30 September 2014

Who Am I – No System is Safe



Baran bo Odar : 2014
Who Am I – Kein System ist sicher

Benjamin is the prototypical twenty-five-year-old computer geek: no fashion sense, no friends, and definitely no girlfriend. What he does have, however, is a preternatural talent for all things digital. His online activity catches the eye of the charismatic Max, a would-be revolutionary who yearns to "hack the world" but needs Benjamin's prodigious skills. Max's world of partying, drugs and sex is all a bit much for the introverted Benjamin, who is nevertheless thankful just to be part of something. The duo teams up with fellow wunderkinds Stephan and Paul to form the hacker collective CLAY (Clowns Laughing @ You), infiltrating international security systems and hacking for social justice. And they're really good at it – so good that they come to the attention of the German Secret Service, Europol and, most frighteningly, a sinister rival hacker who views this new cadre as a threat to be eliminated. Hunted by the cybercrime investigator Hanne Lindberg, Benjamin mutates from an unobserved nobody to one of the most wanted hackers in the world. Baran bo Odar's third feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.

29 September 2014

Magical Girl



Carlos Vermut : 2014

Luis is desperate to fulfil his terminally ill daughter Alicia's last wish: to own the prohibitively expensive 'Magical Girl Yukiko' dress from her favourite Japanese cartoon. Unemployed, with no prospects, and blinded with grief, Luis turns to extortion when he crosses paths with the beautiful, mentally disturbed Bárbara. Her marriage threatened by the blackmail, Bárbara reluctantly complies with his scheme, even as it sends her spiralling into a world of danger and degradation. Seeking revenge on Luis, she turns for help to the only person who truly knows how damaged she is: retired teacher Damián, who has dark secrets of his own. The trio descends into an infernal cycle of deception and double-crosses, in which instincts and reason will struggle in a tragic battle, changing their lives forever. Carlos Vermut's second feature premiered in the Discovery section at Toronto International Film Festival 2014. It was the winner of the Golden Shell for Best Film, and the Silver Shell for Best Director at its European premiere in competition at San Sebastián International Film Festival 2014.

28 September 2014

Honeytrap



Rebecca Johnson : 2014

Set in London, the story of a teenage girl whose desperate need for acceptance leads her to take part in a tragic act of violence. Layla is fifteen and has been living in Trinidad. Returned to her estranged mother in Brixton, she is faced with settling into a new home and a new city with a fresh set of rules and codes. Unsupported by her mother and spitefully rejected by her female peers, she is drawn to the brooding Troy, who marks her as his 'Trini princess'. When that fails, she takes solace in the friendship of Shaun, another admirer, but her desperate need for acceptance leads to a tragic betrayal of his kindness. Inspired by real life cases, the film explores gang culture from a girl's perspective in a hyper-masculine world. A world where obsession and jealousies loom larger than life and where status is survival itself. Rebecca Johnson's feature debut premiered at London Film Festival 2014.

27 September 2014

Betibú



Miguel Cohan : 2014

On a day like any other day in an exclusive, gated private neighbourhood, Pedro Chazarreta is found dead. Chazarreta is not only a powerful industrialist, but was also suspected of the murder of his wife by simulating a domestic accident a few years ago. The well-known novelist Nurit Iscar, known as Betibú, is contracted to cover the story for the newspaper 'El Tribuno'. Teaming up with the paper's veteran but now demoted crime reporter and the new US and Spanish-educated section head, whose interests initially lie elsewhere, the trio soon realise that this is no random crime but rather one in a series of murders that goes to the heart of the establishment. Is Chazarreta's death related to his wife's? Are the reasons for it hidden in his past? A conspiracy thriller where office politics blend with institutional corruption. Miguel Cohan's second feature had its UK premiere at London Film Festival 2014.

26 September 2014

Ventos de Agosto



Gabriel Mascaro : 2014
August Winds

Shirley has left the big city to live in a small seaside town and look after her grandmother. There, she drives a tractor on a local coconut plantation, loves rock music and dreams of being a tattoo artist. She feels trapped in the tiny coastal village. She is involved with Jeison, who also works on the coconut farm and who free dives for lobster and octopus in his spare time. The month of August is usually the time when tropical storms pound the coastline and a wind specialist comes to the village to research the intertropical zone of convergence. While high tides and growing winds rage, a surprising discovery takes Shirley and Jeison on a journey that confronts them with the duality between life and death, loss and memory, the wind and the sea. Gabriel Mascaro's first fiction feature received a Special Mention when it premiered at Locarno Film Festival 2014.

