Viaje

Paz Fábrega : 2015

Not even sure of each other's names, Luciana and Pedro meet at a party in San José. Although there's no fatal attraction, there's a hint that something is happening between them. A night without commitments. What follows is an impulsive decision to travel together the next day to the base of the Rincón de la Vieja volcano in the northwest of the country. The escape into a forested region hardly touched by civilisation doesn't merely present an opportunity for mutual understanding, the quiet environment of unspoiled nature encourages more serious discussion as well. As they explore the beauty that surrounds them, they camp out under the stars, go on hikes, indulge in the passions of their encounter, and discuss their personal beliefs surrounding love, obligations and attraction. An unassuming romance focusing on the importance and singularity of the here and now. Paz Fábrega's second feature premiered at Tribeca Film Festival 2015, and had its European premiere in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015.

The Wednesday Child

Lili Horváth : 2015
A szerdai gyerek

History sometimes repeats itself. As a nine-year-old, Maja was abandoned by her mother and placed in an orphanage. Now it's ten years later and she keeps returning to the institution, now to visit her four-year-old son and hopes that, one day, she will be able to look after him herself. She's familiar with the home – it's where she met Krisz, her boyfriend and the father of her child. He's a young good-for-nothing who doesn't want to be bothered with any of this and would rather have his girlfriend under lock and key. Will she be able to take control of her life despite the unfavourable circumstances? It seems that Maja's self-destructive tendencies are the only obstacle preventing her from doing so. Lili Horváth's feature directorial debut was winner of the East of the West Award and FEDEORA Award when it premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015.

Zinnia Flower

Tom Shu-Yu Lin : 2015
Bai ri gaobie

On the same day, in the same accident, Wei loses his pregnant wife and Ming her fiancé. In Buddhism, one is given 100 days to mourn for the dead. Like two mice lost in a labyrinth, Wei runs around in circles while Ming calmly creeps down a determined path. But the pain and sorrow linger on. With the 100th day approaching, they wonder if they'll ever be able to say goodbye. Tom Shu-Yu Lin's third feature premiered at Taipei Film Festival 2015.

Shadow Behind the Moon

Jun Robles Lana : 2015
Anino sa likod ng buwan

The armed conflict between the Philippine military and the communist resistance at the beginning of the 1990s forms the backdrop to this study of three individuals who, for different reasons, are trying to resolve an untenable situation. A married couple spends the night playing cards with a military man, sitting in their ramshackle hut surrounded by woods. The trio is bound by a friendship which they have managed to foster after the soldier's relocation to the area. Yet, as dawn gradually approaches, hidden nuances of their mutual relationships, as well as unspoken secrets and lies, start coming to the surface. Jun Robles Lana's feature premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015.

Sutak

Mirlan Abdykalykov : 2015
Heavenly Nomadic

There are still places in the world where people live in harmony with nature and its mythology. A family of nomads dwelling high in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan doesn't need any of the conveniences of modern civilisation in order to be happy. In the eyes of seven-year-old Umsunai, legends meld with reality and help her overcome her grief over her deceased father. When her uncle returns from the city, she enthusiastically devours his stories of urban life. Yet, in her grandparents' minds, the very same stories stir up dismal fears about their son's detachment. Umsunai's mother is also reluctant to leave their modest rural home behind, even if it means foregoing the chance of a new relationship. For the elderly herdsman and his wife, the heavy machinery that suddenly appears in the meadows where their horses graze represents an omen of painful change. It's as if a part of their own soul disappears with every destroyed piece of the landscape. Mirlan Abdykalykov's feature directorial debut premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015.

Le dep

Sonia Bonspille Boileau : 2015

Lydia is a young Innu woman who works at her father's convenience store in a small First Nations community in rural Québec. One night, as she prepares to close up shop, a masked robber enters the store and holds her at gunpoint. This traumatic experience becomes even more troubling when Lydia discovers the identity of her assailant. Before long, Lydia is forced to make a decision that could impact the rest of her life as well as the lives of the people she loves. A psychological drama sensitively probing the difficulties facing the contemporary Innu community as well as the inner emotions of the young protagonist. Sonia Bonspille Boileau's feature debut premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015.

Outre ici

Hugo Bousquet : 2015
Beyond Here

A young couple have been trekking for three months in a desolate mountainous region when they chance upon an abandoned house containing supplies of food and drink. Having only planned a short break there, Basile wants to continue his visionary quest to find Tolkien's secret city of Gondolin, but Léa settles into the comfortable surroundings and insists on staying awhile. The days pass in pleasant inactivity, nevertheless, Basile, restless and haunted by nightmares, fearfully looks on as snow starts to fall on the mountain pass they will have to negotiate. One day a weather-beaten man turns up at the house, a hunter clearly used to walking in these severe conditions, but he speaks an unfamiliar language. A psychological drama compressed by time and space. Hugo Bousquet's feature debut premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015.

