Puppet Syndrome

Elena Hazanov : 2015
Sindrom Petrushki

Since early childhood Petya has been obsessed with the world of puppets, but his greater obsession is with a girl named Liza. He crafts his perfect woman out of her. But Liza is a real woman. She'd never submit to him completely. Their love is tested in the most brutal way – by the death of their son born with a severe genetic disease nicknamed Happy Puppet Syndrome. As Liza suffers, Petya creates himself a new muse – a sophisticated doll, Alice, a hauntingly identical copy of Liza. Petya has to make a choice: Liza or Alice? Life or art? Petya matches his talent against Fate, and wins his own happiness. Elena Hazanov's feature premiered in competition at Kinotavr Open Russian Film Festival 2015, and screened at Tbilisi International Film Festival 2015.

A Simple Goodbye

Degena Yun : 2015
Gaobie

The story of two generations unfolds through apparently disconnected moments. The story of Shanshan, who was sent to England to study when she was young and finds herself living a solitary life, involved in virtual relationships which pain her but which she can't do without; and that of a middle-aged father, who left his hometown as a young man, moved to Beijing and is now facing death. His feelings of helplessness involve the condition of the state-run film studio where he works, while his illness increasingly undermines him. Slowly but surely, the daughter begins to know her father, while the man remembers his past, his roots and his dreams. Degena Yun's second feature premiered at Tokyo International Film Festival 2015, and was winner of the Best Screenplay Award ex-aequo at its European premiere at Torino Film Festival 2015.

Hall

Jürgen Volmer : 2015
Grey

The forest is older than us, the parent of us all. In many nations' mythology the wolf is often a king of the forest, who hears, sees and knows everything. Little boy Mart lives in a cottage at the edge of the forest and something awful has happened in his family. The mother's efforts to save the daughter could bring success, but little Mart is too young to understand the ritual and puts at risk the fate of his family. A wolf always gets its share. Jürgen Volmer's short premiered in competition at Sleepwalkers International Short Film Festival 2015.

Hevn

Kjersti Steinsbø : 2015
Revenge

Rebekka's beloved younger sister has just committed suicide. Grieving, angry and seeking justice, Rebekka travels under false identity to an idyllic hotel situated in the majestic fjords of Western Norway. She is going to meet Morten Holand, the innkeeper and the town's "Golden Boy", with whom she shares a dark secret surrounding the death of her sister. Fixated on plotting her revenge against Morten, Rebekka sets out to destroy his perfect family life, turning his friends and the townsfolk against him. Soon it becomes apparent that Rebekka's actions have consequences for more than just Morten himself, as life in the village begins to unravel, and Rebekka must determine how far she will go to seek revenge. People often say that the end justifies the means, but are we really aware of the consequences of our actions, of the collateral damage, once we set in motion certain mechanisms in which lies and blindness, bad faith and hypocrisy play an essential role? Kjersti Steinsbø's feature debut is based on the novel The Doll in the Ceiling by Ingvar Ambjørnsen.

Barash

Michal Vinik : 2015

Seventeen-year-old Naama Barash enjoys alcohol, drugs and hanging out with like-minded friends. Her activities are an escape from a home where her parents always fight, and a rebellious, army-enrolled sister, who, one day, disappears. As a new girl, Hershko, shows up at school, Barash falls deeply in love for the first time, and the intensity of the experience at once confuses her and gives her life new meaning. An authentic and sensitive reflection of a contemporary youth that is bored and tired, extremely well-connected in its social bonds but clumsy in its human relations. Michal Vinik's film, her feature debut, premiered at San Sebastián International Film Festival 2015, and was winner of the Script Award, Best Actress and Best Actor for Israeli feature film at Haifa Film Festival 2015.

