Police officer Gromov, surgeon Kaminsky and taxi driver Mozerov are a smashing trio. During the old school days they played in a band called Gromozeka, and as the local rebels were the idols for their schoolmates and horror for the teachers. A lot has changed since then and each of them has their own different troubles: one is futilely waiting for the well-deserved promotion, another is having a hard time maneuvering between his wife and his lover, but the daughter of the third is featuring in porn videos. Despite the long time passed since they saw each other last, Gromozeka is united on stage at a school reunion party in order to play the greatest hits of the 1980s.
Cast: Nikolay Dobrynin, Boris Kamorzin, Leonid Gromov, Yevgeniya Dobrovolskaya, Polina Filonenko
Directed by: Vladimir Kott
Bibinur is already of age, and her last dream does not bring happy tidings. She sees herself, aged five, walking through a blossoming orchard, beckoned by her dead relatives sitting in the trees. Bibinur realizes she has only five days left, and she must use this time to set the old debts straight to pass on to the other side peacefully. Suddenly the usual quietness of the village is disturbed by the arrival of businessmen and landowners who start fixing shady deals. One of them spends the night at Bibinur’s house, where he is about to have several surprising revelations.
Cast: Firdaus Akhtyamova, Ernest Timerkhanov, Ruslan Mustafin
Directed by: Juri Feting
On a water-skiing outing, a girl drives a speedboat and pulls a young man, when a crash occurs. After waking up from a coma, the man embarks on a mysterious travel – an odyssey where intuition and telepathy accelerates the journey in time. Dharma Guns revisits the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice fighting with the tyranny of Time-God. At a time when the industrial death of cinema seems to have been rationally, technically and economically organized, a cinema of poetry and fantastical adventure – intentionally created in a B-movie style – is possible.
Cast: Guy McKnight, Elvire, Lionel Tua, Diogo Doria
Directed by: F.J. Ossang
Habemus Papam is a traditional announcement in Latin, meaning “We Have a Pope!” The conclave of cardinals has spent several days in isolation, considering the candidates. The crowd of people in the St. Peter’s Square has also been waiting patiently. Everyone’s attention is suspended in tension until the moment the new pope appears on the balcony and greets all the believers. However, an unexpected problem occurs as the new pope has a panic attack. A famous psychoanalyst, an atheist, is called to help.
Cast: Michel Piccoli, Nanni Moretti, Jerzy Stuhr, Renato Scarpa
Directed by: Nanni Moretti
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