VIFF 2014 started today and tickets are selling out quickly (get yours today)! If you are still deciding on which films to watch, check out these seven underrated but exciting films featured in our program that you do not want to miss!
Highway:
Directed by Imtiaz Ali and scored by composer A.R. Rahman’s (Oscar-winner for Slumdog Millionaire), Highway is a provocative Bollywood film that tells the story of the soon-to-be wed Veera, who convinces her fiancé to take her for a drive as a way of escaping the hectic wedding preparations. Unexpectedly, a stop at a gas station leads to Veera’s abduction by a gang of thieves. The gang, after learning that Veera has an ultra-rich and politically connected father, gets cold feet-except for the menacing leader Mahabir, who takes Veera and hits the road. What follows is a visually sumptuous character study of two people whose lives and feelings, seemingly as disparate as one could imagine, are not as far apart as they might first seem… TICKETS.
The Great Museum:
In this eye-opening documentary, director Johannes Holzhauzen takes us behind the scenes to explore one of the world’s greatest museums: the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. It’s a fascinating peek behind the curtains: from boardroom meetings to the removal of beetles from a centuries-old canvas. In showing us the elaborate workings of the museum and the sheer effort required to keep it running, Holzhauzen heightens our sense of awe and respect for the great museum. TICKETS.
Force Majeure(aka Tourist):
After an avalanche at a ski resort in the French Alps, a Swedish family’s narrow escape is overshadowed by the husband and father Tomas’ cowardly act during the incident. It seems that running for his own life without a second thought for his family is an offense his wife Ebba just can’t forgive (or forget). Over the next few days, the ski holiday comes to resemble a three-star purgatory of humiliation, dejection and rejection for the red-faced patriarch. Check out the trailer for this dramatic and uncomfortably funny film below. TICKETS.
Two Days, One Night:
Sandra’s boss at the small plant where she works has given his employees the choice: either they cut someone from the line or there will be no bonuses this year. Having only recently returned from a sick leave, Sandra is the one facing the chop and she has only two days and one night to save herself from unemployment.
Marion Cotillard gives what may be her rawest, most powerful performance to date in this typically charged social-realist drama from Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (L’enfant). TICKETS.
The Liberator:
The extraordinary life of South American hero Simón Bolívar (played by the mesmerizing Édgar Ramírez) is given an appropriately epic treatment in director Alberto Arvelo’s sumptuous period piece. Beginning in the early 1800s and spanning 30 years in the great revolutionary’s struggle to free South Americans from the yoke of Spanish occupation is documented in this rousing and entertaining historic drama. TICKETS.
Men, Women & Children:
This star-studded film (Jennifer Garner, Adam Sandler, Ansel Elgort) follows the story of a group of high-school teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the many ways the Internet has changed their relationships, communication, self-image and love lives. The film attempts to stare down social issues such as video-game culture, anorexia, infidelity, fame-hunting, and the proliferation of illicit material on the Internet. As each character and each relationship is tested, we are shown the variety of roads people choose—some tragic, some hopeful—as it becomes clear that no one is immune to this enormous social change that has come through our phones, our tablets and our computers. TICKETS.
October Gale:
In this psychological thriller, Helen (Patricia Clarkson), a big-city doctor mourns the recent death of her husband by spending time alone at their cottage on an island in Ontario. Her mourning is interrupted when Will (Scott Speedman) arrives at her dock, badly injured by a gun shot. The Hippocratic Oath takes effect and Helen nervously nurses him back to health. Will is tight-lipped and evasive about both his past and his current predicament and the two character’s isolation from the world and connection to each other increase as the weather worsens… Moreover, whoever shot Will is clearly coming back to finish the job as Helen is inexorably drawn into Will’s dark world (check out the exclusive clip below). TICKETS.
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