Erased

Miha Mazzini & Dušan Joksimović : 2018
Izbrisana

Ana gives birth at the local hospital and everything goes well. The only problem is with the paperwork – her file is not on the computer – but this is deemed to be a temporary data loss probably caused by a software glitch, certainly nothing to worry about. Within a few days, however, Ana is entangled in a web of bureaucracy of Kafkaesque proportions: not being in the computer system means no social security, no permanent address and no baby. She is brutally forced to leave a newborn girl alone at the hospital without the right to visit her until everything is sorted out. All of a sudden, Ana is a foreigner, even though she has lived in Slovenia all her life. Legally, she doesn't exist, so her child is an orphan. And orphans are put up for adoption. On 26 February 1992, the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Slovenia erased 25,671 of its own nationals. The majority of those are still unable to regain their legal status. Miha Mazzini and Dušan Joksimović's feature debut had its international premiere in the First Feature Competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2018.

Alva

Ico Costa : 2019

Henrique is a terse Portuguese smallholder who lives out in the hills, far from civilisation. We realise something is wrong in his life when occasional passers-by ask if there is any news about his daughters. The next day, he drives to a nearby village, follows someone and does something terrible. He then flees back to the hills, where we focus on Henrique as he hides out. We occasionally hear voices, or a helicopter swoops overhead. In the end, he returns to the village. Who is Henrique? Can his deed be understood? Is he telling the truth when he says he didn't want to hurt anyone? In the meantime, almost incidentally, the stunning beauty of the landscape passes by. Henrique washes himself in the waters of a river – a river called Alva. Ico Costa's feature debut premiered in competition in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019.

The Sweet Requiem

Ritu Sarin & Tenzing Sonam : 2018
Kyoyang Ngarmo

Dolkar, a 26-year-old exile Tibetan, lives in Delhi. 18 years ago, she escaped from Tibet with her father, making a perilous trek across the Himalayas that ended in tragedy. Dolkar has suppressed all recollection of that traumatic incident. But when she unexpectedly encounters Gompo, the guide who abandoned them during their journey, memories of her escape are reignited and she is propelled on an obsessive search for retribution and closure. Flashbacks of her desperate journey with a small group through a harsh and desolate Himalayan terrain punctuate her growing predicament in the present as she follows Gompo through the claustrophobic alleys of the Tibetan refugee colony in Delhi. The two stories moving in tandem, both determined by a series of fateful choices, reach their conclusion as Dolkar and Gompo finally confront each other. Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam's second feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2018.

Burning

Lee Chang-dong : 2018
Beoning

Deliveryman Jong-su runs into Hae-mi, a girl he used to know who once lived nearby. She asks if he'd mind looking after her cat while she's away on a trip to Africa. On her return she introduces Jong-su to her new rich and handsome friend Ben, who she met during her trip. Ben is a coolly charming and enigmatic sociopath. "He's like Gatsby" mumbles Jong-su to Hae-mi. Ben confesses that he likes burning down greenhouses and that he plans to torch one in Jong-su's neighbourhood. Jong-su is keeping a close eye on things, but no greenhouse goes up in flames. Then he realises that he hasn't heard from Hae-mi in a while. In fact, she has disappeared without a trace. Based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, Lee Chang-dong's psychological thriller was winner of the FIPRESCI Prize when it premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2018.

The Chaotic Life of Nada Kadić

Marta Hernaiz Pidal : 2018
Kaoticni Zivot Nade Kadić

Single mother Nada is struggling to jog her daytime office job, caring for her little girl Hava and squeezing in some time for herself. On top of all, Hava is diagnosed within the autism spectrum and neither money nor time is sufficient to cope with this challenge. No wonder Nada needs a break. So she and her daughter embark on a road trip around the Balkans, through Bosnia and Montenegro, back to her parents' village. Clueless, disoriented, unable to finish what she starts, always doing a thousand things at once, but with a deep desire to get out of her country and change her life, Nada will try to reconcile with her past and accept her new destiny. The director's project is to follow female characters who live on "the edge", and to make films about ordinary people living in and rebelling against today's society. An intense, hectic and deeply touching mother-daughter relationship, the main characters of which are mother and daughter also in real life. Marta Hernaiz Pidal's feature debut premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

Take Me Somewhere Nice

Ena Sendijarević : 2019

Can you simultaneously be two things or does that make you neither? Alma is in between everything: raised in the Netherlands by Bosnian parents, no longer a girl, but not really a woman yet. She hardly knows her father, but when he is admitted to a Bosnian hospital she decides to visit him one last time. This starts a journey with an unknown destination as Alma discovers herself and her country of origin. Cousin Emir unenthusiastically hosts her, but is too busy with shady deals to take her to the hospital in another town. His friend Denis, a complete layabout, gives Alma more attention. The film ups the weirdness as if reality itself is off-centre. Unusual camera angles and a minimalist plot introduce us to the mindset of a teen to whom everything is new and nothing is strange. Ena Sendijarević's feature debut was winner of the Special Jury Award when it premiered in competition in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019.

