Fell

Kasimir Burgess : 2014

Whilst on a camping trip in the Victorian Alps, Thomas's only daughter, Lara, is killed by a logging truck in a hit-and-run accident for which the driver, Luke, serves a prison sentence. Stricken with grief, Thomas sheds his urban life and his identity, and moves to the remote town where Lara was killed. There he takes on a new name, Chris, and finds work as a logger. When Luke is released from prison and returns to work, Chris connives to work as his partner in dangerously high tree-logging work. Every time Luke climbs, Chris holds his life in his hands. As the tension rises, the two men, both damaged, grow closer through their affinity for nature, with the forest seemingly exerting a strange power over them. An entrancing and enigmatic drama – a dreamlike, visually resplendent tale of nature, revenge and redemption. Kasimir Burgess's feature debut premiered in competition at Sydney Film Festival 2014, and had its international premiere at Glasgow Film Festival 2015.

The Disappearing Illusionist

Bobbie Peers : 2015
Dirk Ohm – Illusjonisten som forsvant

In mid-winter the German illusionist Dirk Ohm arrives in the small town of Grong, a place ridden by the disappearance of a young local woman, Maria. Dirk soon finds himself searching for Maria side by side with the villagers; and slowly he falls in love with the missing woman. In the loneliness of his hotel room he gives in to the illusion of their love relationship, she is to him more real than anything else. Maria's father views Dirk with increasing suspicion. Maria's mother, on the other hand, turns to Dirk in the hope that he has real clairvoyant abilities, and begs him to find her daughter. As the search moves towards a conclusion, Dirk finds himself under increasing pressure and expectation. And soon he will have to make the choice between reality and illusion. Inspired by a true event, the story is told in a magical and poetic landscape, challenging our perception of what's real and what's not, who we are when we are present and who are we when we are gone.

La noche del ratón

David R Losada : 2015
The Night of the Mouse

A cat-and-mouse game is one of sight: both seeing and being seen. To keep their affair a secret, Sandra and her co-worker Jorge often leave for business trips extremely early, to allow for a few hours of romance before the workday begins. In the dark hours of the early morning at the onset of their latest business trip, the couple must make a stop at a remote service station. Unbeknown to Sandra and Jorge, someone is keeping an eye on their pre-dawn rendezvous. The cat and mouse meet at this petrol station in the Spanish countryside and a thrilling new story unfolds. A dark and suspenseful story of things that often don't go as planned. David R Losada's feature debut premiered at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2015, and had its European premiere at Festival du Cinéma Espagnol de Nantes 2015.

Nian nian

Sylvia Chang : 2015
Murmur of the Hearts

Siblings Yu-mei and Yu-nan were born on Lyudao, a small volcanic island off the east coast of Taiwan. As children they grew up listening to fairy tales about mermaids told by their mother. Yu-nan became a tour guide, whilst his sister Yu-mei left the island for Taipei to become a painter and the two drifted apart. Yu-mei falls for an under-achieving boxer and begins years of soul searching in the city, where the siblings reunite under unexpected circumstances. What was remembered and forgotten are lessons that have profound consequences. An emotional drama about growing up, personal regrets and invoking the buried love that eventually helps them make peace with the past and move on. Sylvia Chang's feature premiered at Hong Kong International Film Festival 2015.

Gece

Erden Kıral : 2014
Night

The story of a family forced to move to the western city of İzmir upon the evacuation of their home village. Unable to adapt to their new circumstances, the father abandons the family while the elder brother Zahit ceases to care, and the family of five disintegrates. The elder sister Süsen is the most affected of all. Marrying her childhood love Yusuf, Süsen also loses her hopes of building a stable family when the burden of life gets heavier and Yusuf's personality falters. As their love subsides and they grow hopeless, they still stand together, unable to break up. Taking the western coastal city of İzmir as background, this poignant romance is a psychological drama painting a portrait of embittered people anchored to their past, struggling to stay innocently beautiful. Erden Kıral's feature screened at İstanbul Film Festival 2015.

