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Browse through the detailed list of the screening films of the 3nd Copenhagen Film Festival!
54 Blocks
Dunedoo, a town in New South Wales, is the home of the annual Mouth Jenga Tournament, a sport where people play Jenga using their mouths and greater facial areas. Tim Wilson, a retired Mouth Jenga competitor returns to the tournament after 26 years, challenging the sitting champion Daz Brookes, causing excitement in Dunedoo.
Jonty Davies-Conyngham
A Decent Man
PETRU is a conflicted man. On one hand he is about to get married to his pregnant girlfriend LAURA, on the other he is involved with the wife of one of his colleagues, SONIA. Petru is looking for an impossible balance between the two women.
Hadrian Marcu
A Young Girl
A grieving elderly and rather confused farmer is slowly losing touch with reality. After the sudden death of her husband she has to face numerous challenges in her daily life. Also there is financial turmoil and the upcoming auction of her farm. Can her son Geert save both, his mother and the farm?
Jeannice Adriaansens
Amina, My Sister
The personal story of a family of Rohingya refugees from persecution in Myanmar into the world's newest and largest refugee camp.
Patrick Bodenham
Amistosa
Amistosa is an animated nature documentary that observes a quiet, happy, rainforest town and its residents.
Valerie Schwarz
Among Wolves
The Wolves are no ordinary biker club as revealed in this gorgeously shot, surprisingly intimate portrait of trauma and survival. Still struggling from the aftermath of the Bosnian War, this multi-ethnic club organizes charity for their small mountain town and defends the threatened herd of wild horses they first met on the frontline. It’s out there, with the horses, they confront their past and reclaim that territory as a space for healing.
Shawn Convey
An Opportunist
“Shop signs, No Smoking sign, lighters….fucking loads of lighters, office chair, wheelchair, spanner, dog lead, budgie cage. Fags, cash, drugs, best friend’s boyfriend’s drugs. Best friend’s boyfriend.” Across five days care home assistant Kate drifts from after-parties to therapy sessions to her day job, struggling to address and control her kleptomania. But when Kate involves her young niece in a shoplifting spree it seems as if her inner thief has finally got the better of her. Until an opportunity to redeem herself arises…
Matt Page
Anatomy of a Miracle
Naples. A Virgin with bruise on her cheek who performs miracles. Three female characters, each connected to the virgin in their own way but who never meet. Giusy, a girl in a wheelchair who had no right to a miracle. An atheist, free-spirited, and an anthropologist specializing in the worship of the Virgin Mary. Fabiana, a transsexual at the head of a troupe faithful supporters of the Virgin in a popular district of the city center. And Sue, a Korean pianist in search of a new direction for her life, teaching music to children in difficulty in a city far removed from her original culture. Each with their intimate wounds and each searching for a miracle.
Alessandra Celesia
Answer Me
A woman wondering alone in the world. On her journey to find other people, she find something else.
Lasse Vestergaard
Becoming
Becoming tells the story of women protecting themselves and their families against a group of supernatural beings who seem to have it in for the men of this town. Blood, guts and glory mark this feature as a classic horror film… with a feminist twist.
Bookanima: Dance
BOOKANIMA, a compound word of ‘Book’ and ‘Anima’, is Experimental Animation to give new cinematic life to book. It aims to create ‘Book Cinema’ in the third scope between Book and Cinema. Animation links Book to Cinema. Along the way, it experiments Locomotion based on Chronophotography Animation, paying homage for Edward Muybridge and Entienne Jules-Marey. It experiments locomotion of Dance along with its stream: Ballet-Korean dance-Modern dance-Jazz dance-Aerial Silk-Tap dance-Aerobic-Disco-Break dance-Hip hop-Social dance.
Shon Kim
Breaking The Cycle
Moving from victim to survivor, Camika, a mother of seven, shares her personal story of how she got the strength and voice to stop the cycle of domestic abuse in her home. Abandoned by her father and hurt by men now she works hard to help other victims of domestic abuse while she still struggles trying to repair the impact of the years of abuse on her children.
Miquel Galofre
Breaking the I.C.E
When an ICE officer on the hunt, seriously hurt in her front yard, a beautiful undocumented immigrant puts her safety on the line to come to his aid.
Alejandra Hinojosa
CALL ME TONY
Konrad, an 18-year-old bodybuilder who wants to be an actor desperately fights for his absent father's attention. Konrad lives in a small mining town in southern Poland. In his attempts to get noticed he looks up to his favorite action movie heroes, spends hours on the gym and signs up for a body building competition.An inner conflict between who he is and who he thinks he should be to get people's acceptance soon leads to a depression.His life changes after he revisits his childhood passion for acting.Will he find his own way? CALL ME TONY is a coming of age story about the time when the whole world expects us to have answers but all we have is questions.
Klaudiusz Chrostowski
Carga
Marta and Juan travel to Iraq to uncover the secrets of an abandoned cigarette factory.
Yad Deen
Clean Ice
The legacy of a run-down hockey arena is at stake as peculiar events unfold.
