MANHOOD — Germany 2024 — Directed by: Tobit Kochanek — 71 min — Spoken language: German — Subtitles: English — Producers: Tobit Kochanek, Britt Abrecht — Production Company: Filmakademie Baden Württemberg — Script: Tobit Kochanek — Photography: Dennis Banemann — Editing: Tim Kraushaar — Sound: Rachel Oker — Music: Philipp Lust
A group of keen football players looking for fellowship meet every Monday evening on a pitch in Görlitzer Park, the drug dealers’ mecca. The “pack of men with the same mindset” reflect on masculinity, heartbreak and midlife crisis and seem so likeable that you want to go and cheer them on from the side-lines yourself.
Austria 2023 — Directed by: Matteo Sanders — 16 min — Spoken languages: German, Italian — Subtitles: English — Producer: Matteo Sanders — Production Company: Filmakademie Wien — Script: Matteo Sanders — Photography: Konrad Milan — Editing: Lisa Isabella Grabner — Sound: Andreas Moser — Music: Ornella Vanoni, Lucio Dalla, Niklas Paschburg
The 33-year-old director uses the portrait of his 66-year-old father as an opportunity to talk about the past and the differences between the two generations, until a shared experience arises that has had a decisive influence on their relationship.
Germany, Serbia 2023 — Directed by: Dragana Jovanovic — 61 min — Production Company: DOK 33 — Producer: Dragana Jovanovic
What happens when beauty falls asleep? Aurora’s Dream explores the collective unconscious during a period of contemporary crisis. Individual participants share their most vivid and personal dreams. The subconscious narratives visually intertwine with the turbulence of our present era, bringing archetypes and motifs from the Sleeping Beauty fairytale to the fore.
Switzerland 2023 — Directed by: Nathalie Berger — 62 min — Spoken language: English — Subtitles: English — Production: ZHDK Zürich — Producer: Filippo Bonacci
The sun shines every day in Chagrin Valley, USA. Frozen in a 1950s-inspired artificial decor, this assisted living facility for people who suffer from dementia is home to fragile and ageing residents. Here, everyday life drags on slowly. Florence and her companions dream of an elusive elsewhere during their days punctuated by confusion, fleeting conflicts and overdue family visits. The caregivers – as kind as they are exhausted – run the show in this pastel-coloured, sanitised social theatre. Between two shifts, they confess their desire for a better future; one that is not so different from that of the residents, after all.
France, Lebanon 2023 — Directed by: Diala Al Hindaoui — 15 min — Spoken language: French — Subtitles: English — Production Company: La cinéfabrique — Producer: Timothé Perrier — Script: Diala Al Hindaoui — Photography: Maïssa Elydja Olivier, Cléo Miquel Delhon — Editing: Hugo Pichon-Martin, Lili Cazals — Sound: Plume Languille And Margot Delaunay — Music: Plume Languille
Fatmé, 11 years old, lives in Lebanon with her family, in a tent by the side of a country road. Her disheveled hair, dirty clothes, and love for fighting are subjects of discussion among those around her. Her mother wonders: Is she a girl or a boy? To this question, Fatmé responds with laughter, "I just want to be the strongest."
Serbia 2023 — Directed by: Eluned Zoë Aiano, Alesandra Tatić — 77 min — Production Companies: Servia Film, Wild Pear Arts — Producers: Greta Rauleac, Miloš Ljubomirović
In Eastern Serbia, in a town with a dual identity divided between magic and industry, a family whose destiny is intrinsically linked with both does their best to ensure the survival of their traditions and their future generations. Desa is the widow of the union leader who is trying to continue his legacy by ensuring the rights of fellow mine-worker families. Meanwhile, her brother Dragan Markovic is the last in a line of dragon hunters, but it’s hard to continue now even the dragons are being driven away.
LIGHT OF LIGHT — Greece 2023 — Directed by: Neritan Zinxhiria — 13 min — Production Company: Reconstructing Memories — Producer: Efijeni Kokedhima
Before his death in 1932, a monk created his own camera in one of the most isolated places in the world. Nearly a century later, a filmmaker discovers and reconstructs the 3000 preserved photographic plates, blending them with his own evocative Super 8, crafting a cinematic pilgrimage, where the past interlaces seamlessly with the present, in a spellbinding visual narrative that defies the constraints of time itself.
