Another Year

Oxana Bychkova : 2014
Yeshche odin god

Igor and Zhenya are a young married couple who share passionate feelings for one another but whose social status stands between them. He drives a taxi, whilst she has a fashionable job as a graphic designer in a modern corporation. With Igor, an entire cross-section of old Russian society is portrayed: the haughty bourgeoisie, eternally dissatisfied oligarchs, and the working class, trying to scrape together every penny they can. In Zhenya, on the other hand, we see the new Russia, represented by young people following Western fashions, listening to American music, drinking expensive alcohol, and using drugs. These two worlds appear to be irreconcilable and gradually the differences, no matter how insignificant, become fatally important. The film tracks their relationship – and the way it gradually melts away against the will of the lovers – throughout a year. A subtle, moving portrait of an immature love that breaks down easily. Oxana Bychkova's feature premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014.

After the Tone

Digna Sinke : 2014

Onno is not available. Lots of friends and relatives leave a message on his answering machine, but Onno doesn't ring back. In fact, there is no interaction between the characters in the film at all. All the dialogue consists of messages left on the voicemail of Onno – the person everything is about and whose voice we never even hear. Onno is conspicuous by his absence: he suddenly disappeared, leaving people behind in confusion, fury and despair. Through the messages left for him, we slowly start building up a picture of Onno, of the relationships the different speakers have with him and what he means to them: his professional partner, his mother, his sister, his girlfriend, his phantom ex-lover. The footage accompanying the voice-overs is of the places that belong to the relevant voices: a container dock, suburban open space, water surrounded by waving reeds, an office building, motorway, the car park of a mega-store. We see what the callers see. But we don't see Onno. A clear and precise film about a man who had everything but didn't want it anymore. Digna Sinke's experimental feature premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014.

6 Degrees

Bartosz Dombrowski : 2013
6 kroków

A journey through places, lifestyles and characters. The Six Degrees of Separation theory states that any two people in the world are connected by a maximum of six people who know each other. In order to test it, the filmmakers drew two random people: Martyna, a punk rock singer from Warsaw, and Marco Antonio, a farmer from a Mexican village. Then they set off on a journey to find links connecting them, learning a great deal about the various forms of interpersonal relationships. This experimental documentary, presented as a concrete application of a theoretical construct, is a visually impressive parable about closeness over large distances and the separation of people who are physically close together. Bartosz Dombrowski's first feature-length documentary premiered in competiton at Krakow Film Festival 2014.

Difret

Zeresenay Berhane Mehari : 2014

Three hours outside of Addis Ababa, a bright 14-year-old girl is on her way home from school when men on horses swoop in and kidnap her. The brave Hirut grabs a rifle and tries to escape, but ends up shooting her would-be husband. Accused of murder, Hirut may face the death penalty even though she was acting in self-defence, for in her village the practice of 'telefa' or marriage by abduction is common, being one of Ethiopia's oldest traditions. Lawyer Meaza Ashenafi has established a network providing poor women and children with free legal representation. Courageously, she stands up to all manner of harassment from the police and male members of the government. In taking on Hirut's case, which has become a cause célèbre, Meaza confronts both the government and entrenched attitudes towards women, risking the ongoing work of her women's legal-aid practice in order to save Hirut's life. Beneath the layer of Ethiopia's polite social customs, an aggressively rooted patriarchy perpetuates inhospitable conditions for women. Based on actual events, the film enquires about the nation's possible emergence into the modern world and about what happens when centuries-old traditions are broken and belief systems are abandoned. Zeresenay Berhane Mehari's award-winning feature directorial debut premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2014.

Più buio di mezzanotte

Sebastiano Riso : 2014
Darker Than Midnight

Davide is not a teenager like any other. There is something in him, in his appearance, which makes him look like a girl. Davide is fourteen when he runs away from home. His intuition, or perhaps fate, leads him to choose Villa Bellini, the largest park in Catania, as a refuge. The park is a world in, and of itself, a world of a marginalised population to which the rest of the city turns a blind eye. There he finds many like him who have escaped from a society that rejected them. When Davide is accepted into this strange extended family he finally feels safe and the past seems to vanish completely. But one day the past catches up to the present and Davide has to face the most difficult choice, this time alone. The director explains: "I'm portraying the things that people don't want to see, the things that are left to one side." It is a film dedicated to all those who live courageously, struggling to assert their identity – non-compliant victims of a society that fears them because of their difference. Sebastiano Riso's directorial debut premiered in competition at Semaine de la Critique du Festival de Cannes 2014.

