Utóélet

Virág Zomborácz : 2014
Afterlife

Mózes is a diffident, insecure young man who has finished theology studies and lives with his family in a remote village. His relationship with his authoritative father is rather complicated; the pastor doesn't take his son very seriously and treats him with disdain. One day, the father dies unexpectedly – and his ghost begins appearing to Mózes, the only one in the family who can see him. The young man struggles to figure out how his father's spirit might find peace, and it seems that, for the first time in his life, he's been put in a situation in which he must take things firmly into his own two hands. At the same time, this is an opportunity to transform his relationship to his father. Virág Zomborácz's feature debut inventively handles the topic of mourning and coming to terms with the loss of someone close. Her film premiered in competition in the East of the West section at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014.

Klass korrektsii

Ivan I Tverdovsky : 2014
Corrections Class

Lena is a bright girl with a disability who, after years spent studying at home, is keen to get back to school. She is assigned to a special class for disabled pupils who have to present themselves before a school commission at the end of the year in order to prove that they merit being moved back into a "normal" class. Her enervated teachers, however, show absolutely no desire to motivate the students and help them improve; on the contrary, they try to quash right from the start any interest Lena shows in more complex study material. Nevertheless, Lena soon involves herself in the school routine and gets together with classmate Anton. Yet their transparent happiness isn't to everyone's liking and repercussions soon follow. Adopting a documentary perspective, this drama portrays the unequal struggle of the individual in the face of institutional torpor, human prejudice and a society that tries to trip up people who are different. Ivan I Tverdovsky's feature debut was winner of Best Debut at Kinotavr Open Russian Film Festival 2014, and won the East of the West Award at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014.

Bota

Iris Elezi & Thomas Logoreci : 2014

Bota, Albanian for "the world", is a café situated on the edge of a vast area of marshland in a remote part of Albania. Affable Juli, the life and soul of the café, takes care of her sick grandmother Noje and has various financial worries; her greatest desire, however, is to leave the place that brought only misery upon her family. Her friend, the attractive, temperamental Nora, is trying to work through her relationship with a married man, the café's enterprising owner and Juli's cousin, Ben. When construction begins on a new motorway near the café, it seems as if big changes are ahead for all of them. Set in a bleak region where, during communist supremacy, enemies of the regime were sent with their entire families against their will, the film evokes the atmosphere of a place where the past still encroaches upon people's lives. Iris Elezi and Thomas Logoreci's feature was winner of the FEDEORA Award when it premiered in the East of the West section at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014.

Anywhere Else

Ester Amrami : 2014
Anderswo

Years ago, attracted by its culture and lifestyle, Noa moved to Berlin. At present she is collecting material for her grant-sponsored master's thesis: a dictionary of untranslatable words. But she hasn't been feeling well of late and, on top of that, she is waylaid by the news that her boyfriend Jörg has entered a competition in Stuttgart. As a sudden inspiration, Noa decides to fly home. But the joy of reunion with her parents and siblings is quickly replaced by her aversion to the monotony of customs and rituals and to the incessant fear of danger. Tel Aviv and her extended family begin to get on her nerves. But where else to go? Ester Amrami's feature debut was winner of the Independent Camera Award when it premiered in the Forum of Independents at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014.

Adventure

Nariman Turebayev : 2014
Priklyuchenie

Marat is a solitary figure, both in his private life and at work, where he is a night security guard for a large company. One evening he looks out of his window and sees a young woman down below who seems to be waiting for someone. The next day Marat sees her again, but this time he witnesses her being assaulted, so he goes to her aid and accompanies her home. His curiosity is aroused when the girl, named Mariyam, tells him that she waits every evening for her lover, who is supposed to be returning any day now. On subsequent days, Mariyam takes Marat to various parts of the city, and although her actions continually cause him trouble, the man cannot help being drawn to her complex personality. Nariman Turebayev's third feature premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014.

Cold Eyes

Cho Ui-seok & Kim Byung-seo : 2013
Gam-si-ja-deul

Ha Yoon-ju is the new recruit in Seoul's crack police surveillance team. As the murderously efficient criminal mastermind James stage-manages a heist from a watchful distance, Yoon-ju is tested by her new boss, Detective Hwang. She follows him through the city and is expected to see and remember, not only everything he does but also everything that occurs around him. In their line of work, perception is an asset to be honed to perfection. As James and his cohorts embark on the proverbial one last job, Hwang's team is determined to bring an end to James's activities. What Hwang doesn't know is that James's secret employer has plans of his own. Drawn from a seemingly infinite number of viewpoints, this crime thriller centres on the world of modern high-tech surveillance and its utility for both fighting crime and committing it. Cho Ui-seok and Kim Byung-seo's collaborative feature received its international premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2013.

