Qissa

Anup Singh : 2013

Umber Singh is a Sikh who loses everything during the separation of India in 1947 and is forced to leave his homeland. He obsessively wishes for a male heir. When his fourth daughter is born, he decides to wage a fight against destiny and the desire to have a family heir is fulfilled through a secretive turn of events. A fragile and deeply moving drama that depicts profoundly emotional bonds, tradition and social expectations, set in Punjab immediately after the Partition of India. Beautiful, timeless, and touching the deepest of human impulses, it cuts to the heart of eternal desires for honour, empathy, and love. Anup Singh's second feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2013, and was winner of the Dioraphte Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014.

Talea

Katharina Mückstein : 2013

When Jasmin's mother Eva is released from prison, the 14-year-old wants to use this chance to build a new relationship with her after years of separation. Whilst Jasmin's foster family is packing their bags for their summer holiday by the sea, the young girl has convinced the almost unknown woman to travel with her for several days across the country – preferably to where her grandparents lived, as Jasmin wants to discover more about her family background. A shared cigarette, a dance at the village disco and forest walks – with a little apprehension, the two slowly become closer, sometimes like friends, then back to mother and daughter. But soon they realise that their hopes and expectations are not the same. Eva's desire for freedom is in the way of Jasmin's long-nurtured wish for love and proximity. This becomes apparent when a man catches Eva's attention, and the growing harmony between mother and daughter is disrupted. For the moment, neither Eva nor Jasmin seem up to the task of fulfilling each other's quest for identity and support. Katharina Mückstein's first feature premiered at Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis 2013.

Oproštaj

Dan Oki : 2013
The Farewell

The Minister of the Environment is giving an interview for the radio in Split, while the destinies of the people in Kaštela Bay remain under the influence of dangerous successive ecological polluting taking place over the course of the last century. Nina, a young activist, is selling the family home, located near a factory in Vranjić. Srđan, her boyfriend, is moving to Germany for good to work as a dentist, leaving Nina with her strong, but blind mother Karmen. Nina goes for a medical check-up to find out if she has inherited a genetic condition from her father, who died from asbestosis. Nina's doctor is in a secret lesbian relationship with Nina's friend and doesn't want anyone to know about it. Nina and her mother can no longer keep it silent and it all comes to surface through tears and laughter. Srđan is trying to comfort Nina with his love, but Nina can no longer carry her destiny. Dan Oki's third feature premiered at Pula Film Festival 2013.

Hitac

Robert Orhel : 2013
One Shot

An accidental shot links the destinies of two young women – Anita, a detective who is great at her job and getting along pretty well in her private life, and Petra, a young girl whose everyday life would be much easier if she didn't have to take care of her alcoholic mother. The investigation of the accidental shot will intertwine their destinies at a moment when they both find out that they are pregnant. At huge turning points in their lives, each in her own world and equally left on their own, these two women will, step by step, become close during the investigation. They neither planned nor wanted it, it happened by chance. And this coincidence will change the courses they intended to take. Robert Orhel's first feature premiered at Pula Film Festival 2013.

Butter on the Latch

Josephine Decker : 2012

A sinister folktale set in the dark Californian forest of Mendocino, where a Balkan folk festival is taking place. Sarah surprises her friend Isolde by visiting her at the camp, and the two of them enjoy learning about the mythical stories from those faraway lands, practising traditional song and dance and chit-chatting on their torch-lit journeys back to the tiny cottage where they sleep. Sarah encounters a handsome guy during one of their carefree moments and decides to seduce him – slowly and over the course of several days. Obscure feelings begin to disrupt her behaviour while she makes her advances, and she almost forgets about Isolde as she is dragged deeper and deeper into the mythical world being played out in front of her by the other festival guests. With the eerie underworld simmering in Sarah's unstable psyche, what begins as an innocent visit to the forest soon gives way to a confusing mind-trip, where reality and mythology become inextricably linked. Josephine Decker's feature debut premiered at Maryland Film Festival 2013, and screened at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Šuti

Lukas Nola : 2013
Hush...

Can the thread of bad luck, violence and suffering which is interwoven deeply into the generations of one family be broken? Beba's mother is a woman of poor health and weak character. Beba's father is sullen and violent. Beba's brother is possessive and a trouble maker. Beba's boyfriend is from a correctional institution. Has Beba's daughter any chance to break this vicious circle, is there a chance for her to become a beloved, happy person? Sifting through the documents of various centres for social welfare, the director came upon numerous horrible stories, and the saddest of them all has inspired this film. The tale of a vicious circle which always continues with the same violence and the same absence of love. A clear warning to all that violence is not something to be quiet about. Lukas Nola's fifth feature was winner of the Golden Arena award at Pula Film Festival 2013.

