Rainbow Without Colours

Nguyễn Quang Tuyến : 2015
Cầu vồng không sắc

It was a full moon day in July, a day on which many Vietnamese believe spirits of the dead can return home. Mrs Yen was sleeping and she dreamt about Hung – her elder, adopted son, who died many years ago. Why is Hung's spirit returning? Is it to seek revenge for his death? Mrs Yen's dream is a consequence of the relationship between her biological son and her adopted son. When they announced their love to the family, Mrs Yen was devastated. She could not accept it and her efforts to keep them apart may have driven Hung to his death. In Vietnam, as elsewhere, parents are sure they know what's best for their children. But the spirits may not be convinced. Nguyễn Quang Tuyến's feature debut premiered in competition at Montréal World Film Festival 2015.

Kang Rinpoche

Zhang Yang : 2015
Paths of the Soul

A group of Tibetan villagers leave their families and homes to make a "bowing pilgrimage" – laying their bodies flat on the ground after every few steps – along the 2,000-kilometre road to Lhasa, the holy capital of Tibet. Though equally devoted to the trip, they all have different reasons: one traveller needs to cleanse bad family karma; another, a butcher, wants to wash the animals' bloodstains from his soul; and another pilgrim, sensing the end is near, hopes that prayers and prostrations will break the chain of cause and effect determined by his life's actions. During their months on the road, a baby is born, they meet fellow travellers, and their resolve is put to the test by harsh snowstorms and physical fatigue. But no hardship can deter them from their ultimate goal – not even the threat of death, a very real danger in this high altitude where a common cold can take one's life. A fictional portrayal of an actual event, shot in documentary style over the course of an entire year with non-professional actors. Zhang Yang's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

ma ma

Julio Medem : 2015

Her heart already bruised by her husband's decision to spend the summer away from Madrid with his young lover, Magda is informed that she has breast cancer. Her kindly doctor holds out hope for Magda's survival, but she'll need painful radiation treatments and a mastectomy. The very day Magda learns of her diagnosis, she attends her little boy's soccer game. It's there that she meets Arturo, a scout for the legendary Real Madrid soccer team. Arturo receives a phone call with terrible news: his wife and daughter have been in an accident. Arturo collapses, Magda rushes him to the hospital where his wife lies in coma. These twin catastrophes give birth to a very special bond between Magda and Arturo – one that will endure as the courses of their lives take further twists and turns. Julio Medem's feature had its international premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

Les êtres chers

Anne Émond : 2015
Our Loved Ones

Back in 1978, in a small village in Bas-Saint-Laurent, Guy's tragic death is a shock for the Leblanc family. Protected by his well-intentioned siblings from the truth about his father's death, the sensitive David has grown into a loving husband and father of two, living a seemingly fulfilling life with his wife Marie. But as the years go by, his relationship with his wilder brother toughens and his kids grow into young adulthood. David starts to struggle with an insuppressible melancholia that gradually threatens to engulf him. Meanwhile, when his daughter Laurence begins to recognise herself in her father, she sees that she'll need to reckon with her emotional inheritance if she is to break the cycle and take on the future. Following a Québécois family over a thirty-year period, the story reveals the most profound complexities of love and loss as their effects are transmitted from one generation to the next. Anne Émond's second feature premiered in competition in the Concorso Cineasti del presente section at Locarno Film Festival 2015, and had its North American premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

Campo Grande

Sandra Kogut : 2015

When a little girl turns up on her doorstep, fifty-year-old Regina is unsure what to do. Regina lives in Ipanema, one of Rio de Janeiro's wealthier neighbourhoods, and the five-year-old Rayane is clearly not from around here. She says her mother has told her to stay put until her return. Soon Rayane's nine-year-old brother Ygor arrives too, and Regina wants to take the children directly to an orphanage, but she's convinced by her teenage daughter to let them spend the night. The children are in awe of Regina's enormous home, and as they huddle together to sleep, it becomes obvious that they have only each other to rely on. Regina decides to help them find their family – a plan that will bring her into contact with a world that she barely knew existed. Sandra Kogut's second feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