March Mercanti
Clearingmord (Retaliatory Murder)
Music video for Danish songwriter Bisse, based on real accounts of the execution of danish resistance fighters during WWII.
Troels Hansen
Comic Sans
A successful graphic designer Alan Despot, after trying in vain to renew a broken relationship with his girlfriend, goes to the island of Vis and finds himself torn between his eccentric father, another ex-girlfriend and her fiancé. New situations and circumstances help Alan to view his own life from a new perspective.
Nevio Marasovic
Creatures of the Night
Sequins, boas, wigs, and stilettos abound: everything glitters at Madame Arthur’s, one of Paris’s oldest cabarets. Here we meet Vaslav and Patachtouille, two shape-shifting artists who reveal themselves to the audience in the time it takes to perform a song.
Marie Corberand
Dead Birds
A failing teenage badminton player at a Catholic Girls School is visited by a Saint – who agrees to help her if she'll complete three tasks for him. Dead Birds is a twisted Super Natural Black Comedy about competitive mother daughter relationships, losing your religion and learning how far you'd go to get what you want.
Johnny Kenton
Debt
Tufan who works at a small print shop lives in Eskişehir with his wife Mukaddes and daughter Simge. Huriye, their lonely neighbour next door falls ill one night. A doctor recommends that she shouldn’t stay on her own. Tufan takes pity on Huriye, who has no family to turn to, and decides to host her at his house. Through fear and anxiety he experiences Tufan’s kindness is put to test.
Vuslat Saraçoğlu
Dias del Mar (Seadays)
At the same time, the documentary tries to problematize the idea of the Salt Flat as a symbolic reference of the bilateral tension between Chile and Bolivia, evoking a sensation of absence and reminiscence, as a sea suspended in time. This accompanied by the military celebration of the Day of the Sea (Bolivian claim for a sea exit), presents a dichotomy between the content of the photography that every character takes and its symbolic charge.
Sebastian Salfate
Distant Tropics
A man isolated on a submarine makes his connection to the world through a periscope: an instrument intended to observe at distance; a mechanical eye to rediscover forgotten memories.
Marcelo Costa
Dragonsong
A MIDWIFE carries a newborn to a forest cave. It’s 527AD. NIMUEH, the sorceress, waits there to cast a spell, encasing the child in a crystal tomb, as she did to his father, Merlin. Nimueh kills the midwife to hide her secret. In 1921, EDWARD and CAROLYN WHITE take refuge in the same cave to get out of the rain. They discover the child, inadvertently releasing him, still alive. They decide to raise him. Nimueh feels her spell break. Rushing to the cave, she discovers the child gone. She conjures a mirror to find him, but is confronted by MERLIN, trapped, but powerful enough to appear to her. He casts a spell, hiding the child from discovery and destroys the mirror. The child, TALIESIN, TAL for short, shows abilities inherited from his father early on. His parents teach him to control them. The Druids know of Tal's existence and powers, and have one of their sons nearby to protect him, ARTHUR. Arthur and Tal grow up as best friends, while Nimueh guides Hitler and the Nazis to power, to further her ambition, the conquest of England. At sixteen, Tal is told the truth of his birth. Upset, he flees to a pond near his house to be alone. Arthur finds him, revealing that he knows about his abilities. The next day, a book appears only Tal can open. Once opened, spells rush off the book’s pages to become part of his memory. World War 2 breaks out. Arthur enlists. Tal wants to join up too. Arthur’s friends and fellow pilots, LANCE, WAYNE, and COLLINS convince him that he should. Arthur, knowing that Tal’s destiny is to protect England, tells his father, who takes care of the situation, so when Tal tries to enlist, he is turned down. Soon after, Tal’s parents are killed in a German bombing raid. Devastated, he loses control over his powers and breaks the protection spell, leaving Tal open to sensing others with magical abilities, including Arthur’s father HUGH. Tal also discovers that Arthur was asked to keep an eye on him. He becomes furious and storms out of Arthur’s home. A crystal pendant, found with Tal, begins to have a life of its own. With it, Tal discovers where a trapped Merlin is being held, and that it is the key to Merlin’s freedom. Nimueh finds him there and battles him for the pendant’s possession. Tal manages to release Merlin. Nimueh disappears, to signal the start of the invasion. Convincing Arthur and his friends to help, Merlin and Tal release one more weapon, four Dragons, that Tal wakens with an unknown ability – Dragonsong. But will it be enough to stop the Nazi invasion of England?
Dream State
21-year-old director Asger Bartels’ self-financed, feature film-debut tells the story of the complexities of millennial coming-of-age through the eyes and lens of Louis (Karim Theilgaard). Following the death of his estranged father, the photographer Louis is left feeling he hasn't achieved as much in life as he had hoped for. He is still chasing the same dream of becoming a famous photographer but has been stuck working on the same project for many years. Louis’ girlfriend Rosa (Kimmie Falstrøm) tries to get Louis to snap out of it and grow up, but when old acquaintances make an appearance the night draws Louis back in.
