The Cut

Fatih Akin : 2014
Kesik

Mardin, 1915: the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire which resulted in the forced migration and diaspora of the Armenian minority. One night, the Turkish police rounds up all the Armenian men in the city, including the young blacksmith, Nazaret Manoogian, who is separated from his family. He becomes a forced labourer and only survives the mass murder by chance and an act of kindness. Years later, he learns that his two daughters may still be alive. He becomes fixated on the idea of finding them and sets off to track them down. His search takes him from the Mesopotamian deserts to the sea, to Havana and the barren and desolate prairies of North Dakota, always looking for clues that might lead him to his children. On this odyssey, he meets all varieties of humanity: angelically good characters, but also the devil in human form. Fatih Akin's feature premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2014.

Traitors

Sean Gullette : 2013

Malika is the leader of the all-female punk rock band Traitors, with a strong vision of the world, her hometown of Tangier, and her place in it. When she needs money to save her family from eviction, and to realise her dreams for the band, Malika agrees to a fast cash proposition: a smuggling run over the mountains for a dangerous drug dealer. But her companion on the road is Amal, a burnt-out young drug mule, who Malika decides to free from her enslavement to the dealers. The challenge will put Malika's rebel ethos to the test, and to survive she will have to call on all her instincts and nerve. Sean Gullette's feature debut premiered at Venice Days 2013, and was winner of the Premio "Rellumes" at Gijón International Film Festival 2014.

Amnesia

Nini Bull Robsahm : 2014

A seemingly happy couple, Katherine Odegaard and Thomas Winther, decide to go for a weekend getaway on a secluded Norwegian island. A weekend that should have included good food and wine, lots of laughter and Katherine finishing her book, turns quickly into a bad dream. Katherine discovers she needs to find self-confidence in herself and not always depend on her boyfriend. Thomas on the other hand discovers that he and Katherine don't share the same vision of future together, as he wants a child. This culminates into an argument, which ends with a physical struggle, where Thomas falls and is knocked unconscious. When he wakes up he can't remember anything – not last night, nor the relationship with Katherine. What should Katherine do? Tell the truth or start everything over again, trying to leave the past behind? Nini Bull Robsahm's second feature had its international premiere at Lund Fantastisk Film Festival 2014, and screened at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2014.

Atlántida

Inés María Barrionuevo : 2014
Atlantis

A sweltering summer's day in January 1987 and an expected storm is slowly approaching. In the small rural town of Córdoba, everyone is longing for rain. Two sisters, Lucía, 15, and Elena, 17, have been left alone. Lucía swims laps at the pool early in the morning. Later on she sweats over her books at the kitchen table. She is studying hard because she's determined to go to university in Buenos Aires. Meanwhile, her sister Elena lies in bed with her leg in plaster, bored to death. The other teenagers sit out the heat at the pool, messing around. Girls chat about the boys, and vice versa. Who kissed who yesterday? But there are some who aren't interested in any of that, like Andrés, a passionate beekeeper, or Ana, who likes reading books. At one point, Lucía has had enough of her annoying sister and goes out into the countryside with Ana. Here the two girls are left to their own devices. The young people drift along, propelled by their own desires, but they don't really know how to handle them. Some of them just want to get away. And with the night comes the rain they've all been waiting for. Inés María Barrionuevo's feature debut premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014, and screened at Gijón International Film Festival 2014.

Motu Maeva

Maureen Fazendeiro : 2014

A journey through the memories of Sonja André, an adventurer from the 20th century who lives in a shelter she built herself on the island of Motu Maeva. Without following a chronological order or a specific route, her memories take shape bringing back major events and small anecdotes, a trip, or a map, following an unceasing movement. From Chad to Indochina to Tahiti; then a short break, a moment of peace, a song, and then off again to a place and a story that took place a few years later, or maybe before. A total freedom, only images captured in Super-8 film between the 1950s and 1970s, and the voice-over of a woman whose civil status and secret wounds we'll never fully know. Maureen Fazendeiro's documentary short premiered at Festival International de Cinéma de Marseille 2014, and screened at Torino Film Festival 2014.

