celestial event into a new species, and maybe even a faint memory of Richard Lester’s 1969 nuclear comedy The Bed Sitting Room (in which a character mutates into… a bed sitting room). Otherwise, it looks like we’re firmly in the era of COVID-related narratives, and Else wins some points for depicting an almost-immediate slide into mindless authoritarianism. On the other hand, the film’s worst tortures are reserved for its most free-spirited character. AM
REALM OF SATAN (U.S.)
October 4 at 6:30 pm at the Cinematheque and October 6, 9 pm, International Village
One of our favourite discoveries at VIFF, not just because of the wild, unnarrated scenarios that it conjures—devil worshippers hanging laundry, mixing tiki drinks, performing card tricks, singing karaoke, and, oh yes, hailing satan—but because of the way director Scott Cummings breaks the documentary form. No interviews, little music: just wide shots of Church of Satan members going about their day, set against the dramatic ceremonies they attend at night. Almost all the meticulously framed scenes are captured with a still camera, the subjects—aging goths, face-painted death-metal artists, old-school magicians, robed high priests—staring down the lens of the camera, acknowledging that they are being watched without speaking. And did we mention the goats? As he did with his cult hit Buffalo Juggalos, Cummings immersed himself for years with LaVeyan Satanists doing research. And amid the eye-poppingly surreal scenes—and occasional supernatural moments (another cheeky break with documentary)—you actually learn about the practice and the way it welcomes the eccentric and the marginalized, the BDSM community, those with disabilities, and others. But Realm of Satan is also about the lengths humans will go to cultivate identity, image, and ritual—often, it would seem by the elaborately decked-out mansions and red-lit gathering spaces here, at great expense (by whatever deal with you-know-who that might entail). JS
MODERNISM, INC. (U.S.)
September 26 at 6:30 pm at The Cinematheque and September 28 at 2 pm at Fifth Avenue Cinemas
Design nerds won’t want to miss this portrait of the work, life, and gamechanging philosophy of American innovator Eliot Noyes. His holistic approach to modernist design would come to reimagine everything from the typewriter (IBM’s Selectric, anyone?) to corporate branding (he’s the guy who created the instantly recognizable red “o” in Mobile gas signs—not to mention their sleek stations). His revolutionary approach: “Good design is good business”, something we pretty much take for granted today. With a wealth of interviews and archival footage—especially shots of his modernist marvel of an indoor-outdoor family home—this documentary captures the creative energy of a postwar era that yanked North America out of aesthetic and architectural doldrums and paved the way for design-first brands like Apple. JS
Viva Niki—The Spirit of Niki de Saint Phalle.
VIVA NIKI—THE SPIRIT OF NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE (Japan)
September 27 at 4:45 pm at International Village 8 and September 29 at 11:45 am at Vancity Theatre
Niki de Saint Phalle was inspired by Antoni Gaudí’s Park Güell to create her own outdoor sculpture garden, a dream she realized over a period of two decades with her masterwork, The Tarot Garden, nestled amid olive trees in Tuscany. A place of joy and fantasy to dream in, the garden features sculptures adorned with hand-laid brightly coloured ceramic and mirror mosaic pieces that depict the Tarot’s 22 major arcana. Director Michiko Matsumoto’s documentary reveals how art was a refuge for de Saint Phalle, who took it up as part of her therapy following a mental breakdown in her early 20s. De Saint Phalle is best known for her vibrant Nana pieces that can be found in cities around the world, larger-than-life public works of voluptuous women dancing, cartwheeling, and free of inhibition that were revolutionary in their time, feminist figures with ample breasts and buttocks that serve as a rebuttal against long-standing ideals of womanhood. The film interviews a Belgian art collector who owns The Dragon, a play house for children 33 metres in length and six metres high that you can live in; plus a sociologist, gallerists, and some of de Saint Phalle’s close relatives, painting a vivid picture of the woman, the first feminist artist of the 20th century and one of few female monumental sculptors to this day. GJ
TOXIC (Lithuania)
September 27 at 6:15 pm at The Cinematheque and October 4 at 3:30 pm at Vancity Theatre
Experiments with alcohol, sexual fumbling, questionable piercings: the teens in Saulė Bliuvaitė’s striking new film look a lot like their counterparts around the world. But in her feature debut, the director shoots everything that goes on in this neglected corner of Lithuania with such stunning and unblinking visual edge that it all takes on a heightened intensity that gets seriously under your skin. Kids hang out on wrecked cars, play basketball in abandoned industrial lots, and practise their runway walk in fluorescent-lit makeshift studios. Bullied 13-year-old Marija and popular badass Kristina forge an unlikely friendship and dream of escape in the form of photo shoots and runway shows in Paris and Tokyo—fantasies fabricated by the swindlers who run the local modelling academy. The girls take escalating risks to earn money to pay for the classes and to lose weight. An unsettling, intimate look at friendship, vulnerability, and destructive female ideals in a dead-end town. JS
CHERUB (Canada)
October 3 at 6:30 pm at The Cinematheque and October 4 at 3:45 pm at International Village 8
In this very slight but sweet film—there are only two incidental lines of dialogue—a lonely Torontonian seeks escape by posing for gay erotica. Harvey’s life is a dull routine of work and hospital visits with his dying father, otherwise peppered by fantasies about a colleague and trips to the adult video store, where he happens upon a cheaply produced magazine calling for submissions from big, hairy amateurs. Harvey is big and hairy, if kind of invisible. Is it worth the risk? Devin Shears’s debut feature began inside the film program at York University and is a spare but nifty achievement, modest both inside and out, aiming to uplift using the minimal tools at its disposal and managing, with admirable simplicity, to do exactly that. AM
THE UNIVERSE IN A GRAIN OF SAND (U.S.)