Asger K. Bartels
Etangs Noirs
Jimi, a young man living in the Brussels' neighbourhood Cité Modèle, tries to return a parcel to a woman from his neighbourhood that was delivered at his apartment by mistake. When Jimi can't locate her, finding her becomes an obsession.
Pieter Dumoulin, Timeau De Keyser
Exile and Belonging: Stories of Migrants from Around the World
Exile and Belonging showcases the unique stories of migrants, shedding light on the diversity of individual experience of migrants from around the world. The film uses the voices of real people paired with animation to protect the identities of those who remain undocumented. Each story highlights the diversity of the migration experience, yet the stories are unified by the uniquely human audacity to imagine a better life. Exile and Belonging was created with Hari Kondabolu, recently honored by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for his ability to unite people of all backgrounds and beliefs in laughter, while raising awareness about social justice and equality. The New York Times called Kondabolu one of the most necessary political comedians working today….” Last, the United Nations Human Rights Office created this film with the belief that through conversation with those we perceive as different, by listening to their experiences as individuals, we recognize that we share a universal human longing to belong and to live with dignity. We have far more in common than that which divides us, a critical reminder in today’s divisive atmosphere.
Christina MacGillivray
Failing Up
“Failing Up” describes career advancement despite bad decisions, bankruptcies, and intellectual mediocrity. In this short film, the Manhattan real estate holdings of the King of Failing Up are catalogued and synced to a soundtrack that suggests how it feels to be one of his subjects. Whip pans, zooms, lens twists, and bursts of stop-frame animation transform eight minutes of borrowed audio from “Home Alone 2” (a film that features a cameo of the current U.S. President) into a political work of slapstique concrete.
Jacqueline S Goss
Flowers of Ethiopia
The Surma tribe of the Omo Valley, Ethiopia…a place where mankind (and fashion) probably began. The children and teens appear innocent and beautiful, with their ornate body paint work and exotic head decorations made of flowers. The place appears peaceful and untouched, but in reality, life here is harsh with the tribespeople at frequent wars with neighbouring tribes over cattle grazing rights. The line between peace and war is very fine and very blurred. They can be so near to each other, yet at times appear so far from each other…
FlyTrap
Charles falls into a germaphobic hysteria living under the unsanitary habits of his roommate. Narrated by the protagonist, we witness his petty yet paranoid reality unfold as he delivers a confession email to his unreliable advisor, Mr. Waters.'
Connor Bland
Foreign
Ruby Welles (stand-up comedienne Suzi Ruffell in her acting debut) navigates the streets of London’s Soho, a first date, a secret struggle and the challenge of being a single thirty something lesbian buffeted by the sounds and bustle of the West End in Mark Pinkosh’s first film. With Jessica Murrain and Jenny Bede.
Mark Pinkosh
Gilda Brasileiro – Against Oblivion
Gilda Brasileiro discovers documents about an illegal slave-trading point in the Brazilian rainforest. Whereas none of the locals want to remember the past, the daughter of a Jewish woman and Afro-Brazilian man finds it unacceptable. Despite the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans continued to be taken to Brazil. A strong woman goes out in search of the largest coffee-growing region in the 19th century. Photos of enslaved men, women and children on plantations provide a disconcerting understanding of a distant time.
Roberto Manhães Reis, Viola Scheuerer
Good morning
Guido realizes that he must start being a good father. The problem is if they will let it be.
Dany Campos
Gulliver, a Giant in the Bijlmer
A group of primary school pupils from a disadvantaged neighborhood in Amsterdam participates in an innovative dance project in which they express their dreams of an ideal living environment against the background of an unruly reality.
juliette stevens
Houses
A girl decides to face her father, determined to put an end to the abuses that she is forced to suffer from him.
Antonio La Camera
I Just Wanted to See You
A girl in car parked underneath a bridge wakes up to an envelope stuck in her car's window. Inside of the envelope contains something she did not expect to receive.
Nikita Belomestnykh
I SEE
Nice, France. At dawn, Thomas, an incredulous young man, comes home late and drunk. His mother entrusts him with an important task. But when the time comes, he forgets to wake up.
Akaki Popkhadze
Invaders
On Christmas Eve, a small UFO struggling find his place in the universe follows his two mischievous friend’s down to earth, whilst trying to impress and gain their acceptance he inadvertently changes Christmas forever.
Daniel Prince
La Perla After Maria
Maria was the most damaging hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in almost 100 years. The storm hit the island early on Wednesday September 20th leaving everyone without electric power, water, and communication for weeks. Three months later, people from La Perla remember the worst event of their lives and recall finding the courage to go on, led by a newfound community bond. La Perla is the historical, famous/infamous small “barrio” outside the walls of Old San Juan. This film is a reflection on the tenderness of life, and the healing power of collective unity and kindness in the face of tragedy. A visual poem dedicated to the people of La Perla and the archipelago of Puerto Rico.