25 September 2014

Ixcanul



Jayro Bustamante : 2014
Ixcanul Volcano

María, a 17-year-old Mayan Kaqchikel girl, lives with her parents in a coffee plantation on the side of an active volcano in Guatemala. She is awaited by an arranged marriage she doesn't want but can't escape. Despite being an Indian woman, María will try to change her fate. However, a complication with her pregnancy forces her to set out and look for a hospital: the modern world she had always dreamt of will save her life, but at too high a price. Jayro Bustamante's feature debut received an honourable mention from the competition jury when it was presented in the Films in Progress section at San Sebastián International Film Festival 2014. His film was winner of the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize when it premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2015.

24 September 2014

Margarita, with a Straw



Shonali Bose : 2014

Laila is a student and aspiring writer, crafting lyrics and electronic sounds for an indie band at her Delhi university. Her cerebral palsy doesn't much get in the way of her life, although it sometimes does for others. However, she is being hurt by those who pity her, seeing only her disability and not her talent. Always seeking more freedom and new experience, Laila wins a place at New York University and leaves India with her mother for Manhattan. There she meets an Indian-American friend named Khanum, a fiery activist who challenges her beliefs, sparks her creativity, and eventually, takes her to bed. For these two women, it's the beginning of a remarkable love story. When Laila learns that her mother, who went back to India after staying with her in the US, is sick, she decides to visit India with Khanum. Before Laila's parents, they pretend to be just friends but their romance can't be hidden so easily. Love and discovering one's own true identity is a road hard won, and returning to India her emotional ties, new and old, are put to a bitter test. Based on a true story, Shonali Bose's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.

23 September 2014

Vie sauvage



Cédric Kahn : 2014
Wild Life

Philippe Fournier, nicknamed Paco, lives with his six- and seven-year-old sons, having decided not to give them back to their mother who had gained custody of them after their separation. As children and then adolescents, Okyesa and Tsali must live their lives in the shadows, assuming different identities, hunted by the police but living a free, nomadic life. They live in harmony with nature and their animals; with the solidarity and bonds formed with friends met on the road, and the joys of living life outside the system. On the run for eleven years throughout southern France, their journey forges their identities until justice catches up with them. Cédric Kahn's feature was winner of the Special Jury Prize when it premiered in competition at San Sebastián International Film Festival 2014.

22 September 2014

Sorg og glæde



Nils Malmros : 2013
Sorrow and Joy

Winter, 1984. Filmmaker Johannes returns home from a lecture one evening, only to face a catastrophe. That same afternoon, his wife Signe, a schoolteacher, has killed their 9-month-old daughter Maria. Not out of spite or hate, but a sense of despair and loneliness and psychosis. Johannes doesn't judge her, he knows that Signe is vulnerable. He is forced to stay composed and, even more, try to protect her against a legal system which may pass a heavy sentence on her. He believes that it happened through no fault of her own. If anyone is guilty, it is he himself and his focus on his film career. He tries to get to grips with all the ways he has failed Signe without ever meaning any harm. A series of flashbacks linked with conversations between Johannes and a psychiatrist begin to reveal the key to understanding the tragedy. Nils Malmros's feature premiered at Aarhus Filmfestival 2013, and received the Robert Award for Best Actress 2014.

21 September 2014

Kak menya zovut



Nigina Sayfullaeva : 2014
Name Me

Two 17-year-old girls from Moscow, Olya and Sasha, are going to Crimea to meet Olya's father Sergey. Sergey has lived in a small seaside village his whole life and has never seen his daughter. At the threshold of her father's house, Olya gets scared of meeting him. She asks Sasha to trade places with her. So Sasha introduces herself as Olya and pretends to be Sergey's daughter while Olya claims to be her best friend. Little do they know that this innocent joke will turn into great drama and change their lives forever. Nigina Sayfullaeva's feature directorial debut premiered in competition at San Sebastián International Film Festival 2014.