Were dengê min

Hüseyin Karabey : 2014
Come to My Voice

In a remote Kurdish village in the mountains little Jiyan is worried about her father who has been arrested by the Turkish police as a suspected guerilla. He will only be released when his family surrenders his gun. The problem is he has never possessed one. And so Jiyan's grandmother Berfé has no choice but to set off in search of a weapon. A long march on foot leads Berfé and Jiyan through breathtakingly beautiful mountains to their relatives and beyond, into the unknown. On their journey Berfé displays courage and tenacity and Jiyan learns what it takes to survive in the adult world. The film depicts a life in which being subjected to sanctions and humiliating controls is almost a daily occurrence, yet warmth and quiet humour also pervades this intricate odyssey. The grandmother and grandchild meet traditional storytellers and become a part of their narratives as well as themselves contributing to the poetic weave of this multi-layered film. Hüseyin Karabey's third feature premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

The Midnight After

Fruit Chan : 2014

A night like any other in the streets of Hong Kong. In the midst of the tangle of night-owls, cars and vendors, a group of passengers climbs aboard a minibus that is to take them from Mongkok to Tai Po. The group is as diverse as the city. There's a young man on drugs, an arguing couple, a woman with prayer beads and a girl who has just fallen in love. And behind the wheel sits the chatty driver. But as the bus emerges from a tunnel, everything is suddenly quite still. The streets and buildings are all empty and there's not a soul to be seen. It's as if everyone has suddenly been swallowed by the earth. Only the millions of neon lights continue to blink, as if nothing has happened. The eclectic group of passengers seek refuge in a deserted café and discuss what they should do. Then they make a horrific discovery. Adapted from the novel Lost On A Minibus From Mongkok To Tai Po, Fruit Chan's feature premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Nagima

Zhanna Issabayeva : 2013

It is the summer when Nagima turns eighteen. She lives with her friend Anya, who is pregnant, in a rundown shack on the outskirts of Almaty. They are sisters, or at least they pretend to be. Back in the orphanage, neither of them had anyone else anyway. When Nagima returns home with a plastic bag of leftovers stolen from the plates in the restaurant kitchen where she works, Anya is watching a loud, garish reality show about people who live in a different world. Anya dies in childbirth and her baby is placed in an orphanage. Shocked, angry and now entirely alone in the world, Nagima decides to claim what she's always been deprived of: love. With youthful stubbornness, she demands what she's entitled to but is denied it nonetheless: once, twice, all too often. Nagima wants to spare Anya's baby the same fate. A quiet, stark, visually striking drama telling the story of the life of a young woman in post-socialist Kazakhstan. Zhanna Issabayeva's film, her fourth feature, premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2013.

Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

David Zellner : 2014

The juddering, crackling video images tell us it's a true story from the outset, even if what follows feels like a fairy tale. A woman in red called Kumiko walks along the shoreline in search of a cave. There lies what she seeks – the videotape from which the images are taken. Watching it back at her cramped Tokyo flat, what the film shows thus must have really taken place: a tale of violent deception in the harsh Minnesota winter, a man burying money in the snow, treasure just waiting to be found. For a treasure hunter like Kumiko, what better way of leaving all that awkward conversation, office drudgery and motherly nagging behind? Yet being a modern-day conquistador is not without sacrifice: there's no place for a rabbit on this trip and North Dakota can be awfully cold. But it can't be all that hard, can it? It's a true story after all. Head to Fargo, cling on to the map and let no one lead you off-track. Blending real life and fiction, a cautionary tale on the perils of imagination: how seductive it is to believe what we want to believe. David Zellner's feature premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2014.

