Dead Volume

Kauê Telloli : 2019
Volume Morto

Without permission and support from the school, a young teacher seeks to understand the strange behaviour of Gustavo – a silent boy who is only 7 years old, nicknamed by the other children "Dead Volume". However, the boy's parents claim that Gustavo's behaviour at home is completely different from the one described by the teacher. The parents decide to conduct an investigation of their own, putting the teacher's job at risk. The young teacher tries to calm down the parents and prevent a scandal from spreading in school. Nevertheless she ends up increasing the distrust of the parents, turning her into the main suspect, and making the puzzle even more unsolvable. Kauê Telloli's feature premiered in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2019.

On the Quiet

Zoltán Nagy : 2019
Szép csendben

A coming-of-age story set in the contemporary Hungarian countryside. Dávid is the first violinist, the soloist of a youth orchestra. Nóra is a cellist who has just joined the orchestra, several years younger than Dávid. The boy finds out that the orchestra's 60-year-old conductor and music teacher is sexually harassing the insecure newcomer. Dávid wants to protect the girl, but it's not at all easy, because the conductor is his mentor, almost a stepfather. And there is no direct evidence of harassment. Indeed, such things generally happen quietly. Even if any bystanders notice anything, they prefer not to talk about it. While looking for the truth, Dávid's life soon starts to spiral out of control as he faces tough decisions and the adult society's negligence. Zoltán Nagy's feature debut had its international premiere in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2019.

Homecoming

Adriyanto Dewo : 2019
Mudik

Going back to their hometown for the holidays is a ritual that most urban Asians will undertake at least once a year. It is a journey to reunite with their family and their roots and to recharge themselves. Trying to find solutions for conflicts in her marriage, Aida goes on a road trip with her husband for homecoming. During the trip, they are involved in a fatal road accident in which a man – someone's husband – is killed, and they make a detour to his village to pay their respects to his widow. This accident will jolt them together but also painfully drive them further apart. The unexpected journey forces Aida to face a different future and find answers to the questions in her life. It leads to a metamorphosis through which she will become a better version of herself. Adriyanto Dewo's feature premiered in competition at Macao International Film Festival 2019.

Arima

Jaione Camborda : 2019

Arima is something you glimpse through the mist, something you can sense but still fail to see clearly. A dream, a memory, a desire. In a village of greenery and grey stone, Arima is the story of four women and a girl whose existence is disrupted by the sudden arrival of two strangers. One of them is fleeing from the other, sneaking around town like an elusive being, a ghostly presence of uncertain existence. The other character – an injured man carrying a gun – will disrupt the women's way of life in different ways. The whole plot takes place on the fine line between reality and imagination, between dreams and nightmares, fear and desire, discovering a tangle of echoes from the past, mysteries and mirror games. Jaione Camborda's feature debut premiered in competition at Mostra Internacional de Cinema 2019, and received the Award to the Direction at its Spanish premiere in competition in the New Waves section at Sevilla European Film Festival 2019.

The Gift

Giuliano Fratini : 2019
Il Dono

It is 1983. Andrei Tarkovsky's permit to work abroad has expired and he is legally required to return home. He is in Italy, shooting the film Nostalgia. He understands from the messages of some friends and colleagues that the Soviet Union is not awaiting him with open arms. His life there will be even tougher than before. So he decides to break with Soviet authorities and, a year before the Milan Conference during which he will publicly announce his decision, he leaves his friends who are hosting him in Rome and goes into hiding. The documentary traces the reasons why Tarkovsky decided to give up the life he had led until then and hide in an unknown location. Even there, he cannot feel safe. The Soviets with their apparatus do not let their citizens go that easily. The documentary features archival recordings and interviews with witnesses to those events, including Krzysztof Zanussi and Giuseppe Lanci. Giuliano Fratini's first full-length documentary premiered at Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2019, and had its European premiere in competition at Warsaw International Film Festival 2019.

Alice Júnior

Gil Baroni : 2019

Alice is a teenage transgender girl who is full of life and wants to give her first kiss, but first, she just wants to be who she really is. Alice is loved by her family, especially by her father, Jean, who is willing to do anything for his daughter. Jean, a perfumist, is transferred by his company to Araucárias do Sul, the place of the rare Imperial Flower. Alice reluctantly moves with her father. She leaves her crush and her friends in Recife, and now she needs to make new friends with the inhabitants of the small town. To make things worse, she has to study at the only school in town: the ancient and conservative Salesian college. Determined not to be discouraged, Alice is the personification of resistance, and little by little she is going to captivate her classmates and the people of Araucárias do Sul. With her charisma and her fertile imagination, everybody will fall in love with her. Gil Baroni's feature premiered at Mostra Internacional de Cinema 2019.

