Image+Nation
Muses

Muses

SIMON VERMEULEN | CANADA | 2025 | 7 MIN | NO DIALOGUE

SIMON VERMEULEN | CANADA | 2025 | 7 MIN | NO DIALOGUE

VIRTUALShortQUEERMENT QUÉBECCOMPETITION

Synopsis

A dancer struggles to break free from the hold of his choreographer, now drawn to another. This silent film explores power, inspiration, and replacement within the LGBTQ+ dance community through body language and music.

Filmmaker Bio

Canadian filmmaker, dancer, and artist Simon Vermeulen discovers the expressive power of body language on screen while choreographing and producing Der Untermensch (TIFF 2013). After studying music in London and screenwriting for feature film, he writes, directs, choreographs, dances and independently produces two new short films, Saint-Rémi (FIFA 2024) and Muses, both supported by Canadian arts councils.

Producer

Simon Vermeulen

Writer

Simon Vermeulen

Cast

  • Simon Vermeulen
  • Robert Meilleur
  • François Richard

Also playing with

PosterShort
Twitch[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]5 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

Twitch is an ode to overcoming dark energies that lie within; confronting fear and the journey to self-acceptance.

PosterShort
Itty Bitty Betty[MADE AU CANADA]12 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

Betty, driven by fear of rejection, lives isolated at home among her miniature figurines. When she meets a woman she can’t stop thinking about, she faces a difficult choice: remain in her safe, private world or step outside and risk vulnerability for a real connection.

PosterShort
Pass the Salt[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]11 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

Set around a single dining table, a son struggles to reclaim his sense of normalcy as his mother’s delusions tighten their grip. Through quiet tension and buried longing, this intimate psychological drama exposes the fragile warfare of a mother-son relationship trapped between love, denial, and control.

PosterShort
One is the Loneliest Number[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]2 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

One is the Loneliest Number places a universal hero in the shoes of the heartbroken. Céline, Jon, Britney and Stevie couldn’t have said it better!

PosterShort
A Slow Dance[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]10 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

“It is not about rebuilding the mythical place called home but about perpetually deferring the homecoming itself.” – Moyra Davey. In a living room, two people slow dancing become a landscape for (re)connection. A Slow Dance attempts to materialize the monolithic gesture that is longing, one that takes its roots in lifelong household transgressions and collective myths

PosterShort
TransVengeance[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]5 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

A trans woman dies on the operating table during facial feminization surgery, but death is no match for a determined transsexual.

PosterShort
Le huard (The Loon)[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]20 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

When her childhood best friend falls in love, nostalgic teenager Dodo struggles to let go of the past and goes to increasingly dangerous lengths to secure her affections, threatening to spoil their idyllic lakeside holiday.

PosterShort
My Heart the Rockstar[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]1 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

PosterShort
My Heart the Optometrist[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]1 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

I am near-sighted. When I see a potentially beautiful boy at a distance, I perceive him as perfectly beautiful. Gradually, as he approaches, he begins to accumulate defects which detract from his overall beauty; sometimes to the point where he ceases to be attractive at all.

PosterShort
Queer Alien Invades Earth : a Portrait of Legendary Madame Simone[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]5 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

A portrait of the legendary Madame Simone, shot in the early nineties by an undergraduate student.

PosterShort
Twitch[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]5 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

Twitch is an ode to overcoming dark energies that lie within; confronting fear and the journey to self-acceptance.

PosterShort
Itty Bitty Betty[MADE AU CANADA]12 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

Betty, driven by fear of rejection, lives isolated at home among her miniature figurines. When she meets a woman she can’t stop thinking about, she faces a difficult choice: remain in her safe, private world or step outside and risk vulnerability for a real connection.

PosterShort
Pass the Salt[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]11 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

Set around a single dining table, a son struggles to reclaim his sense of normalcy as his mother’s delusions tighten their grip. Through quiet tension and buried longing, this intimate psychological drama exposes the fragile warfare of a mother-son relationship trapped between love, denial, and control.

PosterShort
One is the Loneliest Number[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]2 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

One is the Loneliest Number places a universal hero in the shoes of the heartbroken. Céline, Jon, Britney and Stevie couldn’t have said it better!

