Steppeulven

Ole Christian Madsen : 2014
Itsi Bitsi

In the early 1960s, wannabe writer Eik meets fellow free spirit Iben whilst protesting American imperialism. Bonding over their love of literature, the boundary-smashing music of the period, and, not least, the pleasures of consciousness-altering drugs, the couple soon decamps from sleepy, bourgeois Copenhagen for the European continent and, eventually, Marrakesh, Baghdad, Nepal, and the deserts of Afghanistan. Struggling to write his novel, Eik desperately tries to hold on to Iben who refuses to commit herself to anything, let alone one man only. Deciding that the only way to win Iben's love is to start a band, Eik founds Steppeulvene (named after the Hermann Hesse novel, Steppenwolf) and enjoys near-instant success. The group makes Eik a celebrity, and Denmark's official spokesperson for the counter-culture – but it's uncertain whether his success will bring him what he most wants. A story based on true events about the desperate love of two young people who share an all-consuming passion for each other, a passion they attempt to relinquish but which never relinquishes them. An epic, continent-crossing counter-cultural romance based on events that led to the founding of the short-lived but massively influential Danish rock band Steppeulvene. Ole Christian Madsen's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014, and screened at İstanbul Film Festival 2015.

Lucia de B.

Paula van der Oest : 2014
Accused

Nurse Lucia de Berk has been present at one inexplicable death too many, a baby only a few months old. The hospital alerts the police. The young and ambitious public prosecutor Judith Jansen gets the file Lucia de B. on her desk. The investigation into the 'Angel of Death', as the press call Lucia, is heavy. Lucia left no traces and refuses to talk to the detectives, but a blood test connects her and she is eventually sentenced to life imprisonment for four murders and three counts of attempted murder. But something keeps troubling Judith. She discovers inconsistencies in witness statements and even the suppression of lab evidence. There are questions as to the reliability of the test and Judith begins to have doubts. Ignored by her superiors, Judith teams up with Lucia's lawyer, but at every appeal the original guilty verdict is confirmed. Things look bleak until they get the media involved and the biggest miscarriage of justice in Dutch history is finally reversed. Based on a true story, Paula van der Oest's feature was awarded the Gouden Film on behalf of the Nederlands Film Festival and the Nederlands Filmfonds. Her film screened in competition at Bari International Film Festival 2015.

Povodyr

Oles Sanin : 2014
The Guide

Ukraine in the 1930s. American engineer Michael Shamrock arrives in Kharkiv with his ten-year-old son, Peter to help "build socialism". He falls in love with an actress, Olga who has another admirer, Communist Commissar Vladimir. Under tragic circumstances, the American is killed and his son is saved from his pursuers by a blind kobzar, Ivan Kocherga. With no other chance to survive in a foreign land, Peter becomes his guide. Ivan does everything to help his young guide to grow up and survive with a kind and clear soul that will not be hardened by what his eyes have seen. He tells the boy elaborate stories that make him believe there can be a different reality from what he sees around him. Their journey, full of dangerous adventures, unfolds against the background of one of the most dramatic pages of Ukrainian history and human destruction. The film about love, loyalty, betrayal and infamy is based on true events. Oles Sanin's feature premiered in competition at Odessa International Film Festival 2014, and received a Special Mention when it screened in competition at Bari International Film Festival 2015.

Zomer

Colette Bothof : 2014
Summer

Anne is sixteen and lives in a remote village in southern Netherlands. A forgotten spot where the seemingly endless fields are dominated by the omnipresent power plant, where electricity cables criss-cross the sky and never stop humming. Anne's circle comprises her classmates and kids from the surrounding villages, all adolescents heading for adulthood. On weekdays they cycle to school through the fields into the wind. During the weekends they race along dike roads or go boating in the river. The mood is sultry as hormones churn around their bodies. Anne is a bit of an outsider and through her eyes we observe the young people whose lives are closely linked to hers. It's a small village and everyone is connected to everyone else. During this sweltering summer, Anne starts to feel lonely and detached until she meets Lena, who is new in town. Lena rides a motorbike and wears leather gear and is obviously different from everyone else. They meet at the fuel station where Anne works at the weekends. Anne quickly develops feelings for Lena, but they are feelings that she cannot fathom. However they are so intense that she can't turn and walk away from them either. Love unfolds in all its tender awkwardness. Things come to a head one evening when Anne and Lena leave the village disco together and head to the meadow. They are followed, mocked and insulted by the disco crowd. However, this only strengthens their love. Their burgeoning relationship is something Anne is not prepared to give up without a fight. A film about growing pains, about young people craving independence whilst also needing to fit in, and a young woman who dares to be different. Colette Bothof's feature premiered in competition at Nederlands Film Festival 2014, and screened at BFI Flare London 2015.

