Il bene mio

Pippo Mezzapesa : 2018
My Own Good

The last remaining inhabitant of Provvidenza, a village destroyed by an earthquake, Elia refuses to go along with the rest of the community, which has resettled in Nuova Provvidenza and put the past behind them. To Elia, his town is still alive, and thanks to the help of an old friend, Gesualdo, he strains to keep its memory alive as well. When the mayor orders him to abandon Provvidenza, Elia seems to be on the point of pulling up stakes, when he suddenly senses a strange presence. In fact, a young woman, Noor, is hiding in the rubble of the school, where Elia's wife had lost her life. Noor is on the run, and this chance encounter, coupled with Elia's own desire as keeper of the flame for Provvidenza, brings him up against a decision from which there is no going back. Pippo Mezzapesa's feature premiered as a Special Event screening at Venice Days 2018.

Gwen

William McGregor : 2018

In the stark beauty of 19th century Wales a young girl tries desperately to hold her home together. Struggling with her mother's mysterious illness, her father's absence and a ruthless mining company encroaching on their land. A growing darkness begins to take grip of her home, and the suspicious local community turns on Gwen and her family. Gwen lives on a farm in the hills of Snowdonia with her mother, Elen and little sister Mari. Like nearly all the local men, Gwen's father is away at war. Elen, Gwen, and Mari must already maintain a punishing work schedule to keep the farm going, but they are plagued by one ominous occurrence after another, as well as by a town that begins to become suspicious of their behaviour. A neighbouring family perishes from cholera; potatoes are rotting in the soil; Elen becomes ill and there is no money for medicine. And their sheep – someone has slaughtered every one of their sheep. Who could possibly wish such misfortune on this humble family? William McGregor's feature debut premiered in the Discovery section at Toronto International Film Festival 2018.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

Desiree Akhavan : 2018

It's 1993 and after having been discovered in the arms of a girl at a school prom, Cameron Post is packed off to a Christian conversion camp called God's Promise, in a remote area where it is hoped she will be cured of her 'gayness'. While she is being subjected to questionable gay conversion therapies Cameron meets a group of fellow sinners including the amputee stoner Jane, and her friend, the Lakota Two-Spirit, Adam. Together, this group of teenagers form an unlikely family as they fight to survive in the face of intolerance and denial. A rally cry for individualism, Desiree Akhavan's feature was winner of the Grand Jury Prize when it premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2018.

L'homme fidèle

Louis Garrel : 2018
A Faithful Man

Marianne leaves Abel for Paul, his best friend and the father of her unborn child. Eight years later, Paul dies. As they meet again, Abel decides to win back Marianne, arousing feelings of jealousy in both Marianne's son, Joseph, and Paul's sister, Eva, who has secretly loved Abel since childhood. As the plot snakes through the bric-à-brac of Abel's days, we find an ironic and sympathetic sensibility on display. Rather than being in control, Abel is acted on, as he good-humouredly tries to navigate the challenges that come his way. Louis Garrel's second feature premiered in Special Presentations at Toronto International Film Festival 2018, and won the Jury Prize for Best Screenplay when it had its European premiere at San Sebastián International Film Festival 2018.

Beast

Michael Pearce : 2017

Living in an isolated community, a troubled young woman finds herself pulled between the control of her oppressive family and the allure of a secretive outsider suspected of a series of brutal murders. Yearning to escape from her stifling home life, Moll, the black sheep of an upper-crust family on the island of Jersey, impulsively moves in with Pascal, a rugged hunter with a mysterious past. When a local girl goes missing following a string of murders, Moll must decide what to trust: her own instincts, or the mysterious man with whom she has made a home. A riveting, slow-burning thriller about the limits of love and the darkness inside us. Michael Pearce's feature debut premiered in the Platform section at Toronto International Film Festival 2017, and had its UK premiere at London Film Festival 2017.

On Chesil Beach

Dominic Cooke : 2017

In July 1962, Edward Mayhew, a graduate student of history, and Florence Ponting, a violinist of a string quartet, have just been married and are spending their honeymoon in a small hotel on the Dorset seashore, at Chesil Beach. The two are very much in love despite being from drastically different backgrounds. During the course of an evening, both reflect upon their upbringing and the prospect of their futures. Edward is sexually motivated and, though intelligent, has a taste for rash behaviour. Florence is bound by the social code of another era and, perhaps having been sexually abused by her father, is terrified of sexual intimacy. Florence tries to mentally prepare herself for the inevitable consummation, but the thought of it continues to repulse her. The story unfolds with great tenderness to show how, unbeknownst to them both, the decisions they make that summer will resonate throughout their lives. Dominic Cooke's feature premiered in Special Presentations at Toronto International Film Festival 2017, and had its UK premiere at London Film Festival 2017.

The Heart

Fanni Metelius : 2018
Hjärtat

Photographer Mika and music producer Tesfay prove to be each other's first great loves. With their talents, her blonde hair and his black dreads, they are a beautiful couple that fits in perfectly in today's Sweden. After a period of courtship, parties, sex and getting to know each other, they decide to live together. For the outside world, this hip couple presents an ideal picture, but things start going wrong between the sheets. An insidious power game is in play, with its rules changing like music beats at the parties in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Ibiza. Behind closed doors and beautifying filters lies a raw reality where Mika's control over her mind and body is at stake. But Mika rips apart relationship prejudices and explores what really makes our pulses quicken in matters of the modern heart. Fanni Metelius's feature debut premiered in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2018.

