Short Plays
Football seen through the eyes of some of the best directors of the world.
Gaspar Noé
Doris Dörrie
Carlos Reygadas
Vincent Gallo
Pablo Fendrik
Karim Aïnouz
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Koen Mortier
Sebastián Cordero
Rune Denstad Langlo
Yang Ik-june
Fernando Eimbcke
Pablo Stoll
Luca Lucini
Juan Carlos Valdivia
Duane Hopkins
Abner Benaim
Daniel Gruener
Jaime Rosales
Viktor Kossakovsky
Faouzi Bensaïdi
Carlos Moreno
Kiki Sugino
Pedro Amorim
Mascha Halberstad
Matías Cruz
Bobo Jelčić
Buthina Canaan Khoury
Emnet Mulugeta
Casts & Crew
Also Directed by Gaspar Noé
Noé explores the line where art meets sexuality, and does so in a very simplistic form of expression.
A girl dances in her bedroom.
A girl dances and expresses herself in her bedroom.
After the birth of his baby daughter Cynthia, a Parisian horse butcher soon finds himself abandoned, responsible to raise and care for his newborn girl, completely on his own. Moreover, as his little girl grows into an adolescent, nothing much seems to change in the butcher's life, who day in, day out, experiences the same numbing and tedious repetition, up until Cynthia's first signs of puberty. Under those circumstances and after a dreadful incident coupled with an ungovernable paroxysm of violence, the butcher will fall into a downward spiral that will burn to the ground whatever dignity still remained in him.
A vibrant essay on respect for beliefs, the actor’s craft and the art of filmmaking.
After a volcano, a small village from where no one can escape. The plague spreads, and among the survivors, the famine rules. For a piece of bread, Charlotte sleeps with the grocer. Night falls. The cliffs, someone is watching…
Gaspar Noé's short film for "Short Plays" (2014).
Noé has now re-edited the film in chronological order, adopting the victim’s point of view more directly. Irréversible – inversion intégrale is more than a new version of a cult work, it’s a new and terribly contemporary film about violence against women.
"Shoot" a short film by Gaspar Noé for the project "Short plays".
Also Directed by Doris Dörrie
After a series of catastrophically failed marriages, Apple is single again. Blame on Apple's attachment is in her opinion, her mother Ingrid. Because this Apple has punished not only with her hippie name, but was in every way a raven mother. When Ingrid spends an All Inclusive vacation in Spain, her mother and daughter are confronted with a dramatic event from their past.
Kemal Kayankaya, a private detective, was hired by a Turkish women, Ilter, to search for his husband, Amend, who has been missing since the death of her father, Vassif. Unknownst to him, he was about to unravel the secrets of his client's family, as well as their various dealings with the underworld and the police. Moreover, being a Turk raised in a German foster family, he has also begun to understand and accept his own ethnicity.
Nackt is the story of three couples, one of which just broke up, one that seems to be about to and one perfectly okay. They are all friends and from time to time they gather to talk about everything.One time they gather for dinner at the second couple's "mansion" - the husband became rich with his business. We see each couple as they prepare themselves for the party and learn a lot about their relationships.At the dinner they get to talking about recognizing each other's peer with closed eyes and decide to try it (thus the title "Nackt"=naked in German).
Film by Doris Dörrie.
A young German woman bonds with an elderly Japanese woman while touring the Fukushima region of Japan in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake.
When a salon refuses to hire her because of her plump figure, irrepressible hair stylist Kathi plots revenge by opening her own beauty parlor next door. But when she faces a cash-flow problem, Kathi resorts to some creative means of raising capital.
When everything in his life seems to be going wrong, downtrodden and alcohol-dependent Karl has a fateful encounter in Munich with Yu, a mysterious Japanese dancer from his father’s past. Unexpectedly, Yu begins to help Karl confront his demons (both literal and figurative) and begin to heal.
After finding out that her husband, Rudi, has a fatal illness, Trudi Angermeier arranges a trip to Berlin so they can see their children. Of course, the kids don't know the real reason they're visiting -- and the catch is, neither does Rudi...
Also Directed by Carlos Reygadas
Este es mi reino (This Is My Kingdom) is Mexican director Carlos Reygadas‘ contribution to the 2010 anthology film, Revolución. The film is comprised of ten short films about the concept of revolution, relating in whatever way to the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The other Mexican directors with shorts in the film are: Mariana Chenillo, Fernando Eimbcke, Amat Escalante, Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo García, Diego Luna, Gerardo Naranjo, Rodrigo Plá, and Patricia Riggen.
A family lives in the Mexican countryside raising fighting bulls. Esther is in charge of running the ranch, while her husband Juan, a world-renowned poet, raises and selects the beasts. Although in an open marriage, their relationship begins to crumble when Esther falls in love with an American horsebreaker and Juan is unable to control his jealousy.
Made up of 10 short films, 'Revolucion' analyzes through the eyes of the directors what is the revolution today and what it means to the young minds of Mexico.
A short film, Bergmanesque and surrealist in tone, shot in black & white 8mm. A man, a coffin, a cliff. Yet not without humour.
A painter from the big city goes to a remote canyon to commit suicide. To reach some calmness he stays at the farmstead of Ascen, an old religious woman. Although only a few words are spoken, love grows.
A suicidal man recalls life with his mother as a boy.
Civil war in Belgium. Charles and Bruno are childhood friends. Walloon and Flamenco. Now one is a prisoner of war in the custody of the other.
