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- DirectorMehdi CharefStarsCylia MalkiBaya BelalJean-Roger MiloAn extraordinary story of a young woman raised in Switzerland who travels back to Algeria, her birthplace, to meet and kill her natural mother, who abandoned her shortly after birth. Along the way, she is exposed to the brutality of desert life and, in particular, the abuses that men heap upon women in fundamentalist, third world countries. Birth, death and life in general, have little meaning as people struggle for survival. The scenery is stark but at the same time beautiful and the faces of the characters that she meet are marvelous. The film was made in Tunisia, as it does not cast a particularly good light on Algerian men and probably could not have gotten permission to be filmed in Algeria where Sharia is the law of the land.
- DirectorJoel LamanganStarsAssunta De RossiAlessandra De RossiJay ManaloVanessa is a cosmetics consultant who is forced to care for her troubled and mentally challenged sister after their mother's death. Her hustler boyfriend, Olivier, seems unreliable and Vanessa soon abandons him for Uno, a liberal and caring substitute. But Uno isn't exactly as he seems. Set during the reign of Joseph Estrada in the Philippines, the film offers up a society in hellish microcosm.
- DirectorJuan Carlos Cremata MalbertiStarsThais ValdésNacho LugoDaisy GranadosIn Havana, a post office branch is more than a place of bureaucratic rules and regulations to ensure effective public services. This is where Carla Perez works. A young dreamer, this government employee transforms boredom into a 'crossroads of feeling in writing'. More than merely sending and receiving letters, she aims to help her companions in finding happiness and love. Such good will can not go un-rewarded. Her exiled parents in Miami entered her name in the yearly U.S. immigration lottery. Unexpectedly, she receives a notice for her interview to get the 'green card'. Now she will have to opt between a future of her own in Cuba, and a future planned by others in Miami.
- DirectorJamshed UsmonovStarsUktamoi MiyasarovaMaruf PulodzodaKova TilavpurSet in the Tadjik village of Asht, this film draws on the Muslim notion that we are born with an angel on each shoulder, and that the angel on the right records the good that we do throughout our lives, and the angel on the left the bad. A man who has served ten years in a Moscow prison is summoned home upon release, to help settle the affairs of his dying mother, but it is soon borne into him that he must settle his own outstanding affairs with the villagers. The nine year old son he never knew about is entrusted by the dying mother with the family heirloom jewellery, tasked with only passing it on to his father if he becomes a good man.
- DirectorDalibor MatanicStarsOlga PakalovicNina ViolicKresimir MikicA lesbian couple rents an apartment in a seemingly normal building which happens to be populated with all kinds of freaks. Initially kind but unaware of their secret, a landlady tries to introduce one of them to his son, but after spying on them through the keyhole, the Pandora's box of hatred and violence has been opened.
- DirectorAssane KouyatéStarsModibo TraoréDjénéba KonéFily TraoréHamalla is banished from his village in Mali, due to ancient prejudices. He returns four years later versed in modern technology at a time in which the village's future hangs on the brink as the holy well of the ancestors, symbol of the spirituality of the entire community, is contaminated. In the face of epidemic, Hamalla's must convince the villagers of the need to purify the water.
- DirectorJilani SaâdiStarsMohamed GrayaâMohamed MouraliRamzi BrariKhorma is different! With his red hair and strangely pale complexion for a Tunisian, many people think he's retarded. Bou Khaled, his master, takes him under his wing nonetheless and teaches him the secrets of the business. Khorma learns to announce weddings, births and deaths in his neighborhood in Bizerte. But, one day, old Bou Khaled makes a grievous mistake: he announces a local woman's death rather than her daughter's marriage. Khorma is chosen to replace him...
- DirectorCláudio AssisStarsMatheus NachtergaeleJonas BlochLeona CavalliShort stories revolving around a bar and a hotel in Recife, unveil a mosaic of exotic characters living in the Brazilian underground.
- DirectorYamina BachirStarsIbtissem DjouadiBahia RachediRachida MessaoudèneA look at terrorism in Algeria through the eyes of Rachida, a teacher in one of the school districts.
- DirectorAdoor GopalakrishnanStarsOduvil UnnikrishnanSukumariMallikaKaliyappan, the last hangman of Travancore dynasty is dragging his remaining life by consuming alcohol and worshipping the Mother Goddess.
- DirectorRashid MasharawiStarsGassan AbbasAreen OmariGeorge IbrahimThis inspired hybrid of documentary and fiction follows Jabir, who runs a mobile cinema from his old truck throughout the West Bank while his wife works to bring emergency medical care to Palestinians. When Jabir is invited by a spirited schoolteacher to make a screening in the old city of Jerusalem, he becomes obsessed with the idea of this pilgrimage and begins to investigate the possibilities.
