En plain, 16:00

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Placing the entire bet on one number is the move of someone very confident, dare-devilish, or completely resigned. In the documentary film (p)artisan, the young artist will,  for the sixth time, put all-in into realizing his essential dream, enrolling in the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. The protagonist of the film Courier interrupts the boring everyday life of a package delivery man with a casual relationship with a female client.

On the other hand, the uncompromising gradation of rhythm and associated scenes of all by-products of sociability leaves no breathing room in the experimental animation One Thousand and One Attempts to Be an Ocean. A former gambling addict and amateur weightlifter, now condemned to his parent’s garage, puts all his hopes into selling protein for a multi-level marketing agency in the fiction film The Architect. Finally, mother and daughter make an effort in the joint walk through the maquis to the sea in the documentary film That Much More.

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out of competition

(p)artisan

Jelena Androić, documentary, 20’, Croatia, 2022.

Bruno is a talented young artist from Rijeka. But he never received the official ‘label’ of an artist – this year he will try to enter college for the sixth time; in Ljubljana or Zagreb, where he would really like to move from the city of Rijeka, which he has outgrown. Bruno is rapidly losing his hearing. The diagnosis says: undefined unspecified hearing loss, on both sides. Hearing aids are expensive, just like life itself.
But Bruno is a fighter. If he could choose a fighter, he would be a partisan.

Producer: New School of Documentary film, Filmaktiv
Distribution: Filmaktiv

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Courier

Elena Kulesh, fiction, 19’, Russian Federation, 2022

A young grocery delivery-boy named Max, regularly stops at the home of a married woman during working hours. After one of these visits, Max is late for another delivery and his pay is docked. On the next day, he impulsively steals expensive products from another order and plans a feast for his lover, not concerned about the consequences.

Producer: Saint Petersburg School of New Cinema
Distribution: Saint Petersburg School of New Cinema

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One Thousand and One Attempts to Be an Ocean

Wang Yuyan, documentary, 11’, France, 2021

One Thousand and One Attempts to Be an Ocean reflects on the experience of not being able to see the world with depth perception. Made up of micro-events from “satisfying video” that swarm on the internet, the abstract narrative unfolds through an appropriation way by referring to trance and minimal music. It’s about a desire for groundless waves, blended with today’s inexorable entropy of our information societies.

Producer: Le Fresnoy, Studio National
Distribution: [email protected]

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The Architect

Mathieu Lorain Dignard, fiction, 15’, Canada, 2021

Stuck in his parent’s garage after a reversal of fortune, Mike Villeneuve, a former gambling addict and amateur weightlifter, devotes himself to the sale of protein shakes for a multi-level marketing company. Obsessed with his quest for success, he finds himself cornered into deceiving the very people who are trying to help.

Producer: INIS, Montréal
Distribution: INIS, Montréal

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out of competition

That Much More

Nina Sorić, documentary, 20’, Croatia, 2022.

The film follows the relationship between mother and daughter (director of this film) as they clear the way to the sea, which is overgrown with thick macchia.

Producer: New School of Documentary film, Filmaktiv
Distribution: Filmaktiv

Checkers, 18:00

STIFF2022-dama

Now it is the women’s turn. Some of them step outside the conventions, so their steps are followed by society under a special magnifying glass. They do not follow the path. How far will they go, breaking the rules of the game? Life is often not fair. In the film First, a woman whose unborn child’s fate is to be stillborn decides on an unexpected path. The harmony of the island of wild women in the animated film Carried away is interrupted by the appearance of a seemingly ordinary object. In the documentary film Sacrificed,

fifteen-year-old Flavie is ready for civil disobedience to defend her social and ecological beliefs. Will the young girl be allowed the freedom of movement, or will she stay imprisoned in her father’s armor we will discover in the animated film The Potter’s Daughter. In the experimental-documentary film Waves, the author observes an intimate love relationship in subjective movement through touches and whispers, subtle reminiscences, whirpulls, waves, and vibrations.

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First…

Adam Hartwiński, fiction, 27’, Poland, 2021

40-year-old Marysia finds out that the baby she is expecting has an incurable genetic defect and probably will die soon after birth. A desperate woman makes a difficult decision to give birth to a child and donate its kidney to the sick little girl.

Producer: Warsaw Film School
Distribution: Aldona Hartwińska

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Carried away

Daniel Makmal, animation, 4’, Israel, 2021

On a wild island live four women in harmony.
A bra from different times, washed ashore on a stormy night, violates the balance on the island and causes chaos and destruction.
The new object becomes the focus of a quarrel.
“Carried away” is a parable of the immense power inherent in the female collective and its destructive potential.

Producer: Department of Screen Based Arts Bezalel Academy of Arts Design
Distribution: Bezalel Academy of Art and Design

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Sacrificed

David Sanchez, documentary, 12’, Canada, 2021

Flavie is a daring and opinionated 15-year-old teen who, in order to defend her social and environmental beliefs, is ready to practice civil disobedience even at the risk of facing justice. In a discussion with her parents on the consequences of her actions, they will go so far as to confront their respective visions of the future and what actions to take for things to change. A powerful debate between two generations.

Producer: INIS, Montréal
Distribution: INIS, Montréal

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The potter’s daughter

Edern Guichard, animation, 9’, France, 2021

A potter’s daughter sneaks into her father’s workshop at night to draw the outline of her shadow on a wall. Her drawing comes to life. When the potter discovers them, he becomes so furious that he locks his daughter in one of his pots. She grows old and shrivels up… until she regains freedom of movement?