Algunas chicas

Santiago Palavecino : 2013
Some Girls

Taking a breather from the crisis of her marriage, a surgeon named Celina visits the country house of an old friend who she hasn't seen since their university days. When she gets there, she realises that something is going on with Paula, her friend's step-daughter, whose absence is palpable. Celina finds herself aggressively questioned by Paula's friends – the mystical Nene and the cynical María – who then recruit her into their dysfunctional clan. Soon she learns that Paula attempted suicide, but Celina is in no shape to help anyone, because she is fleeing a dark secret of her own and has come to the worst place of all possible places to save herself. In the limbo of this hellish little town, her ghosts are reborn, infecting everyone around her. They bring her through porous nightmares, dangerous games and an overwhelming uncertainty about the limits between dreams and waking, between life and death. In this psychological thriller, what seems like a getaway becomes a re-encounter with one's own destiny. Santiago Palavecino's third feature premiered in the Orizzonti section at La Biennale di Venezia 2013.

Para onde foram os pássaros?

Gustavo Ulisse : 2011
Where did the birds go?

After a night of heavy rain, a family of settlers who live at the foot of a mountain are faced with the disappearance of their animals. The patriarch and the son go out to look for them. The days go by and they do not return. Mother and daughter are waiting at home while living a strange daily life. Gustavo Ulisse's short premiered at Festival Internacional de Curitiba 2014.

Vis-à-vis

Nevio Marasović : 2013

A director is preparing a new film. A well-known actor he wants to engage to play the role of the Father criticises his screenplay and the selection of the actor for the role of the Son. The director invites the "Son" to come to the island of Vis to work on the screenplay and the role and to find out if he made a good choice by casting him. Due to the isolation they are confronted with on the island during winter season, the two of them are doomed to come to grips with their frustrations that are constantly being intertwined with the plot in a strange way. Nevio Marasović's second feature won the Young Cinephile Jury's National Competition Best Film award when it premiered at Pula Film Festival 2013.

Hide and Seek

Joanna Coates : 2014

In a deserted English country house, four young people from London move in together. They seek to challenge social conventions and their own tolerances by setting up a polyamorous commune, choosing total isolation as a form of emotional, intellectual, and political hiding place. Conventional life has left them lonely and damaged, but each desires to somehow throw off sadness and doubt, to open themselves up to new possibilities. Strange rules and rituals help loosen their inhibitions as, fighting cynicism and ghosts from the past, they slowly move from jadedness towards an insular, deeply unconventional joy. The durability of their new living arrangements is tested however by the arrival of an outsider who fails to get in tune with the foursome's radical spirit, thus bringing internal pressures to threaten their fragile world. A delicate interrogation of the emotional lives of contemporary young people. Joanna Coates's feature debut was winner of the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film when it premiered in the New Perspectives section at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014.

La chambre bleue

Mathieu Amalric : 2014
The Blue Room

In a room, a man and a woman live their passion in secret. Their desire is intense. In the afterglow, they share a few sweet nothings. The man at least seems to believe they were nothing. Now under investigation by the police and the courts, Julien fails to find the words. Life is not the same, between the moment you live it and later on down the track when you pull it apart. What happened? What is he accused of? A raw crime story that deals with adultery, sex, marriage and guilt. Mathieu Amalric's second feature premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2014.

Pour une femme

Diane Kurys : 2013
For a Woman

Anne has a very active imagination, which is only natural for a novelist. But, in her mid-thirties, she still knows nothing of her past. Because neither her father nor the sister would talk. Because it's not always better to know. After her mother passes away, Anne discovers photos and letters, and decides to take a closer look at the life of her parents, Michel and Léna, in Lyon just after the war. She'll make it the subject of her next novel. Anne's research reveals the existence of a mysterious uncle, Jean, whom everyone talks about like a ghost and tries their best to forget. She gradually closes in on a discovery she is unwittingly seeking. But time is running out: her father is sick and might take to the grave a secret that kept them apart for so long. In a journey that stretches through time and generations, Anne's destiny intertwines with her father's past to formulate a single, unforgettable story. Diane Kurys's feature premiered at Festival du Film de Cabourg 2013.

