Without a Trace

Vít Karas : 2019
Beze stopy

Set at Christmas, this intimate psychological drama follows a quirky man living alone in the woods. He meets no people, only the things they leave in the cabins where he secretly sleeps. He is no thief, he always cleans up after himself and only eats a can of food here and there. He enjoys the peace and quiet. But this winter hasn't gone well. Although he avoids everyone, he encounters two dubious characters and a child in need of help. Vít Karas's feature premiered at Prague International Film Festival 2019.

Vanishing Days

Zhu Xin : 2018
Man you

It is the summer of 2009. In the southern Chinese town of Hangzhou, it is stiflingly hot before the arrival of a rainstorm. 14-year-old Li Senlin is bored and stuck doing homework. Inspiration finally arrives when her aunt comes to visit unexpectedly and is full of curious stories – tales that could be true, but don't have to be. Auntie Qiu, a boatwoman who hasn't shown up for years, recounts the tale of a strange encounter on an abandoned island. Li Senlin loses her turtle while her father is away on a business trip. There's another "Senlin" that keeps being mentioned by her parents. She faintly suspects that Auntie Qiu is actually her biological mother. Misplaced turtles and lost red flags reappear unexpectedly. As the first thunderstorms and rain clouds approach on the horizon, memory, dream and reality interweave into one another. It's like being caught up in a Chinese midsummer night's dream. Zhu Xin's feature debut premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2018, and had its European premiere in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Ojos Negros

Marta Lallana & Ivet Castelo : 2019

Paula, a 14-year-old girl, has to spend the summer in Ojos Negros, a town in the Aragon region of eastern Spain, with her aunt and grandmother whom she barely knows. There she discovers the family tensions that are uncovered in the wake of her grandmother's illness. Trying to escape this suffocating atmosphere, she meets Alicia, a girl of her age with whom she establishes an intense friendship. Together they will venture into the adult world and at the end of a stifling summer, Paula will understand what it means to grow up. Marta Lallana and Ivet Castelo's feature debut, their final degree project, was winner of the Silver Biznaga for Best Spanish Film when it was presented in the Zonazine section at Festival de Málaga de Cine Español 2019.

Living Chimneys

Radoslav Spasov : 2018
Zhivi komini

In the old-time houses of a mountain village, intellectuals from the capital city have settled down. For after his death, one of the settlers, a notorious bohemian and joker, left a funeral scenario and video recordings directing his farewell to life. His confessions, memories and jokes are flowing from the improvised film shows at the local pub while the mourning ceremony turns into joy before anyone realises it. Among the mourners, there is an old friend of the deceased who arrived from Paris, as well as a beautiful girl hoping to find her father. Of course, it's all about love. And about many secrets for which the time has come to be unravelled by the deceased and the living. Radoslav Spasov's feature premiered at Golden Rose Film Festival 2018, and was selected for Sofia International Film Festival 2019.

Vision

Naomi Kawase : 2018

Jeanne is a French essayist who has come to Japan in search of "vision", a herb that appears but once every 997 years and is said to strip away all spiritual anguish and weakness in human beings. Upon arriving in Nara, she meets the taciturn Tomo and his mentor Aki, a charismatic prophet and keeper of the forests who claims to be 1,000 years old. Not long after Tomo agrees to let Jeanne stay with him, Aki vanishes, yet a young man appears almost as if in her place. As the sacred moment of vision's return looms, past events are summoned, new connections are forged, and time itself seems to slip from its perceived order – yielding new possibilities for human existence. Naomi Kawase's feature had its international premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2018, and its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival 2019.

Tell It to the Bees

Annabel Jankel : 2018

In 1950s Britain, abandoned by her philandering husband, Lydia is in an increasingly desperate situation. Emotional turmoil aside, her earnings from factory work are not sufficient to pay the rent. Lydia's son, Charlie, meanwhile, is getting bullied at school. Injuries from one such altercation send him to Dr Jean Markham who has recently returned to the small Scottish town she left long ago to take over her late father's practice. Charlie is curious about the bee colonies Jean maintains in her garden and the two form a bond. Bees, Jean explains, make an excellent repository for one's secrets. When Lydia and Charlie are evicted, Jean invites them to stay in her home, an act of generosity that raises eyebrows throughout the village. Lydia soon learns why Jean is regarded with hostility – and she begins to see something in the kind doctor that takes her by surprise. Soon their tender friendship evolves into a passionate love affair, one that puts them in danger from the closed-minded community around them. Annabel Jankel's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2018, and had its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival 2019.