Kejal

Nima Salehyiar : 2018

Kejal, a young Kurdish woman studying at Tehran returns home when her brother is killed in the mountains, leaving behind debts for lost goods. Forced by circumstance, Kejal becomes a kulbar – a woman in a men's world, a world where a woman aspiring towards independence has to be particularly strong. Risking their life, kulbars climb on narrow mountain paths every day, carrying 40kg of goods on their back. Every mistaken step may chance upon a landmine. The Iranian authorities regard them as smugglers and they are hunted like wild animals. The extremely poor Kurds regard it as a traditional profession which keeps families fed and alive. They do not regard it as crossing the Iran-Iraq border – for them, it is all Kurdistan. Nima Salehyiar's feature debut premiered in the First Feature Competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2018.

Les routes en février

Katherine Jerkovic : 2018
Roads in February

Sarah goes to visit her paternal grandmother Magda in Uruguay. When she was little her family migrated to Canada and now Sarah is back after her father's death. However, those places and people in the small Uruguayan village are now foreign to her. Even talking to her grandmother is strained. Magda who never saw her son again after he left, isn't exactly thrilled to see Sarah. She reminds her of everything she would rather forget. Sarah at the same time wanders around in the unrelenting heat, searching for some sort of connection with the place she once called home. Inspired by the writer-director's own personal story, the film speaks through silences and pauses. What do we lose by leaving? Can you ever go back home again? Katherine Jerkovic's feature debut was winner of the Best Canadian First Feature Film award when it premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2018, and had its international premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2018.

Journey to a Mother's Room

Celia Rico Clavellino : 2018
Viaje al cuarto de una madre

Leonor is keen to leave home. She's just broken up with her partner and isn't happy in the job her mother Estrella has secured for her in a tailor's workshop. She wants to escape the small-town mentality of southern Spain and experience the big-city life in London. But leaving her mother when they are both still reeling from the recent death of a loving husband and caring father is not easy. Whatever decision Leonor makes will have important consequences. A detailed examination of the minutiae of the myriad nuances inherent in family life. The film delicately handles the challenges of generational difference in a close emotional relationship, where so much remains unspoken and nothing can be taken for granted. Celia Rico Clavellino's feature debut premiered in the New Directors section at San Sebastián International Film Festival 2018 where it won the Youth Jury Award, and had its UK premiere at London Film Festival 2018.

The Purity of Vengeance

Christoffer Boe : 2018
Journal 64

Two workmen make an alarming discovery in an older Copenhagen apartment: hidden behind a false wall are three mummified corpses, sitting around a dining table with one empty seat left. The case quickly ends up on the desk of Detective Superintendent Carl Mørck and his assistant Assad from Department Q, and it is up to them to figure out, who the mummies are as well as who the fourth seat is meant for. Carl and Assad put all effort into tracking the tenant of the apartment and they end up finding clues tracing back to the notorious institution for 'wayward' girls on the island of Sprogø, where extreme neglect and medical experiments in forced sterilisation were a part of everyday life. Even though the horrors of Sprogø are a closed chapter in Danish history, there are now people claiming the experiments have continued to go on up until today. Carl and Assad start a race against time to prevent new murders and attacks from happening. The fourth and final instalment in the Department Q series based on Jussi Adler-Olsen's best-selling novels. Christoffer Boe's feature premiered at CPH PIX 2018.

A Conspiracy of Faith

Hans Petter Moland : 2016
Flaskepost fra P

Siblings Samuel and Magdalena who grew up in a religious community in Denmark suddenly disappear. Meanwhile, at Police Headquarters in Copenhagen, an eight year old message in a bottle turns up containing a cry for help from a boy in captivity. Carl Mørck and his assistant Assad from the department for cold cases, Department Q, discover a connection between the two cases. Finally, as they manage to dig deep into the religious community, they get on the track of a man who has left a long trail of kidnappings and murders in his wake. The film is the third instalment in the Department Q series based on Jussi Adler-Olsen's best-selling novels. Hans Petter Moland's feature had its UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016.

My Sister's Silence

Kiran Kolarov : 2018
Malchanieto na sestra mi

In a family left by their father, who forms an extravagant collection of moths as a 'proof' of the countless female hearts he has conquered, the erratic mother tries to prevent her family from falling apart. Thirteen-year-old Theo is following in his father's footsteps by becoming an erotic novelist. His autistic sister Andy, 18, never leaves the pavement in front of her house and refuses to talk to anyone, communicating online only with her brother. On one of her solitary walks, she meets and falls in love with Dinko, a young bum, who sees in her an opportunity for a profitable deal. He trades her to a Gypsy baron only to realise he is in love with her. Meanwhile, the mother takes a desperate step to save her daughter. Kiran Kolarov's feature premiered at Golden Rose Film Festival 2018.