Mens

Isabelle Prim : 2019

The story of an almost forgotten murder, and an almost forgotten love. Young Jean is the one who brings it up again, while together with his mother he is clearing the house of his recently deceased grandmother in Mens in the south of France and decides to keep a box of old papers. On the way home in the car, back to his own life, he starts to read about the murder in 1895 of a man who may or may not be his great-grandfather. And about the women found guilty of this. The film explores a lost era and the stories this contains, and that disappear. Often small stories, but sometimes also intense, wild stories. By allowing then and now to flow seamlessly together we find that everything in the present is closely tied to what has happened before. Isabelle Prim's feature premiered in competition in the Bright Future section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019.

Summer

Kirill Serebrennikov : 2018
Лето

Leningrad, one summer in the early eighties, the period just before Perestroika. Smuggled vinyl albums by Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed and David Bowie inspire a growing Russian underground scene brimming with magic and creativity. But the State's resistance to Western influence is unbending. It is in this environment that the rock star Mike and his wife Natasha meet a young Viktor Tsoï who is eager to make a name for himself. The encounter with his idol and his beautiful wife will change Viktor's life forever. Together they will build his legend and make him immortal. And as a love triangle filled with passion develops, together they permanently change the musical landscape of the Soviet Union. Kirill Serebrennikov's feature premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2018.

El árbol de la sangre

Julio Medem : 2018
The Tree of Blood

A young couple, Marc and Rebeca, travel to an old farmhouse in Basque Country that used to belong to her grandparents. Once there, they will write the shared history of their genealogical roots, creating a large family tree of around twenty-five years of relationships criss-crossed in love, heartbreak, sex, madness, jealousy and infidelity – and which hides a secret that has marked their lives for ever, and that could endanger their own love story. Julio Medem's ninth fiction feature premiered in Madrid in October 2018.

Don't Forget Me

Ram Nehari : 2017

An intimate love story about two young people in Tel Aviv whose love we will never be able to fathom. Tom's eating disorder and desire to disappear forever means that she is forced to live in a closed institute. But now her period is back and her doctor says that she is getting better. The thought of getting healthy and heavy scares her. Neil roams the streets with a tuba, convinced that he will be able to leave on Monday with the popular band The Misogynists to Germany for a European tour. It takes a while before we notice that Neil's head doesn't work the way most people's do. After a chance visit to the institute, he flees into the streets with Tom and promises her she can go with him to Berlin on Monday. In the 24 hours they spend together, their love grows, but Tom still wants to disappear slowly and Neil will probably never know how the world works. Ram Nehari's feature premiered at Haifa Film Festival 2017, and had its European premiere at Torino Film Festival 2017.

Share

Pippa Bianco : 2019

After a night of partying, high-school sophomore Mandy discovers that a series of cell-phone videos of her – half-dressed and semiconscious – have gone viral. Struggling to piece together what happened, reeling at how quickly the normalcy of her life has been upended, unsure about her friends' attempts to usher her back into their normal social routine, and uneasy about her parents' inclination to take action on her behalf, Mandy has to navigate a landscape littered with others' good intentions and find a way to heal from a wound she can't identify. Pippa Bianco's film is based on her eponymous short, which won the First Prize Cinéfondation 2015 at Festival de Cannes. Her feature debut won the Screenwriting Award when it premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2019.

Still River

Angelos Frantzis : 2018
Akínito potámi

Anna and Petros, a Greek couple who recently moved to an industrial Siberian town on account of Petros' work, are shocked to discover Anna is pregnant with no prior intercourse. Did she cheat? Are they victims of a conspiracy? Or blessed with a miracle? Looking for a logical explanation to their situation, Petros starts distrusting Anna, who chooses to embrace the pregnancy, turning to religion to cope. Their previously unshakeable bond starts to falter and cracks begin to show, as their relationship becomes the battleground between the rational and the spiritual. Set against the striking frozen landscapes of Siberia, a haunting, touching suspense drama about love, trust and faith struggling in the face of doubt. Angelos Frantzis's feature was winner of the Greek Film Critics Association Award when it premiered at Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2018.

Official Secrets

Gavin Hood : 2019

The true story of British Intelligence whistle-blower Katharine Gun who, during the immediate run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, leaked a top secret National Security Agency memo exposing a joint US-UK illegal spying operation against members of the UN Security Council. The memo proposed blackmailing smaller, undecided member states into voting for war. At great personal and professional risk, journalist Martin Bright published the leaked document in The Observer newspaper in London, and the story made headlines around the world. Members of the Security Council were outraged and any chance of a UN resolution in favour of war collapsed. But within days, Bush declared he no longer needed UN backing and invaded anyway. As Iraq descended into chaos, Katharine was arrested and charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act. Martin faced potential charges too. Their legal battles exposed the highest levels of government in both London and Washington with having manipulated intelligence in order to sell an illegal war. Gavin Hood's feature premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2019.