Rosie

Paddy Breathnach : 2018

When their landlord sells their rented home, Rosie, John Paul and their young family find themselves homeless. With their essential belongings crammed into their car, they begin the daily search for a place to sleep. While John Paul works kitchen shifts, Rosie drives the older kids to and from school, where shame keeps them from confessing the desperation of their situation. Old emotional wounds prevent Rosie from accepting her mother's offer to put up the kids, so the family is reduced to roaming the city daily, uncertain as to which – if any – hotel will accept the Dublin City Council credit card they're dependent on to provide them with lodging. Chronicling an ordinary couple's struggle to keep their family intact, the film examines how even in times of crises, the love and strength of a family can endure. Paddy Breathnach's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2018 and had its UK premiere at BFI London Film Festival 2018.

House of Hummingbird

Kim Bo-ra : 2018
Beol-sae

Korea, 1994. The South is in the grips of World Cup fever, while the North mourns its newly deceased dictator. Eun-hee registers all of this only in passing. Drifting through her days in Seoul, the eighth-grader feels like an outsider everywhere: at school, where her classmates bore her even more than the schoolwork, and at home, where her parents are always at each other's throats and her brother beats her. She tries to fall in love, has to go to hospital after an inconclusive biopsy, and has a falling-out with her best friend – yet nothing moves her with the same unexpected intensity as when a new Chinese tutor enters her life. With visual precision, the film weaves a dense narrative around a regular summer that leaves nothing unchanged. Kim Bo-ra's feature premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2018, and was winner of the Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus International Jury at its European premiere at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Delphine et Carole, insoumuses

Callisto McNulty : 2019
Delphine and Carole

In the 1970s, legendary actress Delphine Seyrig could be seen on the big screen as a singing fairy, a lesbian vampire, an ethereal ambassador's spouse, and a potato-peeling housewife. She was active as a feminist at the same time, which equally meant taking the camera into her own hands. Along with Carole Roussopoulos, she was one of the first video activists in France, not only documenting protests by the French women's movement, but also using the new medium to counter the dominant representation of women on TV and elsewhere with their own images and commentaries. As part of this project of narrating their own stories, they held video workshops too and founded the feminist archive Centre audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir. Making use of a generous selection of excerpts from feminist works by the video groups "Les Insoumuses" and "Video Out" as well as from talk shows featuring Simone de Beauvoir, Marguerite Duras, and Chantal Akerman among others, this film both writes a chapter in the history of feminism and traces the beginnings of a creative political practice that used boldness, humour, and subversion to unite collective action, media intervention, and archival documentation. Callisto McNulty's documentary premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

The Vanishing

Kristoffer Nyholm : 2018
Keepers

A small relief boat approaches the Isle, a tiny isolated island no bigger than a football pitch, 20 miles from the rugged Scottish coast. Its aim is to routinely replace the three lighthouse keepers, after six weeks alone manning the light. It nears the dock and none of the men greet them. The winch is broken. A call. Nothing. Experienced keepers Thomas, James and Donald have vanished. The lamps are clean and refilled; the table is laid for dinner. There is an upturned chair. Two sets of yellow oilskins are missing. The men were never found. Inspired by the Flannan Isle mystery, Kristoffer Nyholm's feature debut had its UK premiere in the Gala section at Glasgow Film Festival 2019.

The Crossing

Bai Xue : 2018
Guo chun tian

Hardly noticed by the border officers, 16-year-old Peipei makes the daily crossing between the port city of Shenzhen on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. She is one of many people who are not really at home on either side. She dreams of making a voyage to Japan with her best friend, who comes from a well-to-do family in Hong Kong – but she doesn't have enough money. While at a party, she meets Hao, a member of a smuggling ring. This could be her big chance. Among the high-rise blocks and dimly-lit warehouses, the film portrays life in the transit zone between two border metropolises. With the promise of modern life and brand new iPhones in her backpack, Peipei takes the risky step to independence. Bai Xue's feature premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2018, and had its European premiere in the Generation 14plus section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