The Infinite Garden

Galin Stoev : 2017
Безкрайната градина

A dreamlike romantic drama which revolves around Philip, who has it all: a successful career and a beautiful girlfriend. However, he is still taking care of Victor, his sensitive brother, years after the death of their parents. Emma is autistic, fallen out of time. At night, she crafts a model of a mystical garden in the back of her flower shop, where Victor works. Emma lives in spheres completely beyond Philip's reach. Through her garden, Philip realises that he never felt so real until he met this otherworldly girl, he's falling in love with. His life is transforming until Victor confesses that he, too, is in love with Emma. Torn between the love for his brother and for Emma, Philip feels the pain of loss for the first time. Galin Stoev's feature debut premiered at Kinomania 2017.

No quiero perderte nunca

Alejo Levis : 2017
I Never Want to Lose You

The story focuses on a couple, Paula and Malena, who move into Paula's family home, a large dark house in the countryside, filled with a lifetime of objects. One morning, Paula receives a call from the retirement home where her mother lives and suddenly, a whirlwind of memories, emotions, broken promises and contradictions take hold of her. But Paula refuses to accept the pain she feels and goes through various stages of mourning, from panic to denial until in the end by reliving the best moments spent with her loved one, Paula learns to say goodbye. Alejo Levis's second feature premiered at Festival de Málaga de Cine Español 2017.

Un amour impossible

Catherine Corsini : 2018
An Impossible Love

It's 1958 in Châteauroux, a small town in the French province and a couple takes to the dancefloor to dance to a song by Dalida whose premonitory words will haunt the forty years that follow this love at first sight. Rachel, a modest office worker, meets Philippe, a brilliant young Nietzsche-reading sophisticate born to a bourgeois family. From this brief but passionate relationship is born a daughter, Chantal, but Philippe refuses to marry outside of his social class and Rachel has to raise their daughter alone. Time passes and Rachel leads a lonely work life, raising her only daughter in the myth of her ectoplasmic father. But as a teenager, Philippe finally agrees to see them again, and to recognise Chantal as his. A decision that will have far-reaching consequences for the mother and daughter and which will poison their subsequent relationship. Based on the book by controversial French novelist Christine Angot, Catherine Corsini's feature premiered at Festival du Film Francophone d'Angoulême 2018, and had its UK premiere at London Film Festival 2018.

Red Joan

Trevor Nunn : 2018

The year is 2000 and Joan Stanley is a retired scientist living in a London suburb. Her tranquil life is suddenly disrupted when she's arrested by MI5 and accused of providing intelligence to Communist Russia. We flash back to 1938, and young Joan is a new student at Cambridge, where a chance encounter with Sonya, an alluring fellow student, draws her into a circle of politicised youths supporting the Republicans in Spain and the Soviet dream of a classless society. Joan falls for Sonya's brother Leo, a dashing idealist in search of adventure. When the Second World War begins, Joan goes to work at a top-secret British intelligence project of great interest to Leo. Joan is soon facing several difficult choices: between national loyalties, between belief systems, between men. Confronted with an impossible question – what price would you pay for peace? – Joan must choose between betraying her country and loved ones or saving them. Trevor Nunn's feature premiered in Special Presentations at Toronto International Film Festival 2018.

Where Hands Touch

Amma Asante : 2018

Germany, 1944. 15-year old Leyna is German, born to a Caucasian mother and a black foreign fighter, whom she has never met. Her nightmare begins when she moves with her mother and little brother to the village where her relatives live. There, in Rüdesheim am Rhein, she experiences racism for the first time. Everyone calls her "the mongrel": her classmates, her teacher, even her uncle and aunt, and of course the SS patrols. Her mother has done her best to protect Leyna, but the racist credo of National Socialism has rendered her a pariah for the colour of her skin. Yet youthful ardour can bloom in the most unlikely places: Leyna is in love with Lutz, a member of the Hitler Youth – compulsory for all Aryan boys since 1936. Lutz toes the party line when it comes to antisemitism yet remains drawn to Leyna despite Nazi revulsion at the thought of a Black German. When that revulsion escalates to direct threat to her survival, Leyna and Lutz must face the seemingly inevitable outcome of their impossibly fraught romance. A coming-of-age story set in the most brutal of times. Amma Asante's feature premiered in Special Presentations at Toronto International Film Festival 2018.

Vita & Virginia

Chanya Button : 2018

The affair and the friendship of authors Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West – both uncompromising in their insistence to live, love, and create to the fullest – constitutes one of the most fascinating relationships in literary history. The year is 1922. Though happily married, Vita is as notorious for her dalliances with women and iconoclastic attitudes toward gender as she is famous for her aristocratic ancestry and writerly success. Virginia, meanwhile, is a celebrated writer, publisher, and member of the Bloomsbury Group, those innovative moderns already revolutionising literature. When Vita receives an invitation to Bloomsbury, she is elated at the thought of meeting the enigmatic Woolf and, not surprisingly perhaps, becomes obsessed with the notion of seducing her. Between Virginia's mental health struggles and Vita's impulsiveness – and the concern of their husbands, families, and mutual friends – their romance is bound to be tumultuous. Yet tumult can fuel creativity and Vita's singular persona will eventually be channelled into Orlando, the novel their relationship inspired and one of Virginia's greatest works. Chanya Button's feature premiered in Special Presentations at Toronto International Film Festival 2018.

