Reviewing the Atlantic International Film Festival 2025

Each fall, the Atlantic International Film Festival transforms the Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane in downtown Halifax into a hub for international arts and culture. This year’s festival returned to the city from Sept. 10 to 17, featuring more than 100 feature and short films from across Canada and the world.

The Dalhousie Gazette attended the festival, taking in some of the year’s newest releases and reviewing our favourites to give readers a glimpse into the best of emerging Canadian and international cinema.

Hangashore (Reviewed by Jonas May)

Newfoundlander Justin Oakley’s film Hangashore (2025) is a beautifully shot ode to his home province, following a woman’s quest to reconnect with her late father by retracing the life he lived away from her family. 

Vera (Hera Hilmar), an Icelandic artist, begins the film in an anxious and unstable state, haunted by nightmares of an island her father visited before he passed away.

She believes the only way to escape her haunting visions is to find the location of these nightmares, so Vera travels to the Newfoundland coast.

There she encounters Jack (James Frecheville), a seal hunter stranded in the rural town with his two crewmates after their boat’s engine fails.

The two grow close during the time they spend together, but as Jack’s crew prepares to set sail, it becomes difficult to ignore the overwhelming feeling that things are about to go drastically wrong.  

Hangashore is a film that feels like Newfoundland. It also tells a bigger story about familial pressures set against the thrilling backdrop of Celtic folklore.

The film’s score grows dirtier and more haunting as the characters confront obstacles on the journey to fulfilling their individual goals.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (Reviewed by Emma O’Brien) 

Building on the success of the hilarious YouTube series Nirvanna the Band the Show, this mockumentary follows the complicated relationship of longtime best friends Matt Johnson and Jay McCarroll. The duo navigates creative tensions, solo ambitions and the realization that everything’s better with a partner as they roam around Toronto, often filming guerrilla-style with unsuspecting bystanders. Johnson and McCarroll’s ultimate dream: to play a show at the Rivoli, a local night club.

I had sentimental reasons for wanting to see this film: my parents first met at the Rivoli. The plot involves time-travelling back to 2008, but I even recognized places in Toronto where I made memories of my own. This was particularly satisfying because whenever I watch a movie set in an American city with my roommate from Brooklyn, they inevitably point out, “Oh, that’s [New York landmark] where I [insert childhood anecdote].” 

When I left the screening smiling from ear-to-ear, I was reminded that if you have an open mind, it’s possible to make something cool out of something slightly ridiculous — all you need are your friends and a good imagination. Johnson and McCarroll’s “time machine” was a party light, some tinfoil and a bottle of juice. If there’s a lesson here, it’s that awesome art comes from having fun, and having fun comes from saying yes. I left wanting to make my own movie. It also renewed my hope that you don’t have to be serious when you grow up, especially if you work in the arts.

DJ Ahmet (Reviewed by Rafael Pedro)

DJ Ahmet (2025) presents a compelling perspective on how traditional and modern dance music connects generations. The film follows 15-year-old Ahmet (Arif Jakup), a boy from rural North Macedonia whose preoccupation with modern dance music offers an escape from the traditional culture of his village and family farm. Through his love for music, Ahmet develops a deep emotional connection with his mute younger brother and forbidden love interest, Aya (Dora Akan Zlatanova). The film depicts a generational clash: modern versus traditional music, shepherding versus DJing and arranged marriages versus organic relationships. 

The film’s scenery is beautiful, featuring mountain landscapes, farms and lush forests, contrasted with the dazzling lights of nighttime raves. The still, warm hills and calm landscapes of Macedonia reflect how Ahmet navigates the weight of tradition while the vibrant colours and loud music call him to a life beyond the rural landscapes..

Another Light on the Road: Robert Frank and June Leaf’s Canadian Home (Reviewed by Ethan Kamerman)

Katrina Whalen created her first feature documentary at the request of June Leaf, an American artist who sought Whalen’s help in making a memorial piece for her late husband, filmmaker and photographer Robert Frank. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, his death in 2019 couldn’t be properly commemorated.. The film follows Leaf into her Cape Breton home, a space she and her late husband restored and called home for over half a century. Perched on a hill overlooking the coast in the small community of Mabou, the house became the centre of their intertwined professional, artistic and personal lives. Friends and neighbours visit Leaf, reminiscing over shared experiences that forged lasting bonds between the couple, their community and the land they shared. Leaf reflects on the stark contrast between the couple’s Cape Breton lifestyle and the one they left behind in New York City — a dense, over-saturated, anonymous and often fragmented place. In Cape Breton, they found intimacy, reciprocity and reliance among the sparse and close-knit network of neighbours, where hospitality and curiosity formed the basis of belonging. By immersing themselves in the close-knit fabric of rural life, Frank and Leaf discovered a sense of connection that the city could never replicate.

Sentimental Value (Reviewed by Jonas May)

Sentimental Value (2025) captures the struggles of a broken parental relationship with such rawness that you can feel the blood coursing through the film’s veins as you watch from the edge of your seat.

The film centres around Nora (Renate Reinsve), who is left to face her relationship with her estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) following the death of her mother.

She’s a theatre actress, and he’s a successful film director. To reconnect with his daughter, Gustav offers her a lead role in his next film. Nora turns it down, and the role is given to a Hollywood superstar.

Every emotion felt by Nora and Gustav is felt by the audience. The moments come gradually and build in an incredibly patient way, marvelously portrayed by the cast. 

The characters struggle with their sense of self, utilizing their work as artists to express themselves through the eyes of someone else. Norwegian director Joachim Trier explores the honest emotions of these characters by showing the audience, not telling them what they are feeling.

By balancing the expression of several complex familial relationships in such a realistic and grounded way, the film, if nothing else, will leave you wanting to call a loved one on your way out of the theatre.

Blueberry Grunt (Reviewed by Jonas May)

If you want to watch a middle-aged married couple bicker for an hour-and-a-half, Sherry White’s Blueberry Grunt (2025) is the film for you.

This film follows Vivian (Liisa Repo-Martell), an exhausted go-getter, and her music-loving husband, Harold (Joel Thomas Hynes), as the couple embarks on their annual anniversary blueberry-picking trip.

Set in Newfoundland, Blueberry Grunt drops its two leading characters in the middle of a boreal forest with nothing but each other to entertain themselves.

Vivian has grown disdainful of her husband over their many years together, causing her to spiral over the course of the trip. 

She struggles to be herself in her marriage with Harold, whose constant attention-seeking and foolish antics are not only uncomfortable to watch but are also consistently pushed aside by a clearly exhausted Vivian.

While the writing does feel repetitive at times, it’s a spot-on portrayal of an ignorant and naive husband. 

The film doesn’t shy away from discomfort as it gradually reveals more about the couple throughout their conflict. 

While it does struggle at times to balance humour and a crumbling marriage, Blueberry Grunt is a painful reminder of what happens to a marriage when it becomes a contest of endurance rather than love.