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Browse through the detailed list of the screening films of the 6th Copenhagen Film Festival!
A Howling Dog
In a life that has been put on hold, the isolated human being is observed in all his loneliness and ignorance. Just when it becomes clear that this situation can also bring about something beautiful, things take an unexpected turn which changes everything.
Stijn van Gorkum
A Sunday in Portsmouth
‘A Sunday in Portsmouth’ is a lyrical journey through a quiet night, where mysterious and magical forces are unleashed. The football agent Thorsten meets Matilda who is half his age. They are traveling on a ferry from France to the habour town, Portsmouth in England. Matilda is in distress so Thorsten wants to help, but really it is just as much he himself who is in trouble. Their meeting is part awkward, part tender. But despite seemingly very different, the two share something. A feeling that connects them for a brief moment in time. A moment that seems to attract magical forces. ‘A Sunday in Portsmouth’ is Sigurd Kølster's director’s cut version of his graduation film from the National Film & Television School. It stars Swedish actor Simon J. Berger and Scottish actress Sorcha Groundsell. The short film is a poetic and quiet depiction of the acceptance of loss, with a cinematic language based on magical realism. Its finale is a wordless and musical depiction of coming into contact with trauma. Slowly opening up to feelings that have been hidden away. As the last step before a healing process can begin.
Sigurd Kølster
Art Chooses Us
Four African artists from four different countries practicing four different crafts contemplate on what it means to be an artist. Art Chooses Us poetically captures reflections on the African art scene through the eyes of four African artists. Most art from or about Africa highlights the sorrow and suffering of the continent and its people, thereby reinforcing the negative image generally depicted by mainstream news media. Though this image is certainly justified by Africa's harsh, daily realities and its problematic past, it also fixes the continent in an undeserved cliché of powerlessness and lack of agency and, consequently fails to tell the whole story of Africa, which just as much involves strength, optimism, and hope for the future, particularly among younger generations. The work of these four artists is fierce, stylish, beautiful, imaginative, poetic, sometimes even funny and entertaining, and at the same time strongly connected to their everyday reality with all its ups and downs, to their past and to their imagined future. Ultimately, Art Chooses Us is a documentary that shows artists who could shape an alternative narrative about Africa, more positive and uplifting than is generally told.
Tomas Kamphuis
As You Were
In a cold, artificially lit studio, we see four dancers in a study of power, youth / old age, sexuality and acceptance of the individual's place in the world.
Frederik Valentin
Clotheslined
A chronicle of the life of an average Lebanese family across decades, illustrated through what is witnessed on their clothesline
Patrick Chemali
Color to the Sunset Sky
For most Raindrops, there’s no greater purpose than jumping from clouds.
Alex Glawion
Cousins
During the seven days of mourning for her grandfather, 14 year old Maayan sleeps over at her cousin’s house, Ran. Tired of reflecting about death, the two start exploring intimacy with each other.
Michal Haggiag
Cruise
We’ve all received scam phone calls, but what about the person making the calls? Cruise is a dark workplace satire about a hapless telemarketer trying mightily to give away a free cruise. And if he fails, there will be dire consequences.
Sam Rudykoff
EVA – a Visual Essay on the Female Body
‘EVA’ is a visualization of women's self-perception as a result of their bodily experiences. It illustrates what it’s like to be a woman and to have a female body in the Western world – about the complexities and the contrasts; about being the subject of societal surveillance; and about learning to love and accept oneself. While ‘EVA’ is a tribute to the diversity of the female body, and to the vulnerabilities and strengths of women, the short film is also a testimony and a call to look at the woman differently – in a different light. In ‘EVA’, you’re invited to look beyond the preconceived notions and cultural assumptions that you have about the female body. You have to see the female body for what it is – and hear about it for what it does, and for what it’s capable of.
Emma Kristine Sylvest Ishøy
Father of Storm
Mr. Giversen is in a worrying state of mind when he’s paid a visit at home by Tove Digmann and Doris – two officers from a special police unit. Mr. Giversen soon realizes that he’s suspected of having abducted his own son, Storm. Mr. Giversen has already lost his right to have contact with Storm, and Tove Digmann, the head officer, is not afraid of proving her point by the abuse of power.
Christian B Frederiksen
Finding Satoshi
A documentary film about a 14 year hunt for a Japanese man named Satoshi which started as a game.
Laurent Barthelemy
Firefly
Faustine is a young woman without ties, who is on the road. As winter approaches, she finds herself without any money in a country village. Helpless, she decides to spend the winter in a house without the knowledge of its owner, a lonely blind man.
Lucie Pagès
From Sent Ash to Dancing Ground
A woman finds her footing in remote surrounds after unforeseen events guide her through an unusual grieving process.