Nước

Nguyễn Võ Nghiêm Minh : 2013
2030

It's the year 2030. Catastrophic climate change as a result of global warming means that most of the arable land in southern Vietnam is now below sea level. Most of the population has already been evacuated, but Sao and her husband Thi refuse to leave their land. They are living in a stilt house and subsisting on the dwindling fish population. On floating farms along the coast, major multinational corporations are working on a secret project to create vegetables, now a rare commodity. When her husband is murdered, Sao gets a job at the floating farm where she suspects she may find his murderers. She discovers that the concern is making use of genetic engineering in its production and that the untested processes pose a huge health risk. Does the chief scientist, who was once her lover, have anything to do with her husband's death? Her quest for the truth sucks her into a whirlpool of events which eventually see her faced with a critical decision. Nguyễn Võ Nghiêm Minh's second feature premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Chiisai ouchi

Yamada Yoji : 2014
The Little House

Following the death of the unmarried and childless Taki, Takeshi, a young relative of hers, discovers several pages of closely written lines in which the old lady has recorded her memories. This is how he learns the truth about her youth working as a housemaid and nanny for the Hirai family in a little house in Tokyo with a red gabled roof. Masaki is both head of the house and head of department at a toy factory. Whilst he has visions of his company expanding in the wake of Japan's aggressive expansionist policies of the early 1940s, his wife Tokiko falls in love with his young colleague, art school graduate Shoji, whom she visits in secret. Their housemaid remains loyal to Tokiko and devotedly takes care of the family. However, growing increasingly aware of the furtive love affair that is developing, she is eventually forced to make a heartrending decision. A tender, subtle depiction of the characters' emotional lives unfolding in front of the backdrop of Japanese politics and society before and during the Second World War. Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actress at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Aloft

Claudia Llosa : 2014
No llores, vuela

A story about responsibility and radical new beginnings and of a struggling mother who encounters the son she abandoned 20 years earlier. Accompanied by a young documentary filmmaker, Ivan penetrates deeper and deeper into an unknown, frozen landscape. A network of flashbacks reveal the reasons behind this journey. When Ivan is a boy his mother Nana works on a farm where she also takes care of Gully, Ivan's younger brother whose mental health is deteriorating as a result of a debilitating illness. Nana tells Ivan to support his brother but he defiantly withdraws into a world of his own instead where he follows his falcon Inti's manoeuvres in the air. One day a healer arrives at the place where they live. Through him, Nana discovers her own healing powers. Together they build fragile tents from twigs where they help heal other people's children. But then a tragic accident occurs which tears Nana's family apart. Years later, Ivan sets off in search of his mother. He is a father himself now and he has heard Nana has set up her tent at the end of a frozen lake. Claudia Llosa's third feature premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014, and was winner of the Biznaga de Plata for Best Cinematography at Festival de Málaga de Cine Español 2014.

I won't come back

Ilmar Raag : 2014
Ya ne vernus

Anya, an aloof and love-spurned graduate student, is on the run from the police, falsely accused of committing a crime. Her teenage looks help her to hide in a orphanage without arousing any suspicion. Whilst there she encounters Kristina, a 13-year-old homeless person like herself, who is determined to find the only family she has left. When Kristina offers Anya a solution to her desperate situation, Anya reluctantly agrees. Together they embark on a harrowing and unpredictable odyssey, hitchhiking across the intimidating Russian terrain, to a small town in Kazakhstan where Kristina's grandmother lives. A visceral look at survival, the exploration of friendship and the meaning of acceptance. Ilmar Raag's fifth feature received its international premiere at Tribeca Film Festival 2014.

The Canal

Ivan Kavanagh : 2014

Cinema archivist David Williams lives with his wife, Alice, and their 5-year-old son, Billy. All seems well until David begins to suspect that Alice is cheating on him. His anxiety is then compounded by a bizarre coincidence at work: cataloguing a film-reel from 1902, he learns that his home was the site of a brutal series of murders by a man named William Jackson, who slew his wife for being unfaithful and drowned both of their children in the nearby canal. This sinister history then ripples into the present and casts a shadow over life as he knows it, and as David's suspicions grow, a terrifying shadowy figure of a man, who resembles Jackson, starts to appear to him. In his drive to unveil the shadows hidden in the walls, David begins to descend into insanity, threatening the lives of everyone around him. Ivan Kavanagh's sixth feature, an Irish ghost story, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2014.