Fuego

Luis Marías : 2014
Fire

The life of Carlos, a policeman in the Basque Countries, changes radically after being the target, together with his family, of an ETA bombing. One day, a bomb explodes in his car: he is not harmed but his wife is killed and his 10-year-old daughter loses her legs. Twelve years later he has moved to Barcelona, found a job in a private security company and his daughter seems to have overcome the traumatic experience, although there are still some traces left. After years of counselling, he appears to be a man who has been given a second chance in life. But nothing could be farther from the truth. In the deepest corner of his heart there is only one feeling which consumes all others: hate. The fires of resentment and vengeance make him develop a Machiavellian plan to return all the damage his family has suffered by taking revenge on the family of his wife's murderer. Luis Marías's second feature was winner of the Audience Award for Best Film in the Official Section when it premiered at Gijón International Film Festival 2014.

La huella en la niebla

Emiliano Grieco : 2014
Footprint in the mist

Under the mist covering the río Paraná, Elías is carried away in his canoe. He has committed a murder. Wounded and lost in the fog, Elías returns to his island. The flood took everything and his home lies empty. His father gives him shelter but distrusts him. Different neighbours tell him where to find Lara and his son, who now live with another man and don't want to see him again. Elías insists on returning, yet all his efforts are in vain. He has quit drinking, fixed up the farm where they used to live together, and has found work on a boat. These changes are not enough to get Lara back, the water does not wash away his blood and death goes along with him. And as the pain slowly increases, the nature of the place seems to swallow him more and more. The cursed Elías rows on a murky river, to a quiet estuary, dominated by peace, where time seems to stand still despite its constant movement. Emiliano Grieco's feature debut premiered in competition at Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata 2014.

Nezha

Li Xiaofeng : 2014

A new transfer student, Li Xiaolu, and class president Wang Xiaobing instantly become close friends. They feel a connection right from the start, especially in their rebellious natures. But when they enter different high schools, they start to drift apart. After her parents' divorce and increased discord in the family, Xiaobing becomes even more rebellious and distant, and Xiaolu is no longer a comfort to her. After graduation they go their separate ways, but Xaiolu returns to visit Xaiobing's house, only to find that even her mother doesn't know her whereabouts. A dark portrait of unstable and unfortunate youth, reworking the myth of Nezha to ponder what it means to be a heroine in a country wavering between tradition and modernity. The film depicts changes in society through the changes within the two girls, the changes in their relationship with each other, and also their surrounding environment. Li Xiaofeng's feature debut premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2014.

Thuy

Kim Jae-han : 2013

Thùy, a Vietnamese national, is married to a Korean man and lives with her in-laws in rural Korea. She is sincere to him and his parents, whilst slowly adapting to life in a foreign country. One day, she is informed that her husband has died in a motorcycle accident. Thùy's suspicions are aroused as she knows that her husband, who had lost several fingers, was incapable of riding a motorcycle. When she starts probing into the details of the accident and his death, she is faced with ambivalence and threats. In this rural village patrolled by the villagers themselves, Thùy's struggle to find the truth keeps hitting roadblocks. A police officer from Seoul wants to help her, but he is of no great use in the face of the local police chief's inaction and the villagers' habit of completely ostracising outsiders. Kim Jae-han's feature debut premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2013, and had its international premiere at Dubai International Film Festival 2013.

Nabat

Elchin Musaoglu : 2014

Nabat and her husband Iskender, an old and sick ex-forestry worker, live in a small isolated house far from the village. The war in the Nagorno-Karabakh has been raging for some time and their son was killed in action in the 1990s. Their sole means of survival is the sale of milk from their only cow that Nabat takes to the village every couple of days. As the shadow of war envelopes the region, the village is slowly deserted by its inhabitants. Following Iskender's death, Nabat is all alone with her memories: memories of her son, and of the way things were. In empty houses, she forages for belongings left behind and sometimes even lights an oil lamp to revive just a little of the village's former vibrancy. Soon, a she-wolf approaches the old farmer's wife and keeps an eye on her. Documentary filmmaker Elchin Musaoglu's second feature premiered in the Orizzonti section at Venice International Film Festival 2014, and screened at International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg 2014.

