Sofia

Meryem Benm'Barek : 2018

Sofia, 20, lives with her parents in Casablanca. She is about to give birth out of wedlock, which under Morocco's arcane laws places both partners eligible for a mandatory jail sentence of up to one year. The hospital gives her 24 hours to provide the father's papers before informing the authorities. Sofia, a girl from an upper-class family, finally names a young working-class man with whom she was only briefly acquainted. Despite her parents' horror and disgust, the only solution is to quickly arrange a marriage, to get the law off their backs and save the family reputation, just as a lucrative business deal for Sofia's father is in the offing. Meryem Benm'Barek's feature debut was winner of the Prize for Best Screenplay when it premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2018.

L'Animale

Katharina Mückstein : 2018

Riding their tuned motocross bikes, Mati and her posse of male friends intimidate their neighbourhood and harass the girls. In their village, they rule. But when Sebastian, the leader of the pack, falls in love with Mati and one of the victims of their needling, Carla, unexpectedly turns into a friend, Mati is in danger of losing her standing among her male friends. Meanwhile a deeply hidden secret stands between Mati's parents, and the two of them have a decision to make: what's more important, appearances or reality? A film about the contradictory forces that guide our lives: desire, passion, and reason. Katharina Mückstein's feature premiered in the Panorama Special section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

When the Trees Fall

Marysia Nikitiuk : 2018
Koly padayut dereva

The story of a five-year-old girl Vitka with her teenage cousin Larysa and her boyfriend, the young criminal Scar unfolds in a Ukrainian provincial setting. Larysa finds herself at a crossroads after the death of her father. Yearning to be self-made, the village community ostracises her for loving Scar. Larysa discovers her grandmother once sacrificed her love for a young gypsy, abandoning him for traditional values and other people's opinions. Larysa's mother is too psychologically weak to support her daughter. Larysa and Scar plan to escape from a life of crime, misery and their relatives. But are they ready to pay the full price for freedom? As the summer holidays arrive, forty days have passed since Larysa's father died. In a fairy-tale sequence, the young woman traverses a swampy landscape where a group of couples surrender to their sexual desires. Vitka is a little girl who also refuses to toe the line. Rebelling against her grandmother and her rules and regulations, she daydreams her life away in a fantasy land of surreal images. Writer/director Marysia Nikitiuk's script received the Krzysztof Kieślowski ScripTeast Award for the Best script from Eastern Europe at Festival de Cannes 2016. Her feature debut premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

Fortuna

Germinal Roaux : 2018

Fortuna, a 14-year-old Ethiopian girl, has had no news of her parents since the traumatic crossing of the Mediterranean and her arrival in Lampedusa, Italy. As she's welcomed into Switzerland with other refugees, she has to spend the winter with a Catholic community in a hospice located at the heart of a snow-covered massif, at an altitude of over 2000 metres. Whilst waiting for her residency status to be resolved by the Swiss authorities, Fortuna meets Kabir, a 26-year-old African refugee. Lonely and filled with longing to be comforted, she falls madly in love. Their relationship develops in secret, away from prying eyes, until the day Kabir disappears. Germinal Roaux's feature premiered in the Generation 14plus section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018.

Idioten der Familie

Michael Klier : 2018
Family Idiots

Wanting to start a new life, 40-year-old Heli has found an institution in which she can put her younger, mentally disabled sister. Her three egocentric brothers have agreed to the plan and come to share their sister's final weekend at the house where they all grew up on the outskirts of Berlin. The eldest brother is a classical clarinettist who sticks doggedly to his views and is somewhat moralistic; then there's Bruno, the idealist research worker attracted by all things humanitarian and who listens to problems in order to find solutions; and finally there's the younger jazz musician brother who lives more of a bohemian lifestyle. The siblings have returned to their family home, where their two sisters still live, to celebrate the marriage of their eldest sibling, Heli. Of course, everyone still has their individual frustrations and neuroses, they clash sometimes, and they might not always agree, but they are brothers and sisters, and despite the years that have passed and their new adult lives, they find it so easy to be together, because they know each other so well, love each other and are as close as when they were children. And then there is Ginnie, their autistic little sister who they've always looked after. And yet, although their lives have largely focused on a constant desire to protect her, in a sense it is she who "shows" them. They find that the "baby of the litter" has turned into an unpredictable "monster". The fallout brings them closer together than they'd expected. Michael Klier's feature premiered in the New German Cinema section at Filmfest München 2018.

Cellar Door

Viko Nikci : 2018

Racing from young love to tortured loss and back again, a provocative mystery thriller that follows Aidie, a fighter inside and out, as she searches for her son while in the grip of the Church. Aidie wakes up underwater in her bath, unaware of why she is there or what might have happened to her. She's wearing an old-fashioned gingham dress. She doesn't know who or where she is until the repeated incidents she experiences begin to form a vague time-line. It sees her visiting her artist mother; being in a classroom with young giggling children; dancing with her handsome lover Aidan; tussling with a nun; part of a group of unmarried mothers in a home; and finally, being in various stages of pregnancy and childbirth and trying to find her child. The subjective perspective shifts to reveal that we have been given a deeper understanding of an issue that affects countless millions. With a unique point of view on a familiar trauma, the film cuts deep into the character's experience – an exploration of love regained and loss relived. Viko Nikci's feature was winner of the award for Best Irish First Feature when it premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2018.

