CHECK OUR FULL SCREENING PROGRAMME FOR CFF 2020

23.10.20

DAY 1

15:00 –

22:30

SLOT 1

15:00 –

22:30

Head Burst

Savas Ceviz

Markus, a good-looking, likable and respected architect, is a paedophile. Bodies of little boys excite him. He suffers tremendously because of this inclination. He tortures himself for it and is disgusted by himself. Nevertheless, the arousal is there. And there is nothing he can do about it. He struggles the most when he is about to become sexual with a boy for the first time. That is when he senses that he will not be able to keep his desire under control for much longer. He is getting more and more isolated. Markus struggles to resist the ever-rising calls in his head to finally do more with a boy. MORE

DAR(k)WIN Project

Loris Lamunière, Charles Mercier

This fictional animal documentary places us in a distant imaginary future where life underwater as we know it today has been completely replaced by a new generation of species, made of plastic. The massive human pollution of the oceans has led to a profound disruption of our eco-systems, the laws of evolution have been jostled and led to the creation of new submarine mutants, observed in their natural environment. MORE

Deathless, I Cry in My Dreams

August Aabo

A young woman's friend dies in an accident, but she doesn't cry. She finds a bag full of money and is more affected by the joy of the money, than she is troubled by the sorrow of her loss. In her dreams she is haunted by her dead friend, who asks her why she isn’t crying. MORE

Reined

Alex Ströbeck

A father and son get into a disagreement over the fate of an animal on their farm. MORE

Pollux

Michael Dichter

No summer camp this year for 13-year-old Vivian and Max because of the imminent closure of the factory where their parents are working. But Vivian has a plan to make money and allow them to go to the camp anyway. Accompanied by Tom, their childhood friend, they will run into a race against time. MORE

Sticker

Georgi M. Unkovski

After an unsuccessful attempt to renew his car registration, Dejan (37) falls in a bureaucratic trap that tests his determination to be a responsible father. MORE

Postludium

Svend Colding

Joachim has come to take care of his self-destructive and suicidal father Ulrich, who lives on the countryside. They have not spoken nor seen each other for several years. It’s a story about family and betrayal. They will both have to let go of their failure, shame and guilt to move on, even though the outcome might be hard. MORE

Under the Moonlight

Jia Shijun

The Daliang Mountains is an undeveloped rural area in southwestern China known for its poverty and cultural uniqueness. The Daliang Mountains has been able to remain culturally untainted due to its severe lack of transportation and educational resources. In this area lives the Yi people, a Chinese ethnic minority group. Under the Moonlight (2019) is a music video based on a Yi ethnic poem, “阿莫尼惹”. Sung only in Yi ethnic language, this poem is about mother-daughter relationships in Yi heritage. The story in Under the Moonlight (2019) is a third-person narrative about a girl born in the Daliang Mountains. She visualizes her past growing up in the village. Even though she feels blessed about her roots, she reflects on how she had longed for a better future. MORE

We the Bathers

Phoebe Arnstein

In this short documentary, fourteen people from across the world reveal their unique connection to water. We the Bathers holds up an intimate lens to a series of disparate lives, leading us to consider how our bathing rituals might be shaped by our identities. Through a startling juxtaposition of circumstances, from a grieving widower in East London, to a transgender sex worker in Sicily, to a Buddhist monk in Japan, each person is given a platform to speak candidly about their experiences without restraint. Water is life. MORE

Nest

Liza Koifman

After her parents passed, Janna took over the family farm where she lives with her disabled brother. The daily care for her brother takes a toll on Janna. Watching her peers moving on in life and building relationships makes the situation even more unbearable. Will she ever be able to leave her nest? MORE

Flowers

Baptiste Petit-Gats

It is All Saints’ Day. Bérénice wanders through the city. She must find flowers for the grave. Sacha, her son, has other plans. Too bad. She must find flowers for the grave. MORE

Under the Lemon Tree

Noor Alasswad

In this documentary, we spend a day under the shade of a lemon tree with a Palestinian woman named Khaldieh who was abruptly exiled from her hometown of Tulkarem in the year 1967. Preparing herself a humble breakfast of za’tar and inhaling the smell of sage, she recreates her homeland through an assemblage of simple elements.Though they may seem trivial, for many Palestinians they are among the only tangible pieces of their lost homeland that they still possess. She retreats into her memories of her early life in Palestine and, taking the viewer with her, gives voice to her deep longing for her land and home and reminiscences on the hardships of exile, the things she experienced, witnessed and lost. She unfolds the trauma of her sudden expulsion from the town she and all her ancestors grew up in. Holding onto a mere key to their home, she shares with us the pain of leaving her house for the last time, which she relates to her constant dreams of return. MORE

