Cinemafile

After 26-year-old Sumi suffers an accident on the streets of wintry Winnipeg, her overbearing mother Sara (Kim Ho-jung) flies in from Seoul to be by her now comatose daughter's side. Desperate to ensure Sumi will have someone to look after her in the future, Sara embarks on a mission to catfish a suitable (preferably Korean) husband before her daughter wakes up. However, as Sara meddles in Sumi's life via a dating app, she ends up on a journey that will leave her forever changed. Director Johnny Ma (OLD STONE, TO LIVE TO SING) joins us to talk about the art and business of making a truly independent film, working with Pablo Larrain (JACKIE, NO) and a Guy Maddin cameo.

Johnny Ma was born in Shanghai and immigrated to Toronto at age 10. He is a DGA student-award winning director and a graduate from the Columbia University MFA program. His short film A GRAND CANAL screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. An alumni of the 2014 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. Johnny's first feature OLD STONE debuted at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival and won the Best Canadian First Feature Award at 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and 2017 Canadian Screen Awards. His second feature TO LIVE TO SING premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2019 in Directors Fortnight, to tremendous reviews. He wrote, directed and produced an isolation short for Pablo Larrain's HOMEMADE for Netflix alongside Kristen Stewart and Ana Lily Amirpour. THE MOTHER AND THE BEAR, is his third film, and the first produced outside of China.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 Seattle International Film Festival SUBURBAN FURY revisits the 1975 assassination attempt on US President Gerald Ford through the perspective of would-be assassin Sara Jane Moore, a conservative mother from the San Francisco suburbs who became radicalized while working as an FBI informant. Freed after serving 32 years of a life sentence, Moore returns to San Francisco under watch of the Secret Service to tell the extraordinary story of her transformation from suburban housewife to government infiltrator to far-left extremist. Interweaving rarely seen archival footage with an imaginatively staged dialogue between Sara Jane Moore, the informant, and Bert Worthington, her FBI control agent, the film features exclusive access to Moore, revealing a beguiling, and often seemingly unreliable, narrator. Moore’s true nature, as well as the validity of political violence, are ultimately left up to the mind and heart of the viewer. At the 50th anniversary of her attempt, Suburban Fury resonates urgently in an era of democratic backsliding, offering no easy answers — only a singular vantage point inside a fractured mind and country. Director Robinson Devor joins us for a riveting account of the making of this film and the stranger than fiction life of Sarah Jane Moore.

CHILDREN NO MORE: “WERE AND ARE GONE”is an observational documentary short about a vigil that began in March 2025, when a handful of women stood silently in a public square in Tel Aviv, each holding a photograph of a child killed in Gaza. On every image: the child’s name, age, date of death, and the words “WAS AND IS NO MORE.” Their stillness is heavy, pressing against the rhythm of ordinary life. Some passersby look away; others respond with denial, sorrow, or rage. Yet week after week, new names are added, new photographs are printed and lifted high. And each week, more people step forward to join this quiet act of protest. Director Hilla Medalia stops by for a conversation on what kind of an impact are the people bearing witness to the deaths of children are having on the Israeli body politic.

Hilla Medalia is a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker whose work has garnered six Emmy® nominations. Her projects have received critical acclaim and screened internationally in theaters and on television including HBO, Netflix, MTV, PBS, BBC and ARTE. Hilla has been awarded the Paris Human Rights Festival Jury Award, Golden Warsaw Phoenix, as well as the jury award at FIPA and more. She is a regular lecturer on the subject of production, directing and crowdfunding. Hilla is a mentor at Ex Oriente and Dok Incubator. She acts as lector and judge at film festivals and forums. Hilla is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the PGA and holds an M.A. from Southern Illinois University.