Muna

Serdar Gözelekli : 2015

Muna is the 6-year-old daughter of a Palestinian family, living in Gaza. In autumn 2009, their house gets raided by Israeli soldiers. When she comes out of hiding, Muna realises that she's all alone. Not knowing what to do, she wanders the streets of Gaza in search of her family. During her search Muna comes across the surgeon Ela who has travelled to Gaza with Doctors Worldwide in order to aid victims of war. With the help of her colleague Ali and his Gazan friend Süleyman, Ela tries to find Muna's family. In their quest, the doctors confront the harsh realities of war. Serdar Gözelekli's feature premiered in the New Turkish Cinema section at İstanbul Film Festival 2015.

Steppeulven

Ole Christian Madsen : 2014
Itsi Bitsi

In the early 1960s, wannabe writer Eik meets fellow free spirit Iben whilst protesting American imperialism. Bonding over their love of literature, the boundary-smashing music of the period, and, not least, the pleasures of consciousness-altering drugs, the couple soon decamps from sleepy, bourgeois Copenhagen for the European continent and, eventually, Marrakesh, Baghdad, Nepal, and the deserts of Afghanistan. Struggling to write his novel, Eik desperately tries to hold on to Iben who refuses to commit herself to anything, let alone one man only. Deciding that the only way to win Iben's love is to start a band, Eik founds Steppeulvene (named after the Hermann Hesse novel, Steppenwolf) and enjoys near-instant success. The group makes Eik a celebrity, and Denmark's official spokesperson for the counter-culture – but it's uncertain whether his success will bring him what he most wants. A story based on true events about the desperate love of two young people who share an all-consuming passion for each other, a passion they attempt to relinquish but which never relinquishes them. An epic, continent-crossing counter-cultural romance based on events that led to the founding of the short-lived but massively influential Danish rock band Steppeulvene. Ole Christian Madsen's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014, and screened at İstanbul Film Festival 2015.

Lucia de B.

Paula van der Oest : 2014
Accused

Nurse Lucia de Berk has been present at one inexplicable death too many, a baby only a few months old. The hospital alerts the police. The young and ambitious public prosecutor Judith Jansen gets the file Lucia de B. on her desk. The investigation into the 'Angel of Death', as the press call Lucia, is heavy. Lucia left no traces and refuses to talk to the detectives, but a blood test connects her and she is eventually sentenced to life imprisonment for four murders and three counts of attempted murder. But something keeps troubling Judith. She discovers inconsistencies in witness statements and even the suppression of lab evidence. There are questions as to the reliability of the test and Judith begins to have doubts. Ignored by her superiors, Judith teams up with Lucia's lawyer, but at every appeal the original guilty verdict is confirmed. Things look bleak until they get the media involved and the biggest miscarriage of justice in Dutch history is finally reversed. Based on a true story, Paula van der Oest's feature was awarded the Gouden Film on behalf of the Nederlands Film Festival and the Nederlands Filmfonds. Her film screened in competition at Bari International Film Festival 2015.

Povodyr

Oles Sanin : 2014
The Guide

Ukraine in the 1930s. American engineer Michael Shamrock arrives in Kharkiv with his ten-year-old son, Peter to help "build socialism". He falls in love with an actress, Olga who has another admirer, Communist Commissar Vladimir. Under tragic circumstances, the American is killed and his son is saved from his pursuers by a blind kobzar, Ivan Kocherga. With no other chance to survive in a foreign land, Peter becomes his guide. Ivan does everything to help his young guide to grow up and survive with a kind and clear soul that will not be hardened by what his eyes have seen. He tells the boy elaborate stories that make him believe there can be a different reality from what he sees around him. Their journey, full of dangerous adventures, unfolds against the background of one of the most dramatic pages of Ukrainian history and human destruction. The film about love, loyalty, betrayal and infamy is based on true events. Oles Sanin's feature premiered in competition at Odessa International Film Festival 2014, and received a Special Mention when it screened in competition at Bari International Film Festival 2015.

