Festival films

One minute out of the life of a hero in conflict with local pollution.

Video performance or the breathing exercise on a green field.

Dora works as a barwoman. Her boss exploits her. She has a boyfriend who wants to marry her. She is also a mother. Today she has to remember something very important. The number 36.

“This is a story of boy meets girl,” begins the wry, probing narrator of (500) Days of Summer, and with that, the film takes off at breakneck speed into a funny, true-to-life and unique dissection of the unruly and unpredictable year-and-a-half of one young man’s no-holds-barred love affair. Tom, the boy, still believes, even in this cynical modern world, in the notion of a transforming, cosmically destined, lightning-strikes-once kind of love. Summer, the girl, doesn’t. Not at all. But that doesn’t stop Tom from going after her, again and again, like a modern Don Quixote, with all his might and courage. Suddenly, Tom is in love not just with a lovely, witty, intelligent woman – not that he minds any of that – but with the very idea of Summer, the very idea of a love that still has the power to shock the heart and stop the world.

Seoul, 1975. Jinhee is 9. Her father has placed her in an orphanage run by Catholic nuns. The little girl has to deal with the ordeal of separation and the long wait for a new family. As the seasons pass, the departures of adopted children allow her to glimpse the dream that awaits her but shatter the friendships that she has just formed. Jinhee resists because she knows that the promise of a brand-new life will separate her for good from those she loves.

Adela, a former radio star back in the 50s, is celebrating her eightieth birthday. She tries to treat it like a normal day – doing her daily chores and duties in the dumpsite where she lives, but she can’t hide her loneliness and how she ultimately longs for her family.

Upon learning of a land rich in gold called El Dorado, Gonzalo Pizarro, brother of Francisco, is induced to venture on an expedition of conquest beyond the Andes, at the beginning of 1560. Forced to stop in his tracks, Pizarro decides to send a patrol to explore along the river, placing Don Pedro de Ursua and his subordinate Don Lope de Aguirre in command. The raging river immediately puts their rafts in trouble. When Don Pedro decides to turn back to the base camp, Aguirre seizes the upper hand and names himself head of the expedition. He even writes a declaration of rebellion against Philip II of Castile. But due to hunger and continued attacks by the Indians, his strength slowly diminishes, until the self-proclaimed “Wrath of God” dies in late February 1561, in a tragic conclusion to his absurd mission of conquest.

A life-size Air Doll “lives” in a shabby apartment in Tokyo. Her middle-aged master talks to her, puts her in a bath and makes love to her every day after he returns from work. This routine is disrupted when fantasy turns into reality. One morning, the Air Doll suddenly comes to life, filled with a soul. Exploring the world around her, she soon falls in love with Junichi, a video store clerk. She discovers what it means to live, to love, to be lonely. Everything is going well, until one day her hand is accidentally cut and she begins to deflate in front of Junichi...

Jaffa’s Ajami neighborhood is a melting pot of cultures and conflicting views among Jews, Muslims and Christians. Back and forth in time, and through the eyes of various characters, we witness how impossible the situation actually is... Sensitive 13-year-old Nasri and his older brother Omar live in fear: their entire family is in danger after their uncle foolishly wounds a prominent clan member. Naive young Palestinian refugee Malek works illegally in Israel to help finance the surgery that will save his mother’s life. Affluent Palestinian Binj dreams of a bright future with his Jewish girlfriend. Jewish policeman Dando and his family are desperately searching for his missing younger brother, a soldier...

A sensual and intimate portrait of a young marriage. Focusing on an artistic young couple, Alexander the Last illuminates the challenges of monogamy amidst myriad sexual and creative temptations.

Athens, today. Thirty-seven-year-old Johnny, a frustrated musician, watches the years go by, while his lifelong dream of writing and playing his own music seems to be slipping further and further away. For the last 3 years, he’s been playing the piano at an upscale restaurant and drinking endless bottles of whiskey in order to calm that second voice he hears from inside himself. Johnny’s been going out with Maria for the past five years and they’re planning to get married in three months. But life has other plans for him. And so, that night, Johnny, who has always let the chips fall where they may, will watch his life be shattered...

On the eve of the troupe’s summer tour, the owner and founder of a small circus dies suddenly. In order to save their season, the troupe decides to ask his oldest daughter, Kate, to step in. Even though she walked out on the circus fifteen years earlier, to everyone’s surprise, she agrees to put her new life on hold and join them. By chance, she crosses paths with an Italian, Vittorio. Intrigued by Kate and fascinated by the circus lifestyle, he decides to follow them. Gradually, he becomes part of the life of the troupe, eventually taking the plunge and joining the show. But above all, he tries to uncover Kate’s secret: why did she leave the circus and why did she agree to return? At the end of the tour, they go their separate ways. But which way?

"Commissioned by Channel 4, this great version of Artwar builds from performances with paper masks and implements and various sequences of gunfire. Jeff Keen originally hoped that the several short, punchy and well-composed sections contained within could be shown on television as isolated parts and without announcement. However, Channel 4 didn’t agree".
William Fowler

One of the most ambitious Filipino films in the last decade, Martin’s gorgeously photographed Indio Nacional is a collection of silent film actualities revolving around the Indio, the common man during colonial times. Set in the 1890s brewing revolution of Filipinos against Spain and follows the life of an Indio in three different phases. A loving historical tribute, it tells the story of a child church bell-ringer torn between his duties to the Spanish state and as a Filipino, then a pubescent caught in the growing pressures of the revolution, and finally an actor in a rural community escaping his troubled soul. Running at 96 minutes, this silent film invokes the atmosphere and nostalgia of the forgotten era of silent films.

Animated plastic toys like Cowboy, Indian and Horse have problems, too. Cowboy and Indian’s plan to surprise Horse with a homemade birthday gift backfires when they destroy his house instead. Surreal adventures take over as the trio travel to the center of the earth, trek across frozen tundra and discover a parallel underwater universe where pointy-headed (and dishonest!) creatures live. Each speedy character is voiced – and animated – as if their very air contains both amphetamines and laughing gas. With panic a permanent feature of life in this papier mache town, will Horse and his girlfriend ever be alone?

Twenty-three-year-old Tuck Chai is dating Ying, a schoolgirl who isn’t yet 16. They probably met in an internet chatroom. Their parents know nothing about the illicit relationship, until Ying’s mother and father find birth-control pills in her room. That’s when their worlds start to shatter. Ying’s parents want to report Tuck Chai to the police (he will be charged with statutory rape for having sex with a minor), but his mother pleads with them to settle out of court for a cash compensation instead. After receiving the money, Ying’s selfish parents decide that they want to go to the police regardless. Ying tricks her parents and goes to a fateful meeting with Tuck Chai. The tensions between Tuck Chai and his mother become explosive. Before long, several lives are ruined and the police are involved after all...

Viorel is 42, divorced, has two young daughters and has just quit his job as a technical consultant and engineer at UGICP SA. On the morning of December 2nd, he starts his day feeling inexplicably anxious. Without looking for an explanation, he lets himself get carried away by events, as he aimlessly crosses Bucharest from one end to the other, fully decided on putting an end to the insecurity that has dominated his life since his divorce.

Terence McDonagh, homicide detective with the New Orleans Police Department, is promoted to lieutenant when saving a prisoner from drowning in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In so doing, he severely injures his back. A year later, Terence is in the battle of bringing down drug dealer Big Fate for massacring an entire family of African immigrants and his own addiction to sex, Vicodin and cocaine.