Malo više kiše

Marko Dugonjić : 2014
The Rainfall

The place in which little Lana used to live with her family has been affected by a natural disaster. While her mother takes her grandmother to hospital, Lana is supposed to watch over her younger sister. However, despite her parents' warnings, curiosity leads her and her friends back to see their ruined homes. Marko Dugonjić's film was winner of the Diploma for Best Short Film in the Croatian Programme when it screened at Pula Film Festival 2015.

Losers

Ivaylo Hristov : 2015
Karetsi

Elena, Koko, Patso and Gosho are high school students in a small provincial town. They are inseparable friends that share the belief that they are "losers". Koko is in love with Elena. The girl wants to be a singer. She is really excited about the visiting concert of a famous rock band. The event shakes up the whole town giving birth to new love affairs, disappointments and complicated relationships. Ivaylo Hristov's feature was winner of the Golden George for best film, the Federation of Russian Film Clubs Prize and the Russian Film Critics Prize when it premiered in competition at Moscow International Film Festival 2015.

Šetač

Filip Mojzeš : 2014
The Walker

Marko, a 65-year-old pensioner who lives with his wife Ana in a small remote house, finds an unconscious man, Goran, lying on the ground whilst tending to his field. After some initial reluctance he helps him up and takes him home. Marko's wife Ana is sceptical of this stranger from the beginning and Marko, out of fear, forbids her to call anyone. Proportional to the time Goran spends at the house, Ana's and Marko's fears grow and an already tense atmosphere is further aggravated by Goran's unusual interest in their private life as soon as he gets back on his feet. It is evident that he isn't planning to leave anytime soon. The presence of this unusual and disturbing guest gradually results in a conflict between Ana and Marko. Filip Mojzeš's film was winner of the award for Best Short Feature at Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival 2015.

Full Contact

David Verbeek : 2015

Ivan, 35, is a UAV pilot who takes out targets in the Afghan-Pakistani border area, while he himself sits in the Creech Air Force Base in the Nevada desert just outside Las Vegas. Ivan has never been to the foreign countries of his attacks, nor has he ever touched the plane he uses to kill. Modern warfare keeps him safe and disconnected from his prey. However, he is thrown off course by a tragic event. When a terrorist training camp he destroyed turns out to have been a school, and many innocent lives were lost, Ivan has to shoulder a tremendous sense of guilt. After this incident he becomes overwhelmed by feelings that he is unable to process and Ivan's disconnectedness starts to apply to everything in his life. A psychological thriller taking place in the world of present-day warfare, in the shadows between the real and the virtual.

Imena višnje

Branko Schmidt : 2015
Ungiven

Sometimes, the people we love the most get the worst of us, and the true nature of our emotion is revealed when it's already too late. Determined to move on with their life violently interrupted by war several years ago, an elderly couple returns to their restored home. We follow their daily life through the four seasons. Every day She becomes more absent and lost. Instead of helping her, He acts brutishly, sometimes even cruelly, towards his wife. However, the realisation that something is wrong with Her will make Him question his behaviour and values. Branko Schmidt's feature screened in the Spectrum section at Moscow International Film Festival 2015.

The Russian Woodpecker

Chad Gracia : 2015

Young, eccentric Ukrainian artist Fedor Alexandrovich was just four years old when the nuclear disaster struck in his hometown of Chernobyl. The event left a deep scar and Fedor, in his quest to learn more about what took place at the nuclear power plant, happens upon the Duga-1, a giant antenna built in Soviet times near Chernobyl, which emitted a regular low-pitched tapping sound and was known as "the Russian Woodpecker". Fedor arrives at a terrifying conclusion that not only explains the radio antenna's role in the disaster but also lays bare the cruelty inflicted on Ukraine by its Russian neighbours. Previous attempts to uncover the truth behind the nuclear disaster have been met with stubborn political obstacles that often border on the sinister. With increasing pressure from loved ones to abandon a project that could put him in serious danger and against the backdrop of a burgeoning revolution, the story of Ukraine's Soviet legacy with its devastating impact of political oppression, finds an uncomfortable parallel in Fedor's moral dilemma to choose between truth and family. Chad Gracia's documentary debut was winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival 2015, and screened at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2015.