Maya

Mia Hansen-Løve : 2018

Gabriel is a 30-year-old war correspondent taken hostage and repatriated to Paris after four months of captivity in Syria. He believes he may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and on the advice of a psychiatrist, he travels to India to visit his godfather, Monty. Having lived there until the age of seven with his mother – who still lives there and runs an NGO in Mumbai – Gabriel decides to settle in Goa, in a bungalow by the sea, while he renovates a small house in the countryside. He encounters Maya, his godfather's 17-year-old daughter, a student who is travelling between London and Sydney in the middle of her studies, and a relationship gradually begins to stir, despite the decade or so between them. As Gabriel slowly adjusts to safety and society in India, he also reintegrates into normal life – and back into parts of his past that resurface during his trip. Mia Hansen-Løve's feature premiered in Special Presentations at Toronto International Film Festival 2018.

Jinpa

Pema Tseden : 2018

On the path of life, sometimes we meet someone whose dreams overtake our own to the point that they converge. This is a story of revenge and redemption. On an isolated road passing through the vast barren plains of Tibet, a truck driver who has accidentally run over a sheep chances upon a young man who is hitching a ride. As they drive and chat, the truck driver notices that his new friend has a silver dagger strapped to his leg; he comes to understand that this man is out to kill someone who wronged him earlier in life. As he drops the hitchhiker off at a fork in the road, little does the truck driver realise that their short time together has changed everything, and that their destinies are inexorably intertwined. A journey of awakening on the road to the future, occupying a realm where the boundaries between dream and reality are blurred and irrelevant. Pema Tseden's feature was winner of the award for Best Screenplay when it premiered in competition in the Orizzonti section at Venice International Film Festival 2018.

C'est ça l'amour

Claire Burger : 2018
Real Love

Forbach, East of France. Mario, a man without much ambition, except where love is concerned, is back to square one after his wife left home. Now he must raise on his own his two daughters going through their adolescent years while going through some sort of a teenage crisis of his own. 14-year-old Frida blames her father for their mother's absence and she develops ambivalent feelings towards her new girlfriend. 17-year-old Niki will soon leave home. Until then, she lives the good life. Mario can't help but lose the women he loves. Yet they must all agree to let one another go. Can accepting to lose someone eventually lead to finding oneself? Claire Burger's first solo feature was winner of the Director's Award when it premiered in competition at Venice Days 2018.

Capri-Revolution

Mario Martone : 2018

It is 1914 and Italy is about to go to war. A commune of young Northern Europeans has found the ideal place for their exploration of life and art on the island of Capri. But the island has its own powerful identity, in the person of a young woman, a goatherd named Lucia. The film tells the story of the encounter between Lucia, the commune led by Seybu and the young village doctor. It also speaks of an island unique in the world, whose Dolomite cliffs plunge into the waters of the Mediterranean, and which at the start of the 20th century acted like a magnet for all those driven by ideals of liberty and progress, such as the Russians whom Maxim Gorky, in exile on Capri, was preparing for the revolution. Mario Martone's feature premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2018.

Hello Apartment

Dakota Fanning : 2018

Ava enters the Brooklyn loft for the first time. It's empty. Freshly painted but old. Sun streams through the large windows, onto the hardwood floor, worn with marks from previous inhabitants. Ava sits down. This is now home. Her home. This is where she'll meet a boy and fall in love. This is where wine will be spilt at the party. This is where they'll scream at each other, and decide it's all over. The apartment will become a witness to Ava's personal history – her joy and sadness, hopes and disappointments – the kind of universal space we all find ourselves evolving into adulthood. The fifteenth commission from designer Miu Miu as part of "Women's Tales", a series of short films by women who critically celebrate femininity in the 21st century. Dakota Fanning's directorial debut screened at Venice Days 2018.

L'amica geniale

Saverio Costanzo : 2018
My Brilliant Friend

When the most important friend of her life appears to have vanished without a trace, Elena Greco, an elderly woman who lives in a house filled with books, turns on her computer and starts to write the story of herself and Lila, the story of a friendship born at elementary school in the 1950s. Set in a dangerous and fascinating Naples, the account that follows covers more than sixty years of life and attempts to unveil the mystery of Lila, Elena's brilliant friend, at once her best friend and worst enemy. Saverio Costanzo's TV drama was shown as a Special Screening, out of competition at Venice International Film Festival 2018.

Les estivants

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi : 2018
The Summer House

A large and beautiful property on the French Riviera. A place that seems out of time and sheltered from the rest of the world. Anna goes there with her daughter for a few days of vacation. Amidst her family, friends and the house staff, she has to handle her fresh break-up with her partner and the writing of her next film. Behind their laughter, anger and secrets emerge fears, desires and power relations. Everyone shuts out the rumblings of the world and must face the mysteries of their own existence. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's feature premiered out of competition at Venice International Film Festival 2018.