Maëva Spyropoulos
Girl In Red – Body & Mind
Created by up-and-coming horror director Thea Hvistendahl, the clip sees Girl in Red, a.k.a. Marie Ulven, captured by witches and brought to the middle of a secluded forest, where she becomes the modern-day victim of being burned at the stake.
Thea Hvistendahl
Glimmer
The steel industry once put Luxembourg's economy on its feet. After the industry died out, what remained of it was deserted, colossal buildings and lives scarred by unsafe working conditions. However, for many, these hazardous jobs still represented a daily beacon of hope and financial security. This monumental film stands in the memory of the labor that went on behind four factory walls, documenting in “memento mori” fashion the vanishing world of industrial workers.
Ken Rischard
Got to Move
A man sits at a sushi bar, snacking on the world’s consumer comforts as they pass by, when he starts to get a bad case of indigestion …
Oltscho
Holiday
A short portrait documentary that tells the Story of a woman who has dementia, due to her illnes she forgot about the death of her two daughters. Her son takes care of her and tells us her story.
Nicklas Stinner
Hyper Duo – Cadavre Exquis
Cadavre Exquis is an experimental music video for and with the swiss band Hyper Duo. This piece has been composed by using the principle of the surrealist game Cadavre Exquis (exquisite corpse). It ends up being a 16 minutes long trip of 12 different parts, and the film sticks to this concept. Full of surrealistic elements, humor and satirical details about the music world, it's a maelström of universes and ideas.
Emmanuel Vion-Dury
I’ll Be Your Kettle
A woman desperately tries to keep up with her partner's unusual desires.
Tobias Rud
In His Image
Can we create life after death? Should we allow it? IN HIS IMAGE shows how the desire to have offspring has taken on an extra dimension. The film tells the stories of three mothers mourning their sons. Using semen collected shortly after their sons’ death, they hope to have him live on in a posthumous grandchild. The film raises ethical and philosophical questions about postmortem preproduction and sheds new light on dilemmas like single motherhood, the meaning of family and the complexity of losing a child.
Tami Ravid
In the Strange Pursuit of Laura Durand
Antonis and Christos are two friends who live in a small apartment in Athens. In distress and secluded from society, they survive mostly with Christos unemployment benefit. The two friends are also united by their common, platonic love interest for Laura Durand, a porn star of the '90s who disappeared mysteriously several years ago. They also perform 8-bit music with their offbeat band named Speed_28. When things go from bad to worse, the friends decide that time has come to start the quest for Laura Durand.
Dimitris Bavellas
Laundry
Humorous fragments of starting over, struggles with life and neighbours. A story when even washing the undies seems difficult.
Fabian Munsterhjelm
Lay Me by the Shore
Lay Me by the Shore' follows a week in the life of a trans boy in his final days of school as he comes to terms with his best friend’s recent passing. Exploring the raw, potent emotions of youth through the prism of grief, the film lends an empathetic eye on a young person’s very immediate but suppressed emotions. Drenched in the warm light of long June days and with the intimidating spectre of an uncertain future looming, the tale is told from the perspective of the recently deceased — an omniscient and benevolent presence.
David Findlay
Le Pompon
Sandra is a struggling single mom. But today, she holds her revenge. Her son Ryan will catch the pompon!
David Hourrègue
Lifeblood
Bourke is a place that exists on the edge of civilisation, and at the edge of Australia’s collective memory. When you visit this part of Australia, and really see it, it will speak to you. In a modern context, Bourke represents one of those places that sees ‘Boom and Bust’ on an almost seasonal basis. An abandoned place. Littered with memories and old stories. But when you look closely, you see that life is everywhere. Impossibly beautiful. Life hibernates. Life adapts. The people of Bourke Shire are more resilient than the rest of us. After the Europeans arrived, Aboriginal people in Bourke were taken away, and others were brought here, to live in the missions. Today there are more than 20 tribes and clans represented in the region, so identity is a problem for a lot of Aboriginal people. Is this my place? Or is this your place? Think about what that must feel like. Lifeblood is a film about the intersection of place, history, and our identity. Who are we as Australians? We are disconnected from our true cultural identity. We don’t understand our environment, and therefore we don’t know how to protect the delicate equilibriums that have existed for millions of years on our planet. Bourke people are more closely connected with the way our planet is changing. People suffer when the river is low. Businesses go bankrupt because of the drought. People change their livelihoods accordingly. We ignore the truth, and an entire culture that flourished for hundreds of thousands of years slowly dies. Why do we ignore these truths? Where are we rushing to? Stop and look. Stay a while, and you will see.
Nicholas Tory
Marianne
Marianne, a heroine for a day, is interviewed by a young journalist. Despite of all the misunderstandings, a meeting takes place, brief, tenuous, human.