Clari del Pilar Lewis
Liberation
Jane is a boxer, preparing for the championship of her life. She wants to win but it’s difficult to keep focus when her girlfriend Tanja wants to start a family. When Jane meets Karoline new emotions arises and she decides to leave Tanja. The training escalates, and suddenly Jane seems to be unable to get the firm foothold that she so desperately needs in both her life and in her career.
Stefan Pellegrini
Life is an eternal Swing
SENTIMENTAL SWINGERS is a group, consisting of ten musicians – a female vocal trio and instrumental sextet. Some depict it as an “Encharming project for retro city culture and music”, others claim, that the three ladies and “the brilliant musicians of “Mihail Yosifov sextet” are the most successful musical project in Bulgaria”, and for me, the belgian director, who connected his life with Bulgaria, “Sentimental Swingers” are a symbol of a generation, coming from the communist East, gone through, or rather going through a hard transition, but denying to be “lost”. I will depict their not typical fates. I will detect them in theur usual daily round, or rather in their unusual daily round, as you will see! The special microcosmos, they live in will drive us in one dynamic and ceaseless movement and will discover for us a world not really common – Bulgaria, in order to succeed, I hope, to create a portrait in depth of that subtle thing, I could call, the bulgarian soul. The film will follow ten characters, ten fates. They will narrate about the histories of their lifes in Bulgaria – one of the most infamiliar countries of the ex Eastern block. All the ten musicians are born and have spent their yoth during communism. They have passed through the different phases of the transition, called “democratic”, when to the disappointments, supervening the first gulps of freedom, mafia added, when people understood, that most of national resources had been stolen. The characters of the film are part of a sacrificed generation, seventy percents of which departed to the West, searching for better life, depriving the country of manpower… But our musicians are unbending –desided to rest in their fatherland and to devote themselves to their art despite all. These personages and their fates will weve the story and will be its heart and body. I will observe their lifes, full of musical passion. I will make a sketch, particular of course, partial and subjective, of the condition of a country, of a world, opening itself to the wstern one, together so close and so different. Close, because these musicians are before all europeans, product of a world with joint roots. Different, because when we listen to them, telling their lifes, we can only excite of their histories, which sound to us as from a time apart! The chaotic epoch, they have passed through, the difficulties, they had to overcome, give them strenght, courage and maturity, which sharply outline against the mentality of the, sometimes, too spoiled artists of “western Europe”. Namely this strenght, this faith and these extraordinary experience interest us, because they learn us something new about the contemporary world and partially about this other Europe. The aesthetic choice, which concerns me as a director will becme richer and more varied, when the levels of the story will multiply: my voice as a narrator will mix with that of the singers and the musicians. Thus I will be able to draw other points of view from the situations, as per example, the sometimes surprising, for us the people from the west, logics of their artistic life, or like this, which leads them in the direction, they have undertaken. I could leave place to imprivisation and the poetic power, it consists of. I could search for other visual and sound forms, moving on straight paths, attaching great importance to the details in the whole, allowing myself everything, which would help me to make an open, exciting and responding to reality fim. This human adventure would be still more touching by the fact, that Sentimental Swingers will have to reveal themselves in front of the camera, making us witnesses of their present and past existential adventures, often exalting, sometimes painful – but full of energy, confidence in themselves and devotion to art.
Andre Chandelle
Life on a String
In the face of great sacrifice, two Los Angeles puppeteers refuse to give up their insatiable passion for their art. This short documentary peeks into the lives of two Los Angeles based puppeteers, Cain Carias and Gary Jones, who have dedicated their lives to their craft. Both men, Cain near the beginning of his career, Gary nearing its conclusion, seek validation and purpose in a world that seems to be leaving this ancient art form behind. As men of color, the two craftsmen yearn to use their art as a voice for their people. While they sometimes struggle to make the life of an artist work, they find humor, joy and ultimately peace when performing for an audience.
Jonatas da Silva
Lift Share
Two strangers with broken family ties, meet online and share a road trip to the remote Outer Hebrides. Marina is a young Romanian woman, desperate to find her child, Murdoch, a Scottish musician, reluctant to return for his estranged father’s funeral. As they pass through the stark beauty of a landscape that mirrors their shared sense of isolation, bold shifts in timeframe reveal what each character imagines, hopes, or fears, they might do on reaching the islands. As they travel, these two strangers take the risk of sharing their innermost fears, opening up the possibility of a different future.
Virginia Heath
Little Manifesto Against Solemn Cinema
A trivial story about two people that meet at a party and spend the night together, told in the most pretentious, most poetic, but above all, most solemn possible ways.
Roberto Porta
Lowland Kids
As climate change erases the Louisiana coast, the last two teenagers on Isle de Jean Charles fight to stay on an island that's been their family home for generations.
Sandra Winther
Man of Circles
For Jakob only one thing is an absolute certainty: The book he is writing is going to change everything. But the pressure is overwhelming. And now, where his lost love, Laura, suddenly returns in his life, his perception of everything changes. The question is, can she end the circle?