Kelly + Victor

Kieran Evans : 2012

Kelly meets Victor on the dance floor of a Liverpool nightclub and it isn't long before they are home together in her bed and in the throes of an urgent passion, with an intensity that neither has experienced before. They are two people struggling to get by as best they can whilst those around them are choosing illegal lifestyles: her best mate is a dominatrix prostitute, his pals are aspiring drug dealers. Although both Kelly and Victor begin to care about each other deeply, as we see from their developing relationship, it is in their sexual encounters that the real intensity presents itself and their darker instincts take over. Kieran Evans's first fiction feature, adapted from the acclaimed novel by Niall Griffiths, is a haunting, candid depiction of a young couple embarking on a passionate and transgressive love affair and the emotional journey that each one goes through in their mind. His film premiered at London Film Festival 2012, and was winner of the BAFTA Film Award 2014 for Outstanding Debut.

Sarah préfère la course

Chloé Robichaud : 2013
Sarah Prefers to Run

Sarah is a gifted young middle-distance runner. On the running track she is driven and determined, unquestionably sure of who she is and where she is going. Off the track, it's a different story, with her private life demonstrating no such direction. Her life changes when she's offered admission to Québec's best university athletics programme, in Montréal – far from her suburban Québec City home. Sarah doesn't have her mother's financial support for the move, or any support at all: her mother worries that leaving will be bad for Sarah's health and life. But Sarah is stubborn, and moves to Montréal anyway, with her friend, Antoine. Though barely out of their teens, they enter into a marriage of convenience because they want the best scholarships and loans. Marriage turns out to be completely different from what the naïve 20-year-olds expected, and new relationships lead Sarah to start understanding what she truly wants. She doesn't want to hurt anyone with the choices she makes, it's just that she loves running more than anything else. Chloé Robichaud's feature debut is an effortless and honest study of a young woman trying to understand exactly who she is. Her film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Festival de Cannes 2013.

La belle et la bête

Christophe Gans : 2014
Beauty and the Beast

Il était une fois... It is the year 1720. A shipwreck spells financial ruin for a wealthy merchant who is father to three daughters and three sons. The family moves to the country where they now live in impoverished circumstances. Only the youngest, the lovely Belle, is enthusiastic about rural life. But fate strikes yet again when the father, stumbling across a magical domain, plucks a rose for Belle in an enchanted garden and is sentenced to death by the château's owner, la Bête. Feeling responsible for the terrible fate which has befallen her family, fearless Belle offers to go instead to the château and lay down her life for her father. Once there she meets not death but a strange existence full of magic, luxury and sadness. Every evening without exception, Belle has dinner with la Bête. And every night she finds herself visited by dreams that portray la Bête's sad story. The beast begins to feel more and more drawn towards the beautiful young woman, who uses all her courage to discover the truth about the evil curse which torments her strange admirer. In Christophe Gans's adaption of the classic fairy tale, the story centres on Belle's initiation process and her transition from child to woman. The film screened at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Fieber

Elfi Mikesch : 2014
Fever

In the early 1950s, little Franzi is growing up in the small Austrian town of Judenburg. Her oppressive family home is dominated by her feverish and mentally ill father, who is rigid and unpredictable. Her father, who regularly delivers halves of pork for the butcher, spent several years in the French Foreign Legion in Morocco, Algeria and Syria – a period which he partly glorifies but which still also haunts him. Franzi immerses herself in this world by looking at an abundance of beguiling yet disturbing photographs taken during the colonial wars by her father. Her own childish fantasy realm of fairy tales and picture books soon intermingle with nightmares as reality merges with imagination, war, horror and beauty. Decades later, Franziska, now a successful photographer but still overshadowed by her father's memory, undertakes a journey back into his youth. She wants to understand his war trauma and shed light on her family's past. But it soon transpires that her search for the truth has ambivalent consequences. Elfi Mikesch's feature premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Risse im Beton

Umut Dağ : 2014
Cracks in Concrete

Ertan returns to his Viennese district after a ten-year prison sentence for second-degree murder. He's thirty-five and has lost all contact with his wife and children. Even his own brother doesn't want anything to do with him, regardless of the fact that he has matured and wants to steer clear of trouble. Teenager Mikail is about to make the same mistakes that put his hitherto unknown father Ertan behind bars. He thinks drug dealing will help fund his future as a famous rapper and spends a lot of time at the youth centre where he plans to record his first demo. To get closer to Mikail, Ertan takes on a job at the centre, and smiles to himself proudly as he secretly listens to rehearsals. Ertan's friends just can't understand where the old tough guy act has gone, but all he wants is to help Mikail get on the right track. Mikail has no clue who Ertan is. How do they both deal with hard realities when Mikail learns the truth? Umut Dağ's second feature is an intimate tale of forgiveness and acceptance in a fearful and lonely world. His film premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Los Ángeles