A Dog Barking at the Moon

Xiang Zi : 2019

When the young student Li Jiumei meets her future husband Huang Tao, she is youthful and happy; her daughter Huang Xiaoyu has not yet been born and the secrets of the family are still hidden behind closed doors deep inside the house. Her daughter Huang Xiaoyu is already a young girl when creeping suspicion overcomes Li Jiumei. She kicks down a door behind which she catches her husband with a young man. Huang Xiaoyu is now pregnant and living in the USA; a little while later she returns to pay a visit with her boyfriend. She discovers that, in addition to bitterness and hatred, the teachings of an ominous sect have now also spread throughout the house. A complex family saga and tale of suppressed desire, with narrative strands unfolding simultaneously in different periods. Xiang Zi's directorial debut won the Teddy Awards Special Jury Award when it premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

37 Seconds

Hikari : 2019

Yuma is a 23-year-old woman from Tokyo. When she commutes by train to her job in a manga studio, her face is at hip height to the other passengers standing up. Yuma uses a wheelchair on account of cerebral palsy. Her deformed limbs only allow her to crawl – and to hold a pencil. The fact that her boss, a successful comic artist and blogger named Sayaka, who has a penchant for garish Fairy Kei attire, passes Yuma's drawing ideas off as her own, dismays the talented 'mangaka'. Even worse, her overprotective mother hardly lets her out of her sight and refuses to talk about her father. As Yuma attempts to live a more independent life, she stumbles across adult comics – manga porn – and toys with the idea of drawing some herself. The publisher advises her to gain some personal experience first. But what happens when a woman in a wheelchair asks a tout in Tokyo's red light district to fix her up with a sex date? Hikari's feature directorial debut won the CICAE Award and the Audience Award when it premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

All My Loving

Edward Berger : 2019
Geschwister

The three siblings Stefan, Julia and Tobias lead comfortable middle-class lives. Outwardly, they are doing well, but all three are becoming more and more aware that there are gaps in their lives, that something is not right, and that something has to change. Stefan, 41, is a successful pilot and a real ladies man; up to now he has always led the life of a carefree hedonist. But suddenly his health will not play along anymore; moreover, an encounter with his daughter Vicky, whom he fathered in an earlier affair, throws him off course. While holidaying in Italy with her husband, Julia, 44, begins taking care of a street dog that's been hit by a car. All of a sudden the pain of her son's death catches up with her. Tobias, 34, is married to a career-orientated woman. He has been taking care of their three children and cannot seem to finish his studies; now his siblings have decided that he should also take care of their sick father. Three people in search of happiness and inner peace; an emerging image of an insecure generation in a rapidly changing world. Edward Berger's feature premiered in the Panorama section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

The Last to See Them

Sara Summa : 2019
Gli ultimi a vederli vivere

The Durati family lead an idyllic, secluded life in the south of Italy, in the middle of the countryside, surrounded by olive groves. Their daily routines are not particularly spectacular, although the eldest daughter is soon to be married and each of the family members is preparing for the wedding in their own way. It's the younger daughter, Dora, who takes on most of the tasks. She sews the dresses for the bridesmaids, and does the shopping and the cooking. Her mother wanders around the house like a ghost, complaining of a headache, her father is busy dealing with an insurance agent with whom he took out life insurance, and her brother is making a wooden shrine intended as a wedding present. Through the eyes of each of the characters, the events are repeated from different perspectives, and at certain moments, a few new details emerge as the story progresses. The film makes no secret of the fact that father Enzo, mother Alice, daughter Dora and son Matteo will not survive the coming day. The knowledge of their imminent demise changes how the viewer sees their everyday actions, their plans both big and small. The fragility of life shines through and it almost feels like everything is slowing down. The smallest events are lent greater significance, making the inescapable end appear like a trancelike countdown. By concentrating so radically on the "before", the story of a brutal crime is told in an entirely unique way. It is much more a tender tale of life than one of death. We're the last to see them living. Sara Summa's feature debut premiered in the Forum section at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