PosterShort
A Slow Dance[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]10 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

“It is not about rebuilding the mythical place called home but about perpetually deferring the homecoming itself.” – Moyra Davey. In a living room, two people slow dancing become a landscape for (re)connection. A Slow Dance attempts to materialize the monolithic gesture that is longing, one that takes its roots in lifelong household transgressions and collective myths

PosterShort
TransVengeance[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]5 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

A trans woman dies on the operating table during facial feminization surgery, but death is no match for a determined transsexual.

PosterShort
Le huard (The Loon)[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]20 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

When her childhood best friend falls in love, nostalgic teenager Dodo struggles to let go of the past and goes to increasingly dangerous lengths to secure her affections, threatening to spoil their idyllic lakeside holiday.

PosterShort
My Heart the Rockstar[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]1 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

PosterShort
My Heart the Optometrist[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]1 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

I am near-sighted. When I see a potentially beautiful boy at a distance, I perceive him as perfectly beautiful. Gradually, as he approaches, he begins to accumulate defects which detract from his overall beauty; sometimes to the point where he ceases to be attractive at all.

PosterShort
Queer Alien Invades Earth : a Portrait of Legendary Madame Simone[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]5 minutesThis programme includes 11 filmsQUEERMENT QUÉBEC 80 minutes

A portrait of the legendary Madame Simone, shot in the early nineties by an undergraduate student.

You might also like

PosterShort
Bodyrebuilding[MADE AU CANADA]10 minutes

Vivek navigates the chronic pain caused by the pressures of advocating for diversity, finding healing and strength through weightlifting.

PosterFeature
SANDBAG DAM (ZEČJI NASIP) (EN) [FIRST VOICES]87 minutes

CROATIAN • ENGLISH ST | Marko, slight but mighty, seems always in control, always a champion—but what happens when he slips his banks? As “unstable air” portends torrential rains for a small Croatian village, the return of Marko’s former neighbour is the rush that might pull him under. Marko (Lav Novosel in a natural, understated performance) has a full life: a brother with Down syndrome (Leon Grgić) who he treats with a soft attentiveness; learning discipline from his father (Filip Šovagović) in the lead up to an arm-wrestling competition; chanting about female anatomy with his buds before pestering his girlfriend Petra (Franka Mikolaci) for sex. But there’s another side to his even-keeled bravado. For, as he tells his brother in the guise of a story, “the boy and the bunny” were once “inseparable,” with a secret hiding place of their own. And now that “bunny” is back. Home from cosmopolitan Berlin for his father’s funeral, Slaven (Andrija Žunac) catches Marko off guard. Despite training constantly as if to outrun his feelings, Marko returns again and again to the river, again and again to Slaven. An imported joint is shared, affections are renewed, and temperatures—and waters—rise.

PosterShort
Itty Bitty Betty[COMPETITION]12 minutes

Betty, driven by fear of rejection, lives isolated at home among her miniature figurines. When she meets a woman she can’t stop thinking about, she faces a difficult choice: remain in her safe, private world or step outside and risk vulnerability for a real connection.

PosterShort
Molosse (Mad Dog)[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]25 minutes

Johanie, the single mother of a dysfunctional family, grows wary when Ian and his dog move into the neighborhood. The back alley between them becomes the stage for a rivalry where prejudice, fascination, and frustration subtly intertwine with the sound of barking.

PosterShort
Handsome Devil[COMPETITION]4 minutes

A 'sissy devil' explores the depths of internet intelligence by conducting an 'advanced search' on an outdated search engine. Meanwhile, a female artist sketches her destiny.