Hija de la laguna

Ernesto Cabellos Damián : 2015
Daughter of the Lake

Nélida is a young rural woman in the Andes who speaks with nature. She feels that she is the daughter of the lakes that the town depends on for life. But right below the waters, Yanacocha, the biggest mining corporation in Latin America, has discovered a gold deposit worth billions of dollars. The company comes with the support of the Peruvian government, in spite of the knowledge that the project implies the destruction of various lakes. The majority of the farmers in the area oppose this project because they fear they will lose their water. It is a fight for life or death. Ernesto Cabellos Damián's feature documentary premiered in competition at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival 2015, and had its European premiere at Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid 2015.

La adopción

Daniela Féjerman : 2015
The Adoption

Daniel and Natalia are a Spanish couple that have invested not only their savings, but also boundless enthusiasm and hope, in their plan to become the parents of an adopted child. Providing the necessary support for one another, they embark on a voyage to a country to the east, where they have been promised a healthy child. However, things do not work out as they had expected. As soon as they arrive, they come up against theft, corruption and a lack of communication. Finding themselves powerless and faced with growing hostility, their own latent conflicts come to the fore. The dream they came with threatens to turn into a nightmare, bringing out the worst in each of them and shaking the foundations of what they had thought was a solid, cast-iron relationship. Daniela Féjerman's feature premiered in competition at Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid 2015.

Bolesno

Hrvoje Mabić : 2015
Sick

At the age of sixteen Ana was locked up in a psychiatric hospital by her parents, who arranged the treatment to cure her homosexuality. After all she went through, she longs for a girl who won't think of her as insane. She finds all that in Martina, her new love. Ana arranges a wedding with her girlfriend. They are to get married in Amsterdam. Martina knows that Ana's difficult mental states are the consequence of a trauma caused by her parents and the psychiatrist and believes in her recovery. She is convinced Ana will be a perfect partner and that it is now up to Ana to exorcise the hell of the past which still burns inside her. However, Martina's patience wanes with time as she finds Ana more obsessed with her traumatic past than with the life they're sharing together. Hrvoje Mabić's second documentary feature premiered at ZagrebDox 2015, and screened in competition at Mostra Internacional de Cinema, São Paulo 2015.

Alaska

Claudio Cupellini : 2015

The story of two people who have nothing to their name but themselves. They have no roots, they don't even have a place they can call home. They meet by chance on the rooftop of a hotel in Paris, and recognise each other at first sight: fragile, alone and obsessed with the idea of happiness that seems unattainable to them. Fausto is Italian but lives in Paris, and works as a waiter in a grand hotel. Nadine is a young Frenchwoman, who possesses the heart-rending beauty of a 20-year-old. She is fragile yet determined, alive and vibrating as only a 20-year-old can be. Guided by instinct and making mistake after mistake, many are the obstacles and surprises that lie ahead for these young lovers. A story of love, solitude, ambition and violence, halfway between a fairy tale and a tragedy. Claudio Cupellini's third feature premiered at Rome Film Festival 2015.

Nacimiento

Martín Mejía : 2015
Delivery

The Colombian forest, a distant and painfully beautiful place, almost inescapable for its inhabitants. Life there is quiet and pure. We follow the pregnancy of Helena as the year's path, from the midst of daily life emerge stories of pain and solitude, relationship with environment and brotherhood. The film captures the ordinary actions – some people dry fish, others harvest their crops – in such organic way, with silent and observational discipline. A thin but essential story filmed with a strong personality, in an elegant style that brings the reality on screen to a new beautiful dimension. Martín Mejía's feature debut was winner of the Tridens First Features Competition and the FIPRESCI Award when it premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2015.

Orizont

Marian Crişan : 2015

After many years working abroad Lucian and Andra, husband and wife, take shelter in а remote cottage hidden somewhere in the Apuseni Mountains. All is seemingly well until they realise everything that happens on the mountain, including their life, is controlled by Zoli, an outlaw involved in illegal deforestation. The family and their guest house named Orizont will soon get caught up in the conflict between the lawmen and the illegal logging mafia. Based on Ioan Slavici's classic novella Moara cu noroc, "The lucky mill", the film is a low-key thriller focused on the family topic, the 'peacefulness of the hut', as Slavici puts it, underlining what we do in order to make this so-called peacefulness last, and how we hide the past and the secrets in a family. Marian Crişan's third feature premiered in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2015.