Beasts of No Nation

Cary Fukunaga : 2015

Torn from his family, the young Agu is forced to join a group of guerrilla soldiers as civil war engulfs his West African country. After seeing his family killed at the hands of a military junta that has overthrown the country's government, Agu flees his village. Lost in the jungle and nearing starvation, he is captured by a rebel faction, the Native Defence Forces, led by the charismatic but lethal Commandant. Under Commandant's control, Agu is forced to fight battles and commit acts beyond his comprehension. He develops both a revulsion for and fascination with a war that is slowly consuming him, yet, throughout, Agu clings to his fragile humanity. Based on the eponymous novel by Uzodinma Iweala, a heart-wrenching tale of a young boy's strength and loss of innocence. Whilst the story does not name the African country it takes place in, the narrative location is considered to be that of Nigeria. Cary Fukunaga's feature was winner of the Marcello Mastroianni Prize and the CITC-UNESCO Award when it premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2015.

Behemoth

Zhao Liang : 2015
Bei xi mo shou

Everyday life in a Mongolian community turns into a Dantesque journey. A documentary offering a dissecting view on contemporary society and economic development and, at the same time, a tragedy of the absurd and a commentary on human imprudence and avidity. With camera in tow, filmmaker Zhao Liang travels through the prairies of Mongolia's vast plateau. Unfolding before his eyes are the signs of controversial upheaval due to an aggressive modern economy. Heavenly green grasslands are being covered by the gloomy dust of a growing mining industry. Confronted with the ash and infernal din of incessant mining, herdsmen and their families have no choice but to move away as grazing meadows dwindle. Day and night, miners are busy picking out coals from mountains of rocks. In nearby ironworks, men bake in the scorching heat like the condemned in Inferno. In a sort of Purgatorio, sufferers of work-related illnesses await death in hospital. A genuine Paradiso has been destroyed in exchange for an urban mirage, the empty new buildings of modern ghost town Ordos. Zhao Liang's documentary was winner of the SIGNIS Award and Green Drop Award when it premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2015.

Pored mene

Stevan Filipović : 2015
Next to Me

Olja is a high school history teacher in Belgrade, married to Uglješa, a painter whose latest exhibition provoked violent reactions from Serbian nationalists. One night, a group of masked hooligans attacks her. They film the attack and upload the clip to YouTube. The next day Olja discovers that some of her students were responsible. She takes away their mobile phones, and in the heat of the moment decides to lock them in the school building, also disconnecting the school phones and the internet. In order to solve the problem together, and with inability to leave the school, students begin to communicate. During that night, a generation that was written off before they were ever given a chance will learn more than they ever expected about themselves and their classmates. Stevan Filipović's third feature won the Golden Arena for Best Feature Film in the international competition when it premiered at Pula Film Festival 2015.

The Daughter

Simon Stone : 2015

Christian returns to his family home, after a long absence, for his father Henry's lavish wedding to a much younger woman. Henry is the owner of the local timber mill, which he is closing down, causing much hardship in the area. Whilst home, Christian reconnects with his childhood friend Oliver, an employee at the timber mill who is now out of a job. As he begins to bond with Oliver's wife Charlotte, daughter Hedvig and father Walter, he unearths a long-buried secret and starts piecing together a puzzle that will have devastating consequences. A heart-rending contemporary drama about two intertwined families, adapted from Ibsen's play The Wild Duck. Simon Stone's feature debut premiered in competition at Sydney Film Festival 2015, and had its North American premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

7 Sheep

Wiktoria Szymańska : 2015

A lonely little girl tries to create a new world for herself and an equally lonely man. In a visually stunning dreamscape, she finds that freedom and home are synonymous – and that they come at a steep cost. Wiktoria Szymańska's short premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

Les chevaliers blancs

Joachim Lafosse : 2015
The White Knights

Jacques Arnault, head of Sud Secours NGO, is planning a high impact operation: he and his team are going to exfiltrate 300 orphans, victims of the Chadian civil war and bring them to French adoption applicants. Françoise Dubois, a journalist, is invited to come along with them and handle the media coverage for this operation. Completely immersed in the brutal reality of a country at war, the NGO members start losing their convictions and are faced with the limits of humanitarian intervention. Inspired by the events of the L'Arche de Zoé controversy in 2007, which involved a French charity organisation that attempted to bring 103 children into France from Chad. Joachim Lafosse's feature premiered in competition in the Platform section at Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

