Festival films

9:30 delves into the case of the vitriol attack on Ioanna Paliospyrou, documenting her recovery and the trial of her assailant that gripped Greece. The film examines the psychological impact, community response, and resilience required to navigate the aftermath of such violence, spotlighting the pursuit of justice and victim support.

An attempt to express the daily experience of Palestinians excluded by an apartheid regime, exploring various aspects of the Israeli occupation. Through narratives from four different regions of Palestine, it culminates in a collective narrative of Palestinian resistance as an everyday act of survival and struggle.

The documentary explores life in Cyprus before, during, and after the Turkish invasion of 1974, presenting personal stories. Refugees and enclaved Greek Cypriots describe the chaos of the Turkish military’s invasion, recounting experiences of displacement, loss, captivity, restricted freedoms, efforts to preserve cultural identity, and survival.

An Internet user enters the mental space of an artificial intelligence in search of Francine Descartes, the daughter of René Descartes. This intelligence produces an infinite number of images from a sequence of words ordered by men, until it functions on its own, without human intervention. An alternative, emaciated world, containing all the world's memory, becomes possible.

In 1943, 10-year-old-Rozina, from her hiding place (a small apartment in the center of the Thessaloniki) decides to write her diary under the fake name Roula Karakotsou. This was her only escape from the Nazis, as she endured 548 days of nameless existence in silence. The viewer experiences her adven- ture through her childish gaze, her narratives, as long as she is hiddden.

The story of a twenty-year-old long-distance swimmer who was born prematurely and has struggled since his first breath. His moving attempt to cover a distance of 42.2 kilometers in open waters without stopping. A distance that no athlete his age has achieved to date.

“If the state won’t protect me, I will protect my sisters.” This phrase sums up the philosophy of the Abortion Dream Team. Every third woman in the world will have an abortion, that’s a fact. But in Poland, the abortion ban protects a fetus over a woman’s life. Luckily, there is “Abortion Dream Team”, four bold women running a hotline to support their sisters in need. Working around the clock, they brag on TikTok about facilitating 100 abortions a day and shock people with the slogan “Abortion is OK!”. They gather a huge following empowering hundreds of thousands of women while pissing off all conservatives and the government. This dangerous battle leads to a complete burnout of one team member and to the political prosecution of another, threatening her with three years in prison. As the women reach their breaking point, will the mission and sisterhood of Abortion Dream Team survive? A heartfelt movie about fighting, resistance, and women’s solidarity

“A computer will not make a film as good as mine in 4,500 years” (Werner Herzog): After a local factory worker named Dorem Clery dies under mysterious circumstances, Werner Herzog travels to Getunkirchenburg to investigate his perplexing death. But Herzog, our narrator, is not who he seems, and the film is not what we expect… About a Hero is an adaptation of a script written by an AI trained on Herzog’s body of work. The fictional narrative it produced, ironically self-reflective, is intertwined with a series of interviews with artists, philosophers, and scientists reflecting on the notion of originality, authenticity, immortality, and the soul in the age of AI.

Bassam Mortada, the son of political activists, was 5-years-old when he first visited his father, Mahmoud, in the notorious Abo Zaabal prison. Raised by his mother, Bassam, dredges up the faded memories of his childhood 35 years later in an attempt to comprehend the reasons behind his father’s absence and heal the wounds of his shattered family unit. Through discussions with his parents, interviews with their friends, old recordings, photographs, newspaper cuttings, and a theatrical monologue, Bassam unearths his family history as it was shaped by the political circumstances of the time. In this profoundly personal and political documentary, what moves us is not only the emotionally charged relationship between father and son, or the disarmingly honest attempt to mend their relationship but also the filmmaker’s courage in exploring, in a rare moment for Egyptian cinema, Egypt’s contemporary history.

In 1960, 600,000 Greeks immigrated to Germany to live as workers – the so-called Gastarbeiters. Descendants of this migration stream, Teo, Aglaia, and Vasso, allow us a glimpse of their daily lives and reveal the effects of that migration on their present and future: The film captures the encounter of two cultures and their interaction in contemporary socio-political developments.

