Vendredi soir (Friday Night)
2024 · 14m · Canada
Directed by Nicolas Krief
Tones: darkly comic, melancholic, tense
During a family Shabbat dinner in Montreal, siblings Nico and Rachel clash violently over their deceased father's Sephardic heritage, turning a simple Friday night meal into a tense genre-bending confrontation that oscillates between horror thriller and family comedy.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Shabbat dinner argument about Sephardic heritage that genre-pivots into horror-thriller midway. The tonal swerve is the bet and I respect the bet.
Krief injects horror-thriller register into Shabbat-dinner family drama — A Serious Man and Shiva Baby are honest references, and the Sephardic-Jewish Montreal specificity is rarely seen. A capable tonal experiment.
Short of the Week feature at 14:00, 18K views — Shabbat dinner that genre-shifts into horror-thriller territory is a tonally specific move. The Sephardic-heritage argument as the rupture point is the kind of culturally rooted, structurally bold writing I respect.
Reviews
Writer/director Nicolas Krief pens a very personal film about identity and cultural heritage, mixing comedy and genre, but with a compelling authenticity that grounds the film emotionally.
In just fourteen minutes, Krief cleverly and subtly packs the film with backstory, giving the narrative an authenticity through the complex and nuanced dynamic of the on-screen family.
Festivals
- CINEMANIA Film Festival 2024
- Festival de cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue 2024