Roma

Alfonso Cuarón : 2018

A turbulent year in the lives of a family in 1970s Mexico City. A vivid portrayal of domestic strife and social hierarchy amidst political turmoil, the film follows a young domestic worker Cleo from Mixteco heritage descent and her co-worker Adela, also Mixteca, who work for a small family in the middle-class neighbourhood of Roma. Mother of four, Sofia, copes with the extended absence of her husband, Cleo faces her own devastating news that threatens to distract her from caring for Sofia's children, whom she loves as her own. While trying to construct a new sense of love and solidarity in a context of a social hierarchy where class and race are perversely intertwined, Cleo and Sofia quietly wrestle with changes infiltrating the family home in a country facing confrontation between a government-backed militia and student demonstrators. Alfonso Cuarón's feature was winner of the Golden Lion when it premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2018.

Doubles vies

Olivier Assayas : 2018
Non-Fiction

Set in the French publishing world, an editor and an author find themselves in over their heads, as they cope with a middle-age crisis, the changing industry and their wives. Alain, a successful Parisian publisher struggling to adapt to the digital revolution, has major doubts about the new manuscript of Léonard, one of his long-time authors – another work of auto-fiction recycling his love affair with a minor celebrity. Selena, Alain's wife, a famous stage actress, is of the opposite opinion. Overwhelmed by the new practices of the publishing world, the two men struggle to find their place in a society whose code they can no longer crack. Olivier Assayas's feature premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2018.

Long Day's Journey into Night

Bi Gan : 2018
Di qiu zui hou de ye wan

After his father's death Luo Hongwu has returned to Kaili, the town of his birth from which he fled twelve years ago, triggering an avalanche of reminiscences. He begins the search for the woman he loved, and has never been able to forget. She told him her name was Wan Quiwen. Memories of the enigmatic and beautiful woman for whom he killed resurface, confronting him with unbearable revelations. Bi Gan's second feature premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2018.

L'amour flou

Romane Bohringer & Philippe Rebbot : 2018

Romane and Philippe separate. After 10 years together, two children and a dog, they do not love each other anymore. Finally ... they are no longer in love. But they love each other anyway. A lot. Too much to really separate? In short ... it's vague. Then, under the watchful eye of those around them, they give birth to a "separation": two separate apartments, communicating through the room of their children! Can we separate together? Can one redo one's life without undoing it? A courageous, resonating and very moving dramatisation of the real-life separation by actors Romane Bohringer and Philippe Rebbot. Their directorial debut was winner of the Valois du public when it premiered in competition at Festival du Film Francophone d'Angoulême 2018.

Yara

Abbas Fahdel : 2018

Young Yara lives with her grandmother in a valley in northern Lebanon, where most of the inhabitants have either died or moved abroad. One day Elias, a young hiker, passes by the two women's farm. With him, Yara will experience the joys and pains of first love. An in-depth study of the everyday life of inhabitants cut off by the towering mountains, the coexistence of different religions in one and the same country, and the emigration of young Lebanese people far away from the Middle East, for political or economic reasons. A summertime romance between a country girl and a stranger who stumbles across the village after getting lost while out hiking. Abbas Fahdel's feature premiered in competition in the Concorso internazionale section at Locarno Film Festival 2018.

Easy Lessons

Dorrotya Zurbó : 2018
Könnyű Leckék

Kafia is 17 years old. Two years ago, she fled alone to Europe, to Hungary, in an attempt to escape a forced child marriage in Somalia. She has been living in a state children's home in Budapest ever since. She learns the language, goes to high school, prepares for the Hungarian graduation exam, and starts a modelling career. On the surface, everything seems fine. However, behind a beautiful and confident appearance lies a heavy heart. Kafia's repetitive daily routine revolves around constant dilemmas and self-doubt about leaving behind her Muslim culture and everything else she grew up with. As she allows the camera to get closer to her, the film slowly becomes an intimate confession. What does it mean, on the brink of adulthood, to break with your past and fully give yourself up to a new self in order to live in Europe? Dorrotya Zurbó's second documentary feature premiered at the Semaine de la Critique at Locarno Film Festival 2018, and screened in competition at Sarajevo Film Festival 2018.

Ága

Milko Lazarov : 2018

In the icy tundra of the Northern wilderness, reindeer hunter Nanook and his wife Sedna dream of reuniting with their daughter Ága, who left the slowly eroding traditional way of life a long time ago. In a yurt on the snow-covered fields, Nanook and Sedna live following the traditions of their ancestors. Their daily life is arduous, but they never complain. Instead, they tell each other the old legends, and their dreams. No matter whether they are describing imaginary encounters with animals, humans, the living or the dead, everything has its meaning. Alone in the wilderness, they look like the last people on Earth. Nanook and Sedna's traditional way of life starts changing – slowly, but inevitably. Hunting becomes more and more difficult, the animals around them die from inexplicable deaths and the ice has been melting earlier every year. Chena, who visits them regularly, is their only connection with the outside world and to their daughter Ága. When Sedna's health deteriorates, Nanook decides to fulfil her wish. He embarks on a long journey in order to find Ága. Milko Lazarov's second feature premiered out of competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2018, and was winner of the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Feature Film when it screened in competition at Sarajevo Film Festival 2018.