3000 Layla

Mai Masri : 2015
3000 Nights

Layal, a newly-wed Palestinian schoolteacher is falsely accused and incarcerated in an Israeli prison where she discovers that she is pregnant. Terrified and alone, after Layal gives birth to a baby boy, the chief warden threatens to take her baby away unless she agrees to inform on her fellow inmates who are planning a revolt against the prison administration. Through her struggle to protect her child and her relationship with the prisoners around her, she finds the strength to stand up for herself and fight for her son. Documentary filmmaker Mai Masri's feature debut premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

Bunny

Megha Ramaswamy : 2015

A little girl mourns the loss of her bunny after it is found "dead" under mysterious circumstances on a rainy afternoon. But when she wanders off into the woods with the boy next door in search of her beloved companion, she makes an even more startling discovery. A vivid and enchanting exploration of childhood fantasies and fears, Bunny is a love letter to the fantastical childhood we leave behind. Megha Ramaswamy's short had its North American premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

Le bois dont les rêves sont faits

Claire Simon : 2015
The Woods Dreams Are Made of

Like an accessible form of Paradise Lost, weekend trips to the woods offer a concentrated dose of well-being and a refuge in nature. A place where all life's possibilities enjoy the right to exist, a place for all, rich and poor, French and foreign, gay and straight, old and young, old-fashioned or trendy, a mirage dreamed up by the exhausted urban dweller. The woods as an island in the urban fabric, a place where the hardships of living in the city fall silent. A place to recover, to play and have fun, to dream. Over the course of the seasons, sharing with others as many utopias as can be dreamed up by as many individuals. Claire Simon's documentary premiered in the Fuori concorso section at Locarno Film Festival 2015.

Finding Bosnia

Ivana Horvat & Adrian Hopffgarten : 2015

Ivana Horvat fled Sarajevo with her mother in 1992 during the siege of the capital city because of the Bosnian conflict, leaving her father and his fate behind. Three years later, her father was reunited with his wife and daughter and the Horvat family began rebuilding their life together in Portland, Oregon. Despite speaking her native language at home, Ivana feels distanced from her Bosnian heritage. She has made it her goal to make Bosnia "real" and to embrace her cultural background by not only returning to Bosnia, but also by meeting and interviewing other Bosnian refugees in Portland, Paris, and wherever else the journey takes her. Ivana shares her unique story of life, death and spirit using home videos shot over a period of 20 years and footage of present day Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her experience on this intimate and personal journey celebrates the country and its people worldwide. Ivana Horvat and Adrian Hopffgarten's documentary premiered at Sarajevo Film Festival 2015.

Finding Bosnia – official trailer (vimeo)

Acasă la tata

Andrei Cohn : 2015
Back Home

Robert is a young writer passing through a difficult time in his life. He decides to return home to his native village for the first time since his mother passed away three years ago. In more than 10 years, he paid only a few visits to his parents and this fact is reflected by the distant relationship Robert has with his father. As it happens, he meets two former classmates: Petrica – his old best friend, now married with children, and Paula – his teenage sweetheart. She is divorced after an unhappy marriage and is now working at a local store. She doesn't seem to be engaged in a relationship. Andrei Cohn's feature debut had its international premiere in competition at Sarajevo Film Festival 2015.

Dolanma

Tunç Davut : 2015
Entanglement

As seasonal forest workers, brothers Kemal and Cemal struggle with an uncertain future, living in a house inherited from their father on the outskirts of a village in the west of Turkey, by the Black Sea. Intending to begin a new life, Nalân arrives one day with Kemal and quickly adopts the house as her own. Although her presence soothes Cemal, who feels shaken by his mother's recent death, it deepens a growing rift between the two brothers. Torn between leaving and staying, Nalân opens herself up to Cemal's compassionate world. In this inevitably inextricable situation, all three sink into their own despair. Hoping to reconcile their relationship after Nalân's departure, the brothers carry on living like two strangers sharing the same house. Tunç Davut's feature debut premiered in competition at Sarajevo Film Festival 2015.