Set in Mexico City, Carlos Reygadas's sexually explicit drama centers on a man in turmoil over his past actions. Chauffer Marcos feels compelled to reveal a dark secret to his boss's daughter, Ana, a wealthy woman who works as a prostitute just for the thrill of it. Marcos confesses that he and his wife committed a crime that ended in horrible tragedy. Haunted by his past, Marcos searches for redemption.
Juan and his urban family live in the Mexican countryside, where they enjoy and suffer a world apart. And nobody knows if these two worlds are complementary or if they strive to eliminate one another.
Also Directed by Vincent Gallo
Billy is released after five years in prison. In the next moment, he kidnaps teenage student Layla and visits his parents with her, pretending she is his girlfriend and they will soon marry.
A self-portrait of Vincent Gallo.
A road trip love affair.
An extremely stripped down conceptual film by Vincent Gallo. Filmed in late 2009.
A conceptual, minimalist, experimental film designed to play directly along with music by John Frusciante.
Kevin is a long-time, professional assassin, specializing in the termination of life. Mallory is a wild, poetic, beautiful young woman confronting her terminal illness and eventual suicide. She reaches out to Kevin to take responsibility for her corpse once she passes, requesting his protection of her dead body’s dignity until her cremation. Kevin’s acceptance of this request causes uncomfortable self-reflection and changes the lens through which he views death.
2001 video for Gallo's song Honey Bunny.
A documentary on the making of “Buffalo 66."
A visual representation of John Frusciante's album "To Record Only Water for Ten Days". Features the musician spinning around, kneeling, hitting a wall in a closed space, being hit by a car outside and several successions of action loops.
The talent agent Ari Sheinwold is visited one day by his top client Vincent Gallo for a meeting, which begins with some good news. When Sheinwold does not receive the response he expects from Gallo after telling him the "good news", the agent begins to reveal his true nature.
Also Directed by Pablo Fendrik
Eleven award winning directors explore why nearly one out of every two students in Latin America never graduates high school.
A man visits a school to enroll his son, but then he pulls out a gun and robs the school from their money. The movie follows the man and is shot with an unsteady handycam.
The story follows the struggles of Arturo, a cab driver who has to find $2000 within 24 hours; his older son, Ramiro, who left home four years ago, has just phoned from Houston asking for urgent help. However, Arturo's wife Irene keeps their savings away from Arturo's reach.
Kaí is a mysterious shaman who emerges from the Rio Paraná to help a poor farmer and his daughter, who are threatened by a band of cold-blooded mercenaries hired to force them to sell their land.
Architect Fabián Danubio desperately tries to find his daughter, who has inexplicably disappeared leaving no trace.
It is the golden age of gangs, and one of the darkest times for the police, who are controlled by a group of millionaire commissioners sharing in the illicit businesses of Buenos Aires.
Also Directed by Karim Aïnouz
Donato fails in his attempt to save a drowning man, and meets one of the man's friends. He decides to start his life over, but pieces of his past keep coming after him.
A documentary about Berlin's former airport Tempelhof. A film about Departures and Arrivals. And about those Berliners who come here to escape from their daily lives and those refugees who came here to finally arrive somewhere.
In northern Brazil, Hermila patiently waits for her husband. However, he has abandoned her. Sexy, restless and resolute, she raffles off "a night in paradise" with herself. This beautifully-shot portrait doesn't shy away from the burdens of a young scarred woman, but it also celebrates her courage to live according to her own rules.
A trip, sort of a daydream in the Brazilian badlands. Remote places reveal traditions and customs of a landscape that is at once primitive and contemporary, regional and globalised.
Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.
The Earth pos-pandemic.
José Renato, a 35-year-old geologist, is sent out on a solitary expedition to the hinterlands of northeastern Brazil. The purpose of the trip is to assess possible routes for a canal that will connect the area with the only major river in the region. As the field trip progresses, it becomes clear that Renato shares with those places the same emptiness, sense of abandonment and isolation.
An experimental collective film lasting little more than an hour, compiled from 10 episodes by a total of 14 different young Brazilian filmmakers. The project was an initiative of the directing duo Felipe Bragança and Marina Meliande, who sent a ‘letter of concern’ to inspire the participants. In it, a 16-year-old girl wrote about her dreams, which have been translated by the directors into films about love, youth and the possibilities of cinema.
Also Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
A fluorescent tube illuminates an empty playground in the evening. Nearby a flash of light is projected on a makeshift screen. This outdoor movie is a portrait of a village repeatedly struck by lightning. As night falls, the silhouette figures of young men emerge, they are playing with a football raging with fire. They take turns kicking the ball which leaves illuminated trails in the grass. The lightning on the screen flickers amid the fire and the smoke rising from the ground. The game intensifies with each kick that sends the fireball soaring into the air. Finally the teens burn the screen and crowd around it to witness the blazing canvas, behind which is revealed the ghostly white beam of a projector. Phantoms of Nabua is part of the multi-platform Primitive project which focuses on a concept of remembrance and extinction and is set in the northeast of Thailand.
0116643225059 is an early experimental film by Weerasethakul made during his time at SAIC. The work is about a long-distance telephone conversation between the filmmaker and his beloved mother in Khon Kaen, Thailand. Weerasethakul superimposed a photograph of his mother in her youth alongside his own image and his apartment in Chicago. It renders a strong bond between the artist and his family.
Taking the recent tsunami in Asia as its starting point, the filmmakers have used the idea of a ghost seen wandering along the rocky coastline of a Thai island and, in a life-affirming gesture, they have invited some local children to direct the film for them, suggesting and filming the movements of the actor-ghost.