Victor Chaos
Mana Bella
Timor-Leste has a troubled past. Asia's youngest and poorest country is still fighting for survival, after centuries of exploitation and violence. Bella Galhos is working tirelessly to offer a better future to her mother country. She founded Leublora Green Village and School, where children can learn to reconnect with nature and their own power to create a different tomorrow.
Simon Reichel
Marées
Marées is a singular ode to the spirits of the Gaspesian Sea as experienced by its inhabitants.
Juliette Granger
My Beautiful Stutter
Five kids ages 9 to 18, from all over the United States enter experimental, interactive and arts-based programs at SAY, The Stuttering Association for the Young, based in New York City. After a lifetime of bullying and stigmatization, some have found themselves close to suicide, others enter withdrawn and fearful, exhausted and defeated from fluency training and the pressure to not stutter or remain silent. Over the course of a year of SAY events, workshops and camp, we witness firsthand the incredible transformation that happens when these young people of wildly different backgrounds experience for the first time the revolutionary idea at the heart of SAY: it's okay to stutter.
Ryan Gielen
My View: Clem Burke
CLEM BURKE is the beat behind multi-platinum selling band BLONDIE. His signature beats have brought millions to the dance floor, and his unique approach to playing has seen him company an endless list of artists from Bob Dylan to The Eurythmics. We follow Clem on the road, playing as hard as ever in this access all areas documentary. Feel the energy behind the kit as Clem plays with Blondie at Hyde park to 80,000 people, witness his tireless work ethic at The Cavern for Beatles week, where he plays 5 gigs in 24 hrs.
Philip Sansom
Native
A man in the twilight of his life embarks on an emotional journey to seek out the home and family he had left in his youth.
Linda Bhreathnach
Nina
NINA' is a Faroese-Danish low-budget feature film about the aspiring author Nina who moves to the remote island country Faroe Islands together with her boyfriend William. He is set to start his new job as a doctor. Nina meanwhile, is pregnant with their first child and is initially awestruck by the the magnificent Faroese nature. The young couple's life seemingly couldn't be more idyllic. But things are rarely how they appear. William works long hours at the hospital and Nina begins to feel increasingly isolated in the tiny village, surrounded by the tall mountains and endless ocean. Nina then discovers the mysterious old Faroese myth of the Seal Woman, and her fascination with it grows to an obsession. She finds comfort in the company of the handsome local priest, Fríði, and suddenly Nina can see connections forming between the myth, her own life and the burning feeling of loneliness. The lines between reality, dreams and the characters in her novel become increasingly blurred, until her mind threatens to cave in.
Maria Winther Olsen
Nini
Cici's good friend Nini was taken away. At midnight ,Nine returned to her friend and tried to tell here something.
Yingzong Xin
No News
Lola (Silvia Espigado) lives alone with her son, Jorge (Ignacio Jiménez), near to an industrial estate in Madrid. She works a lot of hours for a stingy and strict boss (Gonzalo de Castro) in a storage company. One night, Jorge confesses to her mother that he has begun to keep in touch with his father, Marcos (Fernando Guillén Cuervo), who abandoned them a long time ago…
Miguel Berzal de Miguel
Not That Strong
Filmed in the historic Hayworth Theater, Gene Micofsky’s Not That Strong explores themes of addiction, friendship, and guilt through dance and performance captured in long takes that erupt into a emotional finale filmed in high-contrast black and white. Gene Micofsky is a composer, song-writer, lyricist, and producer from Philadelphia, PA. After decades composing music for films, television, and commercials he finally released his debut solo album Amusia (named after a psychological condition that prevents a persona from properly hearing music). Not That Strong is the first song to be released from that record. For the video we wanted to embody the the mood and content of the lyrics. The song is inspired by Gene's real-life struggle with watching friends descend into addiction and self-destructive behaviors. The video opens with the bartender bringing us into a venue. He lights up and preps the bar, representing the commonality of drugs and alcohol, the accessibility, and how they are a constant presence in and around music and art. Then we are drawn into the theater following the dancer. She is light and seductive, a constant presence throughout the rest of the video. The dancer represents the allure of addiction, the fine line between something light and fun and something potentially more insidious. This section is done all in 1 take to increase the tension and focus the performance. Then- in an explosive coda, the song erupts into chaos and decay. The dance turns dark, disjointed. Substances can enhance, but also become destructive. She is ultimately chased from the theater by pursuing lights of unknowing origin. We pass the bartender once again, then back out into the street, where the beautiful snow fall from the opening is replaced with barren starkness.
Gregory Kasunich
One Girl
One day in the lives of 4 girls that lives in different countries but in the same meridian
Rosa Russo
Overwerk – Reign
The Reign film tells a tragedy, a gritty story of self-destruction; how the need for connection can also be the force driving others away. – We crave stability and fight for control, but our actions yield results diametric to our intentions. We might not relate to this character, but can all empathize with his experience… Every small town has it's dominance hierarchy; a social order with one despotic character reigning over their domain. In this story, it happens to be a guy who peaked early in life. He is unable to escape his bubble, stuck repeating the same cycle of destructive behaviours. – As those around him grow, all of his actions that once drew envy, now seem pitiful. He puts on an act, desperately trying to maintain his influence, but feels frustrated and trapped. – This feeling reaches a breaking point when he can no longer connect with family or friends.