Le temps des aveux

Régis Wargnier : 2014
The Gate

Cambodia, 1971. The true story of François Bizot, a French archaeologist and Buddhism expert working on the restoration of the Angkor Wat temple complex. With the Vietnam War raging across the border, Bizot suddenly finds himself fighting for his life when the Khmer Rouge rise up against the US-controlled Cambodian government. Arrested for espionage, he is cast into a vortex of forced confessions, torture, and interrogations, whilst trying to protect his Cambodian wife and daughter. Bizot's fate lies in the hands of a single-minded young zealot utterly committed to the Khmer Rouge cause. Duch rides roughshod over all obstacles, determined to root out all enemies of the Party. In his eyes, every foreigner is a potential spy. Whilst the Frenchman discovers the reality of Khmer Rouge indoctrination, an indefinable bond develops between the prisoner and his jailer. Two decades later, Bizot and Duch meet again after the latter is arrested for crimes against humanity. Régis Wargnier's feature premiered at Telluride Film Festival 2014, and screened in competition at Bari International Film Festival 2015.

L'antiquaire

François Margolin : 2015
The Art Dealer

Thirty-year-old Esther Stegmann, a young and courageous French journalist, goes in search of the collection of paintings stolen from her Jewish family by the Nazis during World War II. In the course of her investigation, she discovers some deeply buried family secrets and decides to figure out an affair concealed by them for decades. It becomes a quest that leads Esther to discover much more than art secrets and a father, but which also updates a conspiracy led by his great-uncle. François Margolin's thriller had its international premiere in competition at Bari International Film Festival 2015.

Als wir träumten

Andreas Dresen : 2015
As We Were Dreaming

The Leipzig suburbs, shortly after the collapse of East Germany. Rico, Daniel, Paul and Mark, until recently still Pioneers in their red neckerchiefs, are growing up in the maelstrom of the newly reunited country. Yesterday's rules no longer count today. They turn night into day and the streets into an adventure playground. The boys run wild and hang out in the neighbourhood, steal cars, experiment with drugs and try out the new swingers' club. They open their own techno club which is soon besieged by neo-Nazi skinheads. Everything is in a state of flux and decay, everyone is overflowing with dreams: Rico longs for a boxing career; Daniel yearns to have a grand love affair with Little Star, the most beautiful girl Leipzig has ever known. They party, they riot, they run from their parents and the future. They are coming of age in a time of anarchy. Andreas Dresen's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2015.

What Tomorrow Brings

Beth Murphy : 2015

A girls' school in Afghanistan is the setting for a coming-of-age story in which young girls come to grips with the realities of rigid patriarchy and cruelty in their world. Their teachers, most not much older than the students, help them confront their resulting inner turmoil and try to prepare them for what their uncertain futures bring. The students at the Zabuli Girls' School in the conservative village of Deh Subz have lived in a country at war all their lives; in a culture in which modern Western values are rejected and conservative, often oppressive, social tradition is embraced. But when Razia Jan arrives to open the village's very first girls' school, these traditions are challenged. The story of the Zabuli School unfolds at a time when the political and security situation in the country is rapidly changing. The entire region faces an uncertain fate – and for those who hoped for a more democratic, egalitarian society after the war, that fate looks increasingly ominous. Against a harrowing backdrop, the film traces the interconnected stories of students, teachers, village elders, families, and tenacious school founder Razia Jan, building a layered portrait of a community caught between its past and its future. Beth Murphy's feature-length documentary was presented in an exclusive preview at Human Rights Watch Film Festival London 2015.

Stand

Jonathan Taieb : 2014
Противостояние

Anton and Vlad are a Russian couple, living comfortably in the privacy of their Moscow apartment. One day, after taking a wrong turn in their car, they witness a vicious homophobic attack, but do not act to help. This incident changes the rest of their lives when Anton, consumed by his feelings of guilt, becomes obsessed with the case. For Anton, the burden of what they may have witnessed outweighs Vlad's fear of probing too deeply into the incident. Convinced of the police's indifference, Anton talks his sceptical boyfriend into launching their own amateur investigation into the hate crime. But as Anton gets closer to the perpetrators, the abyss between him and Vlad widens and their risky search for the truth will have unexpected and grim consequences. This highly topical and powerful slow-burning suspense drama sets one person's struggle for justice against the paralysing power of fear. Jonathan Taieb's second feature premiered at Frameline Film Festival 2014, and was winner of the award for Best Feature Film at Serile Filmului Gay International Film Festival 2014.