Created in celebration of the three-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, this short essay centres on a monologue delivered by a reincarnation of the philosopher in twenty-first century Thailand.
The work is part of the Memoria Project, the first major series of work that is set outside of Weerasethakul’s home country. Given his affinity for the Amazon, of which Thai jungle tales were originally inspired, Weerasethakul has started to explore South America - and since 2017, has been developing a film based in Colombia. He is drawn to its topography, where active volcanoes and landslides ceaselessly transform natural landscapes. The Memoria Project presents both personal and collective memories, while retaining the artist’s fascination with illumination. A vital part of the video and photographic works is the presence of a lone protagonist on the beach. Weerasethakul worked with Canadian actor Connor Jessup who visited him during the filming of a documentary at Nuquí area in Chocó Department, western Colombia. Here, the actor is a spirit that contemplates the artist’s journey, his dream of both real and imaginary films.
Petch, one of the young men of Nabua, composes and plays this song about his village. One evening, he sang a song to Weerasethakul’s film crew regarding an August event when the former members of the Communist Party of Thailand gathered to commemorate the first shoot out in the field more than 45 years ago. Weerasethakul layers Petch’s song with an image of his friend, Kamgiang, whose grandfather was killed by the soldiers in the field not far from his home.
Invisibility displays Weerasethakul’s continued interest in the issue of perception and memory. The installation takes threads from his recent films, Cemetery of Splendor and Fever Room, both of which feature the same actors. Here, he takes them deeper into an imaginary world and ponders the future of shared consciousness. The videos depict a landscape where the protagonists are confined to a room, along with the viewers. With no way out, they infiltrate each other’s dreams. Invisibility mirrors the troubled state of Thailand’s politics. It proposes a decayed vision of the future where one needs to constantly evade reality. The viewing experience shifts between seeing and not seeing, fact and fiction, space and void.
For a Fiery Monkey Year.
In this video diary, Weerasethakul documents the set of Primitive Project in Nabua, Thailand, particularly the scene when teenagers are hypnotized and sleep inside a time machine.
Cactus River is a diary of the time Apichatpong Weerasethakul visited a newlywed couple near the Mekong River.
Also Directed by Koen Mortier
A young thug is up to no good
SKUNK tells the story of Liam, a boy who grew up with marginal, sex, alcohol and drug addicted parents. He grew up to be a confused youngster which ends in a very aggressive act to break with his past.
Nike team skateboarding.
Sam wakes up, gets ready and goes to do his daily job. And then the unexpected happens. A bomb explodes in the center of the shopping mall where he works. He drags himself towards the entrance to save the victims. One by one he pulls them out, until something terrible takes place. In complete hysteria he runs off till he falls down from exhaustion. A woman's voice makes him raise his head. She's one of the victims he saved. She wants to know why the suicide bomber did it. This encounter projects him back in history and even in a surreal world. Thereafter he runs into everyone he saved and feels that their defeat shows many parallels with his own. Even his confrontation with the wrongdoer isn't that straightforward as he thought it would be and confronts him with the fact that guilt and innocence can be pretty much alike.
Three handicapped losers who form a band ask famous writer Dries to be their drummer. He joins the band and starts manipulating them.
Being a prostitute is not easy, let alone being Senegalese. Fatou is both. A paying customer dies under suspicious circumstances and turns out to be a world-class cyclist. After this fatal accident Fatou's world slowly falls apart.
Also Directed by Sebastián Cordero
Blaquito is thirty years old and lives with his mother in El Matal, a small fishing village on the coast of Ecuador. One day, the beach turns up filled with cocaine packets. Blanquito, along with his friend Lorna, decide to travel to Guayaquil, where people will pay five times more per package. Little does Blanquito realize that in the days that follow he will be staring at death in the eye and losing his head for love.
The world of Salvador, a young and naive petty thief is changed by the arrival of his cousin Angel, an ex-convict in search of easy money, and with a hideout. Salvador gets wrapped up in Angel's twisted dealings in an attempt to escape from his suffocating family, dragging along his family and friends, in his criminal path. Where will this all lead?
A romantic thriller about a construction worker in hiding for killing his foreman who hides in the mansion where his girlfriend works as a maid.
A crew of international astronauts are sent on a private mission to Jupiter's fourth moon.
A suspense thriller about a reporter from Miami who travels to Ecuador in pursuit of a serial killer known as the "Monster of Babahoyo."
Two families dispute a land with a land dealer.
Also Directed by Rune Denstad Langlo
A couple decide to open a home for refuges in the remote cold mountains of Norway.
Emir, Amina, Haji and Assad are all members of the hip hop group Forente Minoriteter (United Minorities). The film follows them through their musical process, with it's ups and downs.
After having success in Asia, businessman Aksel Borgen is asked back to his hometown in Norway to save an important local firm despite it being 20 years since he was sentenced and later acquitted for murdering his high school sweetheart.
In the Norwegian Constitution, there is an article that speaks for future generations. Article 112 gives all unborn Norwegians the right to a clean environment, and now it has been challenged in the Norwegian Supreme Court for the first time in history as a group of lawyers, young activists and grandparents file a historic lawsuit against the Norwegian government for granting new oil licenses in the Arctic Barents Sea.
During the war, resistance work took place all over Norway. Some groups sacrificed everything for the country and were later praised and honored. Other groups sacrificed little or nothing and were forgotten. This is the story of one such group.