- DirectorManijeh HekmatStarsRoya NonahaliRoya TeymourianPegah AhangaraniSpanning 18 years in an Iranian women's prison, this follows two women: the new prison warden, a tough as nails devout Muslim who has served in the army on the Iraqi front, and a young midwife, Mitra, who is serving her sentence for killing her mother's abusive husband. In the early years, Mitra is repeatedly punished as the warden tries to break her. This includes punishment for delivering a baby in the prison cell while all of the prison staff has taken shelter during an Iraqi bombing. The warden's attitude starts to change after 8 years, when Mitra tries to protect a new inmate from rape at the hands of her older cellmates. When the baby comes back in 1991 as a 17 year old delinquent, Sepideh, the warden respects Mitra enough to protect the girl.
- DirectorRenato FalcãoStarsHique GomezCarmem SilvaJefferson SilveiraA black and white, surreal and silent comedy. Pedro has a dream of giving his wife an unforgettable birthday feast.
- DirectorPjer ZalicaStarsEnis BeslagicBogdan DiklicSasa PetrovicTwo years after the Bosnian war, a town that is slowly rebuilding itself must whip together a democracy when it's announced the U.S. President Bill Clinton might be paying a visit.
- DirectorRanda Chahal SabagStarsFlavia BecharaMaher BsaibesRanda AsmarA young 15 year old girl, Lamia, lives in a southern Lebanese village on the border with Israel. She is given in marriage to her cousin on the other side of the border. As Lamia crosses the barbed wire she also passes from childhood into adulthood, as brutal as our countries and the events that are to follow.
- DirectorAlejandro ChomskiStarsAntonella CostaCarlos LipsicRomina RicciAt 24, Paula wants to be an actress, but if she doesn't find her rent money she'll be homeless in 24 hours. Paula is so desperate that she seriously contemplates becoming a prostitute.
- DirectorYi'nan DiaoStarsKai HanHongli LiangHua QinEconomic unrest roils central China's Shaanxi Province: local factories are merging, thugs threaten managers, personnel records get lost, and workers are without protections such as health insurance. The police and much of society are surly. Xiao Jian, a mild young man whose father is ill, works in the family street stall doing pressing and tailoring. A laundered police-officer's shirt goes uncollected, and Xiao Jian puts it on: it opens doors. Wearing it, he chats up a clerk, Zheng Shasha, and takes her out. He extracts fines from drivers who violate traffic laws. In these tough times, he's not the only one with two identities. How long can he sustain it?
- DirectorLúcia MuratStarsCaco CioclerFlavio BauraquiWerner SchünemannThe strange friendship between two men of opposite social classes. Miguel is a senator. His childhood friend Jorge is a major drug-dealer. In the 1970s, they meet in prison: Miguel was there for political reasons, and Jorge, as a common criminal.
- DirectorMaria João GangaStarsJoão RoldanDomingos Fernandes FonsecaJúlia BotelhoA group of children, fleeing the war, is taken to Luanda accompanied by a nun. When they reach the airplane, 11-year-old N'dala decides to leave the group and to explore the city. The nun then starts her unceasing quest for the missing boy. N'dala, carrying only a textile bag and a toy car made of wire, walks through the busy streets filled with people and traffic. Later he finds the tranquility of the beach, where he meets the old fisherman Antonio, with whom he becomes friends. Not much later, he meets the lively, whimsical Zé, who is a little older than he is. N'dala starts to experience the city and its inhabitants as increasingly forbidding and he would most like to return to his countryside. Then he meets Joka, a fringe figure who persuades him to help with a robbery in exchange for money. With this film, Maria Joao Ganga wanted to provide a realistic sketch of the bitter political situation in Angola. One of her most important motivations for making In the Empty City was to provide a picture of an African city without awakening feelings of a patronizing sympathy or associations with the sensationalism of war.
- DirectorDanielle ArbidStarsMarianne FeghaliRawia ElchabLaudi ArbidLina, a young girl in war-torn Beirut, finds an ally and friend in Sihan, her domineering aunt's maid. Sihan shows Lina what her life could be like, but tests the girl's limits when she asks her to help plot her escape from the city.
- DirectorPartho Sen-GuptaStarsAniket VishwasraoNishikant KamatTannishtha ChatterjeeA collegian in turbulent Mumbai attempts to improve his lifestyle.
- DirectorTeddy MatteraStarsMpho LovingaJerry MofokengPercy MatsemelaMax Bua leaves his country life behind in hopes of becoming a doctor in Johannesburg, though the big city has different plans for him.
- DirectorFanta Régina NacroStarsMoussa CisséGeorgette ParéAdama OuédraogoLa Nuit de la Vérité is situated in an imaginary West African country. After ten years of civil war between the government army of the Nayak, led by 'Le président', and the Bonande rebels led by Colonel Theo, there is some sign of peace negotiations. But not everyone is in favor of peace and one can feel the tension. The night of truth starts with a festive dinner, but the village idiot Tomoto always seems capable of ruining the attempts for peace with violence and provocation.