Lasse Noer, Lasse Tvilum Toft
OVT (Disruption)
On Christmas Eve Annemijn lets in an unexpected visitor who was looking for a place to warm up. With that, she causes an entire reconstruction between the existing family bonds; a crack in the façade called family. Whilst the attendees are fighting for attention and praise of their reciprocal success within this facade there suddenly is someone in their midst looking for truth and kinship. With this he rattles the whole family and robs them of their complacency. Gradually, it shall become clear how much of a family this really is.
Pelle Smit
Passager
Asef is a young Afghan refugee who left his country in search for cure for his deficient eyes and a safer life conditions. He arrives in Greece in 2016 and is moved to the refugee camps in athens; Pireaus port and then to Eleniko. During this period, he stuggles several times to cross into Western Europe. Few months later, Asef meets Arjang Omrani and after a while they decided to make a diary film about Asef's everyday life in Greece and his attempts to flee to other countries. Asef was coached by Arjang Omrani during the film process in which he was learning about ideas of filming, montage and storytelling. Using his own mobile phone Asef manages to collect his video diaries that lasted for the next eight months. While showing his surroundings, Asef gives insightful portraits of Eleniko refugee camp, Victoria park in Athens, where he goes to contact the smugglers. Also his experiences in Patra, in the abondoned wood factory where he was sheltering, and the port where he tries to hide under the trucks that are waiting to embark on ferries to go to Italy. The young Afghan refugee not only shows the foreing places of passage but also he reflects upon his motivations of getting into this journey and the constraints and difficulties he has gone through. “Why can’t I have a normal life!” speaks out Asef from the rooftop of a deserted wood factory. He talks about his dreams and desires while questioning the universal injustice in people's life conditions.
Arjang Omrani, Asef Rezaei
Perfect Present
Perfect Present is a heady cocktail of unrequited love, sibling rivalry, adultery and a dash of lies, big and small, that swirls together to become a bitter-sweet toxic potion that three estranged brothers – and the single most important woman in all their lives – are forced to consume in one sitting during an epic family reunion dinner gone astray. Silverware clashes, pretentious wine is spilled and dreams and dinner plates are shattered alike as the three brothers are forced to confront their mistakes of the past. But when the deepest of all family secrets slowly unravels, they are forced to reconsider a radically different future as well – with or without each other.
Martijn Hullegie
Restoring Dignity
Noma is a gangrenous infection starting in the mouth caused by extreme poverty, malnutrition and poor hygiene. In just two weeks, it destroys the tissues of the face and might kill up to 90 percent of the people affected. The World Health Organization estimates it affects 140,000 people every year. At the Noma Hospital in Sokoto, Nigeria, disfigured survivors find a unique place to heal their wounds. Sakina is a little girl, Amina and Adamu are teenagers and Mulikat and Aliyu are adults who have lived for decades with the terrible physical and psychological consequences of noma. While they suffer from pain and discrimination, they are on a life-changing journey to overcome years of isolation. This documentary follows them over the course of a year.
Claire Jeantet, Fabrice Catérini
Roar
In the not-too-distant future, Lars and Mille are trying to start a family and seek treatment at a fertility clinic. Here they are offered genetically engineered super-sperm that will produce a flawless female child. Mille is dragged towards the new cynical world. This brave new world does not favour the ordinary man who is about to be extinct. Lars has to put up a fight for both becoming a father and for an even bigger cause.
Nikolaj Storgaard Mortensen
Sawtooth
A purely fictional tale meant intended to create suspense and a cliff hanger ending. Sawtooth is about a girl that discovers what her family and town have been hiding from her on the day of her birthday.
Quentin Ransohoff
Shy Guys
Two strangers (2016 Tony winner Reed Birney and newcomer Blake DeLong) bring the laughs as they confront and resolve one of the most insidious scourges afflicting mankind – while standing at public urinals with their willies out. The first film by ubiquitous character actor Fredric Lehne.
Fredric Lehne
Silence
Mihai is a forest ranger who lives for his passion, the nature. Born in a small village in Transylvania and growing up there, he decided not to leave the silence of his loved environment for the noise of the city, despite the opportunities that a city offers: a job that assures a safe income without much physical struggle. Since his childhood, he had a strong bond with nature, his home being surrounded mostly by forests. Mihai spent most of his time in the woods, quietly, where he watched the life of animals. This activity quickly became his passion, that drove him to have a job in this field: a forest ranger, even if this means a smaller income in Romania. Over the years, Mihai got married and started a family with his wife. Due to his small income, Mihai was forced to buy and grow goats to sell milk and other products, in order to support his family. Mihai has a daily routine: he wakes up at 4 in the morning and with the help of his sons, with ages between 17 and 23, he manages the goats. During the day he is busy with the household and once he finishes, he leaves towards the forest, where he first checks the feeding points for the wild animals. After that, he controls the forest against the traps set up by the poachers. In the evening, Mihai goes to the observation points, he takes out his binoculars and enjoys the landscape and the animals. This documentary narrates the story of Mihai Comaniciu, who chose a traditional way of life at the countryside to be close to nature. The short’s main purpose is to induce a peaceful state of mind through Mihai's way of living.
