143 Sahara Street

France/Algeria 2019, Locarno Filmmakers of the Present- Best Director, Toronto Wavelenghts, Seoul DMZDocs Grand Prize, El Gouna Silver Star Award, Montreal RIDM Special Mention, Nantes 3 Continents Silver Mongolfière, Young Jury Prize & Audience Award, Turin Doc competition- Best Film.

Documentary by Hassen Ferhani

Synopsis

In the middle of the Algerian sahara, in her relay, a woman writes her History. She welcomes, for a cigarette, a coffee or eggs, truckers, wandering beings and dreams… Her name is Malika. Continuer la lecture →

Bulbul Can Sing

India 2018, Toronto & Busan 2018, Berlinale Generation 2019- special mention

Feature Film by Rima Das

Synopsis

Bulbul, Bonny and Suman live an idyllic life, playing in the rain, climbing trees and swimming in the river. On the cusp of puberty, the inseparable trio go through their schooling days as a unit, discovering love, sexual awakenings and rebellion together. When a group of villagers discover the teens engaged in acts that outrage their moral modesty, the trio’s friendship is put to the test through violent punishment and tragedy. Continuer la lecture →

Don’t Look Down

France 2019, London BFI

Feature Film by Olivier Ducastel & Jacques Martinot

Synopsis

A woman and four men who barely know each other find themselves in an apartment in the sky above Paris. They have all been the victims of the same perverse dominator who is locked in a room. That night, they decided to end it all. In turn, they tell each other memories that bind them to this man and enter the room to confront him. But what happens there between the monster and them remains their secret. Continuer la lecture →

Gold Is All There Is

Italy 2019, Rotterdam Signatures

Non Fiction Film by Andrea Caccia

Synopsis

A river. A young boy who plays and gets lost in the woods. A naked man who wanders among the trees. A weapon. An illegal hunter. A police officer. A crime from the past. An old gold prospector. Real people, who go about their daily lives in a natural theatre where reality takes on the qualities of a fairy tale, a crime novel, a coming-of-age story. Five men at different stages of life who never meet yet are all part of one, unique, suspended narration.

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Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream

France 2019, Berlin Forum, Curitiba Olhar do Cinema New Views Award – Feature for Best Film, DocLisboa Special Prize of the Jury

First Documentary by Frank Beauvais

Synopsis

January 2016. The love story that brought me to this village in Alsace where I live ended six months ago. At 45, I am now alone, without a car, a job or any real prospects, surrounded by luxuriant nature, the proximity of which is not enough to calm the deep distress into which I am plunged. France, still in shock from the November terror attacks, is in a state of emergency. I feel helpless, I suffocate with contained rage. I am lost and I watch four to five films a day. I decide to record this stagnation, not by picking up a camera but by editing shots from the stream of films I watch. Continuer la lecture →

Just Like That

India 2019, Busan New Currents competition- special mention, Mumbai -Film Critics Guild Award & Best Actress Award

First Feature Film by Kislay Kislay

Synopsis

In the outskirts of a small village in India, Mrs. Sharma is forced to remain a respected middle-class wife and a faithful, wise old woman upon her husband’s death. Her son and his family, who live with her, have no doubt that she will make sacrifices to help them out financially. But Mrs. Sharma has absolutely no intention to do so. Instead, she tries what she has never done before—getting beauty treatments, going to a shopping mall, watching a movie in a theater, and making dolls. Making new friends along the way, she also tries to maintain financial independence and opens a bank account under her own name for the first time.

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Market

India 2019, Busan A Window On Asian Cinema- Kim Jiseok Award

Feature Film by Pradip Kurbah

Synopsis

Iewduh is the name of the largest and the most vibrant market in Northeast India. Market, whose original title is ‘Iewduh’, tells the story of the people of the Iewduh Bara Bazaar market. Mike is a bathroom cleaner working in the darkest of the dark places in the market. He lives with Hep, a boy who was abandoned by his parents and was later taken in by Mike.

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Mother and Son

Azerbaijan 2019, IDFA main competition

Hilal Baydarov

Synopsis

In rural Azerbaijan, a mother welcomes her adult son, who left home eight years earlier. In the calm rhythm of rural life, reflective silences punctuate their personal, philosophical conversations. Continuer la lecture →

Nona If they soak me, I’ll burn them

Chile 2019, Rotterdam Tiger competition

Fiction/ experimental documentary by Camila Jose Donoso

Synopsis

After a torrid act of vengeance on the home of her ex-lover, 66-year old Nona flees to her summer house in Pichilemu, a Chilean coastal town. There she potters about in apparent satisfaction, until a series of forest fires drives many of her neighbors from their homes.

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Present. Perfect.

USA/ Hong Kong 2019, Rotterdam Tiger Award, Mexico Ficunam Special Mention for Best Film, Paris Cinema du Reel Young Jury Award Special Mention, Montreal RIDM Grand Prize.

Documentary by Shengze Zhu

Synopsis

Weaving together footage filmed and broadcasted by little-known Chinese live-streaming anchors, who struggle with real-life face-to-face social interaction because of their identity, disability and social-economic status, this cinematic collage explores how individuals satisfy their cravings for human connection through virtual togetherness, and how these virtual relationships challenge standard definitions of companionship. Continuer la lecture →

Private Fiction

Argentina 2019, San Sebastian Zabaltegi, IDFA Masters

Documentary by Andrés di Tella

Synopsis

Over several days and nights, an actor and an actress read the correspondence between Torcuato and Kamala, the film director’s parents, he from Argentina, and she from India. The letters, encompassing the decades from the 50s to the 70s, refer to love and idealism, record world travels, talk about socialism and psychoanalysis, about pain and broken dreams. Their reading reveals a relationship between the actors, with similarities and differences. Meanwhile, with his own daughter, the director sets about solving the puzzle of the family memory, an intimate twentieth-century tale.

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The Elder One

India 2019, Toronto Special Presentations, Mumbai opening film

Feature Film by Geetu Mohandas

Synopsis

The search for Akbar brings his younger sibiling, Mulla from Lakshadweep island to the decadent underbelly of Mumbai. Continuer la lecture →

When The Persimmons Grew

Azerbaijan 2019- Nyon Visions du Reel Special Mention, Sarajevo Best Documentary Film, IDFA Best of Fest

Hilal Baydarov

Synopsis

Immobile in a home where the sands of time fall to the rhythm of rural Azerbaijani sounds, a mother waits for her son. When he arrives, their conversations circle around existential questi- ons and news from afar, troubling and cryptic. Unrest cloaks the world outside. Continuer la lecture →