PosterFeature
BEARCAVE (ARKOUDOTRYPA)[COMPETITION]128 minutes

Passionate, provocative, and powerful—it’s easy to see why Bearcave was awarded the Europa Cinema Label at the 2025 Venice Film Festival. Set in a fictional remote village in the Balkan Mountains of Greece, a love story between two lifelong friends unfolds—but will their relationship survive the call of womanhood? Argyro is a farm girl—hard-working, unpretentious, and wholesome while Anneta is … in a bit of trouble. Whisked away by her law enforcement beau (and carrying his child) Anneta’s move to the city threatens to sever her friendship with Argyro for good, but their understated glances from across the crowd at a party one night tells a different story. The whisper of sweet nothings and foggy windows in Argyro’s pickup truck soon fade to memory, leaving behind a cloud of confusion and heartbreak, that is—until Anneta’s side of the story unfolds. Set against a backdrop of sweeping landscapes, a mystical cave, and nettle bushes, Bearcave is a film that’s steeped in tradition, then abruptly subverted, and not only by a sapphic love story, but a hybrid soundscape of folkloric and contemporary music, as well as ethereal sequences of cinematographic magic.

PosterFeatureVIRTUAL EXCLUSIVE
WE ARE FAHEEM + KARUM[COMPETITION]81 minutes

Karun, a kindly border guard, finds himself in “paradise” among Bandipora’s soaring peaks, though religious and cultural resentments simmer and scald. Jolted by Faheem’s gorgeous face revealed from behind a helmet visor, Karun is drawn into a romance with indelible repercussions in this first queer film in the Kashmiri language. Wooed by an apple and a warm ripple of attraction each time Faheem (a subtle yet potent Mir Tawseef) passes his checkpoint, Karun (Akash Unnimenon) ventures into Gurez to seek out further encounters. Gurez, a remote Kashmiri village near the border between India and Pakistan, speaks with the voice of soft lullabies and bleating sheep, of a flowing river indifferent to divisions, though that tranquility is soon replaced by distant gunfire. Determined to drop the veil of shame that partitions their lives, Faheem and Karun’s restless hearts pine for one another from a distance, the two praying to separate deities but sharing an equal desire. Wanting, so passionately, to be one. When terrorist infiltrators and a homegrown street gang make a volatile situation worse, can love bind as society breaks?

PosterShort
Inkwo For When the Starving Return (Inkwo à la défense des vivants)[COMPETITION]17 minutes

In the near future, Dove, a gender fluid person, discovers the powers and perils of their Inkwo (Indigenous medicine) while defending the living against a horde of ravenous monsters, testing their courage, resilience, and connection to the Earth.

PosterShort
La première marche (No Contest)[COMPETITION]18 minutes

When Victoire, a young trans judoka, reaches the finals of a local competition, her opponent Sonia refuses to face her. A confrontation that transcends sport, questioning prejudice, courage, and the right to simply exist.

PosterShort
A Slow Dance[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]10 minutes

“It is not about rebuilding the mythical place called home but about perpetually deferring the homecoming itself.” – Moyra Davey. In a living room, two people slow dancing become a landscape for (re)connection. A Slow Dance attempts to materialize the monolithic gesture that is longing, one that takes its roots in lifelong household transgressions and collective myths

PosterShort
Bodyrebuilding[MADE AU CANADA]10 minutes

Vivek navigates the chronic pain caused by the pressures of advocating for diversity, finding healing and strength through weightlifting.

PosterFeature
SANDBAG DAM (ZEČJI NASIP) (EN) [FIRST VOICES]87 minutes

CROATIAN • ENGLISH ST | Marko, slight but mighty, seems always in control, always a champion—but what happens when he slips his banks? As “unstable air” portends torrential rains for a small Croatian village, the return of Marko’s former neighbour is the rush that might pull him under. Marko (Lav Novosel in a natural, understated performance) has a full life: a brother with Down syndrome (Leon Grgić) who he treats with a soft attentiveness; learning discipline from his father (Filip Šovagović) in the lead up to an arm-wrestling competition; chanting about female anatomy with his buds before pestering his girlfriend Petra (Franka Mikolaci) for sex. But there’s another side to his even-keeled bravado. For, as he tells his brother in the guise of a story, “the boy and the bunny” were once “inseparable,” with a secret hiding place of their own. And now that “bunny” is back. Home from cosmopolitan Berlin for his father’s funeral, Slaven (Andrija Žunac) catches Marko off guard. Despite training constantly as if to outrun his feelings, Marko returns again and again to the river, again and again to Slaven. An imported joint is shared, affections are renewed, and temperatures—and waters—rise.