Obscure

Kunlin Wang : 2019

A lonely farmstead where an authoritarian father and his two teenage children live in seclusion. A coming-of-age journey of a teenage boy who sexually awakens after discovering the sexual relationship between his father and sister. The boy is trapped in his father's nightmare and tries to repeal the psychological repression by competing for his sister's sexual attention. The sibling love and pure childish joy of being together, which once served to counterbalance familial strangeness, is now disturbed and gradually develops into a sexual attraction and desire. With the ambiguous representation and non-binary nature of the two teenagers' gender and the surreal but naturalistic atmosphere, the film depicts physical desire and connection which changes something in a family dramatically and irreversibly. Kunlin Wang's feature debut premiered in competition at Taipei Film Festival 2019, and had its international premiere in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2019.

Marionette

Álvaro Curiel de Icaza : 2019
Marioneta

Ernesto is a Cuban actor desperately looking for an opportunity in Mexico City. In a fortuitous way he crosses paths with Belén, a street artist who is unaware of her real talent. The underground subway world is the place where fate has prepared an unexpected encounter for them, which will turn their lives upside down. She introduces him to David Torrico, a man without scruples who doesn't hesitate when it comes to manipulating the lives of people. The film takes us to the hidden world of Mexico City, where the beggars are dominated by a dark capo. While playing and flirting with the meaning of being an actor and being able to escape the daily routine, it introduces us to a curious catalogue of quirky characters which surround the complex relationship that Ernesto and Belén try to build. Álvaro Curiel de Icaza's feature premiered at FotoFilm Tijuana 2019, and had its international premiere in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2019.

The Other Lamb

Małgorzata Szumowska : 2019

Selah is a young girl born into an alternative religion known as the Flock – the only life she has known. The members of the Flock, all women and female children, live in a rural compound, and are led by one man, known only as Shepherd. Their self-sufficient community possesses no modern technology, and is hidden away in the woods, far from modern civilisation. Shepherd is the group's guardian, teacher, and lover. Each of the members of the group is either his wife or daughter. Selah is pure in faith, but also dangerously headstrong. She was raised as a daughter of Shepherd, but it is only a matter of time before she also stands to become a wife. As an encounter with the authorities forces the women and Shepherd to build a new Eden further inland, Selah increasingly doubts her faith. The onset of puberty brings with it harsh new rituals, and her first glimpse of what happens to Shepherd's women as they age. Following this shocking and transformative experience Selah begins to have strange visions that make her question her own reality, and everything that Shepherd has taught her and her sisters. A disquieting examination of faith, compliance and the roles that gender and community play in enforcing cultural norms. Małgorzata Szumowska's feature, her English-language debut, premiered in Special Presentations at Toronto International Film Festival 2019, and screened in competition at San Sebastián International Film Festival 2019.

Love, Spells and All That

Ümit Ünal : 2019
Aşk, Büyü vs.

We all believe in certain ideas and dedicate our lives to them. The story of two women who question their belief in love and the nature of reality. Eren and Reyhan had a romance at the respective ages of 16 and 17. Eren is the daughter of an influential politician, while Reyhan's father is the caretaker at Eren's family summer house on Büyükada, an İstanbul island. Reyhan remembers the romance as "Rich girl falls for a poor girl. A perfect melodrama!" When the girls are found out, Eren's family forces them to break up, and banishes Reyhan and her father from the island. Years of not seeing each other follow. Until Eren returns to the island 20 years later. Is love real or a superstitious notion like a magic spell? The two women meet again 20 years on and remember the passionate and painful love affair of their teens. They spend a day journeying through memories and trying to undo a forgotten love spell. Ümit Ünal's feature was winner of the Turkish Film Critics' Association Best Film Award when it premiered in competition at Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival 2019.

