Silmäterä

Jan Forsström : 2013
The Princess of Egypt

Marja, 25, has built her life around her 7-year-old daughter Julia. Marja works at night so she can spend the days with Julia, playing and telling an ongoing fairytale about the princess of Egypt and her mother. The harmony is broken when they meet Kamaran, an Iranian immigrant and successful businessman, who suspects that he is Julia's father: Marja and Kamaran had a short fling years back, and afterwards Marja never told Kamaran about the pregnancy. Now Kamaran wants to get in contact with his presumed daughter. Together with his wife and brother, he starts to pressure Marja and she fears they'll try to kidnap Julia. Marja becomes more and more possessive, overwhelmed by the fear of losing Julia and ready for anything, just to make sure that her daughter will not be taken away from her. Inspired by true events, Jan Forsström's feature directorial debut is a touching drama about insecurity, fear and motherly love. His film received its international premiere at Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival 2013, and was the recipient of the Banca Popolare di Bergamo award at Bergamo Film Meeting 2014.

Cumbres

Gabriel Nuncio : 2013
Heights

Miwi is awoken in the middle of the night by her father telling her that she must leave home and take her sister, Juliana, with her. Although no one explains why, she understands that she needs to protect her older sister. Despite growing up together in Monterrey, they don't really know each other and their journey creates a bittersweet relationship marked by love, pain and guilt. What was supposed to be a short trip becomes a long journey on unknown routes. The teenage sisters repeatedly encounter obstacles that jeopardise their search to find a safe place to stay. Though they drive farther and farther away, Miwi begins to discover that the tragedy of what happened is too complicated to escape. It doesn't matter how much physical distance there is between them and Monterrey, they can't separate themselves from the dark event that follows them. Gabriel Nuncio's feature directorial debut screened at SXSW 2014.

Immunity

Raymond Steers : 2014

A tall, attractive stranger comes to a small Eastern European town and rents an apartment. At first he appears to be a photographer shooting startling black and white portraits on an antique camera, but soon the woman working at the old photo lab, her cousin, the journalist, and her grandfather begin to suspect that there is more to the photographs than meets the eye. The stranger possesses a mysterious object to which only he is immune. It cannot be shown to women, children, or anyone high on alcohol or drugs. He takes a photograph of each man who views the object, capturing their faces which reflect a variety of shocked responses. The man does not know what the object is: perhaps it is the most gruesome thing in the world. Or the most beautiful. After viewing the object, no man can, or will, speak about what he saw. As more clients come to view the object things start to get out of hand. Raymond Steers's second feature premiered at Sofia International Film Festival 2014.

Three Days in Sarajevo

Nikolay Todorov : 2014

Two young women from different countries nightdream about a city they have never been to. They get acquainted on the internet and decide to visit the place together, looking for clues to their dreams. The city feels close in a strange way. They immerse into its mysteries, discover its spirit and run into its secrets, only to find an answer to their questions. Nikolay Todorov's feature debut premiered at Sofia International Film Festival 2014.

Walking on the Beach

Caspar Pfaundler : 2013
Gehen am strand

Anja is getting nowhere. Neither her academic career nor her private life are making any headway, and listlessness turns into depression. She has retreated to finish her master's thesis, but as much as she tries, she is stuck in her work. This situation seems to repeat itself with her relationship to her boyfriend Paul. When her grandmother dies and the family gathers at the funeral in The Hague, Anja flees to the seafront to come to terms with her loneliness. Walking the beach she feels her solitude and starts to see herself in a different light. From the intensity of her emotions there emerges a new self-perception. Caspar Pfaundler's second feature premiered at Diagonale Graz 2013, and screened at Belgrade International Film Festival 2014.

The Piano Room

Igor Ivanov Izi : 2013
Soba so pijano

A fable about the destinies of the guests who stay in the room with the piano in a hotel that is up for sale. This room, that hides them from the hypocrisy of the world outside, is the only place where they can find some kind of fulfilment. Although far from similar, as representatives of completely different social and cultural groups, all share emptiness in their life. As the years pass like revolving doors, motives become frustrations, ambition and fantasy lead to ruin. The fragments from the lives of these existentialist characters are sufficient for us to see all their lives, and they're intertwined around the central character, the Maid. She is young and silent. She makes the room in between the scenes with the other characters, and writes letters. Life begins, life ends, and lives are changed forever in the piano room. Only the Maid, oblivious to the thwarted dreams that check in and out, seems to move forward. Igor Ivanov Izi's second feature received its international premiere at Belgrade International Film Festival 2014.