Damian John Harper : 2014

Mateo lives in a small, tightly knit rural community in Oaxaca, southern Mexico. He lives alone with his mother and younger brother, as his father has moved to Los Angeles to provide the family with a better income, although he hasn't been in touch for a while. Having turned sixteen, Mateo is expected to prepare his own migration to the city and joins a gang so that he can draw on their support in Los Angeles. To be accepted into their circles, he has to commit wicked crimes. One gang member in particular spreads malevolent feeling around the village, affecting even the highest-ranking men, while rumours of violent pressure being exerted on a young gang member in Los Angeles are put about. As Mateo begins to regret his decision and senses the danger waiting for him there, he starts seeing the village with new eyes, developing a sense of melancholy for his surroundings and appreciation for its way of life. The older villagers still hold on to their ancient values, maintaining a healthy connection to their roots, each supporting the other in their own way. Damian John Harper's first feature is a story about the value of family, brotherly love and one hopeful young man's struggle for a better life in a world ruled by violence and injustice. His film premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Patardzlebi

Tinatin Kajrishvili : 2014
Brides

Seamstress Nutsa marries Goga, the father of her children. The ceremony is brief – both of them just give their signature and then she has to leave. Goga is in prison, where he will remain for another six years. By marrying him, Nutsa gains the right to talk to Goga once a month on the other side of the glass. Her children don't want to accompany her on her next visit: their father has become a stranger to them. One day at work, Nutsa meets another man. They have a conversation and later the man pays her a visit. At that moment, Goga phones with news that there's a change in the prison's rules: married inmates are now allowed to have their spouses stay overnight. Nutsa puts on the dress she wore on their first date. But Nutsa and Goga feel awkward with this sudden intimacy. Tinatin Kajrishvili's feature debut is a dark and emotionally powerful film about human dignity and the repressive judicial system in Georgia. Her film received a Panorama Audience Award when it premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

La tercera orilla

Celina Murga : 2014
The Third Side of the River

Nicolás lives in a small town in the Argentine province of Entre Ríos. His father Jorge is a respected doctor who is leading a double life with two families. Seen through the eyes of Nicolás, his oldest son, Jorge is a man who will not allow himself to be called 'Dad' and who, after a day they spend together, returns to his other family which he has privileged with much greater financial support. Nicolás takes on the role of a father: he looks after his siblings, comforts his mother and takes care of financial matters. The inconsistency of these parallel worlds becomes even more evident when Jorge calls upon Nicolás to follow in his footsteps. He is to become a doctor, too, and to take over the ranch his father inherited and manages in a colonial manner. Unperceived by the people around him, the boy starts to nurse rebellion against his father's authoritarian ways and machismo, and against the open secret which everyone knows but which everyone ignores. Celina Murga's third fiction feature is a searing drama about social stigmatisation and prejudice in a small provincial town. Her film premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Historia del miedo

Benjamin Naishtat : 2014
History of Fear

A hot summer in a city besieged by constant power blackouts. On its outskirts, a private district with an enormous park. A police helicopter circles over this gated community. Something must have happened. An abandoned piece of land and an uncontrollable wave of smoke unleash uncertainty and chaos. When Argentina was rocked by a severe economic crisis several years ago, politicians exploited people's fears in order to foster a general feeling of insecurity. The very first shot conveys the paranoia which shrouds this film about the fears of an increasingly detached social class. Even a hole in the fence represents a life-threatening event. The other side of their self-made barrier marks the beginning of a social netherworld where they are convinced dubious and unpredictable creatures with designs on their wealth are lurking. The camera takes a step back to capture but also to question in grotesque and absurd tableaux this diffuse anxiety and almost primeval fear. Benjamin Naishtat's directorial debut, a portrait of a constantly fragmenting society, premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Night Flight

LeeSong Hee-il : 2014
Ya Gan Bi Haeng

After a tryst with a lover in a derelict, condemned building housing the Night Flight gay bar, Yong-ju roams the streets of night-time Seoul and bumps into his ex-best friend, Gi-woong. They were in the same class at school but have long since gone their separate ways. Having become embroiled in a fight, Gi-woong snatches Yong-ju's bicycle in order to escape and doesn't give it back. Yong-ju threatens him, but Gi-woong is impervious to his warnings – his gang is notorious for their cruel bullying of an eccentric classmate named Gi-taek. His attempts to regain their old friendship mean Yong-ju also runs the risk of becoming a target of this terrorising clan, but he refuses to give in. Instead, Yong-ju cleverly draws Gi-woong into a power game of mutual humiliation and burgeoning memories which triggers a dangerous emotional duel. LeeSong Hee-il's fourth feature is a portrait of a society being eroded by the compulsion to achieve, a society in which there is no place for minorities, friendship or passion. His film premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Standing Aside, Watching