- DirectorGarin NugrohoStarsSakurta H. GintingDidi PetetJaja MihardjaSet in and around a mosque in sprawling Jakarta, Indonesia, during the Muslim holiday of Lebaran, the interwoven stories of family, faith and romantic love in this humorous yet poignant film are revealed through the eyes of kids
- DirectorTawfik Abu WaelStarsHussein Yassin MahajneAmal BweeratRuba BlalA family of five, their two goats and donkey live in the middle of nowhere far from their village home. They earn meager living by producing & selling charcoal, made from the surrounding trees. The father and son are the only ones who ever return to their native village. The Mother & two daughters have not left this place since the day they abandoned home, 10 years ago. One day the father decides to provide running water for the family by illegally diverting water onto their land. The three women recoil from the idea but the teenage son obeys submissively anything to be allowed to continue attending school. The water surging through the pipe parallels the surging resentment the family feels towards the father. He brought them to this place against their will and they know the reason they left their home is also the reason they can never return, but the newly free-flowing water on their land re-awakens the instinctive desire for freedom they have been repressing all these years.
- DirectorReha ErdemStarsTurgay AydinArzu BazmanEsra Bezen BilginIn an apartment building where neighbors, friends, and family are living in close quarters, three male protagonists encounter three phases of manhood in Turkish society. Directors Reha Erdem's light touch and slyly amusing style do not miss the opportunity to illuminate some serious points in a strictly patriarchal society.
- DirectorJuan Pablo RebellaPablo StollStarsAndrés PazosMirella PascualJorge BolaniWhen 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.
- DirectorArsen A. OstojicStarsDino DvornikMladen VulicCoolioDuring last two hours of the year, the three stories are happening in the dark and deserted streets of coastal town of Split, separated from the wild New Year's Eve parties.
- DirectorKambuzia PartoviStarsFereshteh Sadre OrafaiyParviz ParastuiNikos Papadopoulos"Cafe Transit" depicts an independent-minded widow who bucks tradition to run her dead husband's truck stop café.
- DirectorHugo GrossoStarsMilagros AlarcónMónica AlfonsoHéctor BidondeA photographer in Argentina documents the construction of a bridge that connects Victoria and Rosario. The job will change his life and touch the lives of others.
- DirectorMarcelo GomesStarsJoão MiguelPeter KetnathMadalena AcciolyA road movie about a German man who went to the Northeast of Brazil in 1942 to sell Aspirin.
- DirectorYu LiStarsXingrao HuangKechun LiYi LiuLoneliness, saving face, and public mores. In 1983 in China, Yun is a bright schoolgirl who gets pregnant. She's expelled, her boyfriend leaves town, and her mother arranges the baby's adoption, telling Yun the child died at birth. Ten years later, Yun sings pop songs in a dive, takes the occasional married lover, and lives with her mother, a teacher. The mother tutors a student, Xiao-yong, a lad of ten, who becomes attached to Yun. Yun's mother discovers who the boy's really is and a struggle begins. Should he be told; should Yun reclaim him; does her mother's opinion matter; what about the woman who's raised him? Is there room in a Chinese town for a woman to breathe?
- DirectorMartín De SalvoVera FogwillStarsVera FogwillLucía SniegMirta BusnelliAn exploration into mother-daughter relationships and the struggles of a precocious 10-year-old child to raise her cocaine-addicted mother who gets unexpectedly pregnant with her second child.
- DirectorHiner SaleemStarsNazmi KirikEyam EkremBelçim BilginSet during the Iraq-Iran war in the 80s, the film tells of a tragicomic road trip set in Iraq's Kurdistan.
- DirectorSebastián LelioStarsSergio HernándezCoca GuazziniNéstor CantillanaWhile vacationing with his family, a man develops some attraction for his son's girlfriend.
- DirectorShaohong LiStarsXun ZhouJun WuMing CaiWhen Yan'ni starts college, she believes she is embarking on a new life away from her family, and she is but without the new beginning she anticipates. Once at school, she immediately meets Muyu and falls in love with him. What she does not know is that from the moment he met her, he began an intricate deception that would lead to the loss of her child and the future she believes in.
- DirectorAntonio NuicStarsRakan RushaidatBojan NavojecFranjo DijakGoran is 30, living in a small Bosnian town. Unlike his friends, whose lives have been seriously altered by war (his best friend Miro lost both his arms in the war), Goran got away from it almost untouched. He lives off his parents' inheritance and spends his days boozing with his buddies. One day, all his friends get killed in a drunken altercation. This throws him completely off his routine, and he decides to sell all his belongings and start doing something memorable. He ends up going from town to town, spending one day in each of them, and handing away completely free drinks, for as long as the money he got after selling all his belongings lasts. In the first town he visits with his travelling bar, he decides that he himself won't drink a drop of alcohol on the entire journey. He is initially stymied by the huge distrust of people upon seeing the sign "All for Free". The distrust almost always results in initial hostility, but after the people see he has no dishonest intentions, Goran is free to go to the next town. As Bosnia is a relatively small country, the word spreads fast, and Goran encounters less and less distrust as he goes on, and people start taking to him. After a few weeks on the road, in one of the towns he meets a girl and almost immediately falls in love. This leads him to break his own word, and he starts drinking. Trying to become as intimate as he can be with the girl, he breaks his other rule too, and stays a second day in the town. The owner of the sole local bar doesn't like that, and he has Goran beaten and banished. Goran has to break his journey for a few days and book himself into a motel, until his wounds heal. He drinks the whole time, and after he gets a bit better, he takes the last of his money and goes off to the final town on his journey...