The literal title of this film by Nikos Koutelidakis, loaded as it is with layers of irony and secondary meaning, serves as an early inkling of what will become overtly apparent right from its opening shots. The camera contemplates the abandoned mansions in the town of Galaxidi, focusing first on the damage done by wear and tear to their exteriors, and then on their vacant interior spaces that once were filled with a human hustle and bustle. The storied past of this place, including details that evoke its former commercial shipping glory, becomes mired inside Galaxidi’s listing around that time as a protected traditional settlement, one that tries to shake off the quaint, nostalgic air imposed upon it by a pivotal decade at its dawn, only to become trapped once more within the guise of the vintage tourist attraction it remains to this day. Without warning, and much as the past intrudes on the present (or much as the imaginary is delineated by the real), Koutelidakis dedicates a ceremony to Galaxidi, a rite of valediction or perhaps of welcome – it makes no difference which. It is the revival of a carnival custom that sweeps you off into a convulsive death ritual before you even get the chance to acclimatize yourself to its beat, setting the tenor of a Dionysian requiem that does not get to complete its melancholy cycle before it folds within it “a documentary” that might well pertain to every place in Greece that watched on as time effaced its defining characteristics, the way rain washes off the paint that adorns the human order, as if in an attempt to reveal its true nature.

After the international success of The Eight Mountains, Jury Prize winner at Cannes 2022, Paolo Cognetti brings to the big screen the first film written, directed, and starring the author himself. In the summer of 2022, as Italy suffers from drought, Paolo Cognetti witnesses for the first time the depletion of the spring near his house in Estoul, a small village at the foot of Monte Rosa. This serves as the impetus for a journey through the mountains he holds dear, telling a collective yet intimate and deeply human story about the beautiful mountains, the landscapes and glaciers that he called his own, now destined to disappear, or change forever, as a result of climate change. Combining stunning landscapes with intimate encounters, Cognetti offers a deeply personal portrayal of the mountains as a place of profound emotion and belonging. In an intimate, introspective, and unpredictable way, he reveals Monte Rosa not just as a geographical landmark, but as a space for reflection and a deeper understanding of the world around us. To paraphrase Suzanne Simard, a Professor of Forest Ecology: “This film is not about how we can save the mountain. It is about how the mountain could save us.” Sometimes Cognetti feels like a spirit and Laki, his old dog, becomes his guide. Where will it take him?

Portrait of an active bullfighting star, Andrés Roca Rey, which allows us to reflect on the intimate experience of the bullfighter who assumes the risk of facing the bull as a personal duty out of respect for tradition and as an aesthetic challenge. This challenge creates a form of ephemeral beauty through the material and violent confrontation between human rationality and the brutality of the wild animal. “Rigourous, intense, unrestrained, Albert Serra’s perfect frames lure the spectators out of their comfort zone, taking them close to the star and even closer to the death and decadence that surrounds him. Hypnotic, Afternoons of Solitude, is a dive into a world of men, where the fragility and loneliness of masculinity tries to conceal itself behind blood and broderies but eventually resurfaces in flatteries and stranded gazes. In Afternoons of Solitude, once again, beyond the capacity of conveying such an experience with an impeccable style, Serra’s ultimate talent is to leave the spectator alone with their moral compass and ideas. A mark of respect toward the viewer that defines his cinema as one of the most necessary of our times.” (Rebecca De Pas)

Conversing with the ΧR program in the Festival’s official selection, Immersive – All Around Cinema, a unique experience is presented during this year’s edition as an interactive installation. A multi-piece installation that explores the interaction between artificial intelligence and human participants. It encourages contemplation about the relationship between humans and AI, particularly focusing on the themes of judgment, perception, and the human willingness to be an- alyzed by machines. Central to this experience is The Confessional, a piece where participants are subject to AI’s unfiltered analysis, receiving a unique blend of description, imagination, and advice from the machine’s perspective. Accompanying piece AI Ego further expand this narrative, offering diverse, AI-generated interpretations of human identity and existence. The installation not only challenges our comfort with technological judgment but also provokes thought on the broader implications of having AI in our lives. The installation invites participants to reflect on their self-image when reinterpreted through the lens of artificial intelligence, thus resonating with the central tribute of this festival edition.