A Long Story

Jorien van Nes : 2013

Following the death of his French wife, Ward returns to the Netherlands after years of absence. He wants to move back to the village of his birth and hires a Romanian handyman, Doru, to fix up his house. Ward misses his wife and struggles to settle into the local lifestyle. One day Doru doesn't show up, and Ward impulsively takes charge of Doru's mischievous nine-year-old son Mihai. When they can't reach Mihai's mother Alina for the regularly scheduled cellphone call, they decide to drive to Romania. What they don't know is that Alina, who has stayed at home with her other two children, and has gone down to the Black Sea for a few days of vacation, is also frantically trying to reach her husband and son. Their journey brings both Mihai and Ward home, but Ward must now reconcile himself with his past and his future. Jorien van Nes's feature debut premiered at Nederlands Film Festival 2013, and screened at International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg 2014.

Tous les chats sont gris

Savina Dellicour : 2014
All Cats are Grey

Paul watches from afar as Dorothy grows up in a wealthy Brussels milieu. Paul is in his mid-40s, chronically lonely and working as a private investigator. Dorothy is almost sixteen. She is in the midst of a teenage life crisis which is compounded by frustration with her mother who won't tell her who her real father is. Paul is Dorothy's father. This is the secret that Paul returns to Brussels with as he begins to shadow his daughter. Most likely, the two of them would have never met, except for the fact that Dorothy contacted him in her search for her biological father. Paul enjoys the seemingly accidental chance to spend time with Dorothy. The young girl is interested in his job and his life in general and, quite naturally, her curiosity is partly sparked by her emerging sexuality. As the truth keeps getting concealed, repressed family secrets boil away under the surface. A film about the miracle of seeing a child grow up and the anxiety caused by early loss. Savina Dellicour's feature debut premiered at Montréal World Film Festival 2014, and had its European premiere in the Alice nella Città section at Rome Film Festival 2014.

Mercuriales

Virgil Vernier : 2014

Bagnolet, on the outskirts of Paris. Two impressive buildings stand out against the sky: Les Mercuriales. They are twin towers which lodge a hive of employees busy at assorted functions for the shady businesses which have their offices there. Lisa and Joane, one Moldavian and the other French, meet there. The two young women could almost be twin sisters separated at birth. A friendship, intense and full of ups and downs, develops between them, and it is told through random moments which swing between emotional intensity, revealed intimacy, ethereal beauty and occasional moments of sordidness and violence. The story of the towers, an unfinished, over-ambitious architectural project from the 70s, spreads its symbolic shadow over the girls' story, in some way moulding a relationship that is another victim of the wounds of modernity. Virgil Vernier's fiction feature debut premiered at L'ACID au Festival de Cannes 2014, and was winner of the FIPRESCI Award at Torino Film Festival 2014.

Les jours venus

Romain Goupil : 2014
The Days Come

The day comes when an official letter inquires about your age and status. The day comes when an idea for a script won't turn into a film. The day comes when your son asks about your past and sets off on his own adventures. The day comes when the two of you reminisce about how you met so long ago. The day comes when your parents are so old that time is short. A story in which ten chapters intertwine with each other: the money, the idea, the world, the son, retirement, Her, Paris, the city, the father, death. A series of scenes recounting a life, switching from present to past and back again, from recollection to new directions. A film about time passing and the time left before that day comes. Romain Goupil's feature premiered in competition at Tokyo International Film Festival 2014.

Las altas presiones

Ángel Santos : 2014
The High Pressures

As a way of getting over his recent bitter romantic relationships, after living away from his native city for a long time due to work reasons, Miguel returns to Pontevedra to search for shooting locations for a film. Looking at his life with a lack of interest that goes a step beyond melancholy or nihilism, he finds it hard to get involved in what is happening, or to establish relationships with those around him. Nevertheless, this journey through the industrial ruins of the ria and through what is left of old friendships will put him in touch with himself again, and this may be the wake-up call that he needs. Seeing old friends and reminiscing about the good old days, he becomes thankful and has a chance to meet someone else to love. Ángel Santos's second feature premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2014, and was winner of the Best Film award at its European premiere in the Las Nuevas Olas section at Sevilla European Film Festival 2014.

