Tlamess

Ala Eddine Slim : 2019

After the death of his mother, a young soldier settled in the Tunisian desert obtains a week's compassionate leave. He will never come back, and will desert the army. On the run, he is chased by the police in a popular neighbourhood, and eventually dies when reaching the construction site of a villa. Years later, a young pregnant woman married to a rich business man lives in a fancy villa in the middle of a forest. One day, she accidentally meets a strange looking man. It is the ex-soldier, but he is different now. This encounter sets the beginning of a series of mysterious events, involving the ex-soldier, the pregnant woman and the future baby. Ala Eddine Slim's feature premiered at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2019.

Pain and Glory

Pedro Almodóvar : 2019
Dolor y Gloria

Salvador Mallo, a film director in his physical decline, experiences a series of re-encounters. Some of them in the flesh, others remembered. His childhood in the 1960s, when he emigrated with his parents to a village in Valencia in search of prosperity; the first desire; his first adult love in the Madrid of the 1980s and the pain of the breakup while this love was still alive and intense; writing as the only therapy to forget the unforgettable; the early discovery of cinema; and the infinite void that creates the incapacity to keep on making films. In recovering his past, Salvador finds the urgent need to recount it and, in that need, he also finds his salvation. Pedro Almodóvar's feature received the award for Best Actor when it premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2019.

Heroes Don't Die

Aude Léa Rapin : 2019
Les héros ne meurent jamais

In a street in Paris, a stranger thinks he's recognised in Joachim a soldier who died in Bosnia on 21st August 1983. Thing is, this is the very day Joachim was born: 21st August 1983! Thrown by the idea he might be the reincarnation of this man, he decides to go to Sarajevo with his friends Alice and Virginie. In this country, haunted by shadows of the war, they put their hearts and souls in discovering Joachim's past life. Aude Léa Rapin's feature debut premiered in the Séances Spéciales at the Semaine de la Critique at Festival de Cannes 2019.

Port Authority

Danielle Lessovitz : 2019

On the steps outside New York City's dizzying central bus station, Port Authority, a girl named Wye vogues with her siblings. Paul, a young drifter, watches her, transfixed by her beauty. After he seeks her out, an intense love soon blossoms. Wye introduces him to the ballroom community, an underground LGBTQ subculture, and to her house, a self-selected chosen family. But when Paul realises Wye is trans, he is forced to confront his feelings for her and the social forces that seek to rupture their bond. Danielle Lessovitz's feature debut premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2019.

A White, White Day

Hlynur Pálmason : 2019
Hvítur, Hvítur Dagur

In a remote Icelandic town, an off-duty police chief begins to suspect a local man of having had an affair with his late wife, who died in a tragic accident two years earlier. Gradually his obsession for finding out the truth accumulates and inevitably begins to endanger himself and his loved ones. A story of grief, revenge and unconditional love. Hlynur Pálmason's second feature premiered in competition at the Semaine de la Critique at Festival de Cannes 2019.

Song Without a Name

Melina León : 2019
Canción sin nombre

Peru, at the height of the political crisis of the 1980s. Georgina is a young woman from the Andes whose newborn daughter is stolen at a fake health clinic. Her desperate search for the child leads her to the headquarters of a major newspaper, where she meets Pedro Campos, a lonely journalist who takes on the investigation. The film is inspired by a true account of child trafficking originally reported by Ismael León, the director's father. Melina León's feature debut premiered in competition at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2019.

Fire Will Come

Oliver Laxe : 2019
O que arde

When Amador Coro gets out of prison for having provoked a fire, nobody cares much about him. Trying to keep a low profile, he returns to his hometown, a small village hidden in the mountains of rural Galicia, to live with his elderly mother, Benedicta, and three cows. Life goes on calmly, following the rhythm of nature – until one night when a fire starts to lay waste to the region. Oliver Laxe's third feature was winner of the Prix du Jury when it premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2019.