- DirectorDjamila SahraouiStarsRachida BrakniFettouma Ousliha-BouamariZahir BouzerarSet amidst the civil war of Algeria in the 1990s, Enough! is the story of two women. Emel is a Westerner whose husband, a journalist, is missing - perhaps kidnapped or even killed for articles he's written.
- DirectorJeffrey JeturianStarsGina PareñoFonz DezaNanding JosefIn this starkly realistic narrative, director Jeffrey Jeturian presents a captivating portrait of a once-proud woman, haunted by memories of a dead son and hounded by the police, and her fragile and lonely life as a "kurador".
- DirectorJohn BarkerStarsDavid KibuukaKim EngelbrechtKagiso LedigaThree comedians and a weird guy named Cope embark on a raucous weekend journey to Oppikoppi, South Africa's biggest rock festival. The guys slip out of the city for a few dusty and increasingly absurd days with hopes of mass debauchery, drugs, rampant sex, true love, and conquering the comedy stages, but they get a bit more than they bargained for.
- DirectorRodrigo MorenoStarsJulio ChávezOsmar NúñezMarcelo D'AndreaA bodyguard of a top politician is so dedicated that he's in danger of losing his own identity.
- DirectorAli RafieStarsReza KianianRoya NonahaliGolshifteh FarahaniAfter 22 years, Aziz decides to return to his hometown, to sell some family possessions, including the house where he was born. But for his astonishment, the place is now a small restaurant, run by four women, one of them a girl whom he once dated. Attieh, the girl, tries to convince him not to sell the place by, instead of telling him a story a day as Sheherazade, cooking him a delicious dish every day.
- DirectorChao WangStarsHe HuangYiqing LiYuan TianA country schoolteacher reaching retirement comes to Wuhan in search of his only son. His dying wife has requested to see her boy one last time. He is met by his daughter Yanhong who works as an escort in a karaoke bar. Yanhong introduces him to a policeman who sympathizes with his plight and agrees to help him to find his son. The two quickly become friends. Yanhong also presents her father to her boyfriend, the owner of the karaoke, an older man, who drives a luxury car. However when the four of them meet for dinner one night the old policeman recognizes the boyfriend as a man he arrested over ten years ago...
- DirectorVíctor ArreguiStarsLuis CañizaresRandi KrarupDavid Nieto WenzellA murder sets in motion a series of tragedies that find their way to the city morgue's Dr. Arturo Fernandez. Physically and emotionally isolated, Arturo develops an intimate relationship with the personal lives of his cases, forcing him to confront his connection to the living and the dead. This dark, serpentine tale offers a richly textured rendering of Ecuador's capital.
- DirectorGarin NugrohoStarsMartinus MirotoEko SupriyantoArtika Sari DeviThe story of the performer of Javanese Ramayana human wayang. They are the spouses who lives in a village by selling earthenware products. Conflicts arrived as the husband is going bankrupt and the wife start to looking for another love.
- DirectorFaouzi BensaïdiStarsFaouzi BensaïdiNezha RahileFatima AttifAn assassin falls for a traffic cop in Casablanca, Morocco.
- DirectorSol de CarvalhoStarsEvaristo AbreuTimóteo MaposseMaria Amélia PanganeSofia, a young girl in Mozambique who is studying to be a doctor, finds that her professor wants more from her than hard work. An unwillingness to compromise her values and potentially her health, may cost her a place there.
- DirectorYang ZhangStarsBenshan ZhaoQiwen HongDandan SongA black comedy about a migrant construction worker who tries to bring home the body of his friend, who died far from his town.
- DirectorTeona Strugar MitevskaStarsLabina MitevskaAna KostovskaNikolina KujacaThree sisters living in an ancient city known for its toxic lead factory strive to break free from their past and get something more out of life in this darkly comic family drama. In a fractured landscape where communism and capitalism have both failed, virginal 27-year-old Afrodita lives in a modest home with her twin sister Sapho and their older sibling Slavica. Afrodita has remained mute ever since her mother walked out on the family and her father died, and Sapho is a promiscuous handball player whose many conquests fail to provide personal fulfillment. Slavica is a 35-year-old recovering drug addict whose radiant beauty can't make up for the fact that she is perceived by many as damaged goods. If only Afrodita and Sapho could find their lonely sibling a suitable mate who could also stand as the family breadwinner, perhaps they could take the tentative first steps toward escaping their noxious hometown.