20 September 2014

Waiting for August



Teodora Ana Mihai : 2014

Georgiana Halmac turns 15 this winter. She lives with her six brothers and sisters in a social housing apartment on the outskirts of Bacău. Their mother Liliana was forced to leave her family behind to go to Turin, to earn money. She won't be back before summer. During their mother's absence, Georgiana has been catapulted into the role of head of the family, responsible for her siblings. Caught between puberty and responsibility, Georgiana moves ahead, improvising as she goes. Phone conversations with her mom are her only guidelines. Intimate scenes from the daily life of the seven siblings show us – in an uncensored, fly-on-the-wall style – how real events are experienced and interpreted with great imagination by the children. The girl doesn't lack determination but in the coming months she will have to contend with her brothers' and sisters' complicated personalities, as well as with the personal weaknesses lying in wait for her during this premature test of adulthood. Inspired by the director's own childhood when her parents left her in communist Romania for an entire year as they sought asylum in Belgium. She portrays both the specific lives and a more general story about Romania today where families are affected by economic, rather than political, issues. Teodora Ana Mihai's debut feature-length documentary was winner of the award for Best Documentary at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014.

19 September 2014

Lasa eta Zabala



Pablo Malo : 2014
Lasa & Zabala

October 1983. Basque refugees Joxean Lasa and Joxi Zabala go missing in Bayonne. Their disappearance is followed by a wave of attacks perpetrated by GAL. Iñigo, the young lawyer representing the families of the two men, must accept a growing conviction that they will never be seen alive again. 1995. Twelve years later, Jesús García, a police officer from Alicante, following new revelations about GAL, reopens the case of two unidentified bodies that had been unearthed ten years before, murdered and buried in quicklime. His suspicions are confirmed and they are shown to be the missing Joxean and Joxi. The inquiry begins and Iñigo, with his young assistant, Fede, will endeavour to bring the murderers to trial, all the while in serious personal danger and faced with the dilemma of whether or not it is legitimate to fight foul play with the same weapons. Pablo Malo's third feature premiered in competition at San Sebastián International Film Festival 2014.

18 September 2014

Limbo



Anna Sofie Hartmann : 2014

It is autumn. In the small Danish port of Nakskov the chimneys of the sugar factory smoke tirelessly. Giant windmill wings lie abandoned on the outskirts of town. The last year of high school lies before Sara and her friends. They talk about the future, about the wish to leave for a bigger city. Karen, a young Faroese, has just moved to the island to work as a teacher at the local high school. In the class discussions arise: What is femininity? What is masculinity? What is art? Who sees us and in what way? Who and what makes us who we are? Sara is fascinated by her new teacher; her friends find Karen strange – "perhaps a bit too feminist". A bond develops between Sara and Karen amidst projections, quiet expectations and daily life all around. Courage leads to disappointment and when an unexpected event occurs, Karen is left on her own. An acutely observed quiet drama, emphasising the periphery as much as the centre of the story. Anna Sofie Hartmann's feature debut premiered in competition at San Sebastián International Film Festival 2014.

17 September 2014

Félix et Meira



Maxime Giroux : 2014
Felix and Meira

A young married woman from Montréal's Orthodox Jewish community finds freedom from the strictures of her faith through her relationship with a young man who is mourning the death of his father. Meira is a young Hasidic Jewish wife and mother living in Montréal's Mile End district. Discontented with her marriage and life, she rebels secretly against her faith by listening to soul music and taking birth control pills. Secular francophone Félix is an eccentric and penniless loner living nearby, grieving over the recent death of his estranged father. Intrigued by Meira, Félix hopes her religious devotion will provide insight into his loss. Though she rebuffs him at first, they begin to meet in secret; a mutual affection soon arises, and she acquires a taste for life outside the strictures of her faith. As Meira's desire for change becomes harder for her to hide, and her husband becomes more suspicious, the tension between them builds. The tale of one woman's personal journey, her inner struggle for happiness, and the difficult choices she must make. Maxime Giroux's third feature was winner of the award for Best Canadian Feature Film when it premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.

16 September 2014

Scarlet Innocence



Yim Pil-sung : 2014
Madam Bbaengduk

Eight years ago, university professor Hak-kyu moved to a small town because of a scandal and began working as a literature instructor at a culture centre. He fell in love with a young woman, Deok-yi, who worked at an old amusement park. Once Hak-kyu was reinstated at the university he left the town for Seoul, leaving Deok-yi behind. Deok-yi refused to let the relationship die, and a confrontation between them turned tragic when Hak-kyu's wife committed suicide. Eight years later, Hak-kyu is a popular writer, but now almost blind and estranged from his daughter Chungee. He befriends a new neighbour, Se-jung. He gladly accepts her help and Chungee becomes attached to her, neither realising she is in fact Deok-yi whom he betrayed and that she is on a quest to destroy them. A modern-day adaption of Shim Chung, a classic Korean folktale. Yim Pil-sung's third feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.

