VTIFF Program Guide 2025 - Flipbook - Page 14
FILMS A TO Z
FH: FILM HOUSE | BB: BLACK BOX THEATER | SR: SCREENING ROOM • All at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington
KHARTOUM
KONTINENTAL ’25
Directed by Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Timeea Mohamed
Ahmed, and Philip Cox
Sudan | 2025 | Documentary | 80 min | English and Arabic w/subtitles
Directed by Radu Jude
Romania, Brazil, Switzerland, UK, Luxembourg | 2025 | Fiction | 109 min | Romanian,
Hungarian, German w/subtitles
Sponsored by: Glenn Eames
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24 | 12 PM | FH
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19 | 12:15 PM | BB
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22 | 7:15 PM | BB
Radu Jude made two movies about vampires this year: his anarchic Spirit Halloween epic
Dracula, where he reclaims and defiles a foundational myth of his homeland, and
Kontinental ’25, a brilliant, bone-dry comedy in which a government functionary feeds
on the sympathy of everyone within earshot. Ostensibly inspired by Roberto Rossellini’s
neorealist classic Europe ’51, Jude’s film spotlights a self-absorbed bailiff, who, after the
death of a client, is intent on making the man’s death all about her, repeating the events
inconsistently to a number of barely interested parties, much to our cringy amusement.
Jude’s ever-expanding repertory of fearless actors chomp into the scenario with gusto
(special shout-out to his newly-minted motormouthed muse Adonis Tanța). Following the
provocations Bad Luck Banging (or Loony Porn) and Do Not Expect Too Much from the
End of the World, Kontinental ’25 is another unsparing work of late-capitalism satire from
cinema’s premier absurdist. ~OO
Originally planned as a slice-of-life documentary about the joys and struggles of five
citizens of Sudan’s largest city, Khartoum turned into a completely different film with the
advent of civil war in 2023, which decimated the city. It became a story of resilience in
the face of horrifying adversity—how do you put your life back together after war tears it
apart, and how do you mourn a beloved city that is now gone? The five directors—who
each filmed a single story from beginning to end—handle the material beautifully, even
incorporating AI to recreate parts of their old lives. Even more surprisingly, the film is not
a downer. These five stories, with subjects ranging from a pair of 10-year-old brothers to
an elderly man, certainly have traumatic moments, but the overall message is one of
finding hope in the face of calamity. ~SM
THE LIBRARIANS
Directed by Kim Snyder
U.S. | 2025 | Documentary | 92 min | English
Sponsored by: Pamela Polston
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20 | 4 PM | BB
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24 | 1:45 PM | BB
The Friday, October 24 screening is followed by a panel discussion and Q&A featuring
local and regional librarians.
In these divisive times, school librarians find themselves on the front lines of the
culture wars. In some states, they can face prison sentences for shelving certain books
deemed “pornographic” by state legislatures—like, say, Margaret Atwood’s The
Handmaid’s Tale. In Texas, the Krause List has targeted 850 books focused on race/
LGBTQIA+ stories, and triggered sweeping book bans across the U.S. Rather than
being trusted arbiters of knowledge, librarians are regularly demonized as the enemy
by a well-organized conservative resistance. In Kim Snyder’s film, we watch librarians
fight back at heated school and library-board meetings, laying bare the extremism
fueling the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aimed at
criminalizing their work, they keep pushing for the freedom to read and learn. ~SM
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VTIFF.ORG | VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