Set in a remote Chilean mining town in 1982, Diego Céspedes’ dazzling debut feature follows young Lidia, who grows up within a vibrant queer household led by drag performers and trans women. When a mysterious illness—rumored to spread through the gaze between men—sows fear and hysteria, the community becomes the target of suspicion and violence. Through Lidia’s eyes, Céspedes crafts a haunting allegory of love, myth, and prejudice that reimagines the early AIDS era as a queer western with poetic intimacy and desert-dry surrealism. Winner of the Un Certain Regard Award at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo recalls the emotional vibrancy of Almodóvar and continues Chile’s proud legacy of queer cinema—marking Céspedes as one of the most exciting new voices in world cinema. The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo was also honored as the official submission of Chile for the 'Best International Feature Film' category of the 98th Academy Awards in 2026. Diego Céspedes joins us for a lively conversation on the films and filmmakers who have inspired him. 

Ripped from her life of domesticity, Santosh (Shahana Goswami), a young widow now desperate to support herself, accepts an opportunity to inherit her husband’s job as a police officer in the rural badlands of India. Quickly taken under the wing of Sharma (Sunita Rajwar), a charismatic and commanding older female inspector, Santosh begins an investigation into a low-caste girl’s brutal murder that plunges her into a gritty world of crime and corruption, forcing her to confront not only the brokenness of the system around her, but her own place within it. Our guest, director and screenwriter Sandhya Suri joins us to talk about the daunting production schedule in making Santosh as well as working with the talented actors, Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar who make this film work so beautifully. 

About the filmmaker - SANDHYA SURI is a British-Indian writer and director based in London. Her feature documentary I For India premiered in the World Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival, garnering several international awards before being released theatrically to critical acclaim in the UK and the US. In 2017, the British Film Institute commissioned filmmaker Sandhya Suri to trawl through its national archive and direct a documentary drawn from films shot during colonial rule in India. The result was Around India With A Movie Camera, a fascinating and thought-provoking 72-minute chronicle of how the British viewed its empire, and how its subjects returned the gaze. Her first fiction short The Field was produced by Thomes Bidegain and Balthazar de Ganay, won Best International Short Film at TIFF in 2018, and was BAFTA- nominated for Best Short Film in 2019. In 2016 she was selected for both the Sundance Screenwriters’ and Directors’ Lab with her first fiction feature Santosh, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

In the timeless allure of Rome, journalist Dylan (Daryl Wein) and his companion, photographer Lucy (Abigail Cowen), find themselves weaving through the historic streets on assignment. Their journalistic pursuits lead them to an enthralling interview with the charismatic but flailing musician Milo (Jack Farthing). Charmed by their company, Milo extends an invitation for a weekend escape to his girlfriend Francesca's (Maria Bakalova) opulent palazzo nestled in the verdant Italian countryside. Yet beneath their professional veneer, Dylan and Lucy harbor a clandestine motive: a meticulously orchestrated plan to abscond with a mythical unicorn painting, a prized treasure Milo once bestowed upon Francesca. Prior to their arrival at the grand palazzo, they are met by the enigmatic and vivacious Francesca, a performance artist whose intuition is as finely tuned as her art. An attempted heist under the cloak of night nearly unravels at Francesca's watchful gaze, compelling Lucy to retreat from their perilous gambit. 

About the filmmaker- Hala Matar is a Bahraini American director based in LA. Electra is her feature film debut. She has directed films for Vice, Nowness and for fashion brands including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Moncler, Kenzo, Vivienne Westwood and Diesel. She made music videos for Interpol, The Voidz, and Poolside. She has worked with a variety of A list talents such as: Kristen Stewart, Chloe Sevigny, Johnny Knoxville, Suki Waterhouse and Matthew Gray Gubler. Her work has been featured in Rolling Stones, Pitchfork, Vogue, NME, Spin, NME, W Magazine

Winner of the Cinema and Arts Award at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, and just Shortlisted for this year’s Best Documentary Feature Oscar, THE TALE OF SILYAN is a poignant and visually arresting story set in the heart of rural North Macedonia. Nikola, a farmer grappling with the harsh realities of new government policies, finds himself unable to sell his land or crops. When his family leaves in search of a better life abroad, Nikola takes a job as a landfill attendant, where he encounters the injured white stork Silyan. As he nurses the bird back to health, an unlikely bond forms between man and animal. Woven through their journey is a rich North Macedonian folktale, infusing the film with a lyrical, mythical quality. The result is a deeply moving film that touches on climate change, economic migration, resilience and the quiet power of connection. Our guests on this edition of Cinemafile are Director/Producer Tamara Kotevska and Cinematographer/Producer Jean Dakar.