15 September 2014

Dólares de arena



Laura Amelia Guzmán & Israel Cárdenas : 2014
Sand Dollars

In an idyllic seaside city in the Dominican Republic, the long-time relationship between a beautiful and impoverished young local girl and her wealthy European lover is put to the test as issues of class, inequality and exploitation rise to the surface. Twenty-year-old Noeli has been involved in a relationship for two years with the much older Anne. Anne is absolutely smitten with her young lover and prone to jealousy when she sees her talking with anyone else. Despite the money that regularly passes between them, neither Noeli, who lives with her boyfriend, nor Anne considers their relationship to be one of prostitution; but, ultimately, Anne represents one of the few employment opportunities available to a young woman in an economy that operates on various forms of tacit exploitation. Exploring this unbalanced relationship without judgment, the film offers an incisive portrait of an increasingly pervasive postcolonial reality. Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas's third feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.

14 September 2014

In the Crosswind



Martti Helde : 2014
Risttuules

On the night of 14 June 1941, over 40,000 inhabitants of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia – identified as "anti-Soviet elements" by the USSR, which had annexed the Baltic states the previous year – were forced on to trains and sent to the remotest outposts of Siberia. Among them is a philosophy student Erna, a happily married mother of a little girl, Eliide. Separated from her husband, Erna and her daughter are dispatched together with other women and children to remote Siberian territories. Despite hunger, fear and brutal humiliation, Erna never in the next fifteen years loses her sense of freedom and hope of returning to her homeland. Drawing from the diary kept by the real-life Erna throughout her displacement, the film meticulously reconstructs one survivor's story to create a delicate, powerfully moving memorial to all the victims of this massive and often-overlooked tragedy. Martti Helde's feature debut received its international premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2014, and was winner of the Ecumenical Jury Award at Warsaw Film Festival 2014.

13 September 2014

Jeziorak



Michał Otłowski : 2014
Waterline

Iza Dereń, a policewoman from a provincial town, is investigating the murder of a young woman. At the same time a search is under way for two policemen who are missing on duty. One of them is Iza's partner and the father of her unborn twins. The investigation will change her world forever. A fusion of a modern crime drama and the noir genre. Documentary filmmaker Michał Otłowski's debut thriller premiered in competition at Gdynia Film Festival 2014.

12 September 2014

In Her Place



Albert Shin : 2014

An affluent city woman and her husband arrive at a desolate farm in rural South Korea, where a pregnant teenager and her mother have agreed to let them adopt the girl's unborn child. The city woman stays to assist with the girl's pregnancy due to an arrangement that promises hope for the future of all three women. The city woman becomes accustomed to life on the farm; however, it becomes clear she is leading a double life. When speaking on the phone to friends and family, the woman pretends to be in the US. As days turn into weeks, she takes care of the pregnant girl and tries to earn her trust while the mother toils long hours in the fields. The relationship changes as the woman discovers that the girl's boyfriend is still in the picture and has been sneaking around the farm to be with her. Fearing that he will complicate the situation, the mother takes action and makes it known that his behaviour will not be tolerated. The woman, curious about the girl's suitor, gets to know him a little better. As weeks turn into long months, the girl becomes increasingly depressed by her isolation on the farm and her loneliness becomes suffocating, as does her life under the careful watch of the city woman. She soon uncovers the truth behind her boyfriend's absence, and her desperation to be free takes hold. Albert Shin's second feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.

11 September 2014

Impunity



Jyoti Mistry : 2014

Investigating a gruesome murder, a special investigator and a local police detective find themselves knee-deep in political corruption and conspiracy. The mauled remains of a cabinet minister's daughter are found in an exclusive African safari resort after a party celebrating her engagement to a rising political star. Special Crimes Unit investigator Dingande Fakude, called in from Pretoria to solve the mystery, teams up with local police detective Naveed Khan, a trained psychologist and self-styled outcast. Young couple Derren and Echo, who were working as waiters at the engagement party, are taken in for questioning by the two investigators. As Derren and Echo's culpability becomes evident, Fakude is relieved that the high-profile murder case can be swiftly closed. However, as he and Khan continue to piece the story together, uncovering a trail of murders, they are faced with a terrible choice – engineer a cover-up and provide impunity for the new political class, or save a little girl's life. Jyoti Mistry's noir thriller, her second feature, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.