Rosita

Frederikke Aspöck : 2015

Johannes lives together with his father, the middle-aged widower Ulrik in a small fishing town in the northern part of Denmark. They live a quiet routine life, each minding their separate jobs in the fishing industry. Ulrik misses the love and tenderness of a woman and arranges for the young, beautiful, Filipino Rosita to come to Denmark – just as many other men in the town have done before him. Johannes is reluctantly drawn into this as Ulrik's translator. However, over the following weeks Johannes and Rosita become more and more attracted to each other which forces Johannes to takе responsibility for his dreams and his future. Frederikke Aspöck's second feature was winner of the Silver George for best director at its international premiere in competition at Moscow International Film Festival 2015.

Enklava

Goran Radovanović : 2015
Enclave

The Serbian community remained living in Kosovo in small isolated communities – enclaves. Limited to a very confined space, Serbs live out their lives in dire circumstances. What happens when someone dies in an enclave and the cemetery is outside, on enemy territory? An eighty-year-old man is finally buried owing to his grandson, a ten-year-old boy who dared to do something impossible to both communities in Kosovo – Serbian and Albanian alike: he showed love and made friends on the other side. Goran Radovanović's second fiction feature premiered at Belgrade International Film Festival 2015, and was winner of the Audience Award when it screened in competition at Moscow International Film Festival 2015.

La fièvre

Safia Benhaim : 2014
A Spell of Fever

On a feverish night, a child senses a ghost, a woman who has come from the sea, coming home after a long exile. A silent tale, a bodiless voice and visions mingle in the dark of the night and the fever. The child of the present and the political refugee coming home are now one, travelling together to a strange building, appearing to be her lost memories. Forgotten political fights appear and disappear with the fever's hallucinations while the new fights, the arab spring of Morocco, flood the past. A hectic and stunning journey across Morocco guided by the spirit of a political exile, through the delusions of a young girl who is able to sense forgotten realities and the voices of those who have passed on. Safia Benhaim's film was winner of the Tiger Award for Short Films at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015, and screened at Filmadrid International Film Festival 2015.

La novia

Paula Ortiz : 2015
The Bride

Two men, one woman, a love story and a desire stronger than the law, wilder than the land around them. Leonardo, The Groom and The Bride have been an inseparable triangle since they were children, but Leonardo and The Bride share a special and almost invisible bond that cannot be broken. Years go by and The Bride, unhappy, prepares for her wedding day with The Groom in the middle of the bleak white desert, where she lives with her father. The day before the wedding, an old beggar knocks on her door offering her a gift and some advice: "Don't marry him if you don't love him", as she gives her two glass daggers. On the day of her wedding, The Bride and her lover escape on horseback to live their love. Carried away by their passion, they defy all moral and social rules, even challenging their own judgement. Their disobedience will have devastating consequences. Paula Ortiz's second feature is a free adaptation of the tragedy Bodas de sangre by Federico García Lorca.

Carol

Todd Haynes : 2015

In New York in the early 1950s, Therese Belivet is working in a Manhattan department store and dreaming of a more fulfilling life when she meets Carol Aird, an alluring woman trapped in a failing marriage. As an immediate connection sparks between them, the innocence of their first encounter dims and their connection deepens. When Carol's involvement with Therese comes to light, Carol's husband retaliates by challenging her competence as a mother. And as Carol and Therese take refuge on the road, leaving their respective lives behind, a confrontation emerges that will test each woman's assumptions about herself and commitments to one another. Todd Haynes's feature won the award for Best Actress and the Queer Palm when it premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2015.

Song of Songs

Eva Neymann : 2015
Pesn pesney

1905. A Jewish shtetl. Shimek and Buzja are two 10-year-olds, a princess and a prince from neighbouring palaces, sharing the same yard. What Buzja really means to him, Shimek begins to understand only years later when, far away from home, he receives the news that Buzja is about to be married off. Inspired by the acclaimed literary work by renowned Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem, the film offers a markedly stylised vision of the lost world of the Jewish shtetl at the beginning of the 20th century. Poetic scenes created using truly magical images are loosely connected via the motif of childhood love, while the film's imaginative form is imbued with nostalgia. Eva Neymann's third feature received the Ecumenical Jury Special Mention when it premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015.

Those Who Fall Have Wings

Peter Brunner : 2015
Jeder der fällt hat Flügel

Time stands still for young and asthmatic Kati, but she has to bid her farewell to move on. The burden on her chest is too heavy for the shoulders of her four-year-old baby sister. A severe loss and the awakening of Kati's sexuality take their toll on the fifteen-year-old visionary girl. But like a sound that merges into silence, Kati attempts to carry her memories to a place of recurring farewell. A soul-searching study, whose title acknowledges inspiration from Ingeborg Bachmann's poetry, it is a cinematically ambitious, symbol-based method of coming to terms with the painful loss of a loved one. Peter Brunner's feature was winner of the Special Jury Prize when it premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015.

