“I don’t like realism.” This may be the sentiment explicitly expressed by the main character of Leonardo Martinelli’s Pássaro Memória, but it is also the common thread upon which the films of the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF)’s Modes 2 construct their narratives and visual styles. Adept at taking images or situations common to everyday life and lingering on them in a way that crosses over into the unfamiliar and strange, these films allow us an intimacy rarely explored in routine living that, here, borders on the surreal.