L'accademia delle muse

José Luis Guerín : 2015
The Academy of Muses

A teacher talks of muses, those figures able to inspire poets to create something that did not exist before. When he returns from teaching class, a professor of philology is interrogated by his wife, who distrusts his pedagogical approach, and his Academy of the Muses which, inspired by classical references, is intended to regenerate the world through poetry. This controversial project sets off a series of situations dominated by language and desire. A fascinating journey into the world of someone who believes in words and their power to change people, but then realises that these changes have consequences in real life. José Luis Guerín's feature premiered in competition in the Signs of Life section at Locarno Film Festival 2015.

Des millions de larmes

Natalie Beder : 2015
Millions of Tears

A meeting in an empty roadside café-restaurant. A man in his sixties is waiting. A young woman enters, she seems tired, weighed down with her backpack, and her whole life inside it. He offers to take her a part of the way. She accepts. Natalie Beder's short premiered in competition in the Pardi di domani section at Locarno Film Festival 2015.

Looking for Grace

Sue Brooks : 2015

When the impulsive 14-year-old Grace decides to run away from home, her parents Dan and Denise embark on a long car journey from Perth, across the entire region of Wheatbelt in Western Australia to find her. But life unravels faster than they can put it back together. Enlisting the help of a retired detective, the couple soon realises that it is time to confront the realities of their changing relationship to one another, and to their daughter. A poignant family drama about the big consequences of small choices and a reflection on teenage and middle age trauma. Sue Brooks's feature premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2015.

The Endless River

Oliver Hermanus : 2015

A young waitress welcomes her husband home to the small South African town of Riviersonderend after his four-year jail sentence. At first it appears their plans for a new life together are finally being realised. But when the wife and son of a foreigner living on a nearby farm are brutally murdered, the young woman and the grieving widower begin gravitating towards each other. Trapped in a cycle of violence and bloodshed, the two form an unlikely bond seeking to transcend their mutual anger, pain and loneliness. Oliver Hermanus's feature premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2015.

L'attesa

Piero Messina : 2015
The Wait

Anna is not yet 60 and already feels like her life is over. The pain of bereavement is etched into her face and her slow movements; it is reflected in the shabby walls of the residence and the ivy that covers them. Then, in that timeless place, there is a telephone call from Jeanne, Giuseppe's girlfriend. Anna should tell her immediately of the terrible loss, but she is petrified: she did not know that her son had a girlfriend. Jeanne's arrival in that villa made up of mourning brings a breath of fresh air and a certain naivety. Anna is yet unable to tell the girl the truth. She is sure it would break the spell. The excuse is always the same, that she is waiting for the right moment. So the two women spend the Easter Days in that solitary place, waiting together for the return of the man they love. To wait for someone is an act of faith. It does not matter if the wait is long or short, if the person is dead or has simply vanished. To wait means to believe that they are elsewhere and to long for their return. And if two women removed from time are convinced that the return of someone far away is imminent, then that person lives yet. Piero Messina's feature debut premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2015.

Abluka

Emin Alper : 2015
Frenzy

Kadir is released after a 15-year prison term and goes in search of his younger brother Ahmet. Meanwhile, İstanbul is in the grip of political violence. Hamza, a high-ranking police officer, helps Kadir find a job as an informant. He collects garbage, checking to see whether it contains material related to bomb-making. Ahmet works at the municipality as part of a team responsible for destroying stray dogs. When Ahmet shuts himself up in his house to care for a wounded dog, Kadir thinks he is being threatened by terrorists. Kadir relays his concern to Hamza, who sends the police to investigate. Emin Alper's feature was winner of the Special Jury Prize when it premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2015.

Eco

Xacio Baño : 2015
Echo

Xosé and his girlfriend Rocío are vacating his parents' apartment in A Coruña. Nobody lives there now. There are marks from the old furniture on the walls, memories inside the boxes. Thirty years to build a life and two days to disassemble it. When they shake the rugs, the dust invades the house. It's time to open the windows. Xacio Baño's short premiered in competition in the Pardi di domani section at Locarno Film Festival 2015.