Les châteaux de sable

Olivier Jahan : 2015
Sand castles

Eléonore is in her thirties. She has just lost her father, who left his house in Brittany, in the Côtes-d'Armor, to her. Eléonore is a photographer. She has had some success, but now, her business is not thriving as before. She absolutely needs to sell this house and goes there with Samuel, her former lover from whom she separated some time ago, because it does not feel right to be alone in the house she has not returned to since the death of her father. But it is playing with fire, because she knows that their relationship never really ended, even if she had some affairs and even though Samuel is now living with Laure. Claire Andrieux, the estate agent, has taken care of organising visits during the two days Eléonore and Samuel will stay in the house. It's a bizarre weekend that these three are about to have. An amazing weekend, full of surprises and emotions, tensions, memories and shouting matches in melancholy and absurd moments, from which Eléonore and Samuel will emerge inevitably changed. Olivier Jahan's second feature premiered at Mons International Love Film Festival 2015.

Sea Without Shore

André Semenza & Fernanda Lippi : 2015

A rhythmically captivating exploration of love and loss at the fin-de-siècle. An amorous relationship between two women abruptly cut short. Dissolving under the impact of the loss of her soul mate, the surviving lover is drawn into the depths of mid-winter forests, into spheres of the subconscious, initiated by unknown forces. There is no return. The stream-of-consciousness narration, a collage of poetic fragments, features words by 16th century lesbian poet Katherine Philips, 19th century fin-de-siècle poets Renée Vivien and Algernon Charles Swinburne whose agnostic, visionary poetry lend the film a hypnotic quality. Set in remote forest landscapes and interiors in rural 19th century Sweden, it is the haunting journey through the subconscious into the loss of a loved one. André Semenza and Fernanda Lippi's second collaborative feature premiered at Glasgow Film Festival 2015.

Im Spinnwebhaus

Mara Eibl-Eibesfeldt : 2015
The Spiderwebhouse

Jonas is already head of the family at just 12 years of age. He has been helping his two younger siblings and supporting his mother, Sabine, since his father left. Sabine is very loving towards her children but she often loses her patience and disappears into her room for the day. Mysterious demons drive her to spend a weekend away to relax in the 'sunny valley'. But the weekend grows into weeks in which the three children hear nothing from their mother. Food and money have long since run out, the house has become more and more like a haunted castle: a spiderweb house. Jonas tries his best to maintain the appearance of an intact family. On the hunt for something to eat, he meets a young man, Felix Count of Gütersloh, who speaks in rhymes and declares himself to be 'not quite right in the head'. Rather like a guardian angel, he takes Jonas under his wing and shows him how to get by in a world without adults. The film is less a social drama than a modern-day fairy tale and is set in an eerily beautiful world of the children which unfolds its own particular magic. Mara Eibl-Eibesfeldt's feature debut premiered in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section at Berlin International Film Festival 2015.

Ben Zaken

Efrat Corem : 2014

The Ben Zaken family lives in the small Israeli city of Ashkelon on a rundown housing estate. The family is made up of single father Shlomi with his eleven-year-old daughter Ruhi, his brother Leon and the mother of the two brothers. Their living situation is somewhat precarious. The austere apartment is cramped and everyone's nerves are pretty frayed. Social services has its eye on the motherless Ruhi, who is bullied in school and is not an easy child. Is a shared name and a shared roof over your head enough to define a family, or is it more about having feelings of altruistic responsibility for each other? Ruhi's father is forced to find a very concrete answer to this general question and to find what his role as a father is supposed to be. A sensitive portrait of an environment marked by stagnation and a lack of economic and emotional resources. Efrat Corem's film, her feature debut, premiered at Cinema South Film Festival 2014, and had its international premiere in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2015.

I am Nojoom, Age 10 and Divorced

Khadija al-Salami : 2014
Ana Nojoom bent alasherah wamotalagah

A 10-year-old girl walks into a courtroom, looks at the judge straight in the eye and tells him: "I want a divorce". Her name is Nojoom, she was married by force to a man twenty years older than her, and she escaped. But in Yemen, there is no age requirement for marriage. Little Nojoom will later write a bestseller about her story. Documentary filmmaker Khadija al-Salami, herself married by force at age 11 and exiled in France, has made Nojoom's story into a stunning first fiction film – a beautiful plea for all these girls forced into womanhood too soon and for their right to a life on their own terms. Her film was winner of the Muhr Award for Best Fiction Feature at Dubai International Film Festival 2014, and had its European premiere in competition at International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights 2015.

I Used to Live Here

Frank Berry : 2014

Amy Keane, a 13-year-old trying to cope with the death of her mother and the reappearance of her father's ex-girlfriend, experiences the temptation of suicide after witnessing the outpouring of love for a local suicide victim. Offering a striking dramatic representation of a real-life community, the film looks at how the idea of suicide can spread, particularly among young people. Featuring performances from a mostly non-professional cast, and filmed on the streets of Tallaght in west Dublin, the director sensitively explores the tragic phenomenon of suicide clusters, a phenomenon that is affecting a growing number of communities around the world. Documentary and TV filmmaker Frank Berry's feature debut won the Best First Feature Audience Award when it premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2014.

