What Will People Say

Iram Haq : 2017
Hva vil folk si

Sixteen year-old Nisha lives a double life. At home with her family she is the perfect Pakistani daughter, but when out with her friends, she is a normal Norwegian teenager. When her father catches her in bed with her boyfriend, Nisha's two worlds brutally collide. To set an example, Nisha's parents decide to kidnap her and place her with relatives in Pakistan. Here, in a country she has never been to before, Nisha is forced to adapt to her parents' culture. Nevertheless, the circumstances of her life won't allow her to give up the fight for her rights as a woman. Iram Haq's second feature premiered in the Platform section at Toronto Film Festival 2017, and had its UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2018.

Rainbow – A Private Affair

Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani : 2017
Una questione privata

Milton, a member of the resistance, chances upon an abandoned villa nestling in the hills of Piedmont where, as a student, he was in love with the beautiful Fulvia. He has his suspicions that she was more inclined towards his friend Giorgio, now a captured member of the same partisan division. In order to find out the truth from Giorgio himself, Milton sets off to find him, travelling through a region where the last battles are being staged before the liberation of Italy. His perilous journey, which sees him caught in the lines of fire between partisan units, fleeing German soldiers and rampaging Italian Fascists, increasingly becomes an exploration into his own consciousness as he ultimately comprehends the senseless barbarity of war. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2017.

Mary Shelley

Haifaa al-Mansour : 2018

Sixteen-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is a thoughtful young woman with a passion for writing and who is drawn to ghost stories. When she meets radical and charismatic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, she is convinced she has met her soulmate. So begins a torrid, bohemian love affair marked by both passion and personal tragedy. At first she relishes life amongst the radical Romantics, but as time goes on, Percy's betrayals and indiscretions begin to test their relationship. One day, on a trip to Lord Byron's mansion in Geneva, Mary is challenged to write a ghost story. Drawing on her experiences of heartbreak and the dark side of humanity, she creates 'Frankenstein', her Gothic masterwork that will shape the literary world for centuries. Imbued with the imaginative spirit of its heroine, the film brings to life the world of a trailblazing woman who defied convention and channelled her innermost demons into a legend for the ages. Haifaa al-Mansour's period drama, her second feature, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2017, and had its UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2018.

Leave No Trace

Debra Granik : 2018

Will cannot get the trauma of war out of his head, so he has cut himself and his daughter Tom off from civilisation. They live a perfect but mysterious existence in Forest Park, a beautiful nature reserve near Portland, Oregon, rarely making contact with the outside world. Under the sky, with the animals, they drink rain water, pick mushrooms, make fires, and are satisfied with each other's company – almost. In her teenage years, Tom is developing a desire to live in different surroundings, with different people. A small mistake tips them off to the authorities, and they are plucked from their hidden world and put in the charge of social services. Struggling to adapt to their new surroundings, they embark on a perilous journey back to their wild homeland in search of a place to call their own in which the demons from Will's past cannot intrude. Debra Granik's feature premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2018, and had its European premiere at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Fuga

Agnieszka Smoczyńska : 2018
Fugue

Alicja has no memory and no knowledge about how she lost it. In two years, she manages to build a new, independent self, away from home. She doesn't want to remember the past. So, when her family finds her, she is forced to fit into the roles of a mother, daughter and wife, surrounded by what seem to be complete strangers. What remains once you forget you loved someone? Is it necessary to remember the emotion of love in order to feel happiness? Her estranged husband and son do not recognize this woman who looks familiar and yet behaves like a stranger. Feelings of alienation, love and revelations rekindle her interior flame. Agnieszka Smoczyńska's feature premiered in competition at the Semaine de la Critique at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Petra

Jaime Rosales : 2018

Petra doesn't know who her father is. Her entire life, it's been hidden from her. After the death of her mother, she embarks on a search that leads her to Jaume, a famous artist and a powerful, ruthless man. On her path to uncovering the truth, Petra also meets Jaume's son, Lucas, as well as Marisa, his mother and Jaume's wife. That is when the story of these characters begins to intertwine in a spiral of malice, family secrets and violence that drives them all to the edge. But fate's cruel logic is derailed by a twist that opens a path to hope and redemption. Jaime Rosales's feature premiered at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2018.