Maria do Mar

João Rosas : 2015

It's a summer weekend in a country house near Sintra. Fourteen-year-old Nicolau is spending a couple of days with his older brother Simão and his friends, all of them in their late twenties. Everyone is drawn to the beautiful and quiet Maria do Mar, but Nicolau will see his life the most deeply shaken by her. Between homework and tree-climbing, stories about a deceased philandering grandfather and the origins of the tortellini's shape, a friend in a costume nursing a broken heart and seduction games, Nicolau observes this group of young adults. João Rosas's short premiered in competition in the Pardi di domani section at Locarno Film Festival 2015.

Persi

Caterina Mona : 2015

Davide, Carla and Giulia were three. Davide, Carla and Max are three. But their peace of mind is unravelled by the news of two girls found after being kept prisoner for years in a cellar. The information reopens a wound for Carla and gives Davide new hope. What happened on that day, ten years ago, that changed the couple's lives forever? Caterina Mona's short premiered in competition in the Pardi di domani section at Locarno Film Festival 2015.

O espelho

Rodrigo Lima : 2015
The Mirror

A man is mysteriously called to the entrance gate of an abandoned country home. As if she was coming out of a water mirror, a woman emerges from the mud at the bottom of a lake. As they approach each other, a spell is cast. Together they experience the enchantment of hallucination, memory and dreams. Reflections in the water will reveal secrets hidden in the nature of the soul. A recreation of the short story by Machado de Assis, Rodrigo Lima's feature debut premiered in competition in the Fuori concorso section at Locarno Film Festival 2015.

Suite Armoricaine

Pascale Breton : 2015

Françoise returns to Rennes to teach art history at the university, many years after studying there herself. Ion, who has appeared out of nowhere at the start of the new academic year to study geography, is in love with Lydie, a blind student. He claims, out of shame, that his mother Moon is dead. There's also rock music, stronger than ever, with John who has never stopped playing it, and Françoise's friends who have never stopped listening to it. Still further away, at the beginning, there is a stream that Françoise has made invisible in her memory, and which is waiting to be visited, like a painting in a museum. Pascale Breton's feature was winner of the FIPRESCI Award when it premiered in competition at Locarno Film Festival 2015.

Renaître

Jean-François Ravagnan : 2015
Rise

Sarah gets a phone call that is a blast from the past. Alone and lying to her nearest and dearest, she has only one thing in mind: to cross the Mediterranean and return to Tunisia. Driven by powerful emotions, she undertakes a journey in order to keep a promise she once made to the man she loved. Jean-François Ravagnan's short premiered in competition in the Pardi di domani section at Locarno Film Festival 2015.

Renaître – bande-annonce (vimeo)

Dream Land

Steve Chen : 2015

Lida, a single woman in the developing metropolis of Phnom Penh, sells modern and upscale housing developments to the growing middle and upper classes. Meanwhile, she suffers constant heartache over her deteriorating relationship with her photographer boyfriend, Sokun. Unable to escape her inner prison, she decides to travel to the quiet beach town of Kep with some close friends to find peace. There, Lida discovers that the ghosts of the past can also haunt you in beautiful ways. Steve Chen's feature debut premiered in competition in the Concorso Cineasti del presente section at Locarno Film Festival 2015.

Arianna

Carlo Lavagna : 2015

Arianna is nineteen and has never had her period. The high doses of hormones her doctor has prescribed don't seem to have any affect on her body development. In the early summer she returns for a holiday to the childhood home where she lived with her parents until the age of three – a beautiful villa on the shores of the Bolsena lake. During her visit, ancient memories gradually resurface and come back to haunt her, making her decide to stay at the house even after her parents return to the city. In the silent, sweltering afternoons, something begins to shift inside her. The encounter with her younger cousin – so feminine and different from her – and the loss of her virginity to a young man her age, force Arianna to face the ghosts that have been tormenting her and bring her to finally face the true nature of her sexuality. In a world seen through the eyes of a 19-year-old intersex, the film questions the relationship between power and abnormalities and the consequences of their conflict. Documentary filmmaker Carlo Lavagna's feature debut was winner of the Premio Laguna SUD for Best Italian Discovery and the FEDEORA Award for Best Young Actress when it premiered in competition at Venice Days 2015.