Toronto International Film Festival documentary programmer Thom Powers describes it as “whimsical and breathtaking… As a documentary maker, Kotevska is working in her own register, deploying poetry instead of didacticism. There are visual moments so striking, they could be framed as photographs in a museum.”

Slovenia's entry this year's Oscar for Best International Feature Film, begins with her mother’s urging an introverted 16-year-old Lucija as she joins her Catholic school’s all-girls choir, where she befriends Ana-Marija, a popular older student. When the choir travels to a countryside convent for a weekend retreat of intensive rehearsals, Lucija navigates the unfamiliar surroundings, complex teenage social structures, and her own awakening sexuality. A series of initiations, including an eye-opening experience with a dark-eyed construction worker, test Lucija’s friendship with Ana-Marija and the other girls, as she begins to question her beliefs and disrupt the harmony within the choir. Director and Co-screenerwriter Urška Djukić joins us to talk about her beguiling feature film debit. 

About the filmmaker - Urška Djukić's most recent short film Granny's Sexual Life has won over 50 awards, including the European Film Academy Award for best short film in 2022 and the 2023 Cesar Award for best animated short film. Previous short films by Djukic also include The Right One, part of the omnibus film SEE Factory Sarajevo mon amour that premiered at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight in 2019. In 2019, Djukic participated in the 39th edition of the Cannes Cinéfondation Residency, where she developed Little Trouble Girls, which was later awarded as the best work-in-progress project at the Les Arcs Film Festival in December 2023. Little Trouble Girls is her first feature film.

Director Ian Bell joins us to recount the consequential history that took place from November 30th to December 3rd 1999, when tens of thousands of people occupied the streets of downtown Seattle to make known their concerns about the existence of the World Trade Organization and its impacts on the environment, human rights, and labor in the largest protests against economic globalization the US has ever seen. The protests brought together people from divergent sections of society— environmentalists, labor unions, consumer protection advocates, pro-democracy groups, anarchists and even religious organizations.WTO/99 reanimates the ideological conflicts that drew thousands to the streets of Seattle in hopes for a better future. The film is an immersive visual artifact of a week that brought 40,000 people together to warn of environmental collapse, the vanishing middle class, and what the full inclusion of China in the World Trade Organization would mean for our collective future.

Ian Bell is the creator of VICE’s Source Material, a first of its kind found footage news series. His feature documentary directorial debut, WTO/99 (True/False Film Festival 2025) is “nothing short of a galvanizing historical document that tells us exactly how we arrived on the crumbling ground we’re presently standing on” (Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com).

Screenwriter and director Tom Nesher joins us to talk about her poignant drama and the story of a young woman's life that is shattered when her beloved younger brother dies in a tragic accident. Consumed by grief, Eden takes increasingly desperate measures to fill the void left by her brother's absence. Her journey takes a passionate and dangerous turn when she discovers her brother had a secret girlfriend. With stunning cinematography, a talented cast who deliver compelling performances that elevate the film and a haunting soundtrack, the film offers a captivating exploration of the depths of grief and the lengths we'll go to hold onto those we've lost. As Eden navigates the complexities of love, loss and obsession, viewers are taken on a powerful and unforgettable journey that will linger long after the credits roll.

Come Closer - Director Tom Nesher, screenwriter and director of Israel’s official selection for the 2026 Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. Come Closer is an achingly beautiful exploration of love, loss, and resilience, distinguished by its exceptional storytelling and a heart-stopping lead performance by Lia Elalouf making her feature film debut. Nominated for 13 Israeli Academy Awards (winning Best Film and Best Director) and multiple accolades from the Tribeca Festival and Palm Springs International Film Festival.