Producer: EMCA (Ecole des Métiers du Cinéma d’Animation) Angoulême, France
Distribution: EMCA (Ecole des Métiers du Cinéma d’Animation) Angoulême, France

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Waves

Klara Dujmović, documentary/experimental,19’, Croatia, 2022

A wave is a way of transmitting energy caused by a disturbance on one  part of a medium. We think in the direction that we are each other’s means and disturbances that mutually set off waves and vibrate each other.

Producer: Udruga Blank
Distribution: Udruga Blank

Offside, 20:00

STIFF2022-zalede

In the forbidden margins of the space that surrounds us, we often stand frozen by fear of possible mistakes. We move with uncertainty in a familiar yet foreign environment, as the protagonist of the animated film Orange Peel, whose inner nervousness directly reflects the complex and dangerous environment. In the fiction film Rosanazi, the eclectic group of young neo-Nazi

questions the space, society’s boundaries, and the group itself. Placed between associations and memories, the protagonist of the animated film Orange Peel is on the train from Spain with a notebook filled with memories on her lap. The aesthetics of seductive photography in the inaccessible parts of the Polish countryside highlight the alienation and condemnation of the protagonist in the fiction film The Howling.

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Have a Nice Dog!

Jalal Maghout, animation, 13’, Germany, Syria, 2020

Trapped in Damascus, surrounded by war, a lonely man is desperately waiting for a chance to leave the country. In his isolation he loses himself more and more in constant fantasies of escape and introspection. Only his dog Baroud still offers him a mute response. But even his behavior seems to be only a mirror of his master’s inner life.

Producer: Filmuniversität Potsdam, Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, University of Film and Television
Distribution: [email protected]

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ROSANAZI

Sunniva Kveum, fiction, 20′, Norway, 2020

A teenage girl and her band of misfits form a young group of neo-Nazis. The friends are like family. They live by their own rules and push the limits of morality, but eventually loyalty is put to the test.

Producer: The Norwegian Film School
Distribution: The Norwegian Film School

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Orange Peel

Isidora Vulić, animation, 5’, Serbia, 2021

On a train back from Spain. On her lap, a notebook of memories, and an orange.

Producer: Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade
Distribution: Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade

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The Howling

Bartosz Brzeziński, fiction, 30’, Poland, 2021

Kuba is growing up in a small village where nothing ever happens. He’s being raised by an alcoholic father, a ship breeder. Kuba spends his time loitering and fooling around with his friends. One day, an old friend from a big city appears in the village. His presence coincides with a wolf attack on the family sheep farm. The protagonist begins discovering his sexuality and is soon faced with a tough choice.

Producer: Warsaw Film School
Distribution: Aldona Hartwińska

All in, 20:00

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Playing with the highest stakes can result in a rise to the top or a fall to the bottom. Nevertheless, how will we know what awaits us if we do not bet all-in sometime? The desire to be in the center of events, at the height of the party, repeatedly fills and empties the heroine of the documentary film In medias res. The protagonist of the fiction film Warsha gives his all

in the (entirely) unexpected ending of a tense day at a risky construction job. The crew behind the movie The Girl in the Blue Dress revealed its trump cards and talents for a full-blooded medieval musical. At first glance, when one accident photo is taken, it opens up a sea of ​​insecurities and bad experiences of the protagonist of the animated film Pore.

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out of competition

In Medias Res

Ana Klepo, documentary, 20’, Croatia, 2022.

Waking up again to a sticky blue morning and seeing things through the prism of change as well as expecting a better “tomorrow”. Coming of age film about finding yourself in a sea of spent style, routine parties, supporting the equally worn-out nightlife of town known as “flowing city”.

Producer: New School of Documentary film, Filmaktiv
Distribution: Filmaktiv

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Warsha

Dania Bdeir, fiction, 16’, France, Lebanon, 2021

Mohammad is a crane operator working in Beirut. One morning he volunteers to take on one of the tallest and notoriously most dangerous cranes in Lebanon. Away from everyone’s eyes, he is able to live out his secret passion and find freedom.

Producer: Coralie Dias
Distribution: [email protected]

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The Girl in the Blue Dress

Teo Morosin, Eric Ušić, fiction, 41’, Croatia, 2021

This medium-length feature film in the form of a musical is a fairy tale with elements of humor and fiction set in an indefinite past or future tense. Francesca, harassed by her parents, has decided to leave her home and embark on an uncertain adventure that will change her life forever. Lost, naive, uneducated and curious, in her blue dress she travels through the mythical parts of the enchanted peninsula where she meets strange and distinctive characters who want to reveal the meaning of life to her through song and dance, humor and mysticism.

Producers: Daria Morosin, Edi Smoljan
Distribtion: NOVI VODNJANSKI FILMSKI VAL (NVFV)

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Pore

Clémence Pica Rogge, animation, 6’, Belgium, 2021

Yann and Laïla are coming home drunk from a party, when Laïla suddenly freezes when Yann tries to take a picture of her.

Producer: Atelier de Production de La Cambre ASBL
Distribution: ADIFAC

Extended play
Discursive program / Talk with filmmakers
23:30 OKC Palach

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In this discursive program, we will have a chat with the crew of the film The Girl in the Blue Dress. This unusual debut of the film collective Novi Vodnjanski filmski val (NVFV) is a medium-length feature film in the form of a musical, a fairy tale with elements of Monty Python humor, set in an indeterminate past or future. It is the work of a few young film enthusiasts from Vodnjan, created rather accidentally during the lockdown.

In the impossibility of leading a normal life, the authors resorted to recording short videos. Then, they realized that these films were fun not only for them but also for their friends and acquaintances, so they encouraged themselves to continue and produced two medium-length films in their authentic style – The Girl in the Blue Dress ( 2021) and La play (2022).

The conversation with the authors will be moderated by Sendi Bakotić.