Atlantics

Mati Diop : 2019
Atlantique

Along the Atlantic coast, a soon-to-be-inaugurated futuristic tower looms over a suburb of Dakar. Ada, 17, is in love with Souleiman, a young construction worker. But she has been promised to another man. One night, Souleiman and his co-workers, without pay for months, decide to leave the country by sea, in hope of a better future. Several days later, a fire ruins Ada's wedding and a mysterious fever starts to spread. Little does Ada know that Souleiman has returned. Mati Diop's feature, her directorial debut, was winner of the Grand Prix when it premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2019.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Céline Sciamma : 2019
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu

France, 1760. On an isolated island in Bretagne, Marianne, a painter, is commissioned to do the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young woman who has just left the convent. Héloïse is a reluctant bride-to-be and Marianne must paint her without her knowing, whilst posing as her hired companion. She observes her by day and secretly paints her at night. Intimacy and attraction grow between the two women as they share Héloïse's first and last moments of freedom, all whilst Marianne paints the portrait that will end it all. A heartbreaking period film told with a distinctly modern feminist energy. Céline Sciamma's feature was awarded the Prix du Scénario, and the Queer Palm when it premiered in competition at Festival de Cannes 2019.

And Then We Danced

Levan Akin : 2019

Merab has been training since a young age at the National Georgian Ensemble with his dance partner Mary. His world is suddenly turned upside down when the charismatic and carefree Irakli arrives and becomes both his strongest rival and desire. In this conservative setting Merab finds himself having to break free and risk it all. Levan Akin is a Swedish-born filmmaker of Georgian descent. His work often plays on class and gender. This film, his first Georgian language feature, premiered at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2019.

Les particules

Blaise Harrison : 2019
Particles

Pays de Gex, at the foot of the Jura Mountains on the French-Swiss border. 17-year-old P.A. and his group of friends are in their last year of high school. One hundred metres below ground, the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful particle accelerator in the world, is crashing protons into each other to recreate the energy conditions of the big bang and detect previously unknown particles. As the area slips into wintertime and P.A. sees the world shifting around him, he starts to observe strange phenomena in the environment, abnormalities in the landscape, tiny alterations in a familiar ecosystem. The changes are imperceptible at first, but gradually his whole world seems to be on the brink. Blaise Harrison's feature debut premiered in competition at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2019.

Joan of Arc

Bruno Dumont : 2019
Jeanne

Year 1429, the Hundred Years War is raging. Joan, invested with a warlike and spiritual mission, liberates the city of Orléans and reinstates the heir apparent to the throne of France. On the eve of the battle of Paris, she is at the heart of internal struggles between knights and prelates, who doubt her divine power, while also being subjected to the unkind behaviour of French soldiers. Made captive in Compiègne by the Burgundians, she is delivered to the English. Her trial then begins in Rouen, led by Pierre Cauchon who seeks to destroy all credibility. Faithful to her mission and refusing to recognise the accusations of witchcraft against her, Joan is condemned to the stake for heresy. Bruno Dumont's feature received the Mention Spéciale du Jury when it premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2019.

Papicha

Mounia Meddour : 2019

Algiers, 1997. The country is in the hands of terrorist groups, seeking to establish an Islamic and archaic state. Women are particularly affected and oppressed by primitive dicta, that seek to take control of their bodies and control their passage through the public space. Nedjma, an 18-year-old student passionate about fashion design refuses to let the tragic events of the Algerian Civil War to keep her from experiencing a normal life and going out at night with her friend Wassila. As the social climate becomes more conservative, she rejects the new bans set by the radicals and decides to fight for her freedom and independence by putting on a fashion show. Mounia Meddour's feature debut premiered in competition in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2019.

La maison

Mali Arun : 2019
The House

The house is an old building, whose past splendour is recognisable despite the apparent lack of upkeep. This enormous house, in the middle of the forest, was a health cure site that Casanova and Voltaire apparently visited in their time. The spring was blocked and Nestlé, which was using it, closed the house. Today, an ageing man lives there, on the margins of society. But this is not only the residence of one man: there is a whole little community that occupies it, following the rhythm of the seasons, devising perpetual renovation projects or improvising a piano recital in a workshop. The film observes the philosophy that unfolds in this outstanding place. A free and timeless philosophy that seems to have found its home, a living philosophy that has built itself up without an established order, a vibrant philosophy that the filmmaker captures with her unique approach and her presence that delicately slides through these premises. Mali Arun's documentary was winner of the Compétition Internationale Burning Lights when it premiered at Visions du Réel 2019.