PosterShort
Itty Bitty Betty[COMPETITION]12 minutes

Betty, driven by fear of rejection, lives isolated at home among her miniature figurines. When she meets a woman she can’t stop thinking about, she faces a difficult choice: remain in her safe, private world or step outside and risk vulnerability for a real connection.

PosterShort
Molosse (Mad Dog)[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]25 minutes

Johanie, the single mother of a dysfunctional family, grows wary when Ian and his dog move into the neighborhood. The back alley between them becomes the stage for a rivalry where prejudice, fascination, and frustration subtly intertwine with the sound of barking.

PosterShort
Handsome Devil[COMPETITION]4 minutes

A 'sissy devil' explores the depths of internet intelligence by conducting an 'advanced search' on an outdated search engine. Meanwhile, a female artist sketches her destiny.

PosterFeature
BEARCAVE (ARKOUDOTRYPA)[COMPETITION]128 minutes

Passionate, provocative, and powerful—it’s easy to see why Bearcave was awarded the Europa Cinema Label at the 2025 Venice Film Festival. Set in a fictional remote village in the Balkan Mountains of Greece, a love story between two lifelong friends unfolds—but will their relationship survive the call of womanhood? Argyro is a farm girl—hard-working, unpretentious, and wholesome while Anneta is … in a bit of trouble. Whisked away by her law enforcement beau (and carrying his child) Anneta’s move to the city threatens to sever her friendship with Argyro for good, but their understated glances from across the crowd at a party one night tells a different story. The whisper of sweet nothings and foggy windows in Argyro’s pickup truck soon fade to memory, leaving behind a cloud of confusion and heartbreak, that is—until Anneta’s side of the story unfolds. Set against a backdrop of sweeping landscapes, a mystical cave, and nettle bushes, Bearcave is a film that’s steeped in tradition, then abruptly subverted, and not only by a sapphic love story, but a hybrid soundscape of folkloric and contemporary music, as well as ethereal sequences of cinematographic magic.

PosterFeatureVIRTUAL EXCLUSIVE
WE ARE FAHEEM + KARUM[COMPETITION]81 minutes

Karun, a kindly border guard, finds himself in “paradise” among Bandipora’s soaring peaks, though religious and cultural resentments simmer and scald. Jolted by Faheem’s gorgeous face revealed from behind a helmet visor, Karun is drawn into a romance with indelible repercussions in this first queer film in the Kashmiri language. Wooed by an apple and a warm ripple of attraction each time Faheem (a subtle yet potent Mir Tawseef) passes his checkpoint, Karun (Akash Unnimenon) ventures into Gurez to seek out further encounters. Gurez, a remote Kashmiri village near the border between India and Pakistan, speaks with the voice of soft lullabies and bleating sheep, of a flowing river indifferent to divisions, though that tranquility is soon replaced by distant gunfire. Determined to drop the veil of shame that partitions their lives, Faheem and Karun’s restless hearts pine for one another from a distance, the two praying to separate deities but sharing an equal desire. Wanting, so passionately, to be one. When terrorist infiltrators and a homegrown street gang make a volatile situation worse, can love bind as society breaks?

PosterShort
Inkwo For When the Starving Return (Inkwo à la défense des vivants)[COMPETITION]17 minutes

In the near future, Dove, a gender fluid person, discovers the powers and perils of their Inkwo (Indigenous medicine) while defending the living against a horde of ravenous monsters, testing their courage, resilience, and connection to the Earth.

PosterShort
La première marche (No Contest)[COMPETITION]18 minutes

When Victoire, a young trans judoka, reaches the finals of a local competition, her opponent Sonia refuses to face her. A confrontation that transcends sport, questioning prejudice, courage, and the right to simply exist.

PosterShort
A Slow Dance[QUEERMENT QUÉBEC]10 minutes

“It is not about rebuilding the mythical place called home but about perpetually deferring the homecoming itself.” – Moyra Davey. In a living room, two people slow dancing become a landscape for (re)connection. A Slow Dance attempts to materialize the monolithic gesture that is longing, one that takes its roots in lifelong household transgressions and collective myths