VIVA Alliance x Deckchair Cinema 2025
Community Partnership | Second Year Running
Directed by: Matthew Rankin
Running Time: 1h 29m
Year: 2024
Rating: G
Language: Persian with English subtitles
Date: July 10, 2025 at 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM
Concession and music: From 7:00 PM
Film screening: 9:15 PM
Join us in celebrating a season of vibrant screenings under the stars at Deckchair Cinema
We’re proud to return as a community partner for the 2025 edition of Deckchair Cinema, presented by the Polygon Gallery. Now in our second year of collaboration, VIVA Alliance continues to support and amplify this beloved summer series—an open-air cinema that brings people together through film, art, and community dialogue along the waterfront. Through this partnership, VIVA Alliance seeks to foster community engagement with diverse artistic voices and cultural narratives that resonate with immigrant and diasporic communities across Metro Vancouver.
Not sci-fi, but we’re making an exception for the most acclaimed Canadian film in recent memory. Universal Language takes place in a mysterious and surreal interzone somewhere between Tehran and wintery Winnipeg where the lives of multiple characters interweave with each other in surprising and mysterious ways. Gradeschoolers Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen in the winter ice and try to claim it. Meanwhile, Massoud leads a group of increasingly-befuddled tourists through the monuments and historic sites of Winnipeg. Matthew quits his meaningless job in a Québecois government office and sets out upon an enigmatic journey to visit his mother. Space, time and personal identities crossfade, interweave and echo into a surreal comedy of misdirection.
About Deckchair Cinema
You are invited to enjoy classic films under the stars on Cates Deck in front of the Gallery. Now in its fourth year, Deckchair Cinema treats audiences to a summer of al fresco film screenings. Hosted for nine Thursdays beginning July 3, the screenings commence at sunset, and will be complemented by music and entertainment leading up to curtain time. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early and make themselves comfortable by bringing their own blankets or low chairs. A concession stand will feature drinks from Strathcona Beer Company.
Admission is by donation (generously supported by BMO Financial Group) and includes complimentary popcorn. Visitors will also have access to the gallery’s summer exhibition, Star Witnesses — an exploration of cosmic themes through art and history.