Zomer

Colette Bothof : 2014
Summer

Anne is sixteen and lives in a remote village in southern Netherlands. A forgotten spot where the seemingly endless fields are dominated by the omnipresent power plant, where electricity cables criss-cross the sky and never stop humming. Anne's circle comprises her classmates and kids from the surrounding villages, all adolescents heading for adulthood. On weekdays they cycle to school through the fields into the wind. During the weekends they race along dike roads or go boating in the river. The mood is sultry as hormones churn around their bodies. Anne is a bit of an outsider and through her eyes we observe the young people whose lives are closely linked to hers. It's a small village and everyone is connected to everyone else. During this sweltering summer, Anne starts to feel lonely and detached until she meets Lena, who is new in town. Lena rides a motorbike and wears leather gear and is obviously different from everyone else. They meet at the fuel station where Anne works at the weekends. Anne quickly develops feelings for Lena, but they are feelings that she cannot fathom. However they are so intense that she can't turn and walk away from them either. Love unfolds in all its tender awkwardness. Things come to a head one evening when Anne and Lena leave the village disco together and head to the meadow. They are followed, mocked and insulted by the disco crowd. However, this only strengthens their love. Their burgeoning relationship is something Anne is not prepared to give up without a fight. A film about growing pains, about young people craving independence whilst also needing to fit in, and a young woman who dares to be different. Colette Bothof's feature premiered in competition at Nederlands Film Festival 2014, and screened at BFI Flare London 2015.

Le temps des aveux

Régis Wargnier : 2014
The Gate

Cambodia, 1971. The true story of François Bizot, a French archaeologist and Buddhism expert working on the restoration of the Angkor Wat temple complex. With the Vietnam War raging across the border, Bizot suddenly finds himself fighting for his life when the Khmer Rouge rise up against the US-controlled Cambodian government. Arrested for espionage, he is cast into a vortex of forced confessions, torture, and interrogations, whilst trying to protect his Cambodian wife and daughter. Bizot's fate lies in the hands of a single-minded young zealot utterly committed to the Khmer Rouge cause. Duch rides roughshod over all obstacles, determined to root out all enemies of the Party. In his eyes, every foreigner is a potential spy. Whilst the Frenchman discovers the reality of Khmer Rouge indoctrination, an indefinable bond develops between the prisoner and his jailer. Two decades later, Bizot and Duch meet again after the latter is arrested for crimes against humanity. Régis Wargnier's feature premiered at Telluride Film Festival 2014, and screened in competition at Bari International Film Festival 2015.

L'antiquaire

François Margolin : 2015
The Art Dealer

Thirty-year-old Esther Stegmann, a young and courageous French journalist, goes in search of the collection of paintings stolen from her Jewish family by the Nazis during World War II. In the course of her investigation, she discovers some deeply buried family secrets and decides to figure out an affair concealed by them for decades. It becomes a quest that leads Esther to discover much more than art secrets and a father, but which also updates a conspiracy led by his great-uncle. François Margolin's thriller had its international premiere in competition at Bari International Film Festival 2015.

Als wir träumten

Andreas Dresen : 2015
As We Were Dreaming

The Leipzig suburbs, shortly after the collapse of East Germany. Rico, Daniel, Paul and Mark, until recently still Pioneers in their red neckerchiefs, are growing up in the maelstrom of the newly reunited country. Yesterday's rules no longer count today. They turn night into day and the streets into an adventure playground. The boys run wild and hang out in the neighbourhood, steal cars, experiment with drugs and try out the new swingers' club. They open their own techno club which is soon besieged by neo-Nazi skinheads. Everything is in a state of flux and decay, everyone is overflowing with dreams: Rico longs for a boxing career; Daniel yearns to have a grand love affair with Little Star, the most beautiful girl Leipzig has ever known. They party, they riot, they run from their parents and the future. They are coming of age in a time of anarchy. Andreas Dresen's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2015.