All Is by My Side

John Ridley : 2013

It's 1966 and James Hendrix is an unknown backing guitarist playing New York's Cheetah Club. One night, Linda Keith, girlfriend to Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, happens to catch a set he's playing and, mesmerised by his skills, brings Hendrix into her inner circle in London. There, Hendrix has the freedom to develop his craft and personal style. Before long, however, he finds himself caught between Linda's protective grasp and the charms of a new admirer, Kathy Etchingham. With these two women by his side, Jimi, as he is now known, begins to navigate the world of rock 'n' roll. Covering a year in Hendrix's life, from making his mark in London's music scene up until the day before the performance at Monterey which would make him a rock legend, the film presents an intimate portrait of the sensitive young musician on the verge of becoming a worldwide icon. John Ridley's biographical drama premiered in the Special Presentations section at Toronto International Film Festival 2013.

La grenouille et Dieu

Alice Furtado : 2013
When it lifts its little eyes up

Mad love story. A threat comes to haunt everyday banality. A young man in his twenties, tough manners. A grown, pregnant woman. The two of them have been living together for a few months in a tiny apartment in the suburbs, until the day the money runs out. Bypassing moral standards, carried away by the truth of senses, they go for a walk across the city, running towards nature – a ruthless witness to their acts, but also their last shelter. Alice Furtado's short screened at Festival Internacional de Curitiba 2014.

Duelo antes da noite

Alice Furtado : 2011
Duel Before Nightfall

A boy and a girl walk together through the jungle for a long time, until their ways part. Their long path leads them to the point where their lives will change for ever. A subtle drama on the border between reality and fantasy, based on a short story by João Gilberto Noll. Alice Furtado's short premiered in competition in the Cinéfondation selection at Festival de Cannes 2011, and screened in the Spectrum Shorts at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012.

A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness

Ben Rivers & Ben Russell : 2013

Following the journey of a person's spirit or essence, rather than character, we experience three moments of existence. We follow an unnamed man through three seemingly disparate moments in his life. With little explanation, we join him in the midst of a 15-person collective on a small Estonian island; in isolation in the majestic wilderness of Northern Finland; and during a concert as the singer and guitarist of a black metal band in Norway. Marked by loneliness, ecstatic beauty and an optimism of the darkest sort, these three moments signal a radical proposition for the creation of utopia in the present. A hybrid document of the past, present, and future. Experimental and visionary filmmakers Ben Rivers and Ben Russell's collaborative feature premiered at Locarno Film Festival 2013.

An Bronntanas

Tom Collins : 2014
The Gift

A local independent lifeboat crew working off the coast of Conamara, receives a distress call on a stormy night to discover a dead woman on board an abandoned fishing boat with a cargo of over a million euros worth of drugs. The crew is challenged with a moral dilemma – whether to bring the woman ashore and hand the drugs to the authorities, or leave the passenger and sell the drugs to save their struggling village. It's a decision that will change their lives forever. Documentary filmmaker Tom Collins's second fiction feature, a 'Celtic Noir' thriller, premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2014.

Regression

Alejandro Amenábar : 2015

Minnesota in 1990. Detective Bruce Kenner is investigating the case of Angela, a young woman who has accused her father, John Gray, of having sexually abused her. When John, unexpectedly and without being able to recall what happened, admits his guilt, the renowned psychologist Dr Raines gets involved in the case in order to help his repressed memories to resurface. Thus, begins the disturbing tale of a father and daughter torn apart, thrown into the centre of a sinister conspiracy that shocks the nation.

Alleluia

Fabrice du Welz : 2014

Manipulated by a loving and jealous husband, Gloria has run away with her daughter and started a new life far away from men and from the rest of the world. Impelled by her friend, Madeleine, she agrees to meet Michel through a dating site. The first time they see each other, there is a spark. Michel, a small-time gigolo, is thrilled and Gloria falls deeply in love. Out of fear, Michel runs away, but Gloria tracks him down and makes him promise never to leave her again. Desperate to salvage this love, she abandons her daughter and decides to pose as Michel's sister so he can continue his 'rich widow' scams. The two lovers remain tied to each other by some powerful link, but as she witnesses Michel's tricks, jealousy will gradually blight Gloria's life. Fabrice du Welz's third feature premiered at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2014.