The Gentle Indifference of the World

Adilkhan Yerzhanov : 2018
Laskovoe bezrazlichie mira

After her father's untimely death, Saltanat is forced to trade her idyllic countryside life for the cruel city. She has to find money to pay off the large family debt that her father left behind, in order to save her mother from a prison sentence. Friends since their village childhood, her loyal, but penniless admirer Kuandyk follows her just to make sure his sweetheart is safe. Saltanat's uncle introduces her to a possible groom, who promises to pay off her family's debts. But Saltanat's hopes are dashed, when she discovers that the men in this city don't keep their word. When Kuandyk tries to help Saltanat get the money through other ways, he ends up finding himself in more trouble than he bargained for. Although life keeps dealing them bad hands, Saltanat and Kuandyk never give up. Adilkhan Yerzhanov's feature premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Mon tissu préféré

Gaya Jiji : 2018
My Favourite Fabric

Damascus, Spring 2011. In the midst of the rumblings of revolution, Nahla, a young woman of 25, is torn between her desire for freedom and her hopes of leaving the country through an arranged marriage with Samir, a Syrian who has emigrated to the United States. However, Samir prefers her younger and more docile sister, Myriam. Consequently, Nahla grows closer to her new neighbour, Madame Jiji, who has just moved into her building in order to open a brothel. A film about a woman's search for her identity in a society where one is deprived of everything: the freedom of expression, the freedom to do what you want, even the right to dream. Gaya Jiji's feature debut premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Girl

Lukas Dhont : 2018

Lara, a young teenage girl, is preparing to celebrate a key birthday, one that will mark the start of her transformation. Lara dreams of dancing and opera, and she is willing to put up any kind of fight necessary to make her dream come true. She trains her body, makes it more supple, punishes it and tries her best to make it bend. But her body is her enemy. Lara was born a boy. She puts up a daily struggle – the struggle of a dancer, and the struggle of a young woman in the making, as she is on the cusp of starting her treatment. But learning how to dance on pointe is a long road, just as it's a long and gruelling ordeal to transform one's body. During this transition period, Lara is supported by her loving and attentive father, and is supervised by a medical team that is at her beck and call and that is sincerely concerned about her well-being. But it is primarily her own impatience that she will have to grapple with. Concentrating on the personal journey of a young transgender woman, the film sensitively examines the inner torments haunting Lara. How, in the midst of one's teenage years, can one accept the prospect of a change so gradual that it never seems to be within reach? Lukas Dhont's feature debut was winner of the Award for Best Actor, the FIPRESCI Prize, the Queer Palm, and the Caméra d'Or when it premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Les filles du soleil

Eva Husson : 2018
Girls of the Sun

Somewhere in Kurdistan, Bahar, commander of the "Girls of the Sun" battalion, is preparing to liberate her hometown from the hands of extremists, hoping to find her son who is held hostage. A French journalist, Mathilde, comes to cover the attack and bear witness to the story of these exceptional warriors. Since their lives have been turned upside down, they have all been fighting for the same cause: Women, Life, Liberty. Les Filles du soleil is the story of Bahar, a Kurdish Yazidi lawyer kidnapped by the men in black. She manages to escape and forms a commando unit of female fighters to recapture their town in Kurdistan. The film highlights the struggle of women against obscurantism and is directly inspired by recent news events; it echoes the experiences of the Kurdish women fighters engaged in conflict with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. With their Kalashnikovs in their hands, they were the face of the struggle which took the West by surprise in 2015. A war film which is purely feminine and feminist, with no testosterone-heavy prejudice in sight. Eva Husson's feature premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Shoplifters

Kore-eda Hirokazu : 2018
Manbiki kazoku

After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl, Yuri, in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu's wife Nobuyo agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Yet they don't contact the authorities, not even when her disappearance becomes a national news story two months later. Instead they cut her hair and treat her as a daughter, with Osamu taking her on his father-son shoplifting trips. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them. Kore-eda Hirokazu's feature was winner of the Palme d'Or when it premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Everybody Knows

