Without a Trace

Vít Karas : 2019
Beze stopy

Set at Christmas, this intimate psychological drama follows a quirky man living alone in the woods. He meets no people, only the things they leave in the cabins where he secretly sleeps. He is no thief, he always cleans up after himself and only eats a can of food here and there. He enjoys the peace and quiet. But this winter hasn't gone well. Although he avoids everyone, he encounters two dubious characters and a child in need of help. Vít Karas's feature premiered at Prague International Film Festival 2019.

Vanishing Days

Zhu Xin : 2018
Man you

It is the summer of 2009. In the southern Chinese town of Hangzhou, it is stiflingly hot before the arrival of a rainstorm. 14-year-old Li Senlin is bored and stuck doing homework. Inspiration finally arrives when her aunt comes to visit unexpectedly and is full of curious stories – tales that could be true, but don't have to be. Auntie Qiu, a boatwoman who hasn't shown up for years, recounts the tale of a strange encounter on an abandoned island. Li Senlin loses her turtle while her father is away on a business trip. There's another "Senlin" that keeps being mentioned by her parents. She faintly suspects that Auntie Qiu is actually her biological mother. Misplaced turtles and lost red flags reappear unexpectedly. As the first thunderstorms and rain clouds approach on the horizon, memory, dream and reality interweave into one another. It's like being caught up in a Chinese midsummer night's dream. Zhu Xin's feature debut premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2018, and had its European premiere in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Ojos Negros

Marta Lallana & Ivet Castelo : 2019

Paula, a 14-year-old girl, has to spend the summer in Ojos Negros, a town in the Aragon region of eastern Spain, with her aunt and grandmother whom she barely knows. There she discovers the family tensions that are uncovered in the wake of her grandmother's illness. Trying to escape this suffocating atmosphere, she meets Alicia, a girl of her age with whom she establishes an intense friendship. Together they will venture into the adult world and at the end of a stifling summer, Paula will understand what it means to grow up. Marta Lallana and Ivet Castelo's feature debut, their final degree project, was winner of the Silver Biznaga for Best Spanish Film when it was presented in the Zonazine section at Festival de Málaga de Cine Español 2019.

Living Chimneys

Radoslav Spasov : 2018
Zhivi komini

In the old-time houses of a mountain village, intellectuals from the capital city have settled down. For after his death, one of the settlers, a notorious bohemian and joker, left a funeral scenario and video recordings directing his farewell to life. His confessions, memories and jokes are flowing from the improvised film shows at the local pub while the mourning ceremony turns into joy before anyone realises it. Among the mourners, there is an old friend of the deceased who arrived from Paris, as well as a beautiful girl hoping to find her father. Of course, it's all about love. And about many secrets for which the time has come to be unravelled by the deceased and the living. Radoslav Spasov's feature premiered at Golden Rose Film Festival 2018, and was selected for Sofia International Film Festival 2019.

Vision

Naomi Kawase : 2018

Jeanne is a French essayist who has come to Japan in search of "vision", a herb that appears but once every 997 years and is said to strip away all spiritual anguish and weakness in human beings. Upon arriving in Nara, she meets the taciturn Tomo and his mentor Aki, a charismatic prophet and keeper of the forests who claims to be 1,000 years old. Not long after Tomo agrees to let Jeanne stay with him, Aki vanishes, yet a young man appears almost as if in her place. As the sacred moment of vision's return looms, past events are summoned, new connections are forged, and time itself seems to slip from its perceived order – yielding new possibilities for human existence. Naomi Kawase's feature had its international premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2018, and its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival 2019.

Tell It to the Bees

Annabel Jankel : 2018

In 1950s Britain, abandoned by her philandering husband, Lydia is in an increasingly desperate situation. Emotional turmoil aside, her earnings from factory work are not sufficient to pay the rent. Lydia's son, Charlie, meanwhile, is getting bullied at school. Injuries from one such altercation send him to Dr Jean Markham who has recently returned to the small Scottish town she left long ago to take over her late father's practice. Charlie is curious about the bee colonies Jean maintains in her garden and the two form a bond. Bees, Jean explains, make an excellent repository for one's secrets. When Lydia and Charlie are evicted, Jean invites them to stay in her home, an act of generosity that raises eyebrows throughout the village. Lydia soon learns why Jean is regarded with hostility – and she begins to see something in the kind doctor that takes her by surprise. Soon their tender friendship evolves into a passionate love affair, one that puts them in danger from the closed-minded community around them. Annabel Jankel's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2018, and had its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival 2019.