Land of Mine

Martin Zandvliet : 2015
Under sandet

Taking place in May 1945, only a few days after the end of the war, the story of a group of German prisoners of war who were brought to Denmark and forced to disarm the two million land mines that had been scattered along the west coast by the German occupying forces. In charge of the enfeebled young men performing the dangerous task is Sergeant Carl Leopold Rasmussen. Like so many of his fellow Danes, he has a deep hatred for the Germans after having suffered five years of hardships during the occupation. He takes his anger out on the prisoners, until one day a tragic incident makes him change his view of the enemy, even if it may be too late. A little-known chapter of German-Danish post-war history, having been kept out of sight, conveniently forgotten, repressed. A film about revenge and forgiveness. About a group of young men forced to do penance on behalf of an entire nation. Martin Zandvliet's feature premiered in competition in the Platform section at Toronto International Film Festival 2015, and had its European premiere in competition at Filmfest Hamburg 2015.

Departure

Andrew Steggall : 2015

Elliot is a wispy dreamer who, with his mother Beatrice, is packing up their French country house in preparation to sell it before coming back to England. There is a melancholic air to their efforts, with forced companionableness from Beatrice who insists on dinners with her distant son. Elliot takes breaks to wander into the local village bar, where he writes romantic poetry, wearing a vintage French army coat and eyeing up the rough beauty of local boy Clément. Clément is as natural as Elliot is awkward and they strike up an unlikely friendship. Elliot struggles with his nascent sexuality and increasing alienation from his mother. She in turn is confronted by the realisation that her marriage to his father is coming to an end. When the enigmatic Clément quietly enters their lives, both mother and son are compelled to confront their desires and, finally, each other. An intimate story beginning at dawn on the first day and ending at night on the sixth, charting the end of a summer, the end of a childhood and the end of an otherwise nuclear, middle class family. Andrew Steggall's feature debut premiered at London Film Festival 2015, and had its European premiere in the Alice nella Città section at Rome Film Festival 2015.

Nakhodka

Viktor Dement : 2015
The Find

In the forgotten taiga village lives Trofim Rusanov, a gloomy and unsociable senior fishery control inspector. He considers all people around him are criminals and is unforgiving of even a slightest deviation from fishing rules and norms of humanity. He is used to the fact that each day is filled with routine. But one day, during his usual route Trofim gets into conflict with a local fishermen and loses his boat. On his 20km way home around the huge lake he finds an abandoned baby in a hunter's lodge. For several days he wanders around the severe uninhabited taiga, fighting both for his life and the life of the little child. Finally, Trofim finds his way home. He wants to trace the woman who left the baby in the forest. But this long quest leads him to another, completely different find – and maybe for the first time in his life Trofim feels compassion. Viktor Dement's feature debut was winner of the prize for Best Cinematography when it premiered at Kinotavr Open Russian Film Festival 2015, and had its international premiere in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2015.

Road-Movie

Martin Jelínek : 2015

Jakub, co-owner of the agency Dolce Travel, leaves Prague and takes a weekend off from work to go back to his hometown Telč and celebrate his mother's birthday together with his family. Here he meets Ilona, an old childhood friend he hasn't seen in many years and with whom he goes on an intense and intimate road trip through Czech Republic and Austria. Their journey is the intersection between Jakub's pragmatism and Ilona's spiritual freedom. During the course of the weekend Jakub's entire life is thrown into confusion and Ilona's explosive love for the simple joys in life forces him to re-evaluate his whole down-to-earth approach. Martin Jelínek's feature directorial debut premiered in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2015.