Anna hasn’t seen her family for a decade. When her grandmother dies, she returns home to take care of her grandfather. In the week leading up to the funeral, nothing goes as expected, and Anna is forced to reconsider how she lives her life.
It can be tough to be a kid. Especially if you're not part of the gang. Foul is a humorous and melancholy everyday odyssey; a road movie that follows a ten-year-old girl through all the resistance she experiences on a normal winter day in Norway.
Short documentary
Following a nervous breakdown, ski athlete Jomar has isolated himself in a lonely existence as the guard of a ski park. When he learns that he might be the father of a child way up north, he sets on a strange and poetic journey through Norway on a snowmobile, with 5 liters of alcohol as sole provisions. On this trip through amazing arctic landscapes, Jomar seems to do everything in his power to avoid reaching his destination. He meets other tender and confused souls, who will all contribute to push Jomar further along his reluctant journey towards the brighter side of life.
This is a humouristic viewpoint upon Norways history the last 100 years - Since the end of the union with Sweden in 1905. A Guide through Norways history the last 100 years.
Also Directed by Yang Ik-june
Jin-cheol wakes up in the morning to find a stranger in bed with him. To make matters worse, she is in high school! What will happen to the two? Will they fall in love?
Sang-hoon is a lowlife gangster, a debt collector exercising thuggish ways to collect his money. The recipient of nothing but anger since his childhood, he expresses himself through violence. When he finally encounters someone who can stand up to him, feisty school-girl Yoon-hee they become unlikely friends.
Moon, a middle aged woman who works at a mart while raising a high school daughter alone. Moon had come to Lake Sanjeong with her crush on a picnic last fall, but now she visits the area alone. Jin-cheol wakes up in the morning to find a stranger in bed with him. To make matters worse, she is in high school! What will happen to the two? Will they fall in love?
Shibata and Nagao meet and talk. Stories about the seasons, stories about the people who have who live their. And their story ends with one end.
Min-joon is resting with his eyes closed on the bench. At that time, Woo-yeon begin to tell Min-joon worries about her acting, and Min-joon sincerely listens to them. After a while, all friends are gathered in the park, from Si-ho to Soo-young... They've been talking about youth and worries
Currently, Sunwoo and Ikjune are lovers and co-directors of a movie. The film starts with a landscape shot at dawn. Ikjune is smoking a cigarette from the veranda of his house, looking at the village across the street. In the bedroom, Sunwoo is lying on Ikjune's bed with her eyes open. Next to them are the same movie scenarios. You can predict what they are thinking by looking at their faces. Production is half-way and the two are having a long conversation about what to shoot today as they are headed to the set. At the set, they are talking with the actors and giving acting directions. In the process, Sunwoo and Ikjune experience various feelings about love, either individually or together.
Also Directed by Fernando Eimbcke
An anthology feature of 10 stories of romance set in the German capital.
Made up of 10 short films, 'Revolucion' analyzes through the eyes of the directors what is the revolution today and what it means to the young minds of Mexico.
A woman is questioned about whether she loves her fiancé.
While vacationing at a beachside resort, a single mother faces inevitable separation anxiety when her 15-year-old son — who is also her best friend — discovers magical chemistry with a girl his own age.
26 filmmakers bring their own vision in order to find the truth about the missing students of Ayotzinapa.
A story of a teenager and the strange events that take place in his small town.
Flama and Moko are fourteen years old; they have been best friends since they were kids. They have everything they need to survive yet another boring Sunday: an apartment without parents, videogames, porn magazines, soft drinks and pizza delivery.
The exhibition 'The Complete Letters' features epistolary works defined by cinematographic creation. This is an experimental communication format used between pairs of film directors. Although each director is situated in a location geographically distant from that of their partner, they are united by their willingness to share ideas and reflections on all that motivates their work. Within this space of freedom, the directors featured in the exhibition examine their affinities and differences, within an environment of mutual respect and simultaneity of interests and with notable formal variants established in each of the correspondences.
Susie is obsessed about losing weight, thus being "bonita" and not "gorda" - the two keywords in the original Spanish title. She calls on a fairy godmother to grants her three wishes. Susie resorts to these to become the most beautiful woman in the world.
Also Directed by Pablo Stoll
When his long-lost brother resurfaces, Jacobo, desperate to prove his life has added up to something, looks to scrounge up a wife. He turns to Marta, an employee at his sock factory, with whom he has a prickly relationship. the owner of a sock factory in Montevideo, and Marta, his employee, realize that their estranged relationship needs to change when Jacobo's long-lost brother prompting them to pose as a married couple.
Montevideo, Saturday, 7 in the morning. El Leche, Javi, and Seba have not gone to sleep yet. Tired and bored, they sit in the usual wall fence to have a beer. On a lazy summer Saturday the three boys each with their own worries—studies, work, and, of course, love.
Eleven award winning directors explore why nearly one out of every two students in Latin America never graduates high school.
Dissatisfied with his new life (and wife), a man tries to insinuate himself back into the home of the ex-wife and daughter he left ten years before, in this heartwarming and hilarious comedy-drama from Uruguayan director Pablo Stoll Ward (25 Watts, Whisky).
When Felipe’s ex-girlfriend breaks his heart, it feels like it’s the end of the world – and he’s not wrong. A strange zombie plague is unleashed on the paradise beach his friends have taken him to get his head in the right place. This is how the hectic pursuit for survival begins, where telling apart the living from the dead becomes the hardest part. Felipe will do whatever it takes to save his life, his friends’ lives and Ana’s life, a beautiful and problematic girl. Who would’ve guessed a zombie apocalypse would be the beginning of a new life and new love?
