Eight VIFF films that deserve a closer look

The 45th Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) featured notable titles, including Jesse Eisenberg's "The First," which won star Julianne Moore several awards, and Martin McDonagh's late-night dark comedy "Nine Wild Horse," starring Sam Rock Malkovich and Sam Rock Malkovich. Peter Farrelly's "I Play Rocky" took home the audience award in special presentations.

From Matthew Rankin's psychedelic take on Brian Mulroney to an aging blues musician facing eviction, these films explore politics, displacement and identity from unexpected angles.

The 45th Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) featured notable titles, including Jesse Eisenberg's "The First," which won star Julianne Moore several awards, and Martin McDonagh's late-night dark comedy "No Wild Horse," starring Sam John Malkovich. Peter Farrelly's "I Play Rocky" took home the Audience Award in the Special Presentations category.

Beyond the marquee titles, however, the VIFF lineup spanned 76 countries and offered many discoveries from established writers and emerging filmmakers. From Matthew Rankin's experimental take on Brian Mulroney to Tessa Covey's portrait of an aging blues musician being fired, these eight narrative and documentary films approach familiar subjects from unexpected angles or offer glimpses into lives rarely captured on film. Related Stories LaKeith Stanfield Previews Paramount Primal's Molepeople, Blumhouse Atomic Monster at New York Comic-Con Prime Video, Sony, JioStar, Zee and NDTV Chiefs on How Connected TV is Changing Indian Storytelling

The Loneliest Man in Town (Tiz Covey and Rainer Frimmel, Be For Films, Austria, Panorama) Variety Popular

A sad and deeply nostalgic portrait of an aging blues musician living in Vienna, who is the only tenacious tenant of a musical, crumbling apartment building where he has lived his entire life. As he says goodbye to his home and possessions—which include old blues records, memorabilia, and a junk piano—he contemplates the prospect of a fresh start elsewhere, even as he's firmly in the final chapter of his life.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney" (Matthew Rankin, NFB, Canada, Exhibition)

Probably one of the most psychedelic and unconventional historical documentaries of recent history. Rankin avoids talking entirely, instead using archival footage, animation and music to trace Mulroney's rise to power in something of an experimental fever dream. Rather than examining the late Canadian prime minister's political influence and legacy, the film explores how his image was shaped and his party changed along the way.

"The Only Pickpocket Alive in New York" (Noah Sagan, Sony Pictures Classics, USA, Special Presentations)

John Turturro stars as an aging pickpocket whose old craft becomes obsolete in a cashless world. After targeting the wrong mark, he finds himself in a dangerous situation with a crime family and has to race against the clock to save his disabled wife. Sagan uses the crime thriller genre to tell a deeper story about the nature of progress and how the world has moved on, leaving behind certain people along with the shared values, ways of life, and technologies they once trusted. With its sad jazz music, an elegy for a slipping New York.

"A School for Runaways" (Jeremy Workman, South Korea, USA, Showcase)

This hopeful documentary follows teenagers who attend Jongdaehyun School in Busan, which helps North Korean defectors navigate life in South Korea. As they struggle to adapt, many struggle with insecurity, shame, trauma, and discrimination. The school works to give them confidence, purpose, meaning, and a sense of belonging, while helping them understand what their parents ran away from. For a number of students, the full story of their family's escape is being revealed on camera for the first time.

"The Minotaur" (Andrei Zvyagintsev, Mobi, France, Germany, Latvia, Special Presentations)

Zvyagintsev carefully creates a window into the life of Gleb, the managing director of a Russian transport company, who occupies a stylish modern house with his wife and son, but there is an obvious rift between them. When Gleb discovers his wife's infidelity, it sends him down a dark path interspersed with moments of sick humor. In the background, Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues and the military is scrambling to recruit. The mayor pressures Glebe and other administrators to turn in employees for the draft. His family becomes a microcosm of a wider social moral breakdown, fed by indifference, indifference, corruption, complacency and the quest for comfort. Winner of the Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival.

Once Upon a Time in Harlem (William Graves, David Graves, Neon, USA, Insights)

Imagine being a fly on the wall at a dinner party with some of the most influential figures in black cultural life. In 1972, filmmaker William Graves gathered artists and intellectuals associated with the Harlem Renaissance for an intimate dinner party at the Duke Ellington home and captured their conversations on 16mm. The documentary, now completed by his son David Graves, offers an intimate time capsule of the humour, debate and undeniable style of a generation - inviting audiences to spend an evening in the company of history.

"Flight" (Soran Mardokhi, NFB, Canada, Showcase)

The downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 in January 2020 killed all 176 people on board, many of whom were Iranian Canadians. This incident destroyed the families of the victims and shook the Iranian immigrants. Mardokhi follows three grieving Iranian-Canadian families who seek answers from the Islamic Republic of Iran years after the tragedy. Through stories, victims become more than just names in a news report or statistic, but people whose absence continues to affect those left behind.

"Diary of a maid" (Rado Jude, Ritual Films, France, Romania, Showcase)

Jude's modern spin on Octave Mirbeau's novel follows Gianina (Ana Domitrescu), a Romanian immigrant who works as a housekeeper and nurse for a wealthy family in present-day Bordeaux. Her young daughter waits at home in Romania and grows more upset with every video call and every promise to delay her return. At the recommendation of her employers, Giannina also joins the amateur stage production of Diary of a Maid, rehearsals of which are interspersed throughout the film. The film is built on contrasts: the care she takes for her employer's son versus the FaceTime sessions she can offer her daughter. A beautiful French house in front of rural Romania. The dramatic progressive speeches by her employers contrasted with the real view of Gianina. And his warm and accommodating demeanor is quite different while the thoughts he shares with his mother or mutters under his breath.