- DirectorSandra KogutStarsThiago da Silva MarizWallison Felipe Leal BarrosoMaria Juliana Souza de OliveiraThiago lives with his family on an isolated farm in the arid backlands of Minas Gerais, Brazil. As the story unfolds and Thiago is forced to confront separations and betrayal within the home, Thiago begins, little by little, to see and understand a place that he had never been able to before, thus slowly letting go of his innocence.
- DirectorNan Triveni AchnasStarsKay Tong LimShantyLukman SardiAn escort at a karaoke bar struggles to raise money to send her daughter out of the city to live with her grandmother and settle her debts with her pimp. She moves in with an aging photographer and helps him fulfill his last wishes.
- DirectorTeresa PrataStarsNick Lauro TeresaAladino JasseErnesto Lemos MacuacuaIn the midst of Mozambique's devastating civil war, Muidinga, an orphaned refugee, wanders the countryside in search of his mother. His only companion is an elderly storyteller, and the only guide to finding his mother is a dead man's diary. This transporting drama underscores the power of imagination in surviving, and ultimately overcoming, the catastrophe of war.
- DirectorSebastián SilvaStarsGabriel DíazDiego MuñozClaudia CeledónA man is depressed by the death of his brother and his life changes when he meets an eccentric young man, whose favorite subject is death.
- DirectorJosué MéndezStarsMaricielo EffioSergio GjurinovicAnahí de CárdenasElisa, fiancee of a wealthy industrialist who is twenty years older than her is eager to shed her working-class background in favor of the opulence of her fiancé's elite lifestyle. To her dismay, she soon realizes her hopes to slip into magazine-ready images of domestic splendor must also include her future stepchildren, Diego and Andrea. As she embraces her new life, her stepchildren rebel against their upper-class upbringing. They live outside the world, far from the reality of their country, in a world where the landmarks are truncated. In the luxurious family villa bordered by the ocean, the two teenagers find themselves mostly disconnected from other people. The new stepmother will have to learn the rules that her new status implies.
- DirectorLyès SalemStarsLyès SalemSarah ReguiegRym TakouchtMounir Mekbek lives with his family in a small village in the heart of the Algerian countryside. Very proud and sure of himself, he has only one dream- to finally be appreciated by his fellow villagers. Screwing up his carefully maintained image is his headstrong, narcoleptic sister Rym who falls asleep anywhere and whom the village is convinced will end up a spinster. One evening, Mounir returns from town drunk and announces that he's found a suitor for his sister. The fake story snowballs and snowballs until the suitor morphs into a rich, blonde Australian. The village begins preparing for the wedding in earnest - but without a bridegroom in sight.
- DirectorRajesh SheraStarsTom AlterAkashJamie AlterAfter a devastating Tsunami, a school-teacher struggles with the loss of his family and students.
- DirectorChi ZhangStarsDeyuan LuoXuan HuangLuoqian ZhengIn a poor mining town in western China, stories of a father and his two children intertwine. The misfortunes of son and daughter alike unravel to illuminate the complicated relationships masked by their community's hard exterior. Presented by the Global Film Initiative.
- DirectorPelin EsmerStarsNejat IslerMithat EsmerLaçin CeylanMithat Bey is a retired civil servant. Ali is doorman of his apartment. The two men belong to different worlds, unless they live in same apartment.
- DirectorBui Thac ChuyênStarsDo Thi Hai YenLinh-Dan PhamDuy Khoa NguyenA young newlywed couple in Hanoi begin to experiment with their sexual desires.
- DirectorEnrique BuchichioStarsMartín RodríguezCecilia CóseroGerardo BegérezLeo, a young man coming to terms with his own sexuality, runs into Caro, a primary school friend he fancied when they were kids, who's now trying to ward off her own personal demons. This casual re-encounter will affect their personal conflicts without either truly grasping the other's problem.
- DirectorGranaz MoussaviStarsMarzieh VafamehrAmir CheginiAsha MehrabiMarzieh is a young female actress living in Tehran. The authorities ban her theatre work and, like all young people in Iran, she is forced to lead a secret life in order to express herself artistically. At an underground rave, she meets Iranian born Saman, now an Australian citizen, who offers her a way out of her country and the possibility of living without fear.
- DirectorVladimir PerisicStarsRelja PopovicBoris IsakovicMiroslav StevanovicA recent recruit is one of seven soldiers posted to an abandoned farm with little information. Soon a bus full of frightened men arrive and the soldiers are told they are the enemy.