10 September 2014

Fotograf



Waldemar Krzystek : 2014
The Photographer

An elusive serial killer is operating in modern-day Moscow. He leaves numbered tiles at the scenes of his crimes, similar to those placed at crime scenes by forensic teams. Legnica, 1974: a closed Soviet troops garrison. A seven-year-old boy is being taken away by rail to a psychiatric hospital in Moscow. He is supposed to stay there forever. Contemporary Moscow: intelligence services are pursuing a serial killer called the Photographer. Natasza, the sole witness who has survived an encounter with the Photographer, is to act as a bait. Why did he spare her life? How does Natasza know that the tracks of the murderer are to be followed in Poland? Contemporary Legnica: Natasza and a Polish police officer are the only ones who do not want to kill the encircled Photographer. What is it that unites these three people? Waldemar Krzystek's thriller premiered in competition at Gdynia Film Festival 2014.

9 September 2014

Aire libre



Anahí Berneri : 2014
Open Air

The long-time marriage between a seemingly happy Buenos Aires couple begins to disintegrate just as they are on the verge of realising their dream of an idyllic life outside the city. Lucía and Manuel have been married for many years and live with their son, Santi. Dreaming of their future, they decide to sell their Buenos Aires apartment and move in with Lucía's mother while building a new house outside the city. But, in reality, the couple has issues they are not confronting, and the new project reveals the gaps in their fracturing relationship. Unfulfilled desires and straying interests plague their marriage, and Manuel begins to spend more time away from home, putting his energy into working at a new club he's invested in. As the couple drifts further apart, the unspoken rupture begins to affect the one person they both want to protect: their son. Anahí Berneri's fourth feature received its international premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.

8 September 2014

Małe stłuczki



Aleksandra Gowin & Ireneusz Grzyb : 2014
Little Crushes

Kasia and Asia are living together and running a small business clearing out apartments when the owners move away or die. Piotr has recently abandoned his wife and left his job, now he rents a tiny room and works in a warehouse, packing small boxes into large ones. One day they bump into each other and it wouldn't be a big deal if only Piotr didn't fall in love with Asia, Kasia wouldn't be already crazy about her for quite some time, and Asia would be able to return any of those feelings. Tensions increase and emotions run high but no one is prepared to make the next move, preferring to play safe instead, rather than risk crushing what they have. Essentially they manage to maintain this delicate balance but it seems inevitable that emotions cannot stay buried forever and eventually something has to give. Three young adults looking for solidarity, love and independence. An unconventional love story about the oddity of ordinary things. Eccentric and natural at once. Aleksandra Gowin and Ireneusz Grzyb's feature debut premiered in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014.

7 September 2014

Inferno



Vinko Möderndorfer : 2014

Struggling for a better life in a world defined by economic crisis and lack of morality, the world today can be seen as an inferno: an unjust hell where those who are unlucky are simply unable to find the way out of their misery. By no means an abstract meditation on hell and evil, the film addresses concrete social and political situations in which the world has found itself because of the global capitalist monstrosity. The story focuses on a young unemployed working-class family and their everyday struggle for survival. The family is like any ordinary European family, trying to make a living with the work of their hands. Their life as a result of the global economic crisis finds itself at an impasse. It seems that there is no escape. That individuals cannot fight against injustice, against misery, against the unseen authority of the system. However, cobblestones torn from the city streets are waiting, and have done so for centuries. Inferno exists. But only temporarily. Vinko Möderndorfer's third feature premiered at Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož 2014.

6 September 2014

Prolaz za Stellu



Ljiljana Šišmanović : 2014
Passage for Stella

Stella lives in Zagreb. She is thirteen, she does not speak, does not walk and does not see almost anything. She can only move if assisted or in a wheelchair. Stella was born with a 100-percent disability: she has a complex cerebral paralysis, hypoplasia of corpus calosum, spinal tumor and a hard form of mental retardation. In order to make carrying of Stella from the street to their apartment less difficult (the route includes 35 steps, plus once again that many for carrying the wheelchair), her parents requested their neighbours to allow them passage through their backyard in order to avoid the staircase. However, the neighbours would not hear of it. A film about a girl whose microcosm is confined not only by disease and disability, but also by the cold-heartedness of her neighbours, of whom she asks not pity but merely some human decency. Award-winning director Ljiljana Šišmanović's documentary premiered in competition at Liburnia Film Festival 2014.

