A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces

USA – Berlin Forum 2021- Caligari Prize, Paris Cinema du Reel competition, IDFA Paradocs, Milan Filmmaker Award

Documentary by Shengze Zhu

Synopsis

A portrait of urban spaces along the Yangtze River in the city of Wuhan. An engaging communal stage on which people perform in various ways: some dancing, singing, swimming; some shoveling, welding, and hammering. An evolving landscape that is continuously sculpted by nature and dramatically altered by roaring machines and rising infrastructure. Where desires are planted. Where memories are buried. The lost place. Continuer la lecture →

Aurora

Costa Rica – Rotterdam Big Screen competition 2021, San Sebastian Horizontes Latinos, Antalya Best Director Award 

Feature Film by Paz Fabrega

Synopsis

Thoughtfully, lovingly, Aurora tells the story of an unwanted pregnancy. Alongside her work as an architect, 40-year-old Luisa gives inspirational creative workshops to children. One day, she comes across 17-year-old Yuli by the school toilets; it turns out she has unintentionally become pregnant. Luisa decides to help her – in the process operating herself into a difficult position somewhere between friend, teacher and mother figure. Or does she secretly enjoy playing this role?

Continuer la lecture →

Fire in the Mountains

India – Sundance World Cinema competition 2021

First feature Film by Ajitpal Singh

Synopsis

A mother toils to save money to build a road in a Himalayan village to take her wheelchair-bound son for physiotherapy but her husband who believes that a shamanic ritual (Jagar) is the remedy, steals her savings. Continuer la lecture →

Epicentro

Austria, France – Sundance Winner World Cinema Grand Jury Prize Documentary 2020

Hubert Sauper

Synopsis

An immersive and metaphorical portrait of post-colonial, “utopian” Cuba, where the 1898 explosion of the USS Maine still resonates. This Big Bang ended Spanish colonial dominance in the Americas and ushered in the era of the American Empire. At the same time and place, a powerful tool of conquest was born: cinema as propaganda. In Epicentro, Sauper explores a century of interventionism and myth-making together with the extraordinary people of Havana — particularly its children, who he calls “young prophets » — to interrogate time, imperialism and cinema itself. Continuer la lecture →

Eyimofe (This is my Desire)

Nigeria – Berlin Forum 2020, Seattle New Directors Competition Grand Jury Award 2021, MOOOV winner of the University of Antwerp Award 2021

First feature film by Arie & Chuko

Synopsis

Tragedy and fate intervene as two Nigerians try to better the lives of their families. Eyimofe (This is My Desire) is a film about two people’s quest for what they believe will be a better life on foreign shores. Continuer la lecture →

Nails in my Brain

Azerbaijan, Paris Cinema du Reel competition 2020

Documentary by Hilal Baydarov

Synopsis

A young man wanders through the ruins of what may or may not be his childhood home, where each crumbling doorway opens up onto the past. Memories accost him-memories of his school days, of loved ones long gone, of wonder, callousness, and defeat. Continuer la lecture →

The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs

India – Berlinale Encounters competition 2020

Feature film by Pushpendra Singh

Synopsis

The timeless story of the proud and beautiful nomadic shepherdess Laila is set against the backdrop of the current Kashmir conflict. A tribute to a very modern female figure, inspired by mystical poetry and traditional songs. Continuer la lecture →

The Trouble with Nature

Denmark 2020, Rotterdam Bright Future competition

First feature film by Illum Jacobi

Synopsis

The year 1769. The philosopher Edmund Burke has fled London, debt collectors and a ramping midlife crisis to go on a grandtour of the Alps to rewrite his book on the Sublime in this 18. century roadmovie. Continuer la lecture →

Ofrenda

Argentina 2020, Rotterdam Bright Future competition

First Feature Film by Juan Monaco Cagni

Synopsis

Ofrenda depicts two women who, at various stages in their lives, happen to be in the same place. Being and time. That might sound vague, but this is nonetheless what it is. The young teens spend time in summery fields, in desolate, abandoned warehouses and other buildings on the outskirts of a small provincial town in the Argentinian pampas. The same spaces reoccur a few years later when the young women meet again when one of them returns with a backpack symbolising the knowledge acquired. Continuer la lecture →

Piedra Sola

Argentina 2020, Rotterdam Tiger Award competition

First Feature Film by Alejandro Telemaco Tarraf

Synopsis

Deep inside the Argentinian highlands in a small community at an altitude of 4000 ma.s.l, a native llama herder is following the traces of an invisible puma who is killing his livestock. Through his search, a mystical exchange is revealed between him, his ancestors and the changing form of the puma. Continuer la lecture →