Skill Issue

Germany, Locarno Cineasti del Presente 2024

First feature film by Willy Hans

Synopsis

After escaping from gym class, SIMON (17) finds himself on the banks of a river with a group of teenagers. In the heat of the summer day and amidst all the pointless chatter, time passes as sluggishly as the river water. Only when MARIE appears and both are catapulted into the nearby riverside forest by an unexpected incident do they escape the lethargic group and enter the timeless intermediate realm of the enchanted river landscape. Continuer la lecture →

Boong

India, Toronto Discovery 2024

First feature film by Lakshmipriya Devi

Synopsis

In the valley of Manipur, Boong (*a little boy) plans to surprise his mother with a gift. In his innocence, he believes that bringing his father back home would be the most special gift. His search for his father culminates into an unexpected gift – a new beginning…. Continuer la lecture →

The Waste Land

Belgium, Rotterdam Harbour 2024

Chris Teerink

Synopsis

A full century after publication, The Waste Land considers T. S. Eliot’s namesake poem alongside our present, assuredly asserting that the words continue to resonate and to fuel our imagination. Filmmaker Chris Teerink offers no analysis of the poem, but instead seeks parallels. With a soundtrack by Dutch singer-songewriter Blaudzun, and using photographs and stills instead of moving images, he creates a slideshow that mirrors the fragmentary core of Eliot’s language. Continuer la lecture →

Stranger

China, Karlovy Vary Proxima competition 2024- Grand Prize

Zhengfan Yang

Synopsis

The hotel room as a place where everyone is a stranger. A place that is yours for just a moment. A temporarily intimate space entered by a maid in order to clean it while, if possible, not leaving a trace of her visit. Each episode of Stranger is set in such a place, and each is captured in one long take. Weaving together a series of episodic stories – some humorous and absurd, some poignant and mysterious – that all unfold within a seemingly confined space, Stranger explores the idea of home while being away from it, and sheds light on the distinctive yet universal experiences of isolation and loneliness. Continuer la lecture →

East of Noon

Netherlands, Egypt. Cannes Director’s Fortnight 2024

Hala Elkoussy

Synopsis

Set in a confined world outside time, East of Noon is the fable of prodigy ABDO (19) who uses music to rebel against his elders: showman SHAWKY (70), an eccentric showman who rules with a mix of performance and fear, and storyteller JALALA (75), who provides relief with stories of the Sea, which no one else has seen. East of Noon is a satire on the inner workings of an ailing autocracy and its inherent vulnerability to youth’s unchained vision of a better world. Continuer la lecture →

A Fireland

France, Cannes ACID selection 2024

Mona Convert

Synopsis

In the Landes forest, a family passes down the secrets of fire from generation to generation. Under the eyes of animals, the days and the nights succeed one another. The father, Patrick, eats grass. The daughter, Margot, explodes. The child, Jean, codes firefly arrangements. Continuer la lecture →

Far West

Switzerland, Nyon Visions du Reel Competition 2024

Pierre François Sauter

Synopsis

Angela and Jay survive by fishing for food on the wave-beaten volcanic rocks. Their life as a couple is under stress and their existence is precarious. In their fishing village, which is being transformed into a touristic spot, they rub shoulders with Big Game Fishing enthusiasts who pay fortunes to enjoy themselves and prepare for the Blue Marlin World Cup by hunting the “cheetah of the seas”. Continuer la lecture →

sr

Germany, Rotterdam Tiger Competition 2024

Lea Hartlaub

Synopsis

Recorded in the first dictionary of the Egyptian language is the hieroglyph of the giraffe: sr. In Lea Hartlaub’s film sr the animal emerges as a recurring motif, appearing sometimes directly, sometimes on the margins, across 16 fragmentary episodes that depict a panorama of human activity. Continuer la lecture →

The Day is Long and Dark

Mexico, Malaga 2024

Julio Hernandez Cordon

Synopsis

Vera, a teenage girl that cannot control her thirst for blood, lives in depression. With the help of Cruz, her father, she tries to calm her deadly instincts. This movie portrays the fragility of the emotional bond between a father dealing with a daughter who doesn’t want to live and is afraid to attack her mother and the boy she likes. Continuer la lecture →

Mixtape La Pampa

Argentina, San Sebastian Zabaltegi 2023

Andres di Tella

Synopsis

This is the cinematographic diary of an extended trip through the Pampas, on the trail of Guillermo Enrique Hudson, aka William Henry Hudson. Hudson is an enigmatic figure, full of contradictions: he was an Argentine gaucho who became an English writer. He fought in the army against the “savages” but also defended them. He wrote obsessively about his native land, but never returned. In the twists and turns of the road, a combination emerges of documentary speculation, personal memory… and dreams.

Continuer la lecture →