What Tomorrow Brings

Beth Murphy : 2015

A girls' school in Afghanistan is the setting for a coming-of-age story in which young girls come to grips with the realities of rigid patriarchy and cruelty in their world. Their teachers, most not much older than the students, help them confront their resulting inner turmoil and try to prepare them for what their uncertain futures bring. The students at the Zabuli Girls' School in the conservative village of Deh Subz have lived in a country at war all their lives; in a culture in which modern Western values are rejected and conservative, often oppressive, social tradition is embraced. But when Razia Jan arrives to open the village's very first girls' school, these traditions are challenged. The story of the Zabuli School unfolds at a time when the political and security situation in the country is rapidly changing. The entire region faces an uncertain fate – and for those who hoped for a more democratic, egalitarian society after the war, that fate looks increasingly ominous. Against a harrowing backdrop, the film traces the interconnected stories of students, teachers, village elders, families, and tenacious school founder Razia Jan, building a layered portrait of a community caught between its past and its future. Beth Murphy's feature-length documentary was presented in an exclusive preview at Human Rights Watch Film Festival London 2015.

Stand

Jonathan Taieb : 2014
Противостояние

Anton and Vlad are a Russian couple, living comfortably in the privacy of their Moscow apartment. One day, after taking a wrong turn in their car, they witness a vicious homophobic attack, but do not act to help. This incident changes the rest of their lives when Anton, consumed by his feelings of guilt, becomes obsessed with the case. For Anton, the burden of what they may have witnessed outweighs Vlad's fear of probing too deeply into the incident. Convinced of the police's indifference, Anton talks his sceptical boyfriend into launching their own amateur investigation into the hate crime. But as Anton gets closer to the perpetrators, the abyss between him and Vlad widens and their risky search for the truth will have unexpected and grim consequences. This highly topical and powerful slow-burning suspense drama sets one person's struggle for justice against the paralysing power of fear. Jonathan Taieb's second feature premiered at Frameline Film Festival 2014, and was winner of the award for Best Feature Film at Serile Filmului Gay International Film Festival 2014.

Les châteaux de sable

Olivier Jahan : 2015
Sand castles

Eléonore is in her thirties. She has just lost her father, who left his house in Brittany, in the Côtes-d'Armor, to her. Eléonore is a photographer. She has had some success, but now, her business is not thriving as before. She absolutely needs to sell this house and goes there with Samuel, her former lover from whom she separated some time ago, because it does not feel right to be alone in the house she has not returned to since the death of her father. But it is playing with fire, because she knows that their relationship never really ended, even if she had some affairs and even though Samuel is now living with Laure. Claire Andrieux, the estate agent, has taken care of organising visits during the two days Eléonore and Samuel will stay in the house. It's a bizarre weekend that these three are about to have. An amazing weekend, full of surprises and emotions, tensions, memories and shouting matches in melancholy and absurd moments, from which Eléonore and Samuel will emerge inevitably changed. Olivier Jahan's second feature premiered at Mons International Love Film Festival 2015.

Sea Without Shore

André Semenza & Fernanda Lippi : 2015

A rhythmically captivating exploration of love and loss at the fin-de-siècle. An amorous relationship between two women abruptly cut short. Dissolving under the impact of the loss of her soul mate, the surviving lover is drawn into the depths of mid-winter forests, into spheres of the subconscious, initiated by unknown forces. There is no return. The stream-of-consciousness narration, a collage of poetic fragments, features words by 16th century lesbian poet Katherine Philips, 19th century fin-de-siècle poets Renée Vivien and Algernon Charles Swinburne whose agnostic, visionary poetry lend the film a hypnotic quality. Set in remote forest landscapes and interiors in rural 19th century Sweden, it is the haunting journey through the subconscious into the loss of a loved one. André Semenza and Fernanda Lippi's second collaborative feature premiered at Glasgow Film Festival 2015.