5 September 2014

4. majmun



Hrvoje Mabić : 2013
4th Monkey

In 2002, the psychiatric hospital at Lopača, near Rijeka, started admitting children with behavioural disorders. Soon, controversial stories about the hospital's treatment of children began to spread. This public secret is finally revealed in the painful testimonies of former patients, their parents and the doctors of Lopača Hospital. The film asks questions about moral responsibility, confronted by the shocking conformity of the hospital staff and the structures of the city government. In a reference to a Chinese proverb about three wise monkeys who 'hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil', a definitive answer to the question 'who is the fourth monkey?' is finally revealed. Hrvoje Mabić's documentary was winner of the Movies That Matter Award at ZagrebDox 2014, and the Audience Award at Liburnia Film Festival 2014.

4 September 2014

Tigers



Danis Tanović : 2014

Two filmmakers return from a research trip to Pakistan, troubled by inconsistencies in the story they are writing. They ask their subject Ayan, a young Pakistani salesman, to tell his story to their financiers' lawyer, on the record. If his story is true, and he can prove it's true, they can make the film. If not, the huge corporation whose methods they are attacking, could destroy them. Ayan is a young, recently married salesman who gets a job peddling locally made drugs to pharmacies and doctors. Despite the fact that the Pakistani-manufactured pharmaceuticals he sells are much cheaper than those sold by Western competitors, no one will trust or buy products that lack major brand names. His wife encourages him to apply for a job with Lasta, a large multinational, and Ayan is hired on a trial basis. It's not long before his natural charm and sales skills make him into a minor star, and Lasta then expands his responsibilities. However, one day he is devastated to see at first-hand what the selling of baby formula really means in certain cases. Shocked, Ayan sets out to challenge the system and the powers that be. A western TV crew make the documentary about his story and take him to Germany to promote it. He's promised he will return to Pakistan as a hero, but on the night of transmission, his former employers reveal a dark secret and suddenly it seems Ayan's story must go untold. Shaken by the true complexities of Ayan's experiences, the filmmakers realise they must tell the whole story, warts and all. But they too will soon discover the real power of a multinational corporation. Can the truth ever be told? Danis Tanović's feature premiered in competition at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.

3 September 2014

Ciudad sin sombra



Bernardo Cañizares Esguerra : 2014
Girl with no Fear

Martín, an elderly man, is abandoned in a psychiatric hospital where a pharmaceutical company is conducting illegal drug tests. His granddaughter, Ana, is shocked to discover that her own father is involved. Ana, the punk and non-conformist outcast, turns out to be the only person ready to do something about it. Set in the impressive mountain and coastal scenery of the Andes, this suspenseful and highly emotional thriller takes us on an impassioned journey with the fearless Ana. As she and Martín run away together in order to grant him his last wish, they must fight for their own survival against the vicious interests of a powerful company. Bernardo Cañizares Esguerra's second feature premiered at Bogotá Film Festival 2014.

2 September 2014

O lobo atrás da porta



Fernando Coimbra : 2013
A Wolf at the Door

Six-year-old Clarinha has disappeared. At the police station, shocked parents Sylvia and Bernardo sit answering questions posed by the inspector after their daughter was picked up that afternoon by an unknown woman and has not been seen since. Bernado, however, has a feeling he knows who might be behind the abduction: his lover Rosa, about whom his wife knows absolutely nothing. When Rosa turns up at the inspector's office, the young woman remains completely stolid, insisting that she has no idea where the girl is. Only when the detective takes a harder line does Rosa suddenly remember several incidents of that day. A suspenseful story of love, dependency and obsession, casting a light upon the cruelties of which humans are capable. Fernando Coimbra's feature debut premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2013.

1 September 2014

Mardan



Batin Ghobadi : 2014

A police officer finds himself haunted by a traumatic childhood memory as he searches for a missing man in the rugged mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. Mardan is a serious, brooding officer who is called into action to investigate the disappearance of a young man. The man's wife is extremely worried that foul play may be involved, as he was carrying a lot of cash, so Mardan sets out with the woman and her young son to try to solve the mystery. Stalking the Kurdish countryside, trying to solve the case of the missing man, Mardan finds himself revisiting his own personal history. The journey through a haunting terrain also becomes a trip through an obscure past. Batin Ghobadi's feature debut premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014.