Mes provinciales

Jean-Paul Civeyrac : 2018
A Paris Education

Filled with expectations, Étienne moves to Paris from Lyon to study film directing at the Sorbonne. He leaves behind his girlfriend Lucie, promising to call her regularly via Skype. On his course he meets Jean-Noël and Mathias, they too have come to the metropolis from smaller cities and share his passion for cinema. Together they discuss the cinematic canon, read texts by Flaubert and Pasolini, and listen to Bach and Mahler. Jean-Noël proves to be an agreeable friend who tries to strengthen Étienne's fragile self-confidence; Mathias, on the other hand, often comes across as stern, aloof and mysterious. Fond of arguing, he has a habit of disappearing for weeks on end without the others knowing where he is. Nobody gets to see his student film, either. Étienne is particularly crestfallen when he discovers by chance that Mathias shares a secret with Annabelle, an idealistic young woman who lives in Étienne's shared flat and with whom he is secretly in love. A tenderly melancholic study of these young people's encounter with art and life, and a declaration of love for classic cinema and the city of Paris. Jean-Paul Civeyrac's feature premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

Woman at War

Benedikt Erlingsson : 2018
Kona fer í stríð

Halla is a 50-year-old independent woman. But behind the scenes of a quiet routine, she leads a double life as a passionate environmental activist. Known to others only by her alias – "The Woman of the Mountain" – Halla secretly wages a one-woman-war on the local aluminium industry. As Halla's actions grow bolder, going from petty vandalism to outright industrial sabotage, she succeeds in pausing negotiations between the Icelandic government and the corporation building a new aluminium smelter. But just as she begins planning her biggest and boldest operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that changes everything. Her application to adopt a child has finally been accepted, and there is a little girl waiting for her in Ukraine. As Halla prepares to abandon her role as saboteur and saviour of the Highlands to fulfil her dream of becoming a mother, she decides to plot one final attack to deal the aluminium industry a crippling blow. Benedikt Erlingsson's feature premiered in competition at the Semaine de la Critique at Festival de Cannes 2018, and screened in the Kinoscope section at Sarajevo Film Festival 2018.

L'après-midi de Clémence

Lénaïg le Moigne : 2018
The Afternoon of Clémence

When Clémence travels out to the country to attend a garden party with her parents, she's excited about meeting the other kids. Upon arriving late, Clémence joins the other children who are already playing away from the adults, but they don't seem to notice her. They even mock her and leave her behind in the woods. And the grown-ups? Too absorbed in their oh-so-important conversations. Clémence's afternoon doesn't turn out to be as much fun as she expected. With charcoal and coloured pencils, the director sensitively traces how it feels to be pushed away by others. Lénaïg le Moigne's short premiered in the Generation Kplus section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018, and featured in the Children's programme at Sarajevo Film Festival 2018.

Glaubenberg

Thomas Imbach : 2018

Lena is an intelligent and very pretty 16-year-old. She lives with her older brother Noah and her parents in an old house in Oerlikon, Northern Zürich. Noah, a likeable young man of 19, has just successfully completed his baccalaureate and is eager to get on with his life but Lena does not want to let him go. When the family sees Noah off at the airport – he is going to İzmir as an archaeological intern – Lena is practically heartbroken. The love Lena feels for Noah is more than sisterly love – and is a love so intense that it is experienced as a form of madness. She tries to cope, but plagued by her dreams, the nights become a constant conflict with forbidden feelings, so much so that she decides to stop sleeping. To distract herself, she encourages Noah's friend Enis. But she is so obsessed with her brother that she cannot curb her feelings. Lena starts daydreaming, living more in a fantasy world than in real life. When she finally brings herself to confess to Noah, he is shocked and repels her. Lena then embarks on a journey into the unknown. Thomas Imbach's feature premiered in competition in the Concorso internazionale section at Locarno Film Festival 2018.

Le vent tourne

Bettina Oberli : 2018
With the Wind

A farm in the Jura mountains, far away from the nearest village. This is where Pauline and Alex's dream of a self-sufficient life in harmony with nature has come true. Their love, ideals and work unite them. Now the couple wishes to become totally independent by producing their own power. The pragmatic and easy-going engineer Samuel visits them to oversee the construction of a wind turbine. Pauline feels immediately attracted to him and suddenly becomes aware of how limited her life has been. Her feelings for Samuel are as intense as a storm, throwing her into confusion about her love life and view of the world. Above all she will realise the need to express her personality without following the path taken by others. Bettina Oberli's feature was winner of the Variety Piazza Grande Award when it premiered at Locarno Film Festival 2018.

Tracking Edith

Peter Stephan Jungk : 2016

Based on his non-fiction book Die Dunkelkammern der Edith Tudor-Hart, Peter Stephan Jungk explores the secret life of his great aunt Edith Tudor-Hart (born Edith Suschitzky in 1908, in Vienna, died 1973 in Brighton). She was best known in the art world as an iconic photographer. When she wasn't taking photos of Vienna's and London's workers and street children, of poverty and social deprivation she was working as a Soviet agent. Being a secret agent for the KGB doesn't seem to have come naturally to the photographer. She recruited Kim Philby, and was one of the architects of the Cambridge Five, the Soviet Union's most successful spy ring in Great Britain. Edith was Jungk's great aunt, his mother's cousin; the writer/filmmaker tries to unravel the truth about his aunt's life, in Austria, Great Britain and Russia. A documentary about the renowned photographer, about a spy with a conscience and hidden secrets in a family.

