Spain, United Kingdom 2023 — Directed by: Priya Woods — 8 min — Production: OTOXO Productions
Through the use of an interview and film footage, the film contrasts between the warm chaos of some old family tapes and the harsh reality of the present. A Christmas tape from 2002, of the director's family preparing for Santa's arrival. The camera suddenly cuts to today, in the same house, now empty. When her father goes to the pub, she decides to ask him some questions about the past. While drinking a beer, they reminisce about a life that once was, before everything changed when the mother died of a cancer.
ONLY THE DEVIL REMEMBERS — Spain 2023 — Directed by: Dani Iglesias — 5 min — Production: Universidad de Vigo
There are barely 200 metres between the entrance and exit signs of Nadal. Located between provinces, in this small village with no more than 20 houses the director's maternal family lived for a large part of their lives. For the director it meant visiting his great-grandmother, the stew, being with Leon and the cats, his grandfather's vegetable garden, picking blackberries in the surrounding forests... But now these are only vague memories. What remains are photos, stories remembered by his grandmother and mother, some paintings, street view images. Has anything really changed?
France 2022 — Directed by: Elina Kastler — 16 min — Spoken languages: French, Arabic — Subtitles: English — Production: Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains — Producer: François Bonenfant
This summer, Kabylie, a region in Algeria, has burned. At the center of this tragedy, women are singing. Her song, Achewiq, sublimates the suffering. With simplicity, the daily life of the Sahel’s inhabitants is revealed. Through laughs and joy, they overcome all these sorrows. The earth’s ashes are becoming the new sprouts to bloom.
Germany 2022 — Directed by: Afraa Batous — 80 min — Spoken language: Arabic — Subtitles: German, English — Production Company: Tondowski Films — Producers: Alex Tondowski, Ira Tondowski
To cope with the daily trauma of a lost home, Syrian filmmaker Afraa Batous and her friends embark on their first road trip ever. It’s been eight years since their homes in Syria were blown to pieces. To fight back against how life has unfolded for them, Afraa makes a film about their dreams and fears and her friends being happy.
AFTER THE RED — France 2022 — Directed by: Marie Sizorn — 14 min — Spoken language: French — Subtitles: English — Production: GREC / IUT de Corse — Producer: Anne Luthaud
In Corsica, the inhabitants of a village witnessed a gigantic fire. A memory leads the filmmaker to this event that changed the course of their lives and left its mark.
Hungary 2022 — Directed by: Zsófia Paczolay — 24 min — Spoken language: Hungarian — Subtitles: English — Production: DocNomads — Producer: Zsófia Paczolay, Bálint Bíró
József works at the largest still-operational grain silo in Budapest. He’s been doing this work for more than 30 years, and lives in a container home next to the structure, where trucks and trains rumble past his window. When he is lowered into the ten-story-deep silos to clean them, he looks like a scuba diver at work. It’s dangerous work for József, not least because he has been exposed to crop dust for many years now. The growing threat to his health could even lead to his death. But he can’t escape it. In fact he seems to have become an integral part of his environment.
Spain 2022 — Directed by: Clara Teper, Paul Pirritano — 72 min — Production Company: NOVANIMA — Producer: Marc Faye
Lens, northern France. Chaylla, 23, is trying to free herself from an abusive marriage. She is ready to fight - to obtain custody of her children, to prove what she has suffered. But on the inside, she still hopes to form a family again with her ex-partner. Both a legal battle and an intimate struggle, Chaylla is the story of four years in the life of a young woman whose attempts at emancipation and desire for justice collide with the clutch of dependence.
The Unicorn in Snowpants Suddenly Ran Off — Germany 2022 — Directed by: Philipp Schaeffer — 19 min — Spoken language: German — Subtitles: English — Production: Filmakademie B-W — Producer: Fabian Leonhardt
"The Unicorn in Snowpants suddenly ran off" explores the clash between blind children ́s fantasy worlds and the reality they live in. The film draws us into the worlds of three confident children, for whom blindness is not a disability but rather a different kind of normal. Larks, telephones and short stories each play a role.
THREE WOMEN — Germany 2022 — Directed by: Maksym Melnik — 85 min — Spoken languages: Ukrainian, German — Subtitles: English, German — Production: Film University Babelsberg
A priest who blesses cars; a post office without stamps; a piglet as a gift: everyday scenes in Stuzhytsia in Ukraine. It is a village with a tough climate and tough people – or so it seems at first. As the film crew follows three women, a farmer, postal worker and a biologist, they are taken in by their joie de vivre and humour and soon feel more and more at home.
This cannot be atoned for — Hungary 2022 — Directed by: László Halász — 42 min — Spoken language: Hungarian — Subtitles: English — Producers: Anita Bozóki, László Halász
Vilmos was released from prison in 2005 after serving 20 years for manslaughter. He still can't recall what led to the murder, but everyday, he carries the weight of his crime. After his release, he initially lived homeless but over the years he managed to find housing on the outskirts of Budapest. Here, he lives with his animals, whom he considers family. His daily life is complicated by various physical maladies. The film follows Vilmos after he is diagnosed with gastric cancer. It is then that he decides to try to come to terms with the events of his past, with the help of a team of social workers.
MAY THE EARTH BECOME THE SKY — Portugal, Romania, Belgium, Hungary 2022 — Directed by: Ana Vîjdea — 15 min — Production Company: Remora Films — Producer: Ana Vîjdea
Maria, a 50-something member of an Orthodox parish in Lisbon, divides her time between prayer and daily tasks such as olive picking. She faces a dilemma: become an ascetic, or reconnect with her two sons. Ana Vijdea paints a sensitive portrait of a woman in the midst of existential doubt, in a film where images are mightier than words.
Austria 2022 — Directed by: Samira Ghahremani — 73 min — Spoken languages: German, English — Subtitles: English, German, Spanish — Producer: Gwendolyn Meisinger
Gerhard is physically handicapped and dependent on care. Nevertheless, he wants to leave and chooses Thailand. He wants to build a future with Amy, his new Thai girlfriend. Their relationship is accompanied by an unspoken agreement: financial support in exchange for a family idyll. But Amy cheats him out of most of his financial assets. With the help of two friends, he tries to rearrange his life because Amy has gone into hiding and with her the dream of a good life.
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