A young man in Uruguay has trouble expressing himself verbally. As the lead singer in a band, he interacts with the world through his music.
Two friends staying at a summer house find a strange animal in front of the house looking at them, and they discuss what to do with it.
Also Directed by Luca Lucini
A bad boy and a socialite girl hook-up.
A spider falls in love with a human.
An exhibit of Da Vinci's works traces the pathways of the great artist's mind.
Go inside the building that has been the source of some of the greatest moments in music, ballet and opera.
More and more parents take competitive behavior towards the teachers of their children: deny votes and programs, vaneggiano of likes, dislikes, and conspiracies. So, instead of helping in the training of their children, they become insurmountable obstacles to their growth. Presumptuously they think: "We know better than anyone else our children and we know what they are worth and how and what you have to teach."
Longtime Italian cinema star Stefania Sandrelli (The First Beautiful Thing) is Alba, the mother of two very different adult sons. While Giorgio is a playboy who constantly cheats on his wife, Leonardo (Luca Argentero, Eat Pray Love) is always unlucky in love. When Leonardo finally meets the woman of his dreams, Sara, he brings her home to meet the family, but it appears this is not the first time that Sara has met Giorgio. Directed by Luca Lucini and stars Luca Argentero, Alessandro Gassman and Stefania Sandrelli.
Also Directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia
A filmmaker tracing the steps of Swedish explorer Erland Nordeskiold travels with a Guarani Indian from the highlands of La Paz to the swamps in the forests of South Eastern Bolivia, a place where uncontacted indigenous still exist. Philosophical Road Movie into the heart of Guarani culture of Bolivia translates ancient knowledge and explores the importance of the other in the construction of our identity.
In La Paz -as opposed to many other cities- the rich live below, which is the Southern District. Life goes on without major mishaps in a large house surrounded by a beautiful garden. It is a wonderful world, a great bubble of comfort, where different personal spheres coexist: the mother, along with her three children and the Aymara inhabitants of the house. The drama surfaces slowly, without narrative ploys, observing day-to-day activities until internal and external forces make the bubble burst. The film relates the story of the final days of an upper-class family, at a time when the country is undergoing social changes.
Bolivia's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1995
After being denied an American visa, a Bolivian professor becomes involved in a web of criminal activities, holds-up the American consulate and falls for a beautiful prostitute from the Bolivian lowlands.
Also Directed by Duane Hopkins
In a small rural village, a boy and girl have a fight and each storm off their separate ways. The day passes and the boy realises that he shouldn't have a made a big deal out of the argument and tries to get in contact with his girlfriend. He takes his bike and sets out to try and find her before the end of the day.
An elegant, abstracted expression of provincial life in which ordinary everyday details become frozen and magnified as its young protagonists find themselves implicated in a moment of sheer madness.
Twelfth Man belongs to Short Plays, a Daniel Gruener project commemorating the 2014 World Cup.
Tim has no job, but Tim ‘works’, selling stolen goods... In the face of mounting internal and external pressure, how far will he go to keep his head above water and protect those he loves?
Gails agoraphobia keeps her inside where she escapes into romance novels. She shares a house with her Nan, recently back from the hospital. Gradually, they both try to reach out to each other to break their isolation. Rob plunges further into his addiction as a way of numbing his heartbreak over the death of his girlfriend. In his stupor, he dreams of embracing her again. Mr & Mrs Gladwin are going through a shift in their 60 year relationship. Years of resentment and unspoken truths have built a barrier between them that Mrs Gladwin, in her abiding love, tries to erode in little gestures.
Also Directed by Abner Benaim
This hilarious comedy tells the story of Toña and Paquita, the housekeepers for the aristocratic González-Dubois family. These domestic employees have been mistreated for quite some time and they are tired of their situation. So when the family plans a shopping trip to Miami, the maids have a plan of their own; to take control of the mansion. Unexpectedly, they will also discover a family secret.
Alicia is a 42-year-old-woman whose grief has caused her estrangement from society. Her world is turned upside down when 14-year-old Chief, a young boy who looks after people’s cars, stumbles into her house bleeding.
Five shorts spanning a century on lives impacted by the Panama Canal. Men, women and children who are influenced by the existence of the "Canal", the event that changed the history of not only a country but the world.
Ruben Blades Is Not My Name portrays one of Latin America's most beloved singer-songwriters in a journey across his 50-year career. In an intimate way, the film gives us a chance to get to know the artist, his music, and the stories behind them.
INVASION is a documentary about the collective memory of a country. The invasion of Panama by the U.S in 1989 serves as an excuse to explore how a people remember, transform, and often forget their past in order to re-define their identity and become who they are today.
Also Directed by Daniel Gruener
Something strange is going on in Dolores' apartment house--or is it mainly in Dolores' head that the strangeness lies... When her best friend Eva is murdered on her doorstep, and her husband begins to have violent nightmares, it appears that there is definately something amiss in the world of delusional Dolores.
Luis is attempting suicide from the top level of a construction building when he is interrupted by Don Ramón who also wants to kill himself. The two men engage into a conversation about life, love and family while sharing a song: "De jazmín en flor".
Compilation of short film about sex, love and other perversions.