Tracking Edith – trailer (vimeo)

Sibel

Çağla Zencirci & Guillaume Giovanetti : 2018

25-year-old Sibel lives with her father and sister in Kusköy, a secluded village in the mountains of Turkey's Black Sea region. Sibel is a mute, but she communicates by using the ancestral whistled language of the area. Rejected by her fellow villagers who consider her disabled, she relentlessly hunts down a wolf that is said to be prowling in the neighbouring forest, sparking off fears and fantasies among the village women. There she crosses paths with a fugitive, a deserter from the Turkish army. Injured, threatening and vulnerable, he is the first one to take a fresh look at her. A new perspective comes to Sibel: for her this enigmatic character represents a contrast she has long been searching for, a breath of fresh air that whisks her far away from the stifling rules imposed by the patriarchal society in which she lives. Çağla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti's third feature received the FIPRESCI Award and the Ecumenical Award when it premiered in competition in the Concorso internazionale section at Locarno Film Festival 2018.

Tarde para morir joven

Dominga Sotomayor : 2018
Too Late to Die Young

During the summer of 1990 in Chile, a small group of families, living in an isolated community right below the Andes, builds a new world away from the urban excesses, trying to put to good use the emerging freedom that followed the recent end of the country's dictatorship. In this time of change and reckoning, the teenagers Sofía, Lucas and Clara struggle with their parents, their first love, and their fears as they prepare a big party for New Year's Eve. They may live far from the dangers of the city, but not from the ones of nature. Dominga Sotomayor's second full feature, inspired by memories of her own childhood in the Ecological Community of Peñalolén, was winner of the Leopard for Best Director when it premiered in competition in the Concorso internazionale section at Locarno Film Festival 2018.

Sofia

Meryem Benm'Barek : 2018

Sofia, 20, lives with her parents in Casablanca. She is about to give birth out of wedlock, which under Morocco's arcane laws places both partners eligible for a mandatory jail sentence of up to one year. The hospital gives her 24 hours to provide the father's papers before informing the authorities. Sofia, a girl from an upper-class family, finally names a young working-class man with whom she was only briefly acquainted. Despite her parents' horror and disgust, the only solution is to quickly arrange a marriage, to get the law off their backs and save the family reputation, just as a lucrative business deal for Sofia's father is in the offing. Meryem Benm'Barek's feature debut was winner of the Prize for Best Screenplay when it premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2018.

L'Animale

Katharina Mückstein : 2018

Riding their tuned motocross bikes, Mati and her posse of male friends intimidate their neighbourhood and harass the girls. In their village, they rule. But when Sebastian, the leader of the pack, falls in love with Mati and one of the victims of their needling, Carla, unexpectedly turns into a friend, Mati is in danger of losing her standing among her male friends. Meanwhile a deeply hidden secret stands between Mati's parents, and the two of them have a decision to make: what's more important, appearances or reality? A film about the contradictory forces that guide our lives: desire, passion, and reason. Katharina Mückstein's feature premiered in the Panorama Special section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

When the Trees Fall

Marysia Nikitiuk : 2018
Koly padayut dereva

The story of a five-year-old girl Vitka with her teenage cousin Larysa and her boyfriend, the young criminal Scar unfolds in a Ukrainian provincial setting. Larysa finds herself at a crossroads after the death of her father. Yearning to be self-made, the village community ostracises her for loving Scar. Larysa discovers her grandmother once sacrificed her love for a young gypsy, abandoning him for traditional values and other people's opinions. Larysa's mother is too psychologically weak to support her daughter. Larysa and Scar plan to escape from a life of crime, misery and their relatives. But are they ready to pay the full price for freedom? As the summer holidays arrive, forty days have passed since Larysa's father died. In a fairy-tale sequence, the young woman traverses a swampy landscape where a group of couples surrender to their sexual desires. Vitka is a little girl who also refuses to toe the line. Rebelling against her grandmother and her rules and regulations, she daydreams her life away in a fantasy land of surreal images. Writer/director Marysia Nikitiuk's script received the Krzysztof Kieślowski ScripTeast Award for the Best script from Eastern Europe at Festival de Cannes 2016. Her feature debut premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

Fortuna

Germinal Roaux : 2018

Fortuna, a 14-year-old Ethiopian girl, has had no news of her parents since the traumatic crossing of the Mediterranean and her arrival in Lampedusa, Italy. As she's welcomed into Switzerland with other refugees, she has to spend the winter with a Catholic community in a hospice located at the heart of a snow-covered massif, at an altitude of over 2000 metres. Whilst waiting for her residency status to be resolved by the Swiss authorities, Fortuna meets Kabir, a 26-year-old African refugee. Lonely and filled with longing to be comforted, she falls madly in love. Their relationship develops in secret, away from prying eyes, until the day Kabir disappears. Germinal Roaux's feature premiered in the Generation 14plus section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