The Fold

John Jencks : 2014

A teenage girl lies dead on the floor of a swimming pool. Ten months later, Anglican priest Rebecca Ashton moves to Cornwall in an attempt to deal with the death of her daughter. Enjoying her picturesque new environment, she finds a Bulgarian girl Radka Dimitrova sleeping rough in her church and with her mothering instincts firmly in tact her natural reaction is to protect her. Rebecca takes over Radka's English classes at local community centre St Piran's and the two become close. As Radka's dependence on Rebecca grows, Rebecca's motivation to help her becomes more uncertain: reminded of her deceased daughter, she offers to become Radka's guardian but neglects to tell her she has another daughter, Eloise. Ignoring Radka's jealous and volatile nature, Rebecca must come to her senses quickly or risk putting her family in grave danger. John Jencks's award-winning feature directorial debut received its European premiere in competition at Sofia International Film Festival 2014.

Medeas

Andrea Pallaoro : 2013

An intimate portrait of a rural family's inner lives and their relationship to a harsh and shifting landscape. Ennis, a stern, hard-working dairy farmer struggles to maintain control of his family and surrounding environment, while his wife, Christina, retreats into herself, progressively disconnecting from him and their five children. As tensions increase, each character must confront their yearnings and anxieties, culminating in a dangerous conflict between control and freedom, intimacy and alienation. A journey into the unpredictable boundaries of human behaviour, exploring the desperate lengths people are driven to by love and self-preservation. Andrea Pallaoro's feature directorial debut is an observational and intimate character study of a family and their environment that rejects pre-existing structural formulas and the limitations of conventional storytelling. His award-winning film premiered at La Biennale di Venezia 2013.

Staudamm

Thomas Sieben : 2013
The Dam

Roman has just finished school, moved into his first flat, and enrolled at university. Just when life is about to really take off for him, he loses direction. His lack of motivation scares away his girlfriend. He retreats into his dreary flat. And his only job is temping for an abusive lawyer. For hours on end he scans files about an unsolved case. A massacre at a high school committed by a student a year ago. But there are missing files, so his boss sends him into the village where the attack took place to collect more documents from the local police. Once there he meets Laura, a survivor of the mass murder, who becomes his guide into the fragile world of the traumatised village. Becoming more acquainted with Laura, Roman also becomes more interested in the tragic event. However, he begins to realise that Laura is hiding a secret and that she is more involved in the incident than she has revealed. Slowly, Roman learns the true extent of the massacre. Thomas Sieben's second feature premiered at Oldenburg Film Festival 2013.

Nikki: A Girl who has Rett Syndrome

Michael Knowles : 2008

Nikki is a twelve-year-old girl who suffers with the neurological developmental disorder Rett Syndrome. Now known to be caused by sporadic mutations in the MeCP2 gene, it is the most physically disabling of the autism spectrum disorders, striking at random in early childhood and diagnosed almost exclusively in females. Affecting about 1 in 10,000 girls, the symptoms include loss of speech and motor control, severe digestive problems, orthopaedic abnormalities including scoliosis, as well as seizures, extreme anxiety and impaired cardiac and circulatory function. Rett Syndrome isn't well understood, and this lack of understanding can cause people to shy away from girls who have it. Nikki is unable to communicate conventionally, yet her courage, strength, presence and smile captured filmmaker Michael Knowles's heart. His film brings awareness to this disorder, but also, by allowing the audience to get to know Nikki, it helps them realise that knowing a Rett girl can brighten their lives. Nikki is a journey about both inward and outward reflection, about understanding what is going on inside her and in other girls like her. Michael Knowles's documentary is available on Vimeo video-on-demand.