Une histoire banale

Audrey Estrougo : 2014
An ordinary story

Nathalie, 32 years old, is an ordinary woman with a simple and enjoyable professional life. Happy, dreamy, romantic, she is preparing to move in soon with her fiancé. But her life will totally change when her co-worker rapes her one evening after a party. Life is now a struggle where every detail is a fight to get back a normal life. Through this 'ordinary' story, Natalie becomes the spokesperson for all those women condemned to silence. The director explains her desire to raise awareness about a crime that often goes unpunished in France, usually because rape victims fail to press charges against their aggressors. "I wanted to film the invisible evil that eats away at and destroys people. If rape is a taboo, it's because it's an act that is largely based on men's supremacy over women, and recognising it as a crime (which is not always the case, since it's an act that is judged as a misdemeanour and not as a serious crime) would be tantamount to calling into question the very founding principles of our society." Audrey Estrougo's third feature portrays how rape is as much a psychological crime as it is a physical one, leaving the victim both terrorised by men and feeling that she should share in the guilt simply by being a woman.

Gittiler 'Sair ve Meçhul'

Kenan Korkmaz : 2014
Gone 'The Other and the Unknown'

The story follows the village headman and his two sons as they live in the village of Aynvert where the ancient Upper Mesopotamian nation of Syriacs have always lived, and discusses the pains of both leaving and returning. As terror reigns over their land, the majority of fellow villagers leave their home and country. The village headman, however, refuses to leave despite oppression. Joseph, one of his sons, decides to leave while Yuhan, the other, will stay with his father. From that moment on, both sons will question the decisions they have made: one for having left, the other for not. Most often the question will arise as they gaze at a picture of the sky that they have drawn on the ceiling in their house, the silsel. They long for freedom but they will always crash on a wall. Kenan Korkmaz's second feature premiered at İstanbul Film Festival 2014.

TIR

Alberto Fasulo : 2013

Branko has been a truck driver for only a few months, a choice that is quite understandable, given that he now earns three times as much as he did as a schoolteacher. But everything has a price, which is not always quantifiable in terms of money. As children we were told: "work ennobles man". But here the opposite seems true: it is Branko, with his efficiency, his obstinacy, his good will, who ennobles a job that grows more and more alienating, absurd and enslaving. Rather than a film about a truck driver, this is a film about a paradox. The paradox of a job that makes you live far away from the people you care about, and for whom you are actually working. Instead of focusing on a sociological point of view, the film examines the character under the skin, in a moment of personal crisis which forced him to make a decision that was not only practical, but ethical and existential as well. Documentary filmmaker Alberto Fasulo's first fiction feature was winner of the Golden Marc'Aurelio Award when it premiered at Rome Film Festival 2013.

Silsile

Ozan Açıktan : 2014
Consequences

Cenk has just arrived back in İstanbul from the United States. Suppressed love slowly begins to resurface after he encounters Ece, a woman with whom he had a romantic relationship in the past. Suddenly, there is a robbery attempt in this quiet and gloomy house, which results in a crime being committed. Ece flees, and in comes Faruk. The three struggle to keep their secrets hidden from each another. An intertwining chain of events follows as these three urban lives are put to the ultimate test; their sufferings and disappointments being exposed to the surface for all to see, the consequences of which will change Cenk, Faruk and Ece's lives forever. Ozan Açıktan's third feature premiered at İstanbul Film Festival 2014.

Yes and Yes

Valeriya Gai Germanika : 2014
Da i Da

Sasha is a young, inquisitive girl living in an apartment block with her family on the outskirts of Moscow. After a chance meeting with Antonin, an ambitious yet unrecognised bohemian artist, she falls in love. Their short-lived, passionate romance pulls her down to the bottom of her subconscious. But an ugly incident causes them to part: he will hardly remember it; she would like to forget about it. Overwhelmed with beautiful and frightening visions, she begins to paint, violently. His world will change her vision, forever, making her the artist. An unusual coming-of-age adventure of first love and innocence lost. Valeriya Gai Germanika's second feature premiered at Hong Kong International Film Festival 2014, and was winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at Moscow International Film Festival 2014.