Idioten der Familie

Michael Klier : 2018
Family Idiots

Wanting to start a new life, 40-year-old Heli has found an institution in which she can put her younger, mentally disabled sister. Her three egocentric brothers have agreed to the plan and come to share their sister's final weekend at the house where they all grew up on the outskirts of Berlin. The eldest brother is a classical clarinettist who sticks doggedly to his views and is somewhat moralistic; then there's Bruno, the idealist research worker attracted by all things humanitarian and who listens to problems in order to find solutions; and finally there's the younger jazz musician brother who lives more of a bohemian lifestyle. The siblings have returned to their family home, where their two sisters still live, to celebrate the marriage of their eldest sibling, Heli. Of course, everyone still has their individual frustrations and neuroses, they clash sometimes, and they might not always agree, but they are brothers and sisters, and despite the years that have passed and their new adult lives, they find it so easy to be together, because they know each other so well, love each other and are as close as when they were children. And then there is Ginnie, their autistic little sister who they've always looked after. And yet, although their lives have largely focused on a constant desire to protect her, in a sense it is she who "shows" them. They find that the "baby of the litter" has turned into an unpredictable "monster". The fallout brings them closer together than they'd expected. Michael Klier's feature premiered in the New German Cinema section at Filmfest München 2018.

Cellar Door

Viko Nikci : 2018

Racing from young love to tortured loss and back again, a provocative mystery thriller that follows Aidie, a fighter inside and out, as she searches for her son while in the grip of the Church. Aidie wakes up underwater in her bath, unaware of why she is there or what might have happened to her. She's wearing an old-fashioned gingham dress. She doesn't know who or where she is until the repeated incidents she experiences begin to form a vague time-line. It sees her visiting her artist mother; being in a classroom with young giggling children; dancing with her handsome lover Aidan; tussling with a nun; part of a group of unmarried mothers in a home; and finally, being in various stages of pregnancy and childbirth and trying to find her child. The subjective perspective shifts to reveal that we have been given a deeper understanding of an issue that affects countless millions. With a unique point of view on a familiar trauma, the film cuts deep into the character's experience – an exploration of love regained and loss relived. Viko Nikci's feature was winner of the award for Best Irish First Feature when it premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2018.

A Fine Day

Thomas Arslan : 2001
Der schöne Tag

A day in the life of 21-year-old Deniz who lives in Berlin and works as a voice actress. Deniz has high expectations of herself and of life – too high perhaps. In any case, she is not really happy with her boyfriend Jan. On a beautiful summer's day she meets Jan in a café after a synchronised job. In the subsequent walk, she separates from him. A little confused and disturbed by this move, Deniz roams through summery Berlin for the rest of the day. She tries to understand what she expects from life. After auditioning for a film role, she meets Diego at a subway station. Following a mutual pursuit through the metro network of the city, they get to know each other. They spend the evening together. But Deniz knows that this encounter will have no consequences for her. In the early morning they part. Exhausted from the long distances she has travelled that day, Deniz returns to her apartment. The new day dawns. Her life continues. She is searching again. The third part in his trilogy about Turkish youth growing up in Germany, Thomas Arslan's feature premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2001.

Anna's War

Aleksey Fedorchenko : 2018
Voyna Anny

Nazi-occupied Ukraine, in November of 1941. The entire family of 6-year-old Anna dies in the mass execution of Jews. The mother covers up Anna with her own body, and the girl miraculously survives. She regains consciousness under a layer of black earth, in a mass grave. For the next few hundred days Anna hides in the disused chimney at the Nazi Commandant's office in a requisitioned schoolhouse. From her shelter she views the war, watching life pass her by until the village is liberated from the Nazis. Her ingenuity, the items left behind by the slowly alternating visitors and the treasures she discovers in the adjacent rooms help her survive. Despite the inhuman conditions Anna keeps her humanity. Many factors help her: memories from the life swept away by war, the cultural foundations laid by her parents and a friend who saves her from loneliness. Aleksey Fedorchenko's feature premiered in the Voices section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2018.

Facing the Wind

Meritxell Colell Aparicio : 2018
Con el viento

Mónica, 47, has been living in Buenos Aires for 20 years working as a dancer when the news reaches her that her father is on his deathbed back in Spain. By the time she arrives, he's already passed away. Resisting the impulse to return as quickly as possible to her faraway life, she stays to help her mother sell the family home. When it becomes clear that she's not merely bidding farewell to the place of her childhood, the past pushes its way into Mónica's existence with unexpected force; old conflicts and regret about missed chances bubble up, and she realises she has limited time left with her mother. Winter comes. The perpetual silence, the extreme cold and the difficulty of living with her mother are proving tough for Mónica. As still no one ever says much in this family, Mónica works through her inner turmoil primarily via her body, finding an outlet in dance. The film tells the story of a family unable to communicate and is a thoughtful and loving portrait of a traditional rural lifestyle which is beginning to disappear. It's a story about distances. But most of all, it is an inner journey to learn again how to live and love better. Meritxell Colell Aparicio's feature debut premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018, and was winner of the Silver Biznaga for Best Spanish Film at Festival de Málaga de Cine Español 2018.