Scent of My Daughter

Olgun Özdemir : 2019
Kızım Gibi Kokuyorsun

Beatrice's life changes dramatically during the terrorist attack in Nice in July 2016 where she loses her parents, her husband and six-year-old daughter, who came to admire the fireworks on the famous Promenade des Anglais. Beatrice, fulfilling the wishes of her father, decides to repatriate the bodies in his native Armenian village in Hatay, Turkey, near the Syrian border. Beatrice desperately tries to commit suicide when Hevi, a minority Yezidi girl, prevents her from taking her own life. Hevi makes her understand that she escaped from the hands of her persecutors but she has a sister, who must be in one of the refugee camps around the area. Beatrice decides to help her to find her sister, accompanied by Ibrahim, a young Turkish expatriate who came to visit his family. Together, the three strangers whose lives were shattered by tragic events, find themselves on an amazing journey searching for strength and hope. Olgun Özdemir's feature premiered at Shanghai International Film Festival 2019, and had its Turkish premiere at International Bosphorus Film Festival 2019.

Madre

Rodrigo Sorogoyen : 2019

Ten years have passed since Elena's son, then six years old, has disappeared. The last thing she heard of him was a phone call he made to her, saying that he was lost on a beach in France and couldn't find his father. Today, Elena lives on this same beach and manages a restaurant. She is finally beginning to emerge from this tragic episode when she meets a French teenager who strongly reminds her of her lost son. The two of them will embark on a relationship, which will sow chaos and distrust around them. A psychological drama of grief; the long-lasting effects of trauma on a 39-year-old woman; and a coming-of-age tale of a 16-year-old boy – the story of the relationship that develops between them at the tail end of a summer. Rodrigo Sorogoyen's feature premiered in competition in the Orizzonti section at Venice International Film Festival 2019, and received a Special Mention when it screened in competition at Festival Cinéma Méditerranéen Montpellier 2019.

Adolescentes

Sébastien Lifshitz : 2019
Adolescents

Born in a small, provincial French town, Anaïs and Emma have been best friends since childhood. It's a friendship that's blind to differences in social backgrounds and character. Given incredible access, the director painstakingly filmed the girls' transformation over five years, during the period when their physical, emotional and intellectual development is dramatic. We first meet them aged 13, their lives are dominated by boys, teachers and arguing with their mums. But as we witness them near adulthood, their journey is both fascinating and surprisingly moving. At the same time, the influence of their environment and family circumstances becomes increasingly apparent. New experiences, everyday conversations and events both personal and political anchor the film, creating a uniquely textured and deeply personal portrait of two young French women. Sébastien Lifshitz's documentary feature premiered at the Semaine de la Critique at Locarno Film Festival 2019, and screened in the Alice nella Città section at Rome Film Festival 2019.

Willow

Milcho Manchevski : 2019
Vrba

Three Macedonian women have to contend with control over their bodies, tradition, loyalty, pregnancy and adoption. They have not set out to change the world or society, but their struggle to become mothers makes them unlikely heroines. The three bittersweet stories, one medieval, two contemporary, mirror and contrast one another, exploring themes of love, trust and motherhood. Set in the Middle Ages, a young couple is trying all possible superstitious rituals to conceive, combining them with Christian prayers. Finally, they enlist the help of a local wise woman. She agrees, but on one condition: that they give her the firstborn child, assuring them they will have many more. In the second story, in present-day Skopje, a taxi driver and a supermarket cashier try everything that today's medicine has to offer in order to have a child, but nothing works until after IVF, the girl suddenly becomes pregnant with twins. But the ultrasound shows that one of the babies will be mentally and physically handicapped. The husband is vehemently against abortion, while the wife tries to convince him that the other child's life will be ruined if she has them both. In the final story, the sister of the heroine from the previous story and her husband adopt a boy who is conspicuously quiet and withdrawn, perhaps even autistic. They shower him with love, understanding and gifts, but one day he suddenly goes missing. Milcho Manchevski's feature premiered in the Official Selection at Rome Film Festival 2019.

Lingua Franca

Isabel Sandoval : 2019

Olivia is a transgender undocumented Filipina woman living in Brooklyn. She works as a caregiver to Olga, a Russian-Jewish woman who lives with her grandson Alex, who has just returned from a rehab trip to Russia. Soon complicated feelings emerge between Olivia and Alex. Alex is very much a product of the macho-masculine and sexist culture he has grown up in, something he must question when he learns that Olivia is transgender. Olivia tries to focus on her life, working hard to send money back to her family in the Philippines, even if they don't approve of her identity. She sees pursuing a love life as a self-indulgence that she shouldn't waste her time on, so she tries to suppress her emotions concerning Alex. The story that ensues involves both of them addressing their emotional shortcomings and hopefully growing past them. A deeply moving work of great intimacy and insight and an incisive critique on race and immigration in Trump's America. Isabel Sandoval's feature premiered in competition at Venice Days 2019, and had its UK premiere in competition at BFI London Film Festival 2019.