Nikki: A Girl who has Rett Syndrome (vimeo)

Little One

Darrell Roodt : 2012
Umfaan

In a field near a township in Johannesburg, a middle-aged mother makes a gruesome discovery: a little girl has been left for dead. Rushing her to the hospital, Pauline saves her life. But her life has been changed forever. Six-year-old Vuyelwa has been raped and her face badly beaten. She remains silent and unresponsive to all except the big-hearted woman who saved her. No one comes forward to claim her. The identity of her abusers and the whereabouts of her parents remain a mystery. Little One becomes yet another statistic in a country where one in every three girls under the age of 21 are victims of rape. But to Pauline, Vuyelwa is not a statistic – she's a survivor. She visits her daily. To help her cope with the shame and disfigurement, Pauline knits the girl a mask to cover her face. And under that mask, the little girl begins to smile. And so does Pauline – the girl has become like a daughter to her. Abandoned by her parents, she refuses to allow the child to be lost in the system. So when her attempt to adopt her is denied, Pauline takes matters into her own hands. After all, love is not a crime.

Autumn Blood

Markus Blunder : 2013

High in the Tyrolean mountains, on a secluded farm, a widowed mother dies leaving her two children alone and orphaned. Fearing being taken away and split up, they keep their mother's death a secret and survive off the land with no one to rely on but each other. Maria, the sixteen-year-old sister is one with nature, innocent, and unaware of the evils that exist in mankind. Her ten-year-old brother, Peter, is traumatised and mute from witnessing a disturbing incident years earlier: the death of his father, shot by the town's Mayor. As the girl transitions into womanhood a harsh brutality destroys her innocence when savage hunters follow orders issued by the Mayor's son to attack and rape her. A social worker from a distant city arrives to investigate but ultimately it is the siblings who must come of age to protect each other and survive. Markus Blunder's feature directorial debut premiered at Oldenburg International Film Festival 2013.

Qissa

Anup Singh : 2013

Umber Singh is a Sikh who loses everything during the separation of India in 1947 and is forced to leave his homeland. He obsessively wishes for a male heir. When his fourth daughter is born, he decides to wage a fight against destiny and the desire to have a family heir is fulfilled through a secretive turn of events. A fragile and deeply moving drama that depicts profoundly emotional bonds, tradition and social expectations, set in Punjab immediately after the Partition of India. Beautiful, timeless, and touching the deepest of human impulses, it cuts to the heart of eternal desires for honour, empathy, and love. Anup Singh's second feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2013, and was winner of the Dioraphte Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014.

Talea

Katharina Mückstein : 2013

When Jasmin's mother Eva is released from prison, the 14-year-old wants to use this chance to build a new relationship with her after years of separation. Whilst Jasmin's foster family is packing their bags for their summer holiday by the sea, the young girl has convinced the almost unknown woman to travel with her for several days across the country – preferably to where her grandparents lived, as Jasmin wants to discover more about her family background. A shared cigarette, a dance at the village disco and forest walks – with a little apprehension, the two slowly become closer, sometimes like friends, then back to mother and daughter. But soon they realise that their hopes and expectations are not the same. Eva's desire for freedom is in the way of Jasmin's long-nurtured wish for love and proximity. This becomes apparent when a man catches Eva's attention, and the growing harmony between mother and daughter is disrupted. For the moment, neither Eva nor Jasmin seem up to the task of fulfilling each other's quest for identity and support. Katharina Mückstein's first feature premiered at Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis 2013.

Oproštaj

Dan Oki : 2013
The Farewell

The Minister of the Environment is giving an interview for the radio in Split, while the destinies of the people in Kaštela Bay remain under the influence of dangerous successive ecological polluting taking place over the course of the last century. Nina, a young activist, is selling the family home, located near a factory in Vranjić. Srđan, her boyfriend, is moving to Germany for good to work as a dentist, leaving Nina with her strong, but blind mother Karmen. Nina goes for a medical check-up to find out if she has inherited a genetic condition from her father, who died from asbestosis. Nina's doctor is in a secret lesbian relationship with Nina's friend and doesn't want anyone to know about it. Nina and her mother can no longer keep it silent and it all comes to surface through tears and laughter. Srđan is trying to comfort Nina with his love, but Nina can no longer carry her destiny. Dan Oki's third feature premiered at Pula Film Festival 2013.