Julio Salas dies after a long illness, but it is Sunday and due to financial difficulties, his family is forced to contract the services of a modest funeral home, whose owner having taken charge of the corpse, sells it to the University. The nephew learns of the deal and demands that his uncle s body end up in the cremation oven, falling in love with the funeral owner s daughter in the process. This story about a corpse that cannot find peace, is handled in accordance with the canons of black comedy over which the director displays a skillful mastery, provoking, with the aid of some excellent actors, grotesquely hilarious situations.
Also Directed by Jaime Rosales
Oriol and Yolanda live in Paris with their two daughters. During a vacation they suffer a car accident that will change their lives.
Abel lives with his mother in a small town on the outskirts of Barcelona. His life, grey and boring, is based on the small family business, his mother's house, his girlfriend's bed, and the town bars. However under an appearance of quiet and gentle man, Abel hides a dark and morbid personality.
Life for Adela, a single mom trying to raise her infant son, and Antonia, a widow with three daughters, are forever altered by the terrorist bombing in Madrid.
Natalia and Carlos, both aged 20, are in love and struggling to survive in today’s Spain. Their limited resources prevent them from getting ahead as they’d like to. They have no great ambitions because they have no great hopes. To earn some money, they decide to shoot an amateur porno film. The birth of their daughter Julia is the main catalyst for the changes they make.
This correspondence between Spanish auteur Jaime Rosales and critical chronicler of contemporary China Wang Bing is divided into three short films each consisting of documentary observations.
Petra doesn’t know who her father is. Her entire life, it’s been hidden from her. After the death of her mother, she embarks on a search that leads her to Jaume, a famous artist and a powerful, ruthless man. On her path to uncovering the truth, Petra also meets Jaume’s son, Lucas, as well as Marisa, his mother and Jaume’s wife. That is when the story of these characters begins to intertwine in a spiral of malice, family secrets and violence that drives them all to the edge. But fate’s cruel logic is derailed by a twist that opens a path to hope and redemption.
Based on the true story of two Spanish police officers killed by suspected Basque separatists in France, Jaime Rosales’ Tiro En La Cabeza looks to be a fascinating experiment in film making. Shot from the perspective of an outside observer the camera follows an unknown man as though it were stalking him, shooting through open doorways, windows etc and simply observing his daily life, never coming close enough to hear what might be said. —Twitch
Also Directed by Viktor Kossakovsky
In Russian, "Svyato" means "happy". But it is also a nickname for Svyatoslav, the son of director Kossakovsky, who for two years covered mirrors from Svyato. For the first time in his life, Svyato is going to watch himself on a mirror.
"Belovy (the Belovs)" is a breathtaking portrait of a troubled peasant family. It's poetry in the form of a documentary that won many prizes. Beautifully shot in vintage black and white, the film tells the story of two times widow Anna Belova who lives together with her brother Mikhail. Blending the two personalities, Kosakovsky characterizes the true Russian soul: she is the rational worker, honest and strong - he is the drunken poet, the idealist, his philosophy fades into radical nonsense time after time.
Trilogy about love, experienced at different moments in life, by different people: an old couple, a young couple and two children at infant school.
What would be the shortest route between Entre Rios in Argentina and the Chinese metropolis Shanghai? Simply a straight line through the center of the earth, since the two places are antipodes: they are located diametrically opposite to each other on the earth's surface. During his visits to four such antipodal pairs, the award-winning documentary filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky captured images that turn our view of the world upside down.
From massive waves to melting ice, filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky travels around the world to capture stunning images of the beauty and raw power of water.
The director films the street where he lives in St. Petersburg, for a whole year, documenting the changes caused by the celebration of its 300th anniversary.
A documentary about everyday life in Russia.
Director Victor Kossakovsky dedicated his documentary debut to the Russian philosopher and religious thinker Alexey Fedorovich Losev (1893-1988), who died shortly after the completion of the film.
Seven-year-old Polina and her 13-year-old sister Nastia live and breathe ballet. Both of them are studying at the Boris Eifman Dance Academy in frigid Saint Petersburg. They’re currently awaiting their grades to find out if they’ve done well enough to be promoted to the next year, with Nastia lovingly guiding he little sister through the process. But in the meantime, Nastia also has to deal with the high demands that the academy places on its students. The gorgeously styled shots are sometimes calm, even clinical, and sometimes warm, lively and funny.
It was one of his mentors who once told Kossakovsky, "There are two types of intelligent people; some say what they know, while others think while they speak, in order to try and say something they did not know yet, something that suggests itself in them." Victor Kossakovsky took this profundity to heart and became a filmmaker of the second category. He dedicated his documentary debut to the speaker of these words, the Russian philosopher and religious thinker Alexey Fedorovich Losev (1893-1988), who died shortly after the completion of this film. Shot in black-and-white, the film consists of two crucial shots that symbolize silence and night at both ends of the life chain. In the beginning of the film, the rising sun slowly swathes a cemetery in daylight. At the end, the earth covers a coffin bit by bit and heralds the great darkness. In Losev's words, "Divine intentions that lie beyond our reason, that's why we die."
Also Directed by Faouzi Bensaïdi
Casablanca, a city of contrasts, modern and traditional. Kamel is a murderer for hire who receives his encrypted assignments online. After his executions, he usually calls Souad, an occasional prostitute. But the phone is always answered by her friend Kenza, traffic officer and responsible for the largest roundabout in the city. Kamel soon falls in love with that voice and begins to seek her. Meanwhile, Hicham, a computer hacker, who dreams of emigrating to Europe, is infiltrated by chance in Kamel plans ...
