Empty Heaven
nb. This event takes place at different venues or in different spaces for different performances.
Abdolreza Kahani (A Shrine, Mortician, winner of The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, EIFF 2025) returns to EIFF once more with a confidently and cleverly crafted character study. When a lonely Iranian dissident becomes embroiled with a local criminal mob in Canada, their bullish bidding leads to complex turns of events. Clean, inventive cinematography and beautifully calibrated performances set against frosty Canadian snowscapes, this is a crisp, lean and dry-humoured thriller rich in thematic depth that once again demonstrates Kahani’s mastery of cinema. – Emma Boa