- DirectorOliver HermanusStarsDenise NewmanKeenan ArrisonEmily ChildShirley Adams spends her days caring for her disabled son, Donovan - he was shot in the back of the neck on his way home from school one afternoon over a year ago. Since then the Adams family has lost all their worldly possessions to medical bills. Shirley has no money, no job and no husband - he left without a trace months ago. Shirley's life now consists of trying to make ends meet by shoplifting and relying on the charity of others. When a young, eager occupational therapist, Tamsin Ranger, comes into their lives, Shirley hopes that it might lift her son's spirits and finally put them on the path to some form of stability. At the same time Shirley receives a phone call one afternoon informing her that Donovan's case is finally going to trial, but the glory is short lived when Shirley discovers that the shooter is one of Donovan's childhood friends. Her reaction to the betrayal is so overwhelming that she chooses not to tell Donovan in fear of further damaging his already unstable emotional state. Determined to make a change in their lives, Shirley actively decides to embrace their new circumstances, hoping that Donovan will follow her example. But his mental state continues to deteriorate and Tamsin is unsuccessful in distracting him from his ever-present disability. Shirley is eventually left without an sign of the family she once had. Set in Mitchell's Plain, Cape Town, Shirley Adam's story is symptomatic of the relationship between violence and poverty - the destruction of an entire family is related to one single incident that cannot be erased or repaired. Riddled with the socio-political and racial tensions that plague these Cape Flats slums, Shirley Adams is the story of one woman's amazing strength and self sacrifice.
- DirectorMarat SaruluStarsIrina AgeykinaAyzhan AytenovaZhaidarbek KunguzhinovIvan is Russian, his neighbor Assan is Kazakh. They live in a small village in Kazakhstan. When Ivan's wife gets pregnant and gives birth to a brown boy, he suspects that she has been cheating on him with Assan. Half a year later, Assan's wife gives birth to a ginger boy. Whom betrayed whom? A conflict is sparked that won't fully rest for 15 years. Marat Sulu's script goes deep under the surface of a Russian - Kazakh family story - profoundly, emotionally and disrespectfully.
- DirectorSergio BianchiStarsFernando Alves PintoZezeh BarbosaCaio BlatValter goes to night school. Iara, his wife, says that the new tenants don't work, that they're probably criminals. Nobody knows where they're from, Iara tells him that they bring women home and cuss all the time. The young guys on the street want to fight it out with them, Valter wants to get some sleep. He doesn't have a gun, he's got a young daughter and son, is at work the whole day, doesn't see what is going on in the neighborhood, hears what his wife tells him, hears the loud music and laughter next door, in the early morning. And can't get any sleep. Who's going to die? Valter doesn't have a clue.
- DirectorAlejandro Gerber BicecciStarsMarta AuraSandra CarbonellSonia CouohOn a dry lakebed in 1964, a trucker and his companion find a baby boy. Years later, interweaving narratives about childhood link the destinies of three men from the local neighborhood to the lakebed and the baby. Director Alejandro Gerber Bicecci turns a tangled neighborhood tale into an enthralling mix of history, memory and atonement. Presented by the Global Film Initiative.
- DirectorMohammad RasoulofStarsHassan PourshiraziYounes GhazaliMohammad RabbaniRahmat has been asked to meet the inhabitants of these islands to collect their tears. Although for years people have been giving their tears to Rahmat, no one knows exactly what he has been doing with them.
- DirectorAhmed ImamovicStarsSadzida SeticNermin TulicEmina Minka MufticThe film deals with the tragedy of the women survivors of the Srebrenica genocide, or rather, the consequences of the horrors they experienced - it is about women whose sole purpose in life is to locate the bones of their loved ones and give them a decent burial. Fifteen years later, they still want just one simple thing - the truth. As a contrast, the film deals with trivialities of modern living, obsessed with different reality shows...
- DirectorVipin VijayStarsSandeep ChattopadhyayA computer teacher, his black-magician grandfather and a female cyber-creature -- a series of pre-destined rendezvous, both on line and offline, over the shreds of mnemonic time and space, at the cleavages of various parlors of subculture -- finally the narrative images of the computer screen are drained off from the color and the texture, the images collapse down to a mere pulsating pixel, potentially to start another cycle of the story once again.
- DirectorLu ZhangStarsJian CuiLan YinJin-Long LinChang-ho, 12, becomes friend with a North-Korean immigrant about the same age who just crossed the Dooman river, border between North-Korea and China. His mute sister and his wise grand-father will get along with him in a series of misfortunes.
- DirectorAktan Arym KubatStarsAktan Arym KubatTaalaikan AbazovaAskat SulaimanovThe main hero of the film is an electrician with a far greater effect on the people around him than his job defines. He is the last link in a huge energetic system and he becomes the binding bridge between the geopolitical problems of post-soviet space and the common people. The economic devastation of the country had an enormous impact on the industrial workers and yet despite the upheaval, these people did not seize to love and suffer, to have and be friends and to enjoy their lives. In particular our resilient electrician, who possesses a wonderful and open heart. He not only brings electric light (which is often out) to the lives of the inhabitants of this small city, but he also spreads the light of love, loyalty, life and mainly laughter.
- DirectorDiego LermanStarsDiego VegezziJulieta ZylberbergAilín SalasSpying on her students, a teacher finds an exciting hobby.
- DirectorMohamed MouftakirStarsSaadia LadibDriss RoukheAnas El BazZineb is an emotionally exhausted psychiatrist assigned to Rihana, a traumatized and pregnant young woman found in the street muttering unintelligibly about "The Lord of the Horse." Soon, Rihana's story awakens repressed thoughts in Zineb's own troubled mind, and reality merges into a haunted fever-dream of fear and denial.