Julien Gaspar-Oliveri
Papaya
Kelady commands an energetic fury, combining gritty sunbaked ink together with soap textures and rotoscoped dancing. “Papaya” is a fierce yet playful animated music video reflecting on skin whitening products promoted by the Philippine beauty industry; a combustion of colorism and the control on women’s bodies.
Kelsey Boncato
Primal Therapy
A middle-aged man on the verge of a burnout seeks new energy through a very special form of self help therapy.
Santtu Salminen
Soft Rain
A man suffering from depression is caught in a sudden downpour of pink, fluffy balls. At a crowded bus stop, a cheerful looking woman offers him an umbrella, and together they enjoy the soft rain.
Sacha Goedegebure
Sol’s Journey
Sol is a divorced woman, one night when going to claim her ex-husband due payments of child-support, her seven year-old son, Christian, is taken from her. This traumatic event fills her with pain, anger and despair. After realizing the indifference and slowness of the investigation processes, Sol begins a frantic search for her son aside from the official procedure. On her journey to find clues of the whereabouts of Christian, she will gradually withdraw from her daily activities . Only the hope of finding Christian mantains her afloat. This film presents a human and personified vision of unbearable loss and struggle reminding us reminds us that despair and possibility often spring from the same source.
Claudia Sainte-Luce
The Captain’s Heart
The director sets out to understand his maternal grandfather, the late Captain Goth (1893-1966). In the process, he had to recreate the ship that was the Captain’s life and great love. Through interviews with his remaining children, mementoes from his old ships chest, photos and archival material mixed with hand-drawn animations, the film depicts a turbulent time in world history through a man willing to defy submarines, mines, bombing and shipwrecks to serve God, King and country. But after 50 years at sea, the new world no longer accords with the Captain's rules, and his heart is not as stubborn as his will. He can keep the world and its wars at bay, but he cannot control his family and their desire for freedom. Nor can he submit to the new world that has arisen from the ashes of the old. Seventeen years in the making, acclaimed storyboard artist and painter Simon Bang in his first feature documentary digs into a painful family story spanning two world wars and a life at sea.
Simon Bang
The Day That Was White
A diverse group of people are stuck in a traffic jam on a foggy highway, the mist persists and becomes a cloak of uncertainty.
Wannes Vanspauwen
The Game
STRAHINJA, a smuggler in the Balkan’s modern “migration industry”, longs for a flashy lifestyle. These aspirations and his emotional unavailability have estranged him from his wife, TIJANA, and their son, LUKA (7), the very people he hopes to impress. When a routine trip is interrupted by police, Strahinja becomes stranded with refugee teens, Yousef (17) his younger brothers and a traveling companion. The boys are refugees but above all else they are teenagers who long to have experiences that are something close to normal. The more time Strahinja spends with them, the more he struggles with seeing this as just a job. Their open hearted approach to life makes him aware of the walls he has built around his own.
Ana Lazarevic
The Last Bath
A nun is called upon to adopt her 15-year-old nephew, and as a consequence religion, family and love become entangled.
David Bonneville
The Last Picture Show
In a moulding city in decay, the hopes of a future for humans has started to fade.
Matilda Friman
The Neighborhood Storyteller
War tragically pushed Asmaa out of her home country, Syria, where her destiny had been written as a wife and mother with only 16 years of age. Asmaa rebuilt her adult identity as the neighborhood storyteller and began using reading aloud to children for fun as a bridge to tackle critical issues in her new community at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. Six years later, with Asmaa’s first born daughter reaching adolescence, a flashback of her education deprived past emerges and inspires her to embark on a new read aloud project to empower teenage girls to build a future of opportunities she never had. Despite her complex living situation as a refugee and the community’s conservative mindset, Asmaa is determined to raise a conscious generation of successful women. The Neighborhood Storyteller is a documentary feature film that explores human resilience, the transition from child to adult and one's capacity to turn hardships into an opportunity for self growth.
Alejandra Alcala
The Perfect David
At sixteen, David is much like any teenager, but his boyish good looks rest upon a hulking, muscular body. His weightlifting obsession is driven by his mother Juana, a troubled artist whose only goal is to have her son reach physical perfection by his seventeenth birthday. With countless hours spent at a grungy gym in the company of a motley clique of pumped-up gym rats, David desperately searches for what it means to be a man. With his birthday approaching, Juana demands growth at any cost. Soon David’s cohorts offer him dangerous chemical shortcuts, sending the teen spiraling into a cycle of physical and emotional torment. Pushed in every direction by adults who only take and trapped inside a body that is growing to freakish proportions, David rages against this brutally imposed armor. And his only way out is to stop being perfect.
Felipe Gómez Aparicio
The Struggle is Real 365
Daniel tries to impress his new boss in an attempt to get his life back on track.
Flook Nielsen