La tirisia

Jorge Pérez Solano : 2014
Perpetual Sadness

Cheba and Ángeles Miguel have become pregnant by the same man. They decide to resolve the dilemma of unwelcome motherhood, but their lives will always be marked by perpetual sorrow. The story takes us to a secluded village in the desert, where a political propaganda poster, ironically tells us that "the future is now". Time suffers from an unbearably quiet feeling. The aridity reigns and it goes deep into the spaces of a weary and dispirited existence. In that state of pure calm, the conflict of two psychologically abused women unfolds. They live their maternity dramatically as subjects in a fluctuating voltage between life and death. A suggestive tale reflecting the destinies of hundreds of Mexican village women who had to choose between their child and their partner in order to sustain their families. Jorge Pérez Solano's second feature premiered at Guadalajara Mexican Film Festival 2014, and received its international premiere in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014.

París norðursins

Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson : 2014
Paris of the North

Hugi is a teacher in a small and remote village in the east of Iceland. He is quite content by himself among the mountains, which surround the quiet village where hardly anyone walks the streets. He attends AA meetings, learns Portuguese and enjoys a life of idleness. But has he withdrawn too far? When Hugi receives a phone call from his estranged father announcing his arrival, he is not too pleased. But after consulting with his AA-sponsor, Hugi decides to welcome him. Something he will immediately regret. Told without emphasising the dramatic conflict, the film relates the tale of a recovering alcoholic, his largely estranged father, and their incompatible cohabitation. Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson's second feature premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014.

Díra u Hanušovic

Miroslav Krobot : 2014
Nowhere in Moravia

In a small village in the mountains of northern Moravia lives 35-year-old Maruna, who works at the local pub, takes care of her dictatorial mother, and has several affairs among the local men without, however, finding love. Maruna's sister is more ambitious, and when she has a chance to leave the village she takes it. For Maruna, the village is her destiny – one that she can never be separated from. Also living in this sleepy hollow are two forest workers who share the same woman, with whom they live together in an old cottage. The whole village knows their arrangement, and in a way tolerates it. But one day, the woman disappears and is later found murdered. For just a moment, the village's usual calm atmosphere is disturbed, but otherwise everything remains in its routine. When Maruna gets pregnant, she suddenly realises that her life is too much like her mother's. The circle is closed. Miroslav Krobot's feature directorial debut premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014.

Corn Island

George Ovashvili : 2014
Simindis kundzuli

Swollen by the rains of spring, the Inguri River rushes towards the Black Sea, depositing rocks and soil in the Kholketi lowlands. An island is formed in the middle of the river. It is a naturally fertile place, not only for wildlife but also for an old man who ventures on to the newly created island to grow the corn that will see him through the next winter. With the help of his sixteen-year-old granddaughter, the old man manages to sow the corn and build a shelter in which they live a peaceful life in harmony with the sounds and smells of nature. Their idyll comes to an end when the girl finds a young man hiding among the cornstalks, apparently fleeing from captivity. She decides to keep the boy hidden from her grandfather. The boy becomes the embodiment of a life away from the tiny corn island that suddenly feels even smaller than it already is. When the boy's pursuers arrive at the island, the girl is unable to hide him any longer, and he is taken from the island into an uncertain future. For the girl, the island is now a prison, and she is desperate to leave. But first the corn must be harvested before the autumn rains cause the river to swell like it did in the spring. George Ovashvili's second feature was winner of the Grand Prix and the Ecumenical Jury Award when it premiered at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014.

Je suis Femen

Alain Margot : 2014
I am Femen

Oxana is a woman, a fighter, an artist. As a teenager, her passion for iconography almost inspires her to join a convent, but in the end she decides to devote her talents to the Femen movement. With Anna, Inna and Sasha, she founds the famous feminist group which protests against the regime and which will see her leave her homeland, Ukraine, and travel all over Europe. Driven by a creative zeal and a desire to change the world, Oxana allows us a glimpse into her world and her personality, which is as unassuming, mesmerising and vibrant as her passionate artworks. A film on feminism, on protest, on the opposition to a government which no longer has anything to offer, and of the difficulties of living in a society which bases itself exclusively on corruption. It is also an intimate portrait of a group of women who are searching for their paths in life, in a world which rejects them and refuses to listen. Alain Margot's documentary was winner of the Jury Award when it premiered at Visions du Réel 2014.

