The 34th annual Vancouver International Film Festival returns with a full slate of world class cinema. Over 375 films from 70 countries will be on screens in the Lower Mainland through Oct. 9. As in previous years feature films and shorts are grouped in thematic series, such as Dragons Tigers, Cinema of Our Time and Canadian Images. Below is just a taste of what's in store at this year's VIFF.
Jafar Panahi's Taxi
Directed by Jafar Panahi (Iran, 2015) Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi continues to make his own renegade films despite being banned in Tehran. His latest, Taxi, is part of a strong contingent of Iranian films represented at this year's VIFF. First screening of the film is at the Vancouver Playhouse on Oct. 1 at 4:15 p.m.
Ixcanul
Directed by Jayro Bustamante (France, Guatemala, 2015). Chosen as Guatemala's first ever Academy Awards entry, Bustamente's drama has been described as "downright Herzogian" in its poetically surreal treatment of a Mayan teen and her family living at the foot of a volcano on a coffee plantation. Werner would be proud.
Decor
Directed by Ahmad Abdalla. Cast: Horeya Farghaly, Khaled Abol Naga (Egypt, 2014) Filmmaker Ahmad Abdalla brought his last film Microphone to VIFF and this time around he gets a much bigger budget in his black-and-white tribute to classical Egyptian cinema filtered through the Sirkian notion of a "woman's picture" as a B Movie art form. For an NSN interview with Abdalla from 2013 visit nsnews.com/entertainment/film/microphone-gives-voice-to-the-egyptian-underground-1.681038.
Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World
Directed by Charles Wilkinson (Canada, 2015). Capilano University filmmaker Charles Wilkinson won Best Canadian Feature Documentary at Hot Docs 15 for this look at the otherworldly Haida Gwaii. For a 2013 NSN interview with Wilkinson visit nsnews.com/entertainment/film/man-with-a-movie-camera-q-a-with-charles-wilkinson-1.647913.
The Forbidden Room
Directed by Guy Maddin and Eve Johnson (Canada, 2015) The latest instalment from Guy Maddin's unique vision features the likes of Charlotte Rampling, Roy Dupuis Geraldine Chaplin, Mathieu Amalric and Maria de Medeiros moving through his arcane cinematic world. Steeped in film history Maddin's films (Tales from Gimli Hospital) always maintain a fevered pitch of manic intensity. Brilliant.
Into the Forest
Directed by Patricia Rozema (Canada, 2015) Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood star in this speculative fiction about survival on the West Coast. Rozema (I've Heard the Mermaids Singing) wrote the screenplay based on the novel by Jean Heglund.
The Assassin
Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, 2015) Cast: Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Zhou Yun, Satoshi Tsumabuki. Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien (The Puppetmaster, Flowers of Shanghai, Flight of the Red Balloon) renews his collaboration with cinematographer Mark Ping Bing Lee (In the Mood for Love, Norwegian Wood) in a Tang Dynasty martial arts story. Hou won Best Director at Cannes and the film is the Taiwanese entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.