Anna

Jacques Toulemonde Vidal : 2015

Anna is a young, free-spirited Colombian woman living in Paris, daily struggling with her emotional frailty. More than anything else in the world, she loves her little son Nathaniel over whom she has joint custody with Philippe, her ex-husband and the child's father. One night, after Anna has dismissed the child's private teacher, and wandered around the city for half the night with the boy, Philippe is no longer willing to suffer Anna's repeated promises to act responsibly, and threatens her with going to court. Just a few days later, she packs Nathaniel's things and decides to flee to her homeland, Colombia, with her son and Bruno, her new boyfriend. During this journey, Anna will strive to build a new family, and will face the difficulty of being a mother. Jacques Toulemonde Vidal's feature directorial debut premiered in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2015.

Lost in the Living

Robert Manson : 2015

Oisín, a musician from Dublin, travels to Berlin with his band, buzzing with the potential for adventure. He leaves behind the weight of losing his mother and an anger towards his absent father. Oisín meets Sabine, a pretty young Berliner, who shows him the secret places that belong to the people who live in the city; hot parks, uninhabited stations, and lakes in the countryside where the free body culture is still active. But this time of simple pleasures is based on illusions. Oisín's wilful escapism is thrown into a tailspin when Sabine reveals that she has a boyfriend and must return to her real life. His band have left, he's lonely, homesick, homeless and broke. He embraces the darkness, tumbles through the void and out the other side. Robert Manson's feature debut premiered at Cork Film Festival 2015.

Memories of the Wind

Özcan Alper : 2015
Rüzgârın hatıraları

World War II. Turkey is working with Nazi Germany and using similarly brutal methods against minorities and members of the opposition. For Aram, an Armenian dissident, painter and poet, life in İstanbul is growing more dangerous by the day. In the winter of 1943, he flees to the Turkish-Georgian border, where Mikhail and his young wife Mereyem give him shelter in a hut in the forest. Here, Aram waits for the papers he needs to escape to the Soviet Union. But the city-dwelling intellectual can't handle life in the woods. He's scared and feels lost in nature, with all its unexplained sounds and noises. The documents take a long time and Aram and Mereyem grow closer, making the situation for all concerned unbearable. Özcan Alper's third feature premiered in competition at Montréal World Film Festival 2015, and had its European premiere at Filmfest Hamburg 2015.

Mountain Cry

Larry Yang : 2015

In 1984, in a remote village in the Taihang Mountains, a recent immigrant, La Hong, dies after stepping on explosives that young villager Han Chong set up to catch a badger. In order to avoid a scandal, instead of reporting the case to the police, the elders of the village force Han Chong to provide for La Hong's mute wife Hong Xia and her two small children. As Han Chong's attraction towards Hong Xia grows, a conflict between the villagers and the widow Qin Hua, who envies their relationship, continues to increase, and both he and the villagers discover that Hong Xia has a dark story to tell, and the power to tell it wordlessly. Along with Hong Xia's past, the secrets of her impairment and how she came to the village with La Hong are systematically revealed. The developing relationship between Han Chong and Hong Xia is also kept hidden, but ultimately their love will end in sacrifice. A tragic tale built around a closed-structured society, where love and jealousy in the human mind conflict and intertwine. Larry Yang's feature premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2015.

West North West

Nakamura Takuro : 2015

Kei and Ai are a lesbian couple. Kei works at a cocktail bar, while Ai works as a fashion model. Fearing she'll be ostracised by society, Kei chooses not to admit her sexual orientation to anyone, and as a result, she becomes distressed and lonely. One day, Kei gets close to Naima, a shy, withdrawn Iranian student studying art in Japan. Ai quickly becomes jealous of them and their budding friendship. Kei gradually becomes pessimistic as she thinks about a future with Ai, and Ai worries that she will lose Kei. In the meantime, Naima is having a hard time understanding what Kei wants despite growing closer to her. All three of them are embarrassed and insecure but eventually they begin to share their feelings. Capturing their turbulent emotions, fragile as glass, the film portrays the unstable lives of these young people who have lost a sense of direction in their lives. Nakamura Takuro's second feature premiered in the New Currents section at Busan International Film Festival 2015.