What Will People Say

Iram Haq : 2017
Hva vil folk si

Sixteen year-old Nisha lives a double life. At home with her family she is the perfect Pakistani daughter, but when out with her friends, she is a normal Norwegian teenager. When her father catches her in bed with her boyfriend, Nisha's two worlds brutally collide. To set an example, Nisha's parents decide to kidnap her and place her with relatives in Pakistan. Here, in a country she has never been to before, Nisha is forced to adapt to her parents' culture. Nevertheless, the circumstances of her life won't allow her to give up the fight for her rights as a woman. Iram Haq's second feature premiered in the Platform section at Toronto Film Festival 2017, and had its UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2018.

Rainbow – A Private Affair

Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani : 2017
Una questione privata

Milton, a member of the resistance, chances upon an abandoned villa nestling in the hills of Piedmont where, as a student, he was in love with the beautiful Fulvia. He has his suspicions that she was more inclined towards his friend Giorgio, now a captured member of the same partisan division. In order to find out the truth from Giorgio himself, Milton sets off to find him, travelling through a region where the last battles are being staged before the liberation of Italy. His perilous journey, which sees him caught in the lines of fire between partisan units, fleeing German soldiers and rampaging Italian Fascists, increasingly becomes an exploration into his own consciousness as he ultimately comprehends the senseless barbarity of war. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2017.

Mary Shelley

Haifaa al-Mansour : 2018

Sixteen-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is a thoughtful young woman with a passion for writing and who is drawn to ghost stories. When she meets radical and charismatic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, she is convinced she has met her soulmate. So begins a torrid, bohemian love affair marked by both passion and personal tragedy. At first she relishes life amongst the radical Romantics, but as time goes on, Percy's betrayals and indiscretions begin to test their relationship. One day, on a trip to Lord Byron's mansion in Geneva, Mary is challenged to write a ghost story. Drawing on her experiences of heartbreak and the dark side of humanity, she creates 'Frankenstein', her Gothic masterwork that will shape the literary world for centuries. Imbued with the imaginative spirit of its heroine, the film brings to life the world of a trailblazing woman who defied convention and channelled her innermost demons into a legend for the ages. Haifaa al-Mansour's period drama, her second feature, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2017, and had its UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2018.

Leave No Trace

Debra Granik : 2018

Will cannot get the trauma of war out of his head, so he has cut himself and his daughter Tom off from civilisation. They live a perfect but mysterious existence in Forest Park, a beautiful nature reserve near Portland, Oregon, rarely making contact with the outside world. Under the sky, with the animals, they drink rain water, pick mushrooms, make fires, and are satisfied with each other's company – almost. In her teenage years, Tom is developing a desire to live in different surroundings, with different people. A small mistake tips them off to the authorities, and they are plucked from their hidden world and put in the charge of social services. Struggling to adapt to their new surroundings, they embark on a perilous journey back to their wild homeland in search of a place to call their own in which the demons from Will's past cannot intrude. Debra Granik's feature premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2018, and had its European premiere at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Fuga

Agnieszka Smoczyńska : 2018
Fugue

Alicja has no memory and no knowledge about how she lost it. In two years, she manages to build a new, independent self, away from home. She doesn't want to remember the past. So, when her family finds her, she is forced to fit into the roles of a mother, daughter and wife, surrounded by what seem to be complete strangers. What remains once you forget you loved someone? Is it necessary to remember the emotion of love in order to feel happiness? Her estranged husband and son do not recognize this woman who looks familiar and yet behaves like a stranger. Feelings of alienation, love and revelations rekindle her interior flame. Agnieszka Smoczyńska's feature premiered in competition at the Semaine de la Critique at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Petra

Jaime Rosales : 2018

Petra doesn't know who her father is. Her entire life, it's been hidden from her. After the death of her mother, she embarks on a search that leads her to Jaume, a famous artist and a powerful, ruthless man. On her path to uncovering the truth, Petra also meets Jaume's son, Lucas, as well as Marisa, his mother and Jaume's wife. That is when the story of these characters begins to intertwine in a spiral of malice, family secrets and violence that drives them all to the edge. But fate's cruel logic is derailed by a twist that opens a path to hope and redemption. Jaime Rosales's feature premiered at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2018.

The Gentle Indifference of the World

Adilkhan Yerzhanov : 2018
Laskovoe bezrazlichie mira

After her father's untimely death, Saltanat is forced to trade her idyllic countryside life for the cruel city. She has to find money to pay off the large family debt that her father left behind, in order to save her mother from a prison sentence. Friends since their village childhood, her loyal, but penniless admirer Kuandyk follows her just to make sure his sweetheart is safe. Saltanat's uncle introduces her to a possible groom, who promises to pay off her family's debts. But Saltanat's hopes are dashed, when she discovers that the men in this city don't keep their word. When Kuandyk tries to help Saltanat get the money through other ways, he ends up finding himself in more trouble than he bargained for. Although life keeps dealing them bad hands, Saltanat and Kuandyk never give up. Adilkhan Yerzhanov's feature premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Mon tissu préféré

Gaya Jiji : 2018
My Favourite Fabric

Damascus, Spring 2011. In the midst of the rumblings of revolution, Nahla, a young woman of 25, is torn between her desire for freedom and her hopes of leaving the country through an arranged marriage with Samir, a Syrian who has emigrated to the United States. However, Samir prefers her younger and more docile sister, Myriam. Consequently, Nahla grows closer to her new neighbour, Madame Jiji, who has just moved into her building in order to open a brothel. A film about a woman's search for her identity in a society where one is deprived of everything: the freedom of expression, the freedom to do what you want, even the right to dream. Gaya Jiji's feature debut premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2018.