Hold the Sun in Your Hands: The Erika Jacoby Story

Talia Abel, Xenia Bernal, Ian Kim, Alejandro Moses, Hank Schoen, India Spencer, Eva Suissa, Michael Zambrano

Mixed media animation and personal testimony illustrate the story of a child survivor of the Holocaust. Created by students in the Righteous Conversations Project, a collaboration of Holocaust survivors and teens, during Harvard-Westlake Summer Film. MORE

Claude on the Run

Thomas Buisson

65-year-old Claude zooms about on her little motorbike, scratching scratch cards and living off bogus cheques. But the local population has had enough. The old lady must either settle down or disappear. MORE

24.10.20

DAY 2

17:00 –

22:30

SLOT 1

17:00 –

22:30

Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you're a girl)

Carol Dysinger

This film tells the story of young Afghan girls learning to read, write – and skateboard – in Kabul. After years of conflict, and with Afghanistan still dubbed 'one of the worst places to be born a girl', an organisation called ‘Skateistan’ recruits kids from poor neighbourhoods and teaches them skills so they can return to public school and get a start in life. For girls, the chance to skateboard presents a unique experience – to compete, to play, to learn their strength and to gain courage. We follow a class of girls at Skateistan growing through the joy of skating and the warmth of the women who teach them. MORE

Ketchup Brothers

Eric Boadella

Ketchup Brothers is the “blood” oath between two lost souls united by destiny: Vero, who has just escaped from jail with a stolen car, and Samuel, a child who wanders through the streets of Barcelona stealing wallets. MORE

Remote

Edouard Paquet

Fascinated by remote, isolated places and why people live there, I set off to Bardsey Island; home to just 4 permanent residents. MORE

Sunshine

Carla Malling Agger

The 7-year-old girl, Solvej, lives alone with her mentally ill mother in a messy apartment. Her mother is sick, but Solvej cannot see why, because the sickness is inside her mothers head. Solvej eats canned food and goes to school in her dirty clothes. Amidst all the mess, Solvej dreams herself away in her drawings, which come alive to take her away from the world, she's been placed in. In her troubled daily life, there are only small beams of hope. When her mothers mental illness worsens, it is up to Solvej to fight and accept the terms, she and her mother are faced with. MORE

Selma After the Rain

Loli Menezes

Selma is a trans woman who built her life away from the family. One day she gets a call to go to her elderly mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's and needs treatment. In this encounter, lost in confused memories, the two women remember forgotten pains and desires, and revisit lost guilt and affection. MORE

As Up to Now

Katalin Moldovai

Hope is what brings us forward. All the characters in the movie – the main character Margit, and her daughter Judit- become part of a hope giving lie. Margit suffers from a serious skin cancer, but her daughter arranges that her mother be treated. She goes to the treatments alone, and her life become more active and the relationship with her daughter seems to get better. MORE

Mothers Of

Ross Lai

El Salvador has some of the most extreme anti-abortion laws in the world. It is one of a handful of countries in the world where abortion is banned under all circumstances, including cases of rape and when a pregnancy poses a clinically verifiable risk to a woman’s health. As an extreme consequence of the law, women who have naturally occurring obstetric emergencies are routinely imprisoned on homicide charges. When they seek emergency care after miscarriages or stillbirths, doctors report them to the police on the suspicion of having an abortion. Between 2000 and 2011, 129 women in El Salvador were prosecuted for abortion or homicide when the fetal deaths occurred in the last months of pregnancy. 'Mothers of' explores the hyper-strict abortion regulations in El Salvador through the story of Teodora del Carmen Vásquez, a woman forced to serve over 10 years in jail after suffering a stillbirth in her 9th month of pregnancy. Through Teodora’s perspective, we begin to understand how loss and motherhood are felt in the face of bitter social injustice. MORE

NYET! – a Brexit UK Border Farce

Alex Helfrecht, Jörg Tittel

Boris (Dimitri Gripari) and Olga (Gabriella Moran) have travelled across Europe to the port of Dover with precious cargo from Russia. When Border Control guards Steve (Garry Mountaine) and Liz (Beatie Edney) unearth far more than they were expecting, an interrogation ensues, overseen by the formidable Head of Border Control Mrs. Pyke (Olivia Williams). Her strong and stable methods uncover truths hidden – quite literally – within our protagonists. MORE

