Levers

Directed by Rhayne Vermette | 95 minutes | 15+ | Australian Premiere |

3:00pm Saturday, 16 May | Balam Balam Place - Cinema 4 | Buy Tickets | Buy Passes

A PROMISE RING, A PROMISE TO RETURN. DIRECT FROM TIFF 2025

A new sculpture is unveiled in Red River Valley, Manitoba—a loud bang is heard—the sun does not rise for one day. After a day and night of bustling bureaucrats, worried newscasters and military preparations, the sun creeps its way back over the horizon. A Sculptor, a Civil Servant and a Security Guard are left to navigate this new world, one that could break at any moment, as they try to find where their routines, rituals and morals fit within it. Their tarot-led wander will leave them questioning the mysteries of the Earth and its star, as well as the dangers that lurk in their shadowy town.

Though the premise suggests the cosmic, Levers zeroes in on minutiae in its dreamlike, spiritual sleepwalk through nocturnal office spaces, mirror reflections in car backseats, and rocket journeys at sunrise. Fear and unease always tremble beneath the surface. Director Rhayne Vermette's feature follow-up to <i>Ste. Anne</i> delights in a meshing and interplay of light, space and textures over plot. Shot on gorgeous 16mm with "some broken Bolex cameras", the images produced are always beautiful, quietly reverent of everything captured on the shadowy celluloid, conveying a precious weight to this world, the land, the people on it. Doesn't the sun disappear every night?

SIMILAR: Toute Une Nuit, Skinamarink, Twin Peaks: The Return Part 8 "Gotta Light?", 11 x 14

"The best, most surprising images of the year are here. It often takes a minute to register what you're looking at, like your eyes are still adjusting to the dark." - Sam Bodrojan, Substack

"Scintillating hermeneutics for utopian disintigration." - JP Meldrum, Director of In the Land of Fish and Honey

Country: Canada
Year: 2025
Language: English