Asghar Farhadi : 2018
Todos lo saben

Laura returns to the village where she was born, on a Spanish vineyard, to attend her sister Ana's wedding. She is back from Argentina for the occasion, single-handedly looking after her two children as her husband couldn't make it. Parents, children, grandchildren, friends – numerous generations mingle in the family home, enjoying a fun-filled reunion. Among them, Paco stands out. He runs a local vineyard with his partner, Bea, and we quickly learn that he once had a passionate affair with Laura many years ago. As the joyful wedding evening gets into full swing, there's a power cut. A storm is brewing, and Laura soon realises that her 16-year-old daughter, Irene, has gone missing after going to bed. Having not long gathered together a search party, the family receives a text message: Irene has been kidnapped and will be killed if they alert the police. The kidnappers are demanding a ransom of €300,000. Anxiety reaches a peak and Alejandro, Irene's father, flies over from South America. As it dawns on the family that the kidnapping must have required the complicity of one or more relatives, suspicion sets in, resentment bubbles to the surface and secrets are revealed. Asghar Farhadi's feature premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2018.

Lazzaro felice

Alice Rohrwacher : 2018
Happy as Lazzaro

This is the tale of a meeting between Lazzaro, a young peasant so good that he is often mistaken for simple-minded, and Tancredi, a young nobleman cursed by his imagination. Life in their isolated pastoral village Inviolata is dominated by the terrible Marchesa Alfonsina de Luna, the queen of cigarettes. A loyal bond is sealed when Tancredi asks Lazzaro to help him orchestrate his own kidnapping. This strange and improbable alliance is a revelation for Lazzaro. A friendship so precious that it will travel in time and transport Lazzaro in search of Tancredi. His first time in the big city, Lazzaro is like a fragment of the past lost in the modern world. Lazzaro Felice is the story of a lesser sanctity; the sanctity of living in this world without thinking ill of anyone and simply believing in human beings. Because another way was possible, the way of goodness, which men have always ignored but which always reappears to question them. Like something that might have been but that we've never ever wanted. Alice Rohrwacher's feature was winner of the Award for Best Screenplay when it premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2018.

The Wild Pear Tree

Nuri Bilge Ceylan : 2018
Ahlat Ağacı

For some, the countryside is a boundless place of exile where all hopes and dreams merge with despair like the coinciding destinies of fathers and sons. Sinan is passionate about literature and has always wanted to be a writer. Returning to the village where he was born, he pours his heart and soul into scraping together the money he needs to be published, but his father's debts catch up with him. The story of a young man who senses with a feeling of guilt that he is different in a way that he cannot come to accept, that he is being dragged towards a destiny that he cannot embrace, as well as the rich mosaic of people surrounding him, without favouring or being unfair to anybody. As the saying goes, "what a father keeps hidden is revealed in the son". One cannot help but inherit certain traits from one's father: weaknesses, habits, tics, among other things. The film tells the story of a boy being inevitably dragged into the same destiny as his father, in a plot loaded with painful experiences. Nuri Bilge Ceylan's feature premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2018.

303

Hans Weingartner : 2018

'You know, the thought that everything is ephemeral is comforting, even though it's sad. I think that's one of the most important lessons in a relationship. You're part of me, but you don't belong to me.' Jan believes that people are selfish by nature, so he's not surprised when the person who was supposed to give him a lift leaves him stranded in Berlin. Jule, however, thinks that people are fundamentally kind and sociable, and she offers Jan a lift in her camper van. They are both heading towards the Atlantic: Jan to Spain, and Jule to her boyfriend in Portugal. They only plan to travel as far as Cologne together, but with every passing mile, they discover more about each other's lives. Does capitalism turn people into Neanderthals? Does monogamy lead to unhappiness, and can you choose who you fall in love with? A road trip across Western Europe, romantic and hungry for life, about two people torn between wanderlust and the longing to finally arrive. Hans Weingartner's feature premiered in the Generation 14plus section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