Fathers

Albert Sverrisson

Kasper is hurt when his father almost misses out on seeing his new-born granddaughter simply because he refuses to set foot in the same room as his ex-wife – Kasper’s mother – is in. He decides to make an ultimatum towards his father, demanding that he participate unconditionally in his grandchild’s life – now and forevermore, whatever it takes. MORE

Clay

Leonard Rääf

20-something year old Agnes, seeks independence in traveling to Iceland on her own. With a promising job as an au pair for two twin girls, she seems to have found the perfect base for her search in personal reinvention. But once arriving, Agnes quickly meets a darker truth as she is thrown into a world of distress, with a mother fully embodying the word ‘abuse’.Henceforth, she is forced to take action in a desperate attempt to sort out the situation – whilst not being completely sorted out herself. MORE

Killing Stacy

Liva Lervig Haue, Alexander Sørensen

Marcus is the guitarist and leading force behind struggling rock band, Killing Stacy. On the night of their biggest gig yet, everything is falling apart and Marcus is desperately trying to save the show. Unbeknownst to his band mates, Marcus has gotten an offer to join a highly successful band if he plays an impressive show. Can Marcus overcome his band's dysfunctional nature and pull of their best gig to date, all in order to leave his friends behind? MORE

Foggy Days

Martin Sandin

Stockholm. In a time where social media gives us performance anxiety and confirmation is becoming increasingly important, Clara meets Peter. Clara wants the world. Peter wants nothing but to be loved. The usually confident Peter quickly becomes inferior to the charismatic Clara, leaving him with only one last option: to confront her with his true feelings. Together they are drawn into a world where love is a currency to feed their own ego. Their relationship is a battle without a winner. Foggy Days is a modern love story that questions how we live today and what happens when we only focus on ourselves and ignore everybody else. The usually confident Peter quickly becomes inferior to the charismatic Clara, leaving him with only one last option: to confront her with his true feelings. Together they are drawn into a world where love is a currency to feed their own ego. Their relationship is a battle without a winner. Foggy Days is a modern love story that questions how we live today and what happens when we only focus on ourselves and ignore everybody else. MORE

Motherland

Emily Mkrtichian, Jesse Soursourian

What if fighting for your country meant going against some of its most traditional values? Motherland is a documentary about the women who shake tradition to rid their country of landmines leftover from a devastating ethnic war. Individually outcast; together, a collective – the deminers support each other as they take on the dangerous role of breaking stereotypes and securing the future of their war-torn republic. MORE

Mono No Aware

Marco Molinelli

Often considered to be untranslatable, the Japanese term MONO NO AWARE refers to the bittersweet realization of the ephemeral nature of all things. It is the awareness that everything in existence is temporary. The fleetingness of youth, the fading of romance, and the changing of seasons are not to be mourned, but cherished and appreciated in their impermanence, for that is where their beauty comes from. This art video is made in collaboration between the music collective C'mon Tigre and the artist Maurizio Anzeri, animating the Anzeri original artworks to tell a story of the beauty of ephemeral human beings life, flying over places like a bird, observing people who live in those places in a dimension where history and future converge. Maurizio Anzeri makes his portraits by drawing on tracing paper, which he laid on top of old photographs, and after by sewing directly into the photographs. His embroidered patterns garnish the figures like elaborate costumes, but also suggest a psychological aura, as if revealing the person’s thoughts or feelings. The antique appearance of the photographs is often at odds with the sharp lines and silky shimmer of the threads.The artist’s recent expansion of his practice to include landscapes stems from an interest in the idea of ‘electricity’: electricity that we emanate and absorb and its manifestations. In his altered landscapes, mysterious emanations suggest unseen phenomena, and allude to the spiritual and mystical. MORE

Ray's Great Escape

Jie Weng

Ray is a little monster who lives on the edge of a volcano that is about to erupt, which pushes him to find a way to move his house. From being accustomed to earthquakes to wishing to take away all his beloved objects, Ray experiences a painful struggle in his heart. In the end, with his wisdom and hands, he transformes his wooden house into a small boat and embarkes on the adventure of a long road. In this poem-like short film, the simple and lovely Ray not only brings us laughter but also brings us the courage to choose a new life in order to face a new environment. MORE

Best Seller

Nora Kirkpatrick

When the reigning queen of the Home Shopping Network is killed live on-the-air during a hair drying demonstration gone wrong, her three venomous, power-hungry disciples enter into a cutthroat competition for her coveted time slot. MORE