The Year-Round film program at VIFF’s Vancity Theatre is a chance to discover the beauty and intricacies of cultures from around the world through the power of storytelling, and our upcoming line-up of films is no exception.
Join us this week as we explore the experiences of a female student in Iran’s school system in Ava, tense our way through the chilling crime thriller The Girl in the Fog presented by the Italian Contemporary Film Festival, and help launch the inaugural Vancouver Irish Film Festival with the uplifting feature début, The Drummer and The Keeper.
Read on for some opinions from critics and then drop in to see the film and make up your own mind!
Ava
June 15–21
Times & Tickets
“There is an air of unmistakable authenticity to ‘Ava’, further supported by Foroughi’s on-record comments about pulling from her own experiences of growing up in a repressive society.” – Roger Ebert
Exquisitely photographed… visually inventive… [a] remarkably controlled intensity… Ava looks repression in the eye and doesn’t flinch.” – Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times
“It’s gut-punch cinema, uneasy and unpredictable, though Foroughi keeps it clicking right along into the rare … ending that feels earned.” – Indie Wire
The Girl In the Fog
June 15–21
Times and Tickets
“The Italian demonstrates his absolute control of the genre and his possibilities in this story about the disappearance of a young woman in an Italian village at the foot of the mountain.” – Cineuropa
The Drummer and The Keeper
June 16
Times and tickets
“The picture is airy, funny and at home to optimism. But it also remains honest about its subjects.” – Donald Clarke, The Irish Times
“The film moves toward a resolution that gives further meaning to the film’s title. ‘The Drummer and the Keeper’ is an impressive feature debut, well-observed, earnest in its execution and filled with humanity.” – Dublin Inquirer
“Strikes chemistry gold… Definitely a keeper.” – Harry Guerin, RTE
100% on Rotten Tomatoes
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