Au revoir l'été

Fukada Koji : 2013
Hotori no Sakuko

A girl on the edge of adulthood learns about the deceptions of the adult world. Eighteen-year-old secondary school student Sakuko accompanies her aunt Mikie on a holiday to a resort town on the coast far from Tokyo. Besides cycling trips and strolls on the beach, Mikie hopes to use the two week holiday to complete her research project. Among the new faces Sakuko encounters are a philandering college professor, a tough young waitress, and Takashi, a refugee from Fukushima who works in the hotel belonging to Ukichi, a friend of Mikie's sister. With carefully observed scenes, the film captures the mood of a languid holiday, whilst subtly sketching the psychology of the different characters. Fukada Koji's third feature was winner of the Jury Prize for Best Director at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2013.

Deux jours, une nuit

Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne : 2014
Two Days, One Night

Sandra has only one weekend to visit her colleagues and with the help of her husband, convince them to sacrifice their annual bonuses so she can keep her job. A proud woman who disparages any type of begging and who refuses to let her children see her cry, she will be hard pushed to overcome the brick wall of an argument centred around a come-back that is repeated over and over again. There are only two options: a token sum of €1,000 per colleague, or a wage that will allow her to stay afloat in a life that has already dunked her head underwater and kept it there. Sandra makes a Herculean effort when tackling her task of persuasion, it's just that there are so many people, and she repeats the same approach over and over again, using the same argument each time. As the moral gauge starts to fluctuate, and people gradually change sides, each success really counts and gives Sandra back the hope of once again being able to take her life into her own hands. The film premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2014.

Fair Play

Andrea Sedláčková : 2014

The 1980s in Czechoslovakia. Young, aspiring athlete Anna is training for a qualification that could enable her to be accepted in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She trains every day under the watchful eye of her trainer until the upper echelons of the state spot her talent and decide to fast-track her career: thus, Anna becomes part of a state-run project for research into the use of illegal anabolic steroids. She soon realises what is happening as a number of side effects start to have a negative impact on her health. Her moral choice is to attempt to earn her Olympic medal without using a forbidden substance, a decision that her superiors disagree with, leaving Anna's career at stake. Andrea Sedláčková's third feature screened in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2014.

El ardor

Pablo Fendrik : 2014
The Ardour

Kaí is a young man of a mystical, solitary nature. One day, as he makes his way, bare-chested through the jungle, he witnesses an attack by mercenaries on a tobacco farm that they have wanted to take over for some time. As they could not get it by making threats, they kill the owner and kidnap his daughter, Vania. So Kaí embarks on a manhunt through the Argentinean rainforest, in pursuit of the mercenaries, to avenge the family. The film is set in an environment in which there are those who preserve it and those who destroy it, and we see the deforestation and the expropriation of the local populations. A suspense-filled story of vengeance, a struggle between two ways of living. Pablo Fendrik's third feature premiered in the Séances Spéciales at Festival de Cannes 2014.

Hermosa juventud

Jaime Rosales : 2014
Beautiful Youth

Natalia and Carlos, both in their early twenties, are in love and struggling to survive in today's Spain. Natalia is unemployed and kills the hours of the day sleeping and stealing whatever she happens to fancy from the department stores. Carlos works in removals and collects debris, thus managing to earn the odd euro from time to time. Their limited resources prevent them from getting ahead as they'd like to. They have no great ambitions because they have no great hopes. To earn some money, they decide to shoot an amateur porn film. The birth of their daughter Julia is the main catalyst for the changes they make. Jaime Rosales's fifth feature explores the despondency and disenchantment suffered by so many young people today in Spain, above whom hang the shadows of apathy, defeat and the search for possible solutions through emigration. The film received the Ecumenical Jury's Special Mention when it premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2014.

Titli

Kanu Behl : 2014

In the badlands of Delhi's underbelly, Titli is the youngest member of a violent car-jacking brotherhood. He plots a desperate bid to escape the family business, hoping to run away from the oppression of his eldest brother Vikram. His schemes are thwarted by his unruly brothers, who marry him off against his will. But Titli finds an unlikely ally in his new wife, Neelu, who nurtures her own frustrated dreams. Her confidence and demeanour is a threat to the patriarchal roots that define this family of four men. She's a survivor who won't let any obstacle weigh her down. They form a strange, mutually exploitative pact to break the stranglehold of their family roots. But is escape the same as freedom? In his fanaticism to escape, Titli gradually turns into the same oppressor that he once hated the most. Kanu Behl's feature debut premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2014.