Martin Wallmen
Sincerity
To seduce Louise, a young actress, Jean decides to shoot a film. Joined by his friends and muses Mia and Alma, a famous jazz pianist Jimmy and a philosopher called Guillaume, who arrives with a brainy neuroscientist, the team composes the script of the film each day. Little by little, feelings and creativity are taking more importance than the characters everyone are supposed to play. Does sincerity require the fiction to reveal itself?
Charles Guerin Surville
Skin
In the remote and wild north west of Scotland, A Fisherman lives a solitary existence. Driven by desperate loneliness the Fisherman commits an immoral act following the chance encounter with a mysterious Woman . In this rugged landscape the boundaries between folk lore and the harsh realities of highland existence are enigmatically blurred.
Alasdair K Boyce
Swamps & Ponds
The film Swamps & Ponds is loosely based on the speculative origins of the 19th century Styrian arsenic eaters, a collective of peasants known as the Toxicophagi who were written about by the physician and naturalist Johann Jakob von Tschudi in 1851. The Toxicophagi used arsenic regularly and were thought to have become immune to the poison due to regular doses. They ate the arsenic either to acquire a fresh complexion or to facilitate respiration when walking or working in the mountains. This poison was used as a symbolic starting point to explore the power of invisible substances or structures and the tolerance of an overlooked collective. By repurposing this compound, the aim was to explore the implications substances and ‘invisible’ toxic forces have on group formation and dissolution; hierarchies and power; and subcultures and intoxication.
Helen Anna Flanagan
Syria’s Tent Cities
Many Syrian refugee children around the world don’t have access to a basic education, and this becomes a barrier to them growing up to be literate, self-sufficient, contributing members of their society. Some refugees are living illegally in neighbouring countries, while others have been resettled permanently halfway across the world in Canada. This film examines the lives of the Syrian refugees on both sides of the globe, as they slowly improve their situation through the efforts of two individuals who have dedicated their lives to making education and inclusivity a right for all Syrian children.
Mira Hamour
The Beast Underneath
On the 27th of February 2016, in the city of La Baie, Quebec, the famous fisherman Marc Gagnon discovered a new species of halibut that could reach several meters. Because the man is always looking for controlling the nature. How far his megalomania is going to take him?
Anaëlle Morf, Alexandre Rufin
The Bird Catcher
On her attempt to flee the Nazi round-up in Norway, Esther finds herself alone, on an occupied farm forced to conceal her identity; leading to a series of choices and consequences which shift the paths of those around her. This story uncovers a hidden slice of history that grips at the heart and inspires us all at the deepest level.
Ross Clarke
The Demon Disease
In West Africa, traditional society has no space for people with mental illness and epilepsy. Demons are seen as cause for their diseases which are wrongly considered contagious. They live on the outskirts of the villages, in prayer centers, or wander around unnoticed, often chained or beaten. Pastor Tankpari Guitanga has decided to help these people and has founded the local aid organization Yenfaabima, whose revolutionary work is still just starting. LA MALADIE DU DÉMON (The Demon Disease) shows first hand the situation of those affected and the everyday life of those who have decided to help within their modest possibilities. The protagonists stand up courageously against the believes of a whole society to fight for medical treatment, freedom and dignity.
Lilith Kugler
The Drum I Hear Before I Die
In a sparkly, smokey bedroom in rural Gothenburg, Sweden, we follow Nick and his friend Jonte reminiscing good times and the really, really bad.
Mimi Dahlén
The Last Interrogation
Two detectives have eight hours left to get a confession from a young Somali-Dutch terrorism suspect called Mahdi Nurani. He is suspected of preparing an attack, but hard evidence is lacking. How far should they go in sacrificing freedom for safety? Passionate, but also worried about tunnel vision, the detectives start to interrogate Mahdi. Until then the suspect has invoked his right to remain silent. Now, inch by inch, they surround him and drive him into a corner. By using ingenious questioning techniques and taking advantage of Mahdi's need to talk about his faith, they get him to break his silence. Mahdi manages to win their sympathy, but gets himself in trouble at the same time. Gradually he impresses his interrogators and touches them, but is it enough to regain his freedom?
Jaap van Heusden
The Revelator
New York – 2017. Thirty-year-old Mason Johnson is at the peak of his career at Lambertson Pharmaceuticals. He’s got it all: he’s handsome, successful and rich. He’s also a narcissistic douchebag. After an unconventional heart attack, Mason dies in the company elevator as it halts mid-way. The elevator transforms into a place between heaven and hell, the floors representing the years of his life. A man who calls himself God, takes Mason on a trip through various stages of his life. And it’s not looking good. Judgment day is here. But repentance is not a part of the Mason Johnson playbook. He’s never backed down in his life, and it doesn’t look like he’s inclined to start now. The Revelator is a thriller with a dark sense of humor, tracing the boundaries of good and evil as we wonder whether a God is still necessary to dictate what is right and what is wrong.