Ice Poison

Midi Z : 2014
Bing du

A young farmer and his father are barely able to survive on their meagre corn harvest and so they make their way down from the mountains to the village to borrow money from their relatives working in jade mines or on opium plantations. But missing paperwork, deceit and corruption have left them impoverished too. Finally, the father pawns his cow for a scooter so that his son can earn a living as a taxi driver. His first fare is Sanmei, who has returned to Burma to bury her grandfather. She's desperate to earn her and her son's way out of China, and to get out of an arranged marriage in order to begin a new life in her old country. When Sanmei accepts a job as a drug runner she persuades the young farmer to be her driver and the pair teams up to mule crystal meth (ice poison) around the city. Midi Zhao's third feature quietly observes two people's sense of alienation and their fear of losing their livelihood. His film premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Forma

Sakamoto Ayumi : 2013

Back at school, Ayako and Yukari used to be friends. Ten years later, Ayako is an office manager, while Yukari has a menial job on a construction site. A chance meeting rekindles their friendship, with Ayako even offering Yukari a job at her company. Yet once they are colleagues, Ayako is quick to belittle her supposed friend, undermining her at every turn while carefully preventing her aggression from becoming overt. As Yukari herself puts it, there's something strange going on here. Were they really such good friends back then? How do teenage animosities play out in the world of work? How long can past tensions remain buried? As Ayako and Yukari's relationship grows ever more complicated, so too does the film itself, gradually leaving its linear beginnings behind until very little remains certain. Sakamoto Ayumi's slow-burning thriller, her directorial debut, premiered at Tokyo International Film Festival 2013, and was winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Exit

Chienn Hsiang : 2014

A Kaohsiung garment worker in her mid-forties, Ling juggles redundancy, a hospital-bound mother, a crumbling flat, menopause and a rebellious daughter. Caring for her mother introduces Ling to her ward mate, a man whose distress Ling alleviates – even for just a bit – in return for his silent reminder that she is still a vibrant, living woman. A sharply observed chronicle of an average woman's struggle against despair. Chienn Hsiang's feature directorial debut premiered at Hong Kong International Film Festival 2014.

Sivil

Levent Çetin : 2013
Civilian

Having recently returned from compulsory military service, Emrah, who lives with his mother, refuses to socialise, and strolls alone on highways. He hides two letters in a drawer: one that he has written when he was in the army to his former lover, Sevgi, and another that he has found by the side of the dead body of a guerrilla whose life he has taken. Following the address on the letter, Emrah reaches the house of Zeynep, the guerrilla's lover, and leaves the letter there. But this will not relieve his nightmares. With the help of his uncle, he finds a job as a night watch. Forced to spend the whole night in a small room, Emrah will go through troubled times and the nightmares will become all the worse leading into ever more confusion. Levent Çetin's feature debut premiered at İstanbul Film Festival 2014.

Grand Central

Rebecca Zlotowski : 2013

Gary is young, agile and a quick learner. He's one of those who's never been promised anything. After a succession of odd jobs, he's taken on as a decontamination sub-contractor at a nuclear power plant in the lower valley of the Rhône. Inducted into the workforce by supervisor Gilles and veteran Toni, Gary discovers that radiation contamination is not just a risk factor but an everyday hazard. There, amongst the reactors and their high doses of radioactivity, he finally finds what he's been looking for: money, a team, a family. But the team also includes Karole, Toni's fiancée, with whom he falls in love and the two begin a passionate and illicit affair. The naively romantic Gary falls deeper into a web of fear and deceit, caught between his feelings for Karole, his friendship with Toni and the pressure of working in the radioactive conditions at the plant. Rebecca Zlotowski's second feature was winner of the François Chalais Prize when it premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2013.

Bez doteku

Matěj Chlupáček : 2013
Touchless

Jolana's family life is dominated by the tension stemming from her stepfather's open sexual advances. The girl cannot defend herself against him, nor is she able to resolve her problems within her family. She also loses the ability to communicate with her friends and sinks further and further into the closed world of her imagination. Jolana is afraid, but she also allows herself to play submissive erotic games. The intolerability of the situation and a number of dramatic circumstances drive her to begin working as an escort at a luxurious bordello, where her situation continues to escalate. A young policeman comes to her rescue, yet the border between hope and humiliation proves just as uncertain as the connection between the girl's dreams and her real life. But the question is what does Jolana actually want? Isn't an escape into her dreams better than the harsh reality that surrounds her? Matěj Chlupáček's directorial debut premiered at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2013.

