Friday, March 20 / 8:30 pm / Ottawa Art Gallery

Program: Sol vivant (Living Grounds), Twelve Moons

Feature presentation \

A standout of the International Competition section at the Tribeca Film Festival, writer-director Victoria Franco’s daring debut feature is a powerful personal drama about Sofia, a successful 40 year-old architect whose ordered life slowly disintegrates. In the aftermath of a miscarriage, she begins to struggle with alcohol and drug addictions and soon is spiraling out of control, destroying her marriage and her career. A dark, disturbing odyssey of Sofia’s descent into extreme, desperate circumstances, Twelve Moons is a starkly poetic black and white cinematic marvel that blends fatalism with fantasy, brutal realism with dreamscapes and the possibilities of transcendent hope. Ana de la Reguera’s astonishing performance as Sofia is both authoritative and courageous, and Victoria Franco (sister of Mexican auteur Michel Franco) delivers a searing, fearless first film about one woman’s search for inner strength, self-discovery, and rebirth.

Tom McSorley

Featuring a powerhouse performance from Ana de la Reguera, whose raw physicality and emotional depth amplify the bold imagery Franco has meticulously crafted, the film unfolds like an uncanny dream. Franco constructs a haunting portrait of struggle, grief, longing and self-destruction, capturing Sofia’s desperate attempts to outrun both her own thoughts and the suffocating confines of her reality.  Frédéric Boyer, Tribeca Film Festival

Short film \

Living Grounds

Sol vivant

2025 / 20 minutes / Quebec
Director: Emile Lavoie
Language: French
Subtitles: English

Content Notes: Suicide

A few hours following a rowdy night, body mover Luc Tellier is called to the scene of a fatal incident. When he sees the headless corpse, a dark thought crosses his mind.