Deniz Campinar
The Walkers
When a troubled art curator is forced to seek professional help, she is unknowingly manipulated by her therapist into being his replacement test subject, in a sinister experiment that programs her into a sleepwalking assassin.
Bauke Brouwer
They Came Like Swallows
Four friends have been on the road, travelling, living hand-to-mouth for two years, pursuing a true sense of freedom, when one of them receives word her Father is seriously ill and is going to die. Though she is inexplicably convinced he will live, they all return home to England, to a claustrophobic cottage in the middle of the countryside. One of her friends sees this as an opportunity to regain what he feels he has missed emotionally in his life, as his father died before he ever had the chance to know him. Their time spent waiting in this tense atmosphere causes them to recount their own experiences of death and question all that surrounds it.
David James Watson
Things Were Better Before
Tankus the Henge and Trukitrek Puppet Company have dreamt up an animation that is both beautiful in it's design and poignant in its message dealing as it does with environmental issues, specifically the death of our oceans. The film, made entirely using found or recycled materials, is a “Wake-up Machine” to those who view it, encouraging green and sustainable thinking to a society which needs to pay attention and affect real change before it’s too late.
Lu Pulici
This One’s for You, Alice
When Joaquim, a frustrated writer living in the 70s, finds out his recently wed wife is cheating on him, he starts writing a suicide letter along with preparing a surprise for his wife to find when she gets home from her lover’s arms.
Patrick Hanser
Tomatic
Three best friends, Jimmy, Samy and Sofi, have the trailblazing idea: to turn a chocolate dispenser into a pot-vending machine. Also, there’s a dog in the film.
Christophe Saber
Unforgivable
Imperdonabile is the story of Alice and Emmanuel, two people on opposing sides during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. It reveals what happens when the person who nearly destroyed your life confronts you and asks for forgiveness.
Giosue Petrone
Utopia Trailer
Utopia is a surreal drama about an aspirational, blond young lady who wakes up from a coma in Uganda. And, no — nothing is as it seems.
Aimiende Negbenebor Sela
Volar (Flying)
This film gathers nine survivors of gender violence, among whom there is an architect, a university professor, a cleaning lady and a student. They all share a weekend in the countryside, in the heart of the Basque Country. That is where we gather their testimonies, their conversations on their past of violence as well as a message of hope and their experience overcoming what they had gone through.
Bertha Gaztelumendi
Waldstille
Ben bears guilt for the death of his girlfriend. When he returns to his hometown after a long time he has to face his in-laws, who gained custody of his daughter.
Martijn Maria Smits
We Are Thankful
Siyabonga (english title: We Are Thankful), named after the film’s main character Siyabonga Majola, is a docufiction film set in the KwaZulu Natal region of modern day South Africa. It makes use of footage from both the narrative and documentary tradition. In the film we follow Siyabonga, a young man making plays in the township of Mpophomeni. One day he hears the surprising news that a movie is to be made in a nearby town and makes it his mission to be a part of the film. From conspiring with a maid to steal wifi from the umlungus (white people) so he can write an email to the film producers, to rebuffing a friend’s urgent plea for him to improve his luck by making use of witchcraft, Siyabonga’s journey takes him down many surprising paths that lead him to a meeting with the film’s director. Here we observe the conversation that caused the film we are watching to come into existence. A film based on real events, re-enacted by those who lived through them, we follow this extraordinary man as he does all he can to try and improve his life and take control of his fortune. Siyabonga’s past echoes in his present in much the same way that South Africa’s own history seems to have left an indelible mark on the people and places of the film. Time moves differently in such spaces. Places never confined to just the here and now, but rather some kind of eternal memory.
Joshua Magor
What Remains
At the end of her wedding day, the bride Elaha has locked herself in the bathroom with her two closest friends to insert an artificial hymen inside her. But now Elaha is hesitating. The clock is ticking and the bathroom seems to be getting smaller and smaller.
Chiara Fleischhacker
Where The Light Is
A young girl trapped in a cycle of nightmares feels that she must save the world in order to break out. For most children around the age of ten, the world starts to loose its innocence. They begin to understand that it can be a very cruel place indeed. At the same time they are naïve enough to think that they can change this all by themselves. With everything that is happening in the world right now, this is a powerful starting point for a drama.
Nikolaj Fremming
ΔNOMΔLY
Human use, population, and technology have reached that certain stage where Mother Earth no longer accepts our presence with silence (The Dalai Lama) ΔNOMΔLY is a short film combining travel footage from Iceland with visual effects. I traveled to the 'Land of Ice and Fire' in October 2017. With a concept in mind of what I wanted to create I teamed up with Benni, Markus and Johannes of Wildboar 3D Studio. Luckily the guys shared my vision so we worked on this passion project together.
Jacco Kliesch