Nuclear

Catherine Linstrum : 2019

An allegorical story of the dividing line between reality and unreality, about a young girl who after losing the protection of her mother, is forced to navigate a hostile world alone. Following an act of violence committed by her own brother, Emma escapes with her mother and finds refuge in an isolated rural area near a dark lake in the shadow of a nuclear power station. Emma starts to develop a friendship with a local boy who teaches her to face and overcome her fears. After all, the traumatic past could catch up with her at any moment. Meanwhile, Emma and her mother start to drift apart and she has to confront her own ghosts and her own guilt in order to be free of her toxic family. A mystical thriller set amidst breathtaking Welsh landscapes, its narrator an old Japanese woman. Catherine Linstrum's directorial debut premiered in competition at Warsaw International Film Festival 2019.

White Riot

Rubika Shah : 2019

Constructed mostly from rare archive footage, White Riot highlights the surprising politics of the era's more established rock stars and charts a vital London protest movement. Rock Against Racism (RAR) was formed in 1976, prompted by 'music's biggest colonialist' Eric Clapton and his support of racist MP Enoch Powell. The film blends fresh interviews with queasy archive footage to recreate a hostile environment of anti-immigrant hysteria and National Front marches. As neo-Nazis recruited the nation's youth, RAR's multicultural punk and reggae gigs provided rallying points for resistance. As founder Red Saunders explains: 'We peeled away the Union Jack to reveal the swastika'. The campaign grew from Hoxton fanzine roots to 1978's huge antifascist carnival in Victoria Park, featuring X-Ray Spex, Steel Pulse and of course The Clash, whose rock star charisma and gale-force conviction took RAR's message to the masses. Expanding her 2017 short, Rubika Shah's documentary feature debut was winner of the Grierson Award when it premiered in competition at BFI London Film Festival 2019.

Listen to the Universe

Kei Ishikawa : 2019

Four young pianists take part in the preliminary round of an international competition. Each has a story that is different and unique. Aya is a former piano prodigy who won junior contests all over the world but distanced herself from the piano after the death of her mother when she was 13. Now she is back. Akashi works at a music store, he has a wife and kids. Unable to give up on his dream, he enters the competition. Masaru is a top student at an elite music academy struggling with the pressure of being the strongest champion. The fourth, Jin, is the mysterious young legacy of the world's greatest pianist, now deceased. The fierce rivalry of an international competition makes these pianists inspire each other and confront themselves. On the way to the final they will experience growth, awakening and change. Kei Ishikawa's feature had its international premiere in competition at Warsaw International Film Festival 2019.

Diamond Soles

Micael Preysler : 2019

Cecilia went away to learn dance at a Baltimore dance academy. She was following her dream and wanted to do what she loved best. Some time later, she realises it's not what she wanted. She feels alienated and tired of her miserable existence. She decides to return to the lively sprawl of New York. Over the course of a weekend, she revisits her old haunts and friends. She also meets with her vile DJ ex-boyfriend. Lost in a warped middle ground between past and present, Cecilia will find herself at the most uncertain point of her life so far. A film about young people who feel lost in a rapidly moving modern society where it is increasingly difficult to express oneself. Micael Preysler's second feature premiered in competition at Warsaw International Film Festival 2019.

I Will Cross Tomorrow

Sepideh Farsi : 2019

Maria is a Greek policewoman. She is struggling with money problems, her teenage daughter, her old mother and the crisis in her country that also affects her professionally. The police station where she works is shut down and she has to accept a new job at a refugee camp on the island of Lesbos, far away in the Aegean Sea. Yussof is a young Syrian rebel who fled his war-ridden country so as not to be forced to kill. Before he can continue further across Europe, he lands in the refugee camp where Maria works. They meet. Greece looks like a safe haven, but in reality it isn't. Who is more free? The person who fled war or the person who grew up in a free world? Sepideh Farsi's feature premiered in competition at Warsaw International Film Festival 2019.