A Fine Day

Thomas Arslan : 2001
Der schöne Tag

A day in the life of 21-year-old Deniz who lives in Berlin and works as a voice actress. Deniz has high expectations of herself and of life – too high perhaps. In any case, she is not really happy with her boyfriend Jan. On a beautiful summer's day she meets Jan in a café after a synchronised dubbing recording in the studio. In the subsequent walk, she separates from him. A little confused and disturbed by this move, Deniz roams through summery Berlin for the rest of the day. She tries to understand what she expects from life. After auditioning for a film role, she meets Diego at a subway station. Following a mutual pursuit through the metro network of the city, they get to know each other. They spend the evening together. But Deniz knows that this encounter will have no consequences for her. In the early morning they part. Exhausted from the long distances she has travelled that day, Deniz returns to her apartment. The new day dawns. Her life continues. She is searching again. A wonderfully slow-paced and introspective observation of the small, but important issues of daily life. Thomas Arslan's feature premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2001.

Anna's War

Aleksey Fedorchenko : 2018
Voyna Anny

Nazi-occupied Ukraine, in November of 1941. The entire family of 6-year-old Anna dies in the mass execution of Jews. The mother covers up Anna with her own body, and the girl miraculously survives. She regains consciousness under a layer of black earth, in a mass grave. For the next few hundred days Anna hides in the disused chimney at the Nazi Commandant's office in a requisitioned schoolhouse. From her shelter she views the war, watching life pass her by until the village is liberated from the Nazis. Her ingenuity, the items left behind by the slowly alternating visitors and the treasures she discovers in the adjacent rooms help her survive. Despite the inhuman conditions Anna keeps her humanity. Many factors help her: memories from the life swept away by war, the cultural foundations laid by her parents and a friend who saves her from loneliness. Aleksey Fedorchenko's feature premiered in the Voices section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2018.

Facing the Wind

Meritxell Colell Aparicio : 2018
Con el viento

Mónica, 47, has been living in Buenos Aires for 20 years working as a dancer when the news reaches her that her father is on his deathbed back in Spain. By the time she arrives, he's already passed away. Resisting the impulse to return as quickly as possible to her faraway life, she stays to help her mother sell the family home. When it becomes clear that she's not merely bidding farewell to the place of her childhood, the past pushes its way into Mónica's existence with unexpected force; old conflicts and regret about missed chances bubble up, and she realises she has limited time left with her mother. Winter comes. The perpetual silence, the extreme cold and the difficulty of living with her mother are proving tough for Mónica. As still no one ever says much in this family, Mónica works through her inner turmoil primarily via her body, finding an outlet in dance. The film tells the story of a family unable to communicate and is a thoughtful and loving portrait of a traditional rural lifestyle which is beginning to disappear. It's a story about distances. But most of all, it is an inner journey to learn again how to live and love better. Meritxell Colell Aparicio's feature debut premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2018, and was winner of the Silver Biznaga for Best Spanish Film at Festival de Málaga de Cine Español 2018.

Deep Rivers

Vladimir Bitokov : 2018
Glubokie reki

Day after day in a forgotten corner of the Caucasus Mountains, a family of lumberjacks trudges through the impassable landscape to chop down and bring home wood in order to fulfil their contract with the local sawmill. When the father is seriously injured by a falling tree, his place must be taken by the youngest of the brothers, who left the impoverished region years before. His arrival opens old wounds and fuels conflicts within the family and in the hostile village. Stifled emotions and an oppressive image of a fragmenting society highlight themes of ineffectual communication and xenophobia. Vladimir Bitokov's feature debut was winner of Best Debut at Kinotavr Open Russian Film Festival 2018, and had its international premiere in competition in the East of the West section at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2018.

Los silencios

Beatriz Seigner : 2018

Twelve-year-old Nuria, nine-year-old Fabio and their mother Amparo arrive at a small island in the middle of Amazonia, at the border of Brazil, Colombia and Peru. Their boat is travelling across the water, and the few things we can see in the dark mass in front of it are lit by the lamp that is being used to guide the vessel. We can just make out tiny spots of marshland and lights in the distance. When they arrive, a figure in the dark greets them by saying, "I didn't think you were alive." It's a place of limbo with none of the three bordering countries having sovereignty over it. The refugees are also just in between places. Amparo is waiting to hear about reparations she is due to receive from the oil company where her husband used to work, and their refugee status places them in a bureaucratic hell. They ran away from the Colombian armed conflict in which the father disappeared. One day, he reappears in their new house. The family is haunted by this strange secret and discovers the island is peopled with ghosts. Beatriz Seigner's second feature premiered at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2018.

History of Love

Sonja Prosenc : 2018
Zgodovina ljubezni

Seventeen-year-old Iva is in the process of coming to terms with the death of her mother. Influenced by this deep personal loss and by the discovery that she didn't know everything about her, the girl slowly immerses herself into a strange, almost dreamlike world far from reality. An elegiac tableau of a family dealing with the loss of the mother in the light of a new discovery about her. We witness the struggle of those who are left behind – people incapable of sharing their loss and connecting with each other in their almost physical pain, who are thus in danger of becoming nothing more than bodies of grief – until something is sacrificed and the family is able to reconnect. Sonja Prosenc's second feature received a Special Jury Mention when it premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2018.

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.