Disparue en hiver

Christophe Lamotte : 2014
Missing in winter

Daniel is a former police officer turned debt collector who, in his late fifties, goes about his "dirty job" without emotion or affect. One winter's day, on a roadside parking lot, he is approached by Laura, an 18-year-old girl who asks him to drive her home. He accepts. On the way, she offers him "her services" in exchange for money. Furious, Daniel throws her out of the car. Remorse, and the violence of his reaction, force him to turn around and retrace his steps, but Laura has disappeared. The next day, Daniel visits Mme Savielli to recover another debt payment. But now, the old lady is worried. Her granddaughter, with whom she lives, went missing two days ago. Daniel then recognises Laura in a photograph, and terribly troubled, offers to help the old lady. By engaging body and soul in an obsessive investigation, Daniel's decision will change his life. A dark drama of a man's confrontation with his inner demons. Christophe Lamotte's feature premiered in competition at Festival du Film de la Réunion 2014.

Rastres de sàndal

María Ripoll : 2014
Traces of Sandalwood

Despite her fame and fortune, Mina, a successful Indian actress in Mumbai, can't forget her little sister Sita, from whom she was forced to separate after their mother's death in a village. Thirty years later she will finally find out that Sita is alive and well in Barcelona. However, Sita's adoptive parents have erased all traces of her past. She is now called Paula, works as a researcher in biology and has no recollection of her Indian background, let alone of Mina. Faced with the shocking truths of her past, Paula begins a long journey of self-discovery, aided along the way by her budding romance with the handsome Indian immigrant Prakash. A story of hope and love across Mumbai and Barcelona; from India to the Mediterranean and all the way back. María Ripoll's feature was voted the Most Popular Film when it premiered at Montréal World Film Festival 2014, and had its European premiere at Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid 2014.

Lola auf der Erbse

Thomas Heinemann : 2014
Lola on the Pea

Lola lives with her mother Loretta on a houseboat. Since her father vanished a year ago, she has become introverted and lives in her own dream world. She has vowed not to cut her hair or wash the spot on her neck where her dad last kissed her until he gets back. She doesn't really get along with her classmates at school, and her only real friend is the crazy old captain Solmsen. One day, however, whilst hanging out at her favourite spot near the river, her solitude is broken by an intruder. His name is Rebin. No one except their teacher knows that Rebin is a Kurd living illegally in Germany with his parents. Although Rebin's father has warned him to keep to himself, little by little he and Lola become friends. Lola's mother, in the meantime, has met a new man, Kurt. He's nice enough, but there's no way Lola is going to let anyone replace her dad, so she does everything she can to put him off. But when Rebin's mother gets very ill, Lola swallows her pride and begs for Kurt's help. A few days later, Rebin and his family are nowhere to be found, and Lola is inconsolable. Thomas Heinemann's second feature premiered at Filmfest München 2014, and screened at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2014.

Melbourne

Nima Javidi : 2014

Husband and wife Amir and Sara, are packing and getting ready for a long-haul trip to Melbourne, Australia, where both plan to continue their studies. Whilst they are packing and saying their goodbyes to friends and family, the couple also happen to be babysitting the neighbour's newborn baby girl. However, just a few hours before the departure of their flight, they are involved in an unfortunate and tragic event. An intimate psychological drama exploring the flawed intricacies of humanity. Nima Javidi's feature debut premiered at Fajr International Film Festival 2014, and had its European premiere at Venice International Film Critics' Week 2014.

Conducta

Ernesto Daranas : 2014
Behaviour

Eleven-year-old Chala lives alone with his alcoholic mother. To make ends meet, he raises pigeons and trains fighting dogs with his neighbour, who's possibly his biological father. He feels a close connection to his ageing sixth grade teacher Carmela who, after falling ill, is replaced by a new teacher who imposes a strict disciplinary regime in class. The young teacher Marta decides that the energetic boy needs to be disciplined at an institution for re-education, a decision Carmela vehemently opposes. When Carmela starts a campaign to get him back, the bond between teacher and student grows stronger, but she is confronted by a school administration that sees her as a threat to the values and ambitions they have for a new Cuba. Ernesto Daranas's second feature was the winner of multiple awards at its European premiere at Festival de Málaga de Cine Español 2014, and screened at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2014.