- DirectorOday RasheedStarsAsaad Abdul MajeedAlaa NajemHattam AudaCrime, passion and childhood innocence in an Iraqi tale.
- DirectorGustavo PizziStarsKarine TelesCamilo PellegriniOtávio MüllerWhat's the importance of luck in life? How much effort and talent is enough to guarantee a solid carrier? Is luck part of the craft? Bianca is an excellent actor but theater doesn't pay the bills yet. In order to make a living, she impersonates movie divas and promotes events. Bianca auditions for a big international production and gets the part. The director of the film, inspired by her work, changes the character he wrote into a version of Bianca. Is this the chance of a lifetime? Craft is a Brazilian independent film, made possible through co-productions and partnerships with companies such as Canal Brasil and Link Digital. This is Gustavo Pizzi's first feature. The film discusses matters such as talent, hope and fate.
- DirectorSidharth SrinivasanStarsDibyendu BhattacharyaSaba JoshiAvtar SahaniAmid the epic landscape of the Mahabharata, the stage is set for an intimate yet eternal tussle between custom and commerce, tradition and modernity.
- DirectorLevan KoguashviliStarsGuga KotetishviliIrakli RamishviliGiorgi KipshidzeA drug addict is being threatened by jail if he doesn't set up his childhood friend's son.
- DirectorTolga KaraçelikStarsSerkan ErcanZafer DiperNur FettahogluQuiet and introverted toll booth clerk Kenan's life, a humdrum routine between the Tavsancik toll booth plaza and his home, will change the day the new operations chief comes to inspect Tavsancik.
- DirectorBujar AlimaniStarsLuli BitriKarafil ShenaTodi LlupiConjugal visits unite two strangers visiting a prison to meet their incarcerated spouses. During these visits, Elsa and Spetim find the companionship missing from their lives. But a prisoner amnesty soon threatens their fragile bond in this contemplative drama. An official selection of the prestigious Global Lens Collection presented by the Global Film Initiative. (Albanian w. English subs)
- DirectorCarlos OsunaStarsÁlvaro BayonaFernando ArévaloJairo CamargoAntonio Farfan is a 46 year old man working in a notary's office who has always believed that his personal and professional failure is the inevitable result of his looks: he is bald, short and fat. Though his mind is never silent, his life goes almost uneventfully until the new notary arrives: a fatter, balder and shorter man that, unlike Antonio, is successful and loved by others. Dazed and confused, Antonio is now thrown out to the real world where he faces his own fears and ends up living pretty unexpected situations.
- DirectorSergio TeubalStarsFabián VenaGabriel GoityMartín SeefeldIn the tradition of O' Brother Where Art Thou and the Irish Waking Ned, and set in a wonderfully photographic, Southamerican environment comes this comedy. Hilarious characters pulling together to make a dream come true, our hero's index finger is the excuse that drives the villagers to discover a murder, turn around the election to the town's mayor, renew their Christian's faith, build new love relationships. In other words wake up the quiet Latin American town of Cerro Colorado. Who knows where these people will get with the help of the magic finger?.
- DirectorKivu RuhorahozaStarsRamadhan BizimanaTamim HakizimanaKennedy Jones MazimpakaBalthazar is a young African filmmaker on the brink of directing his first project, The Cycle of the Cockroach, a fictional story about a young woman who survived unspeakable atrocities only to find herself committed to the same mental institution as a man driven insane by the crimes he perpetrated during the war. Potential funders for the film insist the themes are too bleak and pessimistic-they encourage Balthazar to make a "message" film that raises awareness about gender-based violence or HIV/AIDS instead. But he refuses to give up. Instead of telling his production team the news, Balthazar continues preparations for the film without financing or equipment. After rehearsing a scene with each of the characters, reality blurs and scenes from the script materialize, provoking the question: Can a film like this exist only in the director's dreams? Armed with a daring and creative visual language, writer/director Kivu Ruhorahoza boldly grasps at the illusory trick of representation in the wake of trauma and its ensuing madness. Paralleling the protagonist in his film, Ruhorahoza's debut marks the very first feature-length narrative film directed by a Rwandan filmmaker living in his homeland.
- DirectorMorteza FarshbafStarsKiomars GitiSharareh PashaAmir Hossein MalekiA violent quarrel breaks out between a couple at midnight. Being at a relative,s house in the north of Iran, they depart for Tehran in the middle of the night, but they do not bring along their son. Something terrible happens on their way...
- DirectorSrdjan DragojevicStarsNikola KojoMilos SamolovHristina PopovicA homophobic Serbian gangster is forced to make a deal with wedding planner gay activist, to assemble a team which will protect the upcoming Pride Parade in Belgrade, and in exchange his fiancée can get her dream wedding.