THE LAST KO — France 2023 — Directed by: Timothée Catherine — 70 min — Spoken language: French — Subtitles: English — Production Company: Tripode Productions — Producer: Guillaume Dreyfus — Script: Timothée Catherine — Photography: Mathieu Kauffmann — Editing: Lucas Marchina — Sound: Adriano Cerone, Clément Lemariey — Music: Balthazar Naturel
Carl Strugnell, the world chessboxing champion, is just a few months away from his final showdown in the ring. It's a challenge that promises to be decisive for the fight he's waged all his life, to break free from his condition, but also for all those left behind, to whom he dreams of offering the opportunity to become heroes. Because Karl is himself an imperfect character, champion of an imaginary discipline invented in the drawings of Enki Bilal.
THE HUNTER'S SON — Switzerland 2023 — Directed by: Juliette Riccaboni — 54 min — Spoken language: French — Subtitles: English — Production Company: Akka Films — Producer: Juliana Fanjul — Script: Juliette Riccaboni — Photography: Gabriel Lobos — Editing: Orsola Valenti, Karine Sudan — Sound: Carlos Ibanez-Diaz — Music: Adrien Heiniger
Samir hardly knows his father. Hoping to become closer with him, he decides to accompany a hunter on a expedition in the mountains. Director Juliette Riccaboni decides to film the complexity of a relationship rife with disagreement. The picturesque Valais scenery provides the backdrop for this difficult reunion, shot through with humour and tenderness.
ANTON'S JOURNEY — France 2023 — Directed by: Mariana Loupan — 73 min — Spoken language: French — Subtitles: English, French — Production company: Schuch Productions — Producer: Anne Schuchman-Kune — Script: Mariana Loupan — Photography: Sarah Blum / Emmanuelle Collinot / Pukyo Ruiz de Somocurcio — Editing: Santi Minasi — Sound: Lilian Matigot / Graciela Barrault
Nothing and nobody could have predicted that Anton Hirschfeld, a young man with special needs, would one day become a recognized painter. Anton’s Journey retraces his journey, filmed by his mother since his birth. A journey made possible by the determination and love of his family and the pivotal encounters that marked his path.
THE LIGHTS OF KYIV — Switzerland 2023 — Directed by: Serhii Tykhoniuk — 16 min — Spoken language: Ukrainian — Subtitles: English, French — Production Company: ECAL — Producer: Paolo Moretti — Script: Serhii Tykhoniuk — Photography: Serhii Tykhoniuk — Editing: Serhii Tykhoniuk — Sound: Serhii Tykhoniuk — Music: Mathys Nouspikel
In negative, we are shown snapshots of a city that Serhii Tykhoniuk is afraid to begin to forget. “I want you to describe it as it created you,” he continues in voice-over, speaking to the heroine of his film. She is one of the 8 million Ukrainians who have sought refuge in Europe since the war triggered by the Russian invasion. During night-time strolls in the streets of Lausanne, or working on the floor on a canvas inspired by abstract expressionism, Lisa evokes her native city, the keen loss of the sense of freedom that she still associates with it, its smells, and even “the espresso tonic of Bar 1818” – as many fragments of imagination that the forced refugees have taken from home along with their suitcases. In front of her compatriot’s watchful camera, the young woman speaks frankly about her torments and the sense of strangeness she feels in her host country. “Kyiv is me!” she exclaims in a kind of hallucinogenic trance, dreaming out loud of its now distant “lights”, which continue to burn brightly in her heart of hearts.
LOVE ME TRUE — France 2023 — Directed by: Ines Sedan — 7 min — Spoken language: French — Subtitles: English, Spanish — Production Company: LARDUX FILMS — Producer: Benoit Ayraud — Script: Ines Sedan — Photography: Ines Sedan — Editing: Michele Le Guernevel — Sound: Adam Wolny, Olivier Calvert — Music: Olivier Calvert
Laurence is desperately looking for love. On the advice of a friend, she starts using online dating sites to find her soulmate. She becomes addicted to her phone and addicted to a toxic man. Adapted from the report “Love me Tinder” by Alain Lewkowicz, produced for Sonia Kronlund's radio program “Les pieds sur terre” on France Culture.
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