Rosie

Paddy Breathnach : 2018

When their landlord sells their rented home, Rosie, John Paul and their young family find themselves homeless. With their essential belongings crammed into their car, they begin the daily search for a place to sleep. While John Paul works kitchen shifts, Rosie drives the older kids to and from school, where shame keeps them from confessing the desperation of their situation. Old emotional wounds prevent Rosie from accepting her mother's offer to put up the kids, so the family is reduced to roaming the city daily, uncertain as to which – if any – hotel will accept the Dublin City Council credit card they're dependent on to provide them with lodging. Chronicling an ordinary couple's struggle to keep their family intact, the film examines how even in times of crises, the love and strength of a family can endure. Paddy Breathnach's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2018 and had its UK premiere at BFI London Film Festival 2018.

House of Hummingbird

Kim Bo-ra : 2018
Beol-sae

Korea, 1994. The South is in the grips of World Cup fever, while the North mourns its newly deceased dictator. Eun-hee registers all of this only in passing. Drifting through her days in Seoul, the eighth-grader feels like an outsider everywhere: at school, where her classmates bore her even more than the schoolwork, and at home, where her parents are always at each other's throats and her brother beats her. She tries to fall in love, has to go to hospital after an inconclusive biopsy, and has a falling-out with her best friend – yet nothing moves her with the same unexpected intensity as when a new Chinese tutor enters her life. With visual precision, the film weaves a dense narrative around a regular summer that leaves nothing unchanged. Kim Bo-ra's feature premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2018, and was winner of the Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus International Jury at its European premiere at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Delphine et Carole, insoumuses

Callisto McNulty : 2019
Delphine and Carole

In the 1970s, legendary actress Delphine Seyrig could be seen on the big screen as a singing fairy, a lesbian vampire, an ethereal ambassador's spouse, and a potato-peeling housewife. She was active as a feminist at the same time, which equally meant taking the camera into her own hands. Along with Carole Roussopoulos, she was one of the first video activists in France, not only documenting protests by the French women's movement, but also using the new medium to counter the dominant representation of women on TV and elsewhere with their own images and commentaries. As part of this project of narrating their own stories, they held video workshops too and founded the feminist archive Centre audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir. Making use of a generous selection of excerpts from feminist works by the video groups "Les Insoumuses" and "Video Out" as well as from talk shows featuring Simone de Beauvoir, Marguerite Duras, and Chantal Akerman among others, this film both writes a chapter in the history of feminism and traces the beginnings of a creative political practice that used boldness, humour, and subversion to unite collective action, media intervention, and archival documentation. Callisto McNulty's documentary premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

The Vanishing

Kristoffer Nyholm : 2018
Keepers

A small relief boat approaches the Isle, a tiny isolated island no bigger than a football pitch, 20 miles from the rugged Scottish coast. Its aim is to routinely replace the three lighthouse keepers, after six weeks alone manning the light. It nears the dock and none of the men greet them. The winch is broken. A call. Nothing. Experienced keepers Thomas, James and Donald have vanished. The lamps are clean and refilled; the table is laid for dinner. There is an upturned chair. Two sets of yellow oilskins are missing. The men were never found. Inspired by the Flannan Isle mystery, Kristoffer Nyholm's feature debut had its UK premiere in the Gala section at Glasgow Film Festival 2019.

The Crossing

Bai Xue : 2018
Guo chun tian

Hardly noticed by the border officers, 16-year-old Peipei makes the daily crossing between the port city of Shenzhen on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. She is one of many people who are not really at home on either side. She dreams of making a voyage to Japan with her best friend, who comes from a well-to-do family in Hong Kong – but she doesn't have enough money. While at a party, she meets Hao, a member of a smuggling ring. This could be her big chance. Among the high-rise blocks and dimly-lit warehouses, the film portrays life in the transit zone between two border metropolises. With the promise of modern life and brand new iPhones in her backpack, Peipei takes the risky step to independence. Bai Xue's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2018, and had its European premiere in the Generation 14plus section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.