Llévate mis amores

Arturo Gonzalez Villaseñor : 2014
All of Me

Every day since 1995, a group of women stand at the tracks near the Mexican town of La Patrona. Calling themselves "Las Patronas", they wait for 'La Bestia', a freight train full of illegal Latin American immigrants to pass by. These desperate people are on a perilous journey in pursuit of the dream of a better life in the USA. "Mother, we are hungry!" they cry at the patronas, who throw them water bottles and packages of food they cooked themselves. They never miss a single train. In the midst of a country at war, in a world where hope seems lost, Las Patronas rescue the core human value that is fading each day: love for the other. A brave and striking example of solidarity that contrasts with the violence of one of the cruelest journeys in the world for travellers without papers. This film by a young Mexican director shows the stories of these women, who although poor themselves, understand the suffering of others. Arturo Gonzalez Villaseñor's feature-length documentary premiered at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2014, and screened in competition at One World International Human Rights Film Festival 2015.

De ce eu?

Tudor Giurgiu : 2015
Why me?

The young and ambitious prosecutor Christian is surprised to be assigned a sensitive case involving an older colleague who has been accused of corruption. A case that could have been a springboard for his career turns out to have the opposite effect. The accused asserts his innocence, but Christian's superiors force him to bring the man to trial – even without evidence. The prosecutor's efforts to bring truth to light leads him to discover a major plot. The case is then taken away from him and he is suspended and effectively silenced. The system hits back with a vengeance, pulling the rug from beneath the young man's feet. A radical, bitter vision of a country in turmoil which shows how state omnipotence ensues when corrupt lawmakers and executive powers cover for each other. The individual must choose between retreating into his private life and civil disobedience – and run the risk of going under. Tudor Giurgiu's directorial debut premiered in the Panorama Special section at Berlin International Film Festival 2015.

Hinterland

Harry Macqueen : 2014

Harvey and Lola spent their childhood together, regularly visiting Harvey's family cottage in Cornwall. Then they grew up, Harvey returning home to get his head down and make some money, Lola leaving the country to live a life of travelling and adventure. A few years down the line, Harvey and Lola are re-united for a weekend away in the old cottage. What follows is a touching and beautiful story of an old friendship rekindled within a new context. As conversation gets earnest and the pair settle in to each other's company, nuances of a relationship more complicated than friendship begin to emerge – but they may be drifting away from each other faster than they realise. Set over one February weekend, it is the story of two old friends who escape the city for a trip full of nostalgia, love and new beginnings. A poetic journey of self-discovery and heartbreak in contemporary Britain, a very original and visually stunning road-trip film. Harry Macqueen's feature debut premiered at Raindance Film Festival 2014.

Królowa ciszy

Agnieszka Zwiefka : 2014
The Queen of Silence

Ten-year-old Denisa is in many respects an outsider: she and her family, who are Roma people, have settled close to a neighbourhood in the city of Wrocław where they are not welcome. She is also a girl in a community where men rule the roost, and she is deaf, which is the reason why she never learned to talk. The cause of her condition is unknown, as she has never undergone a medical examination. In spite of it all, Denisa is an outgoing, playful and sociable girl who loves to dance: the one way that she can express the emotions she can't express in words. She passionately loves to dance in the style of the stars of Bollywood musical DVDs she found in a garbage bin. While her community visibly struggles with poverty, exclusion and racism, Denisa dances among scavenging chickens, dogs and children in the improvised camp, and also during heart-warming intermezzos in which Denisa for once is the focus of attention. Then one day she gets a hearing aid, and hears for the very first time. The film follows Denisa and her family through several seasons, and it becomes clear that even the children understand grown-up problems here. They know exactly how hostile people within the European Union are towards those who have no ID, no education, no work and no permanent residence. Agnieszka Zwiefka's feature-length documentary premiered in competition at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2014, and was winner of the Czech Radio Jury Award when it screened in competition at One World International Human Rights Film Festival 2015.

Eyes of a Thief

Najwa Najjar : 2014
Ouyoun el haramiya

At the height of the Palestinian Uprising in 2002, Tareq, an enigmatic man, bears fresh wounds. Tended to by local nuns, who help him escape, he's soon arrested by Israeli soldiers. Ten years later, he is released from prison and returns to his town, a place transformed by drastic changes, to search for his daughter who was an infant when he was imprisoned. Tarek finds ten-year-old Malak, whom he suspects is his daughter, but her adoptive mother is being forced into an arranged marriage with the town's main businessman whom Tarek seems to have unfinished business with. As secrets are uncovered, light is shed on the stifling nature of contemporary Palestinian society, whilst revealing Tareq's hidden past. The sense of moral certainty is replaced by questionable individual choices with no easy answers. Najwa Najjar's second feature premiered at Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival 2014, and screened at Stockfish European Film Festival in Reykjavik 2015.