The Road

Rana Salem : 2015

Rana and Guy, a young married couple, live in today's city of Beirut. A city forced into modernity and thus left in a perpetual rhythm of instability. Rana succumbs to her environment and suddenly quits her job but is unsure about the path she is taking. Her husband, Guy is more centred and focused. He cultivates a plot of land from which he earns a living; he is also an independent visual artist who creates live performances. Drifting away from reality with no sense of time and space, Rana is trapped in memories and dreams. Guy decides they need to distance themselves from the bustling life of the city and that they must go on a road trip. As they travel further away from the city, they find themselves wandering around virgin landscapes and abandoned places. The journey releases images from their past and ultimately leads them to Guy's childhood home in the mountains. The road becomes one of remembrance and nostalgia, a road that might bring them closer to themselves and ultimately to each other. Rana Salem's feature debut was winner of the FIPRESCI Prize when it premiered in competition at Moscow International Film Festival 2015.

Suffragette

Sarah Gavron : 2015

The story of the ordinary British women at the turn of the last century who risked everything in the fight for equality and the right to vote. The foot soldiers of the early feminist movement were women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State. These women were not primarily from the genteel educated classes, they were working women who had seen peaceful protest achieve nothing. Radicalised and turning to violence as the only route to change, they were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality – their jobs, their homes, their children and their lives. Maud was one such foot soldier. This is the story of her fight for dignity.

Stația #15033

Iulia Matei : 2015
Station #15033

Rodnei Mountains National Park, altitude 1785 metres. In a glacial cauldron, close to the Pietrosu Peak (2303 metres) lies the Iezer Weather Station. 45-year-old Istrate Danci has been working here as a meteorologist for over 24 years. Every month he spends two weeks at the station, and during winter he stays for 30 consecutive days. During this time, the station becomes both his work place and his second home. The film follows his story for the duration of four seasons, where the symbiosis between men and nature represents the core of the narrative. Iulia Matei's observational documentary premiered at Transilvania International Film Festival 2015.

Antonia.

Ferdinando Cito Filomarino : 2015

Distinguished Italian poet Antonia Pozzi (1912–1938) was among those women who were at odds with the times in which they lived. Her poems record her inability to adapt to social norms and her desire to live fully, and in poetry she sought an escape from reality and from her own complex soul and emotional life. The film covers the last ten years of the life of the poet, spent in Milan during the twenty-year reign of fascism. At the age of sixteen, she frantically wrote in her diary in secret about her forbidden love for her high school professor, about their encounters, the torment, the passion. At the tender age of twenty-six, Antonia Pozzi took her own life. Up until then none of her poems had been published. Ferdinando Cito Filomarino's feature debut received a Special Jury Mention when it premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015.

Night Shift

Niki Karimi : 2015
Shift shab

Nahid, a young wife and mother starts to unravel when she interprets her husband's strange behaviour as proof that he might be plotting against her. Traditional protocols fuelled by growing anxiety prevent her from broaching the subject with him directly, resulting in a slow drift through growing unease into abject paranoia. Niki Karimi's feature premiered at Fadjr International Film Festival 2015.

Dinola

Mariam Khatchvani : 2013

Under the ruthless law of a small village in the Svaneti countryside in Georgia, a young widow, Tekle, is forced to marry the first man who claims her and, as a result, has to leave her daughter behind. Upon waking, the child discovers that her mother has disappeared. Wandering out into the snow, the winter aura of mountain space intensifies little Dinola's feeling of helplessness. Based on real events, the film is dedicated to the director's grandmother, and to every other child who has been forcibly separated from their mother because of Svanish Law. Mariam Khatchvani's film was awarded the DaKINO 24 Trophy in the Short Fiction Competition category at DaKINO International Film Festival 2015, and screened at Kraków Film Festival 2015.

Dinola (vimeo)

India's Daughter

Leslee Udwin : 2015

In 2012, 23-year-old Jyoti Singh had her whole life in front of her. A promising medical student and the apple of her adoring parents' eyes, she was only months away from completing her studies. But after an evening screening of Life of Pi with a male friend, she met a terrible fate on a moving Delhi bus, gang raped and brutalised by a number of strangers. By the time of her death a few days later, she had become a national symbol, and the focus of mass protests the length of India against an endemic rape culture and the ongoing subjugation of women. The director speaks to an impressive array of interviewees, from the accused rapists, awaiting their fate on death row, to Singh's parents and the defence team, whose shocking attitudes towards women are barely decipherable from the rapists they so staunchly defend. An impassioned plea for change, the film explores the compelling human stories behind the incident and the political ramifications throughout India. But beyond India, the film lays bare the way in which societies and their patriarchal values have spawned such acts of violence globally. Leslee Udwin's documentary, her directorial debut, screened at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2015.