- DirectorPaula MarkovitchStarsPaula Galinelli HertzogLaura AgorrecaViviana SuranitiCeci, a seven year old girl, has to keep a huge secret, but she doesn't completely understand what is the secret about. The life of her family depends on her silence. But what exactly must she keep silent about? Ceci and her mom live hidden from military repression in Argentina. Ceci asks herself: what must she say? What should she really believe and do in order to deserve the love of her mother and others?
- DirectorOrhan EskiköyZeynel DoganStarsBasê DoganZeynel DoganGulizar DoganWhen Basê finds herself revisited by voice recordings resurfacing from the past, she whispers to her son Mehmet things that he never knew.
- DirectorYuan ZhangStarsBowen DuanXinyun LiWenwen HanSao Bao has been left behind by China's fabulous new wealth, having lost his job, his apartment, and the woman he loves. Nevertheless, he has moments of euphoria amid his own despair, as he roams the sleek, shifting city with other soulful, cash-poor dreamers and misfits. These heavenly losers carry the vital spirit of Beijing in this portrait of youthful disaffection. Mandarin w. English subs.
- DirectorSebastian del AmoStarsRoberto SosaJuan Manuel BernalJuan Carlos BonetJuan Orol was born in Galicia, Spain at the end of the 19th century. As a child, his mother sent him away to Cuba, looking for a relative he never found. He grew up wildly and encroached in many disciplines such as baseball, boxing, race cars ,and bull fighting; this last career effort moved him to Mexico, where he got married and started a new life as a cop. After the Cristiada War, he widowed and looked for an opportunity in Mexican Cinema where he hit the jackpot on his first feature and became the main B Side exponent of the GOLDEN AGES of Mexican movie industry in the 20th Century.
- DirectorArsen A. OstojicStarsAlma PricaOlga PakalovicMijo JurisicIn order to recover the body of her son lost during the war in Bosnia, a grieving, but strong-willed Muslim woman, Halima, must track down her estranged niece, who we find carries a mysterious connection to him.
- DirectorMani HaghighiStarsTaraneh AlidoostiMani HaghighiSaeed ChangizianAn Iranian couple from the city drive around a remote mountainous region. They hand out bags of money to poor villagers in return for them carrying out unusual requests the couple make of them.
- DirectorVictor ViyuohStarsMbufung SeikehAnurin NwunembomNorbert KechaNinah is a runaway wife whose husband finds out she is pregnant and he comes to recover the dowry he paid or take home the woman he owns. By any means necessary.
- DirectorSuman GhoshStarsShyamal BhattacharyaArindam GhoshShyamal Uncle, an eighty-year old retiree living with his wife in Paikpara (an old Kolkata neighborhood), notices one day that the street lights near his house are left on even during the day. He finds it unconscionable to let this waste go and decides to take action. He talks to a number of people - from the local vendor to the local political leader; from the electricity officer to the police officer. But no one even bothers to listen to him and he is given the runaround. Even his wife is skeptical of his endeavor. Drawing a contrast with the mundane existence of his personal life, the film is a story of Shyamal Uncle's journey as he fights the brush offs, insults, and skepticism with one single goal - turn off the lights.
- DirectorEduardo NunesStarsJulio AdriãoRegina BastosRaquel BonfanteIn a Brazilian coastal village where everything seems motionless, Clarice grasps her life in a single day, unlike those she meets and who are living this day like any other. She tries to understand her obscure reality and the destiny of the people around her in a circular time that haunts and disorients.
- DirectorDarezhan OmirbayevStarsErmek AhmetovErkebulan AlmanovAmangeldy AytalyA roughly faithful adaptation of Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment," set in Almaty by Kazakh filmmaker Darezhan Omirbayev A stark, Bressonian tale of a young man who commits an almost random act of murder.
- DirectorNika ShekStarsArmine AndaOnly the love of a mother and a child does not understand nationality.
- DirectorMohamed Amin BenamraouiStarsBenjalil AmanallahPaulina GálvezUfrin Mustapha AzzaroualiIn 1975, 10-year-old Amar lives in a village in northern Morocco with his violent uncle, waiting for the unlikely return of his mother, who has left for Belgium. He finds a friend in Carmen, his neighbor, who is a Spanish exile and who works as an usher at the village cinema. Carmen helps him discover a world previously unknown to him.
- DirectorMariana RondónStarsSamuel Lange ZambranoSamantha CastilloBeto BenitesA nine-year-old boy's preening obsession with straightening his hair elicits a tidal wave of homophobic panic in his hard-working mother.
- DirectorJoël KarekeziStarsWilson EgessaJoel Okuyo PrynceRehema NanfukaAfter being imprisoned for the killing of ethnic Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide, Manzi must face the emotional and psychological consequences of his most personal crime: the murder of his best friend's family.
- DirectorAmr SalamaRami GheitStarsAhmad DashAhmed HelmyKinda AlloushA Christian kid suddenly is forced to go to a public school after his father dies and because of a misunderstanding everyone thinks that he's a Muslim.