Yorgos Servetas : 2013
Na kathesai kai na koitas

Farmland, empty warehouses and a secluded railway station. Antigone, in her early thirties, is the only person who gets off the train. After an absence of many years she has returned to the Greek town where she grew up, determined to make a life for herself. She meets her long-standing girlfriend Eleni, begins working as an English teacher and finds a boyfriend. Nikos is young and easy-going. He works for a scrap-dealer named Nondas, a bullish man with a criminal record who lives in a caravan. Eleni, who submits herself to Nondas's sexual whims, is regularly humiliated and beaten by him. Nikos is also involved. But Antigone's search for an unassuming life turns out to be more complicated than she had imagined. She feels alienated by the place she once called home. Life on the streets is quiet, but below the surface a collective, unspoken rule of complicity reigns between victims and perpetrators. Everything around her is governed by the unwritten laws of a brutalised male world dominated by discrimination, corruption, violence and submissiveness. In Antigone's last chance to change her fate, will she act or will she stand aside, watching? Yorgos Servetas's second feature screened at Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2013.

Shadow Days

Zhao Dayong : 2014
Gui ri zi

Liang Renwei and his pregnant girlfriend, Pomegranate, leave a shady past in the city behind and return to the remote mountain town of Renwei's childhood. The couple's plan is to remain until the child is born and then see what new opportunity arises. The mayor of the mostly deserted town is Renwei's uncle, whose most pressing priority is meeting the One-Child Policy quotas set by his Communist Party superiors. When the chairwoman of the local women's federation mentions over a card game that the family planning team is short-handed, Uncle asks Renwei to help him. Renwei takes to the job with alacrity, finding cruel and creative ways to round up women for forced abortions and before long the team reaches its quota. As the days drift by, Pomegranate tires of the empty rooms and she begins to glimpse faceless ghosts of the past lurking in the corners. Late one night Uncle is touched by a tiny spirit in the darkness. His health deteriorates and the locals spurn him, fearing the taint of his presence. Uncle turns to a local shaman, who performs an ancient exorcism ritual and determines that the tiny spirit abides on the west side – in the direction of Pomegranate's room. And so Uncle's haunting plot unfolds. Zhao Dayong's third feature, set against the backdrop of a magnificent mountain landscape, tells a story of what people are capable of doing to one another. Eventually, everyone involved is brought to realise in different ways that violence always begets further violence. His film premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

Someone You Love

Pernille Fischer Christensen : 2014
En du elsker

Danish musician Thomas Jacob has made an international name for himself as a singer and songwriter. He lives for his music. After years of absence he returns to his native land to record a new album with his long-standing producer, Molly Moe. His assistant, Kate, who helps him with everything, has rented a large house where he proposes to hide himself away. But his daughter Julie, with whom he has never had much contact, and her eleven-year-old son, Noa, whom Thomas has never met, put an end to this idea. Julie, a single mother, is admitted to a rehabilitation clinic and Thomas is obliged to have Noa to stay. Slowly a relationship develops between grandfather and grandson. But then calamity strikes and Thomas must make a decision which will change his life – and not just his. Pernille Fischer Christensen's fourth feature describes the transformation of a successful musician but disagreeable egocentric into somebody who is prepared to take on responsibility for himself and others. Her film premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.

The Sleepwalker

Mona Fastvold : 2014

A young couple, Kaia and Andrew, are renovating Kaia's late father's secluded 1920s estate. Their lives are violently disrupted upon the unexpected arrival of Kaia's sister, Christine, and her fiancé, Ira. Prior tensions and jealousies burgeon as new alliances form and childhood patterns resurface. Christine announces her pregnancy, questions Kaia's relationship with Andrew, and objects to the relics of her and Kaia's shared childhood being discarded. As the days grow darker and the nights more disturbing, Kaia is forced to confront Christine's increasingly tangled perception of reality, which in turn may have begun to alter her own. When one of the four characters goes missing, the three left behind are flung into upheaval trying to fill in the blanks. A study in contrasts between Christine's raging brokenness and Kaia's repression, Ira's mild-mannered propriety and Andrew's bitter blue-collar machismo. Mona Fastvold's psychological drama, her feature debut, premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2014, and received its European premiere at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.