Hitac

Robert Orhel : 2013
One Shot

An accidental shot links the destinies of two young women – Anita, a detective who is great at her job and getting along pretty well in her private life, and Petra, a young girl whose everyday life would be much easier if she didn't have to take care of her alcoholic mother. The investigation of the accidental shot will intertwine their destinies at a moment when they both find out that they are pregnant. At huge turning points in their lives, each in her own world and equally left on their own, these two women will, step by step, become close during the investigation. They neither planned nor wanted it, it happened by chance. And this coincidence will change the courses they intended to take. Robert Orhel's first feature premiered at Pula Film Festival 2013.

Butter on the Latch

Josephine Decker : 2012

A sinister folktale set in the dark Californian forest of Mendocino, where a Balkan folk festival is taking place. Sarah surprises her friend Isolde by visiting her at the camp, and the two of them enjoy learning about the mythical stories from those faraway lands, practising traditional song and dance and chit-chatting on their torch-lit journeys back to the tiny cottage where they sleep. Sarah encounters a handsome guy during one of their carefree moments and decides to seduce him – slowly and over the course of several days. Obscure feelings begin to disrupt her behaviour while she makes her advances, and she almost forgets about Isolde as she is dragged deeper and deeper into the mythical world being played out in front of her by the other festival guests. With the eerie underworld simmering in Sarah's unstable psyche, what begins as an innocent visit to the forest soon gives way to a confusing mind-trip, where reality and mythology become inextricably linked. Josephine Decker's feature debut premiered at Maryland Film Festival 2013, and screened at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Šuti

Lukas Nola : 2013
Hush...

Can the thread of bad luck, violence and suffering which is interwoven deeply into the generations of one family be broken? Beba's mother is a woman of poor health and weak character. Beba's father is sullen and violent. Beba's brother is possessive and a trouble maker. Beba's boyfriend is from a correctional institution. Has Beba's daughter any chance to break this vicious circle, is there a chance for her to become a beloved, happy person? Sifting through the documents of various centres for social welfare, the director came upon numerous horrible stories, and the saddest of them all has inspired this film. The tale of a vicious circle which always continues with the same violence and the same absence of love. A clear warning to all that violence is not something to be quiet about. Lukas Nola's fifth feature was winner of the Golden Arena award at Pula Film Festival 2013.

Kelly + Victor

Kieran Evans : 2012

Kelly meets Victor on the dance floor of a Liverpool nightclub and it isn't long before they are home together in her bed and in the throes of an urgent passion, with an intensity that neither has experienced before. They are two people struggling to get by as best they can whilst those around them are choosing illegal lifestyles: her best mate is a dominatrix prostitute, his pals are aspiring drug dealers. Although both Kelly and Victor begin to care about each other deeply, as we see from their developing relationship, it is in their sexual encounters that the real intensity presents itself and their darker instincts take over. Kieran Evans's first fiction feature, adapted from the acclaimed novel by Niall Griffiths, is a haunting, candid depiction of a young couple embarking on a passionate and transgressive love affair and the emotional journey that each one goes through in their mind. His film premiered at London Film Festival 2012, and was winner of the BAFTA Film Award 2014 for Outstanding Debut.

Sarah préfère la course

Chloé Robichaud : 2013
Sarah Prefers to Run

Sarah is a gifted young middle-distance runner. On the running track she is driven and determined, unquestionably sure of who she is and where she is going. Off the track, it's a different story, with her private life demonstrating no such direction. Her life changes when she's offered admission to Québec's best university athletics programme, in Montréal – far from her suburban Québec City home. Sarah doesn't have her mother's financial support for the move, or any support at all: her mother worries that leaving will be bad for Sarah's health and life. But Sarah is stubborn, and moves to Montréal anyway, with her friend, Antoine. Though barely out of their teens, they enter into a marriage of convenience because they want the best scholarships and loans. Marriage turns out to be completely different from what the naïve 20-year-olds expected, and new relationships lead Sarah to start understanding what she truly wants. She doesn't want to hurt anyone with the choices she makes, it's just that she loves running more than anything else. Chloé Robichaud's feature debut is an effortless and honest study of a young woman trying to understand exactly who she is. Her film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2013.