No one was doing Marek salmon fishing, when Shige revived the tradition in 2011. In this day and age, when living as Ainu is a choice, Shige is cultivating his own ways to maintain his Ainu identity and culture for the next generations. Every year, Shige has to get permissions from the Hokkaido government, the fishermen’s union, the organization that fosters salmon, and the police department before he can start Marek fishing. He’ll get caught as a poacher if he catches a salmon without those permissions, even though his sole purpose of this is to keep the tradition alive. Not minding the challenges he has to face as Ainu, Shige stays positive and keeps his practices in a stoic manner. Discrimination and prejudice against Ainu people have been weakening over time, which can be seen in Shige’s young son, Motoki being open about his Ainu identity to his classmates and eager to learn about Ainu culture through his father. Shige has no intention to force Motoki to do anything but hopes for him to nurture his Ainu identity in his own way. Ainu Puri explores one family's endeavor to live as Ainu in today's Japan.

Denisa, Dimitris, Stefania, and Orestis, children and grandchildren of Albanian immigrants from the 1990s, were born and raised in Greece. They share their experience on camera – not the experience of immigration itself, but rather their own stories, stories that are neither only Albanian nor only Greek but Albanian and Greek together.

In this energetic and soulful coming-of-age documentary, Naomi, Jojo, and Arham grapple with economic divides, gender roles, and family dynamics while competing in the fastest-growing high school sport in the country: women’s wrestling. All American follows the lives of three immigrant and first-generation high school female wrestlers, who train and compete against both boys and girls, as their devoted coaches prepare them for competition and lives beyond high school. Family dynamics, economics, and gender roles collide in this underdog story of community and found family. Personal evolution and transformation are forged through challenges encountered on and off the mat over five years of filmmaking, high school, and eventually, college wrestling. Bound together by the perspectives of veteran female wrestlers, the documentary maintains an inspiring tone while confronting the tough realities of trailblazing female athletes and American immigrant families.

A 20-minute interactive mixed-reality documentary unveiling how a Chinese art student in Italy sparked one of the largest democratic protests in China by relentlessly sharing bad news on Twitter. The experience blends hand-drawn animation, 3D-converted archival footage, and immersive interaction to place viewers within Teacher Li’s transformative journey and explore the global impact of social media activism.

The dark cabaret of The Tiger Lillies and the provocative mind of Martyn Jacques, through a haunting performance filmed at the emblematic Olympion Theater in Thessaloniki and during one night with Martyn Jacques in the city. Alone with the Moon.

Documenting the entire cycle of aluminium production, from bauxite extraction to final processing, and capturing the construction of the industrial infrastructure at Aspropyrgos, Boeotia, in 1960, Roussos Koundouros delivers Aluminium of Greece – one of the first industrial documentaries in Greek cinema, a striking testament to his scientific precision and cinematic vision in recording the radical transformation of the Greek landscape. With no voice-over narration, but guided by pioneering electronic score, Koundouros doesn’t simply depict the before and after of an industrial process. In full harmony with his artistic ethos – and almost in defiance of the film’s corporate commission by “Aluminium of Greece” – he challenges the limits of cinematic poetry, using his lens to uncover unexpected beauty, rhythm, intensity, and even a quiet melancholy in the mechanization of progress. In what might have been a dry technical record, he finds sacredness in steel, movement in machinery, and an eerie poetry in progress itself, revealing the human and environmental stakes of industrialization as it reshapes both landscapes and lives.

In 2021, 92-year-old artist June Leaf invited friends and neighbors from rural Nova Scotia to come sit in her kitchen and remember her late husband, the photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank. Over the course of this informal wake, we learn the extent to which the couple's artwork was fueled by their adopted home of 50 years, the ways their presence as artists inspired the community around them, and most importantly how storytelling helps to process grief as June continues on with her own artistic journey. Not long before her own death, on July 1, 2024, June was able to watch a cut of the film and share her satisfaction with Whalen and Parlante, confiding, “You must be very happy to have made this film. I am happy to have this.” An affectionate portrait of two commanding presences in modern art, that stands as a testament not only to the artist couple’s powerfully intimate
ate and creative relationship but also to their enduring ties to the Mabou community of Cape Breton, as we see friends and neighbors gather in the warmth of her kitchen to share colorful stories.