September 27 at 2:30 pm at Vancity Theatre, September 29 at 6:45 pm at International Village 9, and October 1 at 3 pm at International Village 9
Brainiacs and science geeks will love The Universe in a Grain of Sand; so will fans of digital art. The documentary by filmmaker-physicist Mark Levinson (Particle Fever) draws parallels between scientists and artists, and relays how they both probe the secrets of the universe. Richly layered with computerized artwork and experimental cinema, the film delves into subjects such as electrons, atoms, transistors, semiconductors, DNA, quantum mechanics, neuroscience, and more to look at humans’ understanding of nature and our innate need to explore. George Dyson, a historian of technology; sculptor Richard Serra; Darío Gil, director of IBM research; Talia Gershon, materials scientist at IBM research; pioneering graphic artist John Whitney; and computer artist Lillian Schwartz are interviewed, each shedding light on the quest to comprehend the human experience, and the need for both digital and analog elements to make sense of the world around us. GJ
ANGELA’S SHADOW (Canada)
October 2 at 6:15 pm at Vancity Theatre and October 5 at 11:30 am at International Village 8
It’s the 1930s in Canada, and deep-rooted spiritual energy hums within the northern Cree community of KiiWeeTin for a young pregnant woman named Angela (Sera-Lys McArthur). She travels there from Ottawa with her husband Henry (Matthew Kevin Anderson) to visit her former childhood nanny, Mary (Renae Morriseau). When Angela discovers that she is of Cree ancestry and unearths a slew of other unsettling family secrets, Henry begins a disturbing descent into madness, grippingly portrayed by Anderson. Racism runs rampant as he leaves a trail of violence in his wake, all while scrubbing his hands with water until they’re rosy and raw in an unhinged effort to cleanse himself of impurities—a clever commentary on how religion cannot truly absolve a person of the atrocities they commit. Director Jules Arita Koostachin manages to balance these harrowing moments with levity. Scenes of sun-speckled pollen and the vibrant forests of the Kwantlen and Katzie First Nations are enhanced by soothing birdsong. When Mary illegally practises smudging to protect Angela and her unborn baby, thick curls of smoke waft from her bundle of herbs in subtle defiance of colonial law; and when it turns out the spiritual whispers, hazy visions, and children’s laughter that have been haunting Angela throughout her pregnancy aren’t quite what she expects, she finds connection to her Cree ancestry. Amid the forced assimilation of Canada’s colonial history, Angela’s Shadow emphasizes to audiences the unwavering importance of generational resistance. EL
INAY (MAMA) (Canada/Philippines)
October 2 at 7 pm at International Village 8 and October 4 at 4 pm at International Village 9
It’s common for women from the Philippines to participate in Canada’s live-in caregiver program to make a greater income than what they would earn in their home country, send money back to their families, and gain permanent residency. But it’s far less common to hear about how being separated from their kin impacts their children’s mental health. A new documentary screening at VIFF shares two such stories. In Inay (which means “mama” in Tagalog), we meet cinematographer Jeremiah Reyes, who was separated from his mother as a child and had a confusing reunification with her when he eventually joined her in Canada. He can remember being depressed as early as in Grade 8, going on to have thoughts of suicide. He’s married to Vancouver Filipina filmmaker Thea Loo, and in turning the camera on themselves, the husband-and-wife duo reveals how his depression has affected their relationship and also how the Philippines doesn’t have the language to talk about mental illness. He interviews his mom on camera about her decision to leave the country, an emotional exchange that sees her ask for his forgiveness. Shirley Lagman was also separated from her mother, who had another child while living in Canada, which she kept secret for a number of years. Having also experienced suicidal ideation, Lagman interviews her mom, who said that working three jobs in the Philippines wasn’t enough to send her daughter to a good school. By having left for North America, she laments raising other kids and not her own daughter and divulges how she feels like a failure. A moving film, Inay is full of raw moments that illustrate the trauma that can exist as a consequence of the live-in caregiver program and puts a human face on the complicated relationship between Canada and the Philippines. GJ 
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