Under the impacts of a changing climate, the world changes, it has already changed. In a distant and near future, both fantastic and absurd, men and wo-men survive as they can. Following a man, a slender figure between Tati and Buster Keaton, we discover through scenes of his daily life how devastating the effects of climate change are on humans and nature. How do we barricade against excessive heat or cold? How will it be to go to a supermarket, or a zoo filled with different animals and species? A disturbing and hilarious ride in the future, that is already our present.
Composed by eleven short-movies. Started in 2018, the project explore in a sensible and creative way the position of humankind and nature. The key stories illustrated by the eleven internationally recognized filmmakers reflect the intertwined relations between human society and natural environment that are aggravated by climate change on multiple dimensions and scales, hinting at possible solutions.
Volubilis is a tale of love in a world of despair, of beauty among the ruins. In the Moroccan city of Meknès, recently married Abdelkader and Malika struggle to make ends meet. They dream of leaving the family house and finally starting a life of their own together. But one day at work, Abdelkader gets mixed up in a violent incident that will turn their lives upside down.
In Tetouan, at the northern edge of Morocco, three young men decide to rob a jewelry store. The heist goes awry, and their destinies part drastically.
1981, Morocco. A village in the Atlas mountains. A city in the distance. A child. A family facing its destiny.
Longtime friends, Mehdi and Hamid, work for a collection agency. They crisscross the villages of southern Morocco in their old car and share double rooms in shabby hotels. They are exactly the same size, and wear the same suits and ties, as well as the same shoes. Paid nearly nothing, they try to play hard to make good figures. One day, in a gas station planted in the middle of the desert, a motorcycle parks in front of them. A man is handcuffed to the luggage rack, threatening. It’s the Evader. Their meeting marks the beginning of an unforeseen and mystical journey.
The members of a debt-ridden family reunite in an evanescent Tangier, running away from painful memories but at the same time clinging to a past they do not want to forget. Their childhood home and its magnificent estate are due to be sold in early autumn; increasingly, summer days fade into distant memory.
Also Directed by Carlos Moreno
In the early 1980s, at the beginning of what would become a 12-year-long civil war, El Salvador's talented football team was one national institution upon which both the left and the right could agree. When the team pulled off a stunning 1-0 upset against Mexico and qualified to compete in the 1982 World Cup, it was a high point for the tiny country's national pride. Unfortunately, the team's Cinderella story devolved into a nightmarish farce.
From the land of narco-violence to the land of displaced persons. The documentary Guerras Ajenas ('Wars of Others') explores the consequences of the war on drugs in Colombia, and one of its main tools: aerial spraying.
A blonde teenage girl, knowing she must change her life, leaves her well-appointed house and flagrantly gives herself over to this tolerant city, saying “yes” to everything provocative it offers her. Only the music tethers her body and spirit together, even as she reaches for redemption through a bold, delicious, and resplendent self-destruction.
In the crime world of Colombia, there is an unwritten code. When Víctor and Eusebio, two hoods who bungle a shake-down job, break that code, they unwittingly sign their own death sentence.
The real life story of Andres Lopez Lopez aka "Frecita" during his years involved with the Colombian Cartel aka "Cartel Norte del Valle"
Salvador is a peasant who one day wakes up as usual to work on his land but instead finds a pile of corpses in the middle of his crops. He runs to notify the authorities but is Sunday and Election Day so the dead ones end up being a nuisance that nobody wants to deal with.
When a narco past his prime refuses to pay a debt to an upstart, only a secret stash of money can save his men. But guess what the gardener just found?
Also Directed by Kiki Sugino
Kyoto in April. A timid and shy student, Watabe, is struggling to make friends and spending lonely days in a university. Concurrently, student life for Satomi Kumahori has also been hard, due to her overweight appearance. For Satomi, it is only Watabe who talks to her kindly and does not make fun of her. One day she takes advantage of Watabe and starts to live off him, literally like a parasite. While Satomi is using him as a slave, he falls in love with Nako, a girl he meets at work. At the same time, he accidentally learns about Satomi's past.
Chihiro is depressed and obsessed with his own mortality. Him and his wife, Yuri (Yoko Mitsuya), decide to take a trip to Bali, Indonesia to see his pregnant sister, Kumi (Kiki Sugino). They hope the trip can bring about change.
One snowy night, in a mountain hut, Minokichi, a hunter, sees a snow woman killing his mentor Mosaku. “Should you tell anyone, I will take your life” she says, then drifts off. A year later, Minokichi meets and marries a beauty named Yuki. She bears him a daughter, Ume. 14 years pass and Ume blossoms into a radiant lady who befriends the sickly Mikio, the village leader’s son and Mosaku’s distant relative. Mikio soon dies in the same hut as Mosaku, with his body showing the same frostbite scars. Minokichi is reminded of that horrid night, and wonders what it was that he saw, and who Yuki really is.
Also Directed by Pedro Amorim
20 years after running away together, Julio and Noeli have raised a family and run a successful business together. However, their marriage seems to be failing, so Noeli files for divorce. Both will do whatever it takes to win their legal battle.
Diogo's 20th high school class reunion is coming up, and although he's married, sees it as an opportunity to hook up with his high school crush who will also be at the reunion. He and his wife have a young son, and everything is lined up so he can go to the reunion alone, hook up with the woman, and go home without his wife suspecting anything. Unfortunately for him, his wife's mother breaks her arm the night of the reunion and can't watch their son. Diogo scrambles to find a babysitter, ultimately settling on a nursery in a strange building. He goes to the party, meets up with the crush, but then has to leave. He and his three friends then go back to the nursery and pick up his son, who is wearing his favorite dog mask. While Diogo and his friends are on their way back to the reunion (he still hasn't hooked up with his former crush) he removes the dog mask and realizes the boy isn't his.