La maison (vimeo)

A Dog Called Money

Seamus Murphy : 2019

A child curiously presses its face against the window of a car in which British musician PJ Harvey and photojournalist and filmmaker Seamus Murphy are sitting. They are in Kabul, Afghanistan, one of three destinations to which they are travelling; the others are Kosovo and Washington, D.C. Harvey is searching for inspiration; collecting impressions and words, observing, listening and absorbing. Her thoughts can be heard in voice-over. Hers is the chronicle of a stranger whose attentive gaze is directed towards the reality of everyday life in the places she visits. Inspiration turns into poetry, which gives rise to songs for her album 'The Hope Six Demolition Project'. Back in London, Harvey records these songs with her band in a purpose-built studio which serves as a kind of peepshow, its one-way window allowing interested audiences to observe the process. Seamus Murphy's documentary premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

L'époque

Matthieu Bareyre : 2018
Young and Alive

In the months following the terrorist attacks in Paris, the youth has taken the night. Led by new faces and unheard groups, with their values and ideals, they open a new dialogue, challenge the state and get ready for a new kind of revolution. From Charlie Hebdo's attacks to the presidential elections, a journey into the night with young people who don't sleep. Their dreams, nightmares, drunkenness, softness, boredom and tears. The parties, coffee terraces, jobs, the amnesia, their future. A unique insider's perspective to the French youth between 2015 and 2017, when atrocities were hitting the headlines and dark feelings of powerlessness and anxiety were abundant. Matthieu Bareyre's documentary was winner of the Europa Cinemas Label, Junior Jury Award and Special Jury Prize when it premiered in the Concorso Cineasti del presente section at Locarno Film Festival 2018.

The Souvenir

Joanna Hogg : 2019

England; the early 1980s. Young film student Julie wants to use her camera to better understand the world. This shy woman is well aware of her privileged social position and, as she explains, sees her Super 8 camera as a way to break out of her own little bubble. She thinks she is mediocre, but the photos and moving images that flow into the film bear witness to her special gaze. In an unassuming, almost documentary approach, we are introduced to Julie's student milieu, into which Anthony unexpectedly enters. He is older and more distinguished. He harbours a secret that Julie only uncovers later, but that then dramatically changes everything. Joanna Hogg's semi-autobiographical feature premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2019, and had its European premiere in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Hellhole

Bas Devos : 2019

Brussels – the portrait of a wounded city in enigmatic images. The spirits of politics haunt the centre of an increasingly fragile European Union. Amidst war and peace, refugee camps and parliamentary debates, a group of lost souls drifts through the sharpness and fuzziness of life. One of them is a young Arab, Medhi; he feels the burden of the times keenly, and then his brother asks a momentous favour of him. Another is the Flemish doctor Wannes, whose son is on the way to a tour of duty in the Middle East. And then there is the Italian translator Alba, whose life threatens to slip away from her, slowly but surely. These three people are all connected by the movements of a camera which increasingly becomes the protagonist itself as the film progresses. Its searching movements feel along the city's cracks and ruptures, its buildings and its inhabitants. Bas Devos's second feature premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Pardon

Jan Jakub Kolski : 2018
Ułaskawienie

In post-war Poland, the story of mourning parents setting off on their last journey with their son, as seen from the point of view of their grandson Jan. The son of Hanna and Jacob, a Home Army soldier Wacław "Odrowąż" Szewczyk, is shot by the secret police in the autumn of 1946. After suffering a series of humiliations by the new authorities, who repeatedly desecrate the grave of the deceased, Hanna and Jacob decide to provide their son with a proper burial in the Pacławska Calvary, 500 km away. Their venture through Poland – a country still haunted by the post-war nightmare – becomes a metaphorical journey into the depths of the human soul and an attempt to reorder the world in which neighbours turn against each other, and where one's current enemy may become an unexpected ally. Jan Jakub Kolski's feature premiered at Montréal World Film Festival 2018, and was winner of three Golden Lions at Gdynia Film Festival 2018.

Garden

Peter Schreiner : 2019
Garten

It seems to be an intermediate world of peace and quiet, the garden and country house where four people look back on testing lives. And forward, to the time they have left. On the one hand, there is regret – on the other, satisfaction. In a way, they are looking forward to the future – but at the same time, a longing for death regularly arises. And who is actually behind the camera? Are we watching actors or real people? Is there really any difference? Garden is full of contradictions – it is not until the credits roll that we realise who these people from very different backgrounds are. Peter Schreiner's experimental feature premiered in the Signatures section at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019.