Miss Violence

Alexandros Avranas : 2013

On the day of her birthday, eleven-year-old Angeliki jumps off the balcony and falls to her death with a smile on her face. While the police and Social Services try to discover the reason for this apparent suicide, Angeliki's family keep insisting that it was an accident. What is the secret that young Angeliki took with her? Why does her family persist in trying to "forget" her and to move on with its life? These are the answers that the people from Social Services look for when they visit the family's clean and orderly home. The father has made sure nothing is missing and that everything is where it belongs. It seems as if nothing can betray them. But Angeliki's younger brother unintentionally reveals clues which will gradually shatter the family's well polished world, forcing them to come face to face with that which, for so many years, they have been hiding or could not bear to see. One by one they will break down, until finally violence will once again offer the solution, keeping the family united and the secret safe. Alexandros Avranas's second feature was winner of the Silver Lion for Best Director when it premiered at La Biennale di Venezia 2013.

The Major

Yuri Bykov : 2013
Майор

On a cold winter's day Sergey Sobolev, a major at the local police office, is driving to the hospital where his wife is about to give birth to their child. High from happiness, he's driving too fast and runs down a boy on a passage walk who dies. Now the major has only two options: go to prison or conceal the crime. Sobolev decides to compromise with his conscience, and he calls on a colleague to help him out. But the case turns out to be messy and he understands that this choice resulted in many people's deaths. He finally changes his mind and tries to make up for his deed, but now he has to oppose the system and it's already too late. All the characters in this story have to choose: to cross or not to cross the line, when the price for your choice is life – yours and of the ones you love. Yuri Bykov's second feature premiered at Semaine de la Critique du Festival de Cannes 2013.

Name in the Dark

Agnė Marcinkevičiūtė : 2013
Vardas tamsoje

A small town in Lithuania back in 1995. Life is quiet here. But one day, a mysterious incident changes the everyday routine, when a teenage girl is found murdered at a local hotel. The town is shocked by the incident, but the hardest work goes to the melancholic Investigator in the local police department. The suspect in the murder is her former music teacher, who was also her lover back in the school times. While the Investigator is working on this mysterious crime, her memories bring her back to the days of their dramatically finished relationship. Just when the case seems to be revealed, the chief of the department warns her: "Don't disclose a crime too early, you may never know what the answer is bringing to you". Based on the bestselling detective novel by Renata Serelytė, Agnė Marcinkevičiūtė's feature debut screened at Vilnius International Film Festival 2014.

Wolfskinder

Rick Ostermann : 2013
Wolf children

Today nine million children all over the world are on the run. They are the innocent victims of war and banishment. Many of these children lose their parents and their home. During the turmoil of the Second World War they have also become known as the so-called "wolf children" who desperately fought for survival in what was then East Prussia and in the Baltic region. Set in an East Prussian village under Russian occupation in the year 1947, the 14-year-old Hans and his 9-year-old brother Karl lose their mother who dies of starvation during a hard winter. On her death bed the mother asks Hans to look after his younger brother. Even though Hans seems less capable of coming to terms with the challenges to be faced than his young brother, he is given all the responsibility: they need to make their way through to Lithuania where some farmers are sympathetic to German children. On their way Hans loses Karl whilst crossing a large river under attack. This marks the beginning of an odyssey in which Hans, driven by the desire to find his brother, joins a group of children on a journey to a foreign land and a fight against hunger, adverse weather and illness. Together they seek refuge in the enchanted forests of Lithuania in order to escape the turmoil of post-war anarchy. Rick Ostermann's feature directorial debut premiered at La Biennale di Venezia 2013.

A Most Wanted Man

Anton Corbijn : 2014

When a brutally tortured immigrant turns up in Hamburg's Muslim community, laying claim to his father's ill-gotten fortune, both the German and US security agencies take a close interest. German spy Günther Bachmann tracks down Issa Karpov, the suspicious Chechen-Russian immigrant who is on the run in Hamburg. Pressured by his German and American colleagues to capture and interrogate his suspect as an Islamist terrorist, Bachmann instead asks for more time to carefully track Issa's movements and his relationship with his German immigration lawyer, Annabel Richter. Using his secret contacts and keen skill, Bachmann uncovers a connection between a world-renowned Muslim philanthropist and a terrorist group and devises a plan to use Issa and Annabel in a brilliant ploy to expose the scheme. A contemporary, cerebral tale of intrigue, love, rivalry and politics adapted from the novel by John le Carré. Anton Corbijn's third feature premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2014.