Carlão is a prejudiced man who works in a car dealership with Cadinho, Zeca and Antunes. In conversations between them, Carlão always boasts of being the greatest soccer and mechanics savvy, all amidst macho and homophobic jokes. When Evaristo is the target of such verbal assaults, he pursues him and locks him in a magic locker. From there comes Carlinhos, a homosexual alter ego that takes over Carlão's body when night comes.
Camila Mendes is a pop star who only thinks about her fame. However, her life changes completely when she suddenly wakes up in 2004, as a not at all popular girl.
Unemployed and disillusioned, Hugo goes to work at a dating agency, but ends up getting involved with conflicts customer personnel.
The day a man almost runs-over a puppy, he meets the love of his life. The couple and their dog live the dream, until she wants out.
The teenager Samuca (Matheus Costa) is only 17 years old and discovers that his girlfriend, Alicia, (Heslaine Vieira) is pregnant. The news comes to light at a not very favorable moment in Samuca's life, just when he thought everything was going very well. For having committed the same "slam" as his mother Melina (Nanda Costa), having a son at the same age as she had him, Samuca feels pressured. Themes such as teenage pregnancy and questions about life gain visibility and are unfolded throughout the plot.
Also Directed by Mascha Halberstad
Mister De Vries (93) sits at his window awaiting his death. Until one cold winter day he is surprised by the arrival of a parcel. When he subsequently sees a pigeon flying off he knows that this is no ordinary message. His time has come. Mister De Vries momentarily hesitates to open it. When he chances it, he finds his old Frisian skates. There’s only one thing to be done.
"Munya in Me" is a stop-motion animation about heavy ten-year-old Munya trying to avoid her bullies on her daily trip to the Turkish supermarket, mostly without success. Until one day she realizes that she shouldn't hide. She should show herself.
Shy student Tyn gets the fright of his life when he finds out he is pregnant.
When Greetje's father Mr. Tuitjes, a butcher, decides to compete against his Italian rival Smakkerelli, their whole usually so quiet village is turned upside down. The enemies have closed the deal that whoever loses the competition organized by the Society or Meat Products from Fresh Pigs must leave town forever. And that threatens not only Mr. Tuitjes' business, but also the love between Greetje and Nol. Suddenly, the annual sausage competition becomes a devilish dilemma: will Greetje choose her father's luck, or her own?
A trailer is recorded on the set of a disaster movie that should entice a mass audience. But it turns out the staging and the voice-over, modelled on the American example, don’t go together well for the hero in the doomsday scenario.
A dream comes true for Babs: her own pet! Not a dog, but an amusing piglet. And yet, this gift of her grandfather, a fallen sausage king, comes with ulterior motives. A fast-paced stop-trick animated feature staged with great ingenuity and attention to detail, narrated in a hilarious and emotionally complex manner.
Christmas is celebrated with the people you love. Right? In De Grote Hummimummi Kerstspecial Hummimummi wants to film a karaoke special, together with his best friend Oessiepoessie, but Oessiepoessie is lovesick and does not want to. They fight and each decide to make their own Christmas show. It ends in a battle, when both of them acquire the help of the best singer of The Netherlands. Will Hummimummi and Oessiepoessie unite before Christmas?
Also Directed by Matías Cruz
The film traces the origins of the Chilean band band Los Prisioneros from the perspective of the drummer Miguel Tapia. Set in the Late 70's, during Pinochet's military dictatorship.
Also Directed by Bobo Jelčić
Divorced father Marko is hardly ever alone: he is surrounded on all sides by family, friends, co-workers and neighborhood fixers. Yet he is driven to the brink by limited contact with the one person he loves more than anyone – his daughter, who lives with her mother. When he starts the legal proceedings to get more time with his child, he enters the Kafkaesque world of a social-services system in meltdown. His fierce, paternal love for his child is both the source of his misery and his greatest joy.
When Slavko's old friend Djulaga dies, Slavko feels obliged to go to the funeral. But in his hometown of Mostar, in Bosnia & Herzegovina, this simple social obligation has the potential to get him into all kinds of trouble: with his neighbors or even with local political bigwigs. Yet if he does not go, his wife will think he's a coward, the grieving family will never forgive him - and he might have trouble forgiving himself. This is a compelling tale of everyday life in a fractured society, and a world where paranoia, comedy and drama co-exist. It is also an astute psychological portrait of a man who is forced to cross the invisible line that divides two communities. Above all, it is the story of a man who lost everything that defined him, when his country disintegrated.
One film made by 15 directors, Each one, after seeing the last minute of the previous one.
Zagreb. A family: Ana, the mother, Katarina, Tvrtko and Drazen, her three grown up children, and Tvrtko's girlfriend Natasa. The story begins in the morning when Natasa, after a quarrel with her boyfriend, comes back home, a two-bedroom apartment where her mother and brothers live. This brings a little bit of confusion in the family's everyday schedule. Through many dialogues we get acquainted with the members of the family, their personal problems and frustrations and their interesting and sometimes strained relations with no serious hard feelings, though, their biggest problem being the financial inability to move away and start living on their own.
Also Directed by Buthina Canaan Khoury
Four female Palestinian ex-detainees disclose their experiences during their years of imprisonment in Israeli jails and the effect it has had on their present lives and future outlooks.