Madeline's Madeline

Josephine Decker : 2018

Sometimes Madeline is a cat, sometimes a turtle. But even when she's Madeline, it's hard to tell if she's just playing the role of Madeline. In the eyes of her anxious mother, she is a vulnerable creature whose obvious mental disorder requires care and medical treatment. But on stage, at the theatre workshop run by the extremely demanding, sometimes even reckless Evangeline, Madeline is strong, impressive – a force of nature. The film sounds out both the healing and potentially destructive powers of performance, what happens when you play around with roles and identities. Like Madeline herself, Madeline's Madeline remains ambiguous. Do we really need to define what's a mental illness and what is simply the rebelliousness of a teenager? How do we draw the line between love and overprotectiveness? In a legitimate artistic process in which everyone is giving and taking, where lies the threshold to exploitation? Does creativity even exist without destruction? Josephine Decker's third feature premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2018, and had its international premiere in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

Sunday's Illness

Ramón Salazar : 2018
La enfermedad del domingo

Anabel is a successful businesswoman with a wealthy husband. At a reception in her villa she meets a woman, a member of the catering staff who has been hired for the evening. This woman is none other than her own daughter Chiara, whom she had left over thirty years ago. Chiara was just eight years old at the time. She now approaches her mother with an unusual request: to spend ten days together with her. Anabel agrees and follows her daughter to a remote house in the mountains. She begins exploring the largely uninhabited region; meanwhile Chiara initially does her own thing and seems to pursue a mysterious goal. In the end, unexpected borderline experiences bring mother and daughter closer together and Anabel finds herself having to make the most difficult decision of her life. Ramón Salazar's feature premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

Jibril

Henrika Kull : 2018

At a party, Maryam and Jibril exchange glances. Years later, Maryam happens to meet the same young man again when she is asked to deliver a parcel to someone in prison. The recipient is none other than Jibril, who is serving a sentence of several years. The attraction between this single mother-of-three and the inmate is just as strong as it was when they first met. Maryam plunges enthusiastically into an initially largely platonic romance, which on the one hand may satisfy certain longings on both sides, yet on the other also awakens desire. But having a relationship with someone who isn't there and who doesn't participate in her life, and who she can't even really get to know, is a challenge for Maryam. Jibril too finds his situation as a prisoner increasingly difficult to bear. The two of them, in search of happiness, grapple with the idealisations and projections of each other. In their yearning for one another, they attempt to fill an inner void. The attention they draw from each other ultimately becomes the measure of their self-esteem. Henrika Kull's feature debut premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

Horizonti

Tinatin Kajrishvili : 2018
Horizon

The change in Giorgi's life could not be more radical. The city, art, his regular, middle-class existence and his marriage to Ana are all behind him. Now he is alone. Giorgi goes into isolation on a small barren island in a simple hut by the sea. In an inhospitable environment, surrounded only by a handful of strangers, between chicken farming and duck hunting, he is trying to pick up the pieces of his life. But his wounds are deep, and the shadows of his happy past repeatedly catch up with him. It becomes increasingly unlikely that he will break out of his isolation. Ana has found somebody new. The city is far away, as are all thoughts of the future. Tinatin Kajrishvili's second feature-length drama is a meticulously and consistently told story about the end of a relationship. Her film premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

The Silent Revolution

Lars Kraume : 2018
Das schweigende Klassenzimmer

1956. During a visit to a cinema in West Berlin, East German high school pupils Theo and Kurt see disturbing newsreel footage of the uprising in Budapest. Back in Stalinstadt, one of the GDR's flagship workers' settlements, they have the idea of holding a minute's silence in class for the victims of the Hungarian struggle for freedom. Neither the boys, nor their parents, nor the school's administration are prepared for the minor and major reactions that their expression of solidarity unleashes. The school principal tries to dismiss the incident as juvenile mischief and deal with it internally, but the pupils find themselves snared in the political machinery of a state determined to make an example of them. Condemning their act as counter-revolutionary, the education minister demands that the pupils name their ringleader. They are faced with a decision that has dramatic consequences for their future. Lars Kraume's feature premiered as a Special Gala Screening at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.