The Ground beneath My Feet

Marie Kreutzer : 2019
Der Boden unter den Füßen

Lola is almost thirty. A successful management consultant, she is constantly on the move between the companies she is tasked with restructuring. Her chic apartment in Vienna is more of a mailbox and a launderette than a home. A hundred working hours a week is not uncommon in addition to five sessions at the gym, expensive dinners with clients and nights spent in sterile hotels. Her career, which she is advancing with cleverness, efficiency and ruthless cunning, appears to be unstoppable. Lola applies a similarly disciplined approach when it comes to managing her private life. She keeps her relationship with her boss Elise secret, as well as the existence of her older sister Conny, who has been suffering from mental illness for a long time and who never leaves her apartment. But when Conny attempts suicide, Lola's secrets threaten to explode into the open. As she tries to do what's best for her sister without jeopardising all she's worked so hard for, Lola slowly finds her own grip on reality slipping away. Marie Kreutzer's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

A Tale of Three Sisters

Emin Alper : 2019
Kız Kardeşler

The three sisters, twenty-year-old Reyhan, sixteen-year-old Nurhan and Havva who is thirteen, all live with their father in a remote village in central Anatolia. One after the other they were sent away to town to work as housemaids, but each of them has now returned. The last of the sisters to do so is Nurhan. She beat the local doctor's son because he wet his bed every night. When Reyhan returned home pregnant, her father hastily married her off to the shepherd, Veysel. One day, the inebriated Veysel rises up against the village elder; his actions have dramatic consequences. Even if the dream of a better future does not come true for any of these young women and they always seem to be getting into arguments with each other, they nonetheless steadfastly stick together. While they wait for the snow-covered roads to become passable again, father and daughters pass the time with stories. A fairy tale in haunting images that portrays a society in which neither women nor men have a chance to break their predetermined cycle. Emin Alper's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Mr. Jones

Agnieszka Holland : 2019

In March 1933, Welsh journalist Gareth Jones takes a train from Moscow to Kharkov in the Ukraine. He disembarks at a small station and sets off on foot on a journey through the country where he experiences at first hand the horrors of a famine. Everywhere there are dead people, and everywhere he goes he meets henchmen of the Soviet secret service who are determined to prevent news about the catastrophe from getting out to the general public. Stalin's forced collectivisation of agriculture has resulted in misery and ruin; the policy is tantamount to mass murder. Supported by Ada Brooks, a New York Times reporter, Jones succeeds in spreading the shocking news in the West, thereby putting his powerful rival, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, pro-Stalin journalist Walter Duranty, firmly in his place. Based on real events, the dramatic thriller recalls the legendary journalist Gareth Jones (1905-1935) who, despite fierce resistance, could not be dissuaded from telling the truth. Agnieszka Holland's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

Elisa y Marcela

Isabel Coixet : 2019
Elisa & Marcela

When Marcela and Elisa meet on their first day in high school, it is love at first sight. A deep friendship begins which soon turns into a romantic relationship. Nothing can prevent the two girls' feelings for each other, not even Marcela's suspicious parents, who eventually send their daughter to boarding school. Years later, the two women meet again and decide to live together. Both are respected teachers, but their partnership has to be kept secret from the critical Catholic population. For this reason, Elisa decides to pose as a man and marry Marcela. Their wedding photo depicts two young women, one in a black dress with her hair up, the other with a short haircut and wearing a suit; both are looking hopefully into the future. But their love remains exposed to great dangers. Based on true events, a deeply empathetic rendition of the story of Elisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas, who were married in the church of San Jorge in A Coruña in northwest Spain in 1901. A paean to passion, dignity and resistance. Isabel Coixet's feature premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2019.

The Rift

Peter Bebjak : 2019
Trhlina

Igor, an unemployed university graduate, discovers the psychiatric assessment reports of Walter Fischer. One day seventy years ago, Fischer disappeared under mysterious circumstances while walking in the Tribec mountains. Two months later, he reappeared under equally mysterious circumstances and had strange wounds and burns all over his body. He was disoriented, could not explain what had happened to him and never recovered. Igor continues his investigation and, to his astonishment, he learns that Fischer's case was not at all isolated – mentions of mysterious disappearances in the mountains date far back into history. More and more chilling stories keep piling up. Igor, his girlfriend Mia, the conspiracy theorist Andrej and the inveterate sceptic David begin to dig deeper into the mystery and unearth a truth more terrifying than any fantasy. They embark on an expedition to the forests of Tribec, where they witness something that defies human understanding. Their initially innocent quest ends in tragedy. This mystery, as the group find out, has incredibly sharp teeth.