The Last Children of Paradise

Anna Roller : 2019
Die letzten Kinder im Paradies

Fourteen-year-old Leah lives in an isolated cabin with her ten-year-old brother Theo and their grandmother. Leah is going through a difficult period in her adolescence: though still firmly rooted in the world of children, she is slowly taking on the worries of an adult. A sad event that unexpectedly befalls them marks the definitive end of one period in Leah's life. She now finds herself responsible for her younger brother, but she carries out the task with the ease of a child. A story about losing a sense of security that had felt like paradise. Anna Roller's short screened in the Future Frames section at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2019.

Carmilla

Emily Harris : 2019

Lara is a sheltered 15-year-old girl who lives with her father and strict governess Miss Fontaine. When a carriage crash brings the enigmatic young Carmilla to recuperate at their house, she provides an outlet for Lara's curiosity and burgeoning sexuality. The pair begin a passionate friendship, but rumours of a supernatural presence drive Miss Fontaine's mistrust of Carmilla. A moody and atmospheric coming-of-age love story, enveloped in mystery and set in the 1780s, it is inspired by Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novella, considered one of the earliest works of vampire fiction. Emily Harris's feature premiered in competition in the Best of British strand at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019.

Daughter

Mara Tamkovich : 2018
Córka

Piotr returns home on the day of his daughter Kamila's 16th birthday to find her unconscious in a pool of blood. The doctors' diagnosis is a shock for the man. What can a father do when his beloved daughter was hurt so much by someone? What can he do when the system fails him, standing in the way of justice? The father takes care of his daughter in the cruel world. From now on, their lives will never be the same. The film is a part of the social debate in the current context of the #MeToo campaign. Mara Tamkovich's short premiered at Gdynia Film Festival 2018, and was winner of the Cineuropa Audience Award for Best Short Film when it screened in competition in the Silver Lynx Fiction section at FEST 2019.

The Miracle of the Sargasso Sea

Syllas Tzoumerkas : 2019
To thávma tis thálassas ton Sargassón

In the small coastal town of Mesolongi in the west of Greece, two women live solitary lives while dreaming of getting away. Former elite detective Elisabeth has become the police chief – forced to relocate from Athens ten years ago, she does nothing to hide her bitterness and her hatred of the place. Rita is the quiet, mysterious sister of a lounge singer in the local disco. A worker at an eel farm, she is a captive of her social status and her manipulative brother. But then a death tears apart the already fragile network of relationships between the villagers, revealing an even more damaged structure beneath. The two women who had been ignoring each other's existence begin drifting towards each other. As the secrets hidden in the swamps begin to surface, they will have a chance to become each other's saviours. Syllas Tzoumerkas's third feature premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019, and screened at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2019.

Zizotek

Vardis Marinakis : 2019

After nine-year-old Jason is abandoned by his mother at a folk festival, the unusually independent boy takes refuge in a cabin in the middle of the forest belonging to a mute loner named Minas. Although at first the man won't take him in, a series of circumstances eventually leads them to form a family – something both of them have lacked for a long time. With its dreamlike atmosphere, a captivating tale of harmony and the yearning for intimacy. Vardis Marinakis's sophomore feature premiered in competition in the East of the West section at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2019.

A Certain Kind of Silence

Michal Hogenauer : 2019
Tiché doteky

Mia goes to live with a family as their au pair. She knows she'll be looking after a 10-year-old boy, but that is all. Yet her very first meeting with the family suggests that she is expected to do rather more than this. She has to pay the price for a life of high financial and intellectual reward by following a set of strict rules: breaking any of them would lead to her immediate dismissal and a ticket back home. However, it would also mean abandoning a child she is trying to reach out to, and losing her self-respect. An examination of the strength of an individual's resilience to manipulation and the extent to which people are willing to make sacrifices in order to preserve their self-esteem. Michal Hogenauer's feature debut premiered in competition in the East of the West section at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2019.

Shelter: Farewell to Eden

Enrico Masi : 2019

Pepsi is a transgender woman looking for a stable job as a caregiver. As a former member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front active in an island of southern Philippines, she escaped from her country to work as a nurse for over 10 years in Gaddafi's Libya. Because of gender discrimination, she was forced to join the flow of refugees. Then, she faced European institutions as an asylum seeker. It was in the city of Bologna, Italy, where she obtained the first acknowledgement of her status. However, she could not stop there. Her journey continued towards France, crossing the dangerous "pass of death" on the heights of Ventimiglia. With the strength of her experience in the wild mountains of Mindanao she reached Paris. There, she acquired a second identity and found underground work offering massages, sharing interstitial spaces among the harsh architectures of the metropolis. Her voice-over tale is a post-colonial parable, in which European geography mingles with an intimate emotional drama. Her wander recalls the ancient myth of Europa, according to which a young woman was kidnapped and raped by Jupiter, in the shape of a bull. He took her to an island in the Mediterranean from which she gave the name to the continent. 16mm film, analogue video and grainy iPhone footage contribute to a phantom image of life in the urban underground. A strategic and militant response to society's aggressive insistence that everything and everyone can be defined according to the norms of the majority. Enrico Masi's documentary premiered at Copenhagen International Documentary Festival 2019, and had its UK premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019.

Summer of Changsha

Zu Feng : 2019
Liu Yu Tian

A Bin is a police detective. He comes across Li Xue, a surgeon, during the investigation of a bizarre murder case. As they get to know more and more of each other, A Bin finds himself drawn to this mysterious woman. They both are struggling in their own love and sins. In the end, would they be given a second chance to re-live their lives? A story of police detectives solving a murder case, it is also a story exploring the inner worlds of men and women. For each lonely soul, there is an unknown dark side. People all have their desires and secrets. But what is the real redemption? Zu Feng's directorial debut premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2019.

Red 11

Robert Rodriguez : 2019

Based on Robert Rodriguez's experiences in a Medical Research Facility to finance his first feature El mariachi, but with a sci-fi and horror twist. Red 11 is set in the dark, twisted world of the Legal Drug Research business. College kids turn Lab Rats to make quick money, and our hero, Rob (who is assigned the colour and number Red 11) is here to buy his way out of a huge debt to the tune of $7,000. But things get surreal when he's not sure if the hospital is really trying to kill him, or if it's side effects from the experimental drugs. Robert Rodriguez's feature premiered at SXSW 2019, and had its European premiere at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2019.