Bettina and Marcus is a passionate couple living in a canteen in the middle of a plain field dotted by never-ending rows of poles. Marcus, trying to create his own company, has become an electrician. Bored Bettina manages the workers’ canteen and longs for a better life. Their nine-year-old daughter Tessa avoids school whenever possible and wanders through the industrial area, looking for various things to entertain herself. The casual way of life changes its pattern when Marcus hires a Hungarian engineer to work in the company. A tragic accident shatters the fragile harmony.
Cast: Lisbeth Gruwez, Sam Louwyck, Kimke Desart, Zoltan Miklos Hajdu
Directed by: Caroline Strubbe
JØRGEN LETH (Denmark, 1937) is a true living cultural icon. Theatre, film and jazz critic, poet, writer, sports commentator, and anthropologist, having travelled to Africa, Southeast Asia, South America and India, and having written volumes on his observations. He is also a leading figure in experimental documentary filmmaking with several dozens of films in his filmography. His surrealistic short The Perfect Human (1967) was later famously explored in The Five Obstructions (2003), co-directed with Lars von Trier. The Erotic Man, Leth's docu-fictional account of his sexual encounters with women in third world countries, is a collection of scenes based on documents, letters, pictures and poems that depict man's erotic nature. The controversially reviewed film premiered at the 2010 Toronto IFF.
Cast: Alexander Gruszynski, Dan Holmberg, Adam Philp
Directed by: Jorgen Leth
Marian, a middle-aged nurse, devotes herself to her patients like a saint. Sometimes she even takes on the role of a redeemer, by helping the gravely ill to the soothing order of ultimate silence. When she gets linked to a neighbour in an act of common voyeurism she becomes fascinated by him. Faced with the fragility of these newfound emotions, Marian surrenders to her human needs...
Cast: Bien de Moor, Lars Eidinger, Annemarie Prins, Sophie van Winden
Directed by: Urszula Antoniak
The meditative film from the newcomer Thai director is a beautifully atmospheric, poetic and spiritual journey through time and space. The film shows the wandering spirit of a dead man returning to the landscape of his youth and reliving the love that was meant for eternity. Imbued with impressive soundscapes, dreamlike and slow-paced, this film is a world where everything is possible and the boundaries between the present and the past, the waking life and the afterlife, are seamlessly blurred.
Cast: Pattraporn Jaturanrassmee, Wanlop Rungkamjad, Namfon Udomlertlak, Prapas Amnuay
Directed by: Sivaroj Kongsakul
It is Saturday, April 26th 1986, and a reactor has just exploded in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The Party leadership is silent, the population clueless. Only the loyal Party member Valery attempts to flee the invisible danger with his girlfriend Vera. But the vitality and high spirits of his merry-making friends keep him firmly in their grip... The story of the apocalypse in the Ukrainian village Prypiat has stirred the fantasy of the acclaimed Russian scriptwriter and director ALEKSANDER MINDADZE (Russia, 1949), who has created a surreal drama about the dance on the edge of a volcano. One of the most exquisite qualities of the film is its cinematography by the distinguished Romanian cinematographer Oleg Mutu.
Cast: Anton Shagin, Svetlana Smirnova-Marcinkevich, Vasilij Guzov, Aleksej Demidov
Directed by: Aleksander Mindadze
Tyrannosaur follows the story of two lonely, damaged people brought together by circumstance. Joseph is an unemployed widower, drinker, and a man crippled by his own volatile temperament and furious anger. Hannah is a Christian worker at a charity shop, a respectable woman who appears wholesome and happy. When the pair are brought together, Hannah appears as Joseph’s potential saviour, someone who can temper his fury and offer him warmth, kindness, and acceptance. As their story develops, Hannah’s own secrets are revealed — her relationship with husband James is violent and abusive…
Cast: Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan
Directed by Paddy Considine
Scriptwriter: Paddy Considine
A couple has to make a decision to leave Iran to better the life of their child or to stay and take care of a parent suffering from Alzheimers; however, the couple's marriage may end in divorce. Ostensibly simple on a narrative level yet morally, psychologically and socially complex, it succeeds in bringing Iranian society into focus in a way few other films have done. The film was a triumph at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, receiving Golden Bear for Best Film.
Cast: Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat
Directed by: Asghar Farhadi
1970s, Amsterdam. Karo, a ten-year-old girl with a jet-black hair, lives in a hippie commune with her parents. Her father is a charismatic idealist who believes in life with no boundaries and restrictions, whereas her mother would much rather prefer faithfulness and private space for her own work. The moment a young woman enters the family life, Karo is a witness to changes in her parents’ relationships, as well as experiences the aggressive attitude of the authorities directed at the commune. However, the girl’s life is not short of lightness and joy as everyday life in the squat is cheerful and beautiful.
Cast: Anna Franziska Jaeger, Déborah François, Matthias Schoenaerts, Maria Kraakman
Directed by: Dorothee van den Bergh
Every morning, François, a bailiff, bids goodbye to his wife and begins the unpleasant task of evictions. However this morning, September 11th, the usual course of events is upset when, having arrived at one of the apartments, he coincidentally falls hostage to its tenants. In a wink of an eye the neighbourhood is surrounded by the usual crowd – François wife, a committed negotiator, police, snipers, and reporters. Little by little the local residents become annoyed by the irritating presence of the mob, and the captors realize there is a rather strange but possibly one chance to escape.
Cast: Hippolyte Girardot, Mohamed Fellag, Aymen Saïdi, Michel Vuillermoz
Directed by: Angelo Cianci
Oliver works as an air traffic controller at Bratislava airport. He is of Czech origin, and while he has worked in Slovakia for many years, he has never managed to assimilate. He leads a lone existence in a large housing community where he has a view into the windows of other tenants. Oliver's attention is mainly focused on a young family who live opposite him. The family embodies the happiness which has always eluded him. Soon, however, his feelings of admiration turn to envy and desire as Oliver becomes intent on procuring a contented life for himself, even if it means breaking the law.
Cast: Ivan Trojan, Jana Hlavacova, Kristína Turhanová, Dagmar Bruckmeyer
Directed by: Peter Kristúfek
Azam returns to his native village to visit his friend Ali and his wife. At night, the three of them depart on a boat trip to an uninhabited island. Slowly adjusting to the rhythm of the waves, Azam yields to a flashback of memories, hoping they would help to explain the lonesome void he has been unable to fill with the career of a successful singer in the city. Between the voyage and visions of past the spectator is also entertained by mythical and humoresque stories that bear an indirect link to the main character’s life.
Cast: Nam Ron, Azman Hassan, Mislina Mustaffa
Directed by: Tan Chui Mui
Charlotte is a tender human being, having found her life’s fulfillment in a way that is strange enough to be hidden. She is married, has a son, and works in a hospital. When Charlotte’s husband Max finds out his wife’s secret passion, their marriage is put to a test, and she is sacked from the work at the hospital. Wishing to save their relationship and to flee from the ghosts of the past, Charlotte and Max embark on a exotically saturated voyage to India.
Cast: Sandra Hüller, Dragan Bakema, Sabine Timoteo, Rvan Brodie
Directed by: Nanouk Leopold