Hushing, 18:00
The more determined we are to make our way, the more pressure there is to waver and conform. In the short but powerful Israeli drama “Our Son,” a mother struggles to find her autistic son’s place in school. In the midst of Poland’s 2020 women’s rights protests, seventeen-year-old Ola leads her own fight for female independence in the tense drama “Herstory”
A former literature teacher, now a porn actress, opens up fully about her life story in the Russian documentary “Eva”. Is there a personal freedom that has no price? Perhaps only in a child’s animated daydream “And then…”
Our Son
Henya Brodbeker, fiction, 7’, Israel, 2022
In the middle of the day a young Haredi woman is called in to her son’s school because something happened. She comes, determined to fight for his place and her own.
Production: Costanza Film Distribution, Izrael
Distribution: Costanza Film Distribution, Israel
Herstory
Tomasz Stuleblak, fiction, 29’, Poland, 2023.
Autumn 2020. Massive protests in favour of women rights are just kicking off in Warsaw. 17-year-old Ola spends an evening taking care of her sister and ill grandma. Her daily chores are interrupted by a disturbing news about her mother. Ola delves into the city to discover the thruth, keep believing in female solidarity. Meanwhile the tension in the streets is growing.
Production: Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice, Poland
Distribution: Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice, Poland
And then…
Tanja Nuijten, Leo Graf and Raphael Stalder, animation, 3’, Switzerland, 2022
Three children make up the story of a whale jumping out of a mountain lake and taking a ride on a hot-air balloon.
Production: Hochschule Luzern – Design & Kunst, Switzerland
Distribution: Hochschule Luzern – Design & Kunst, Switzerland
Eva
Olga Smirnova, documentary, 27’, Russia, 2022
A documentary film – portrait about a former literature teacher from Tulskaya oblast, Russia who has now become a famous porn actress and video blogger Eva Berger, her way into porn industry and the price she pays for her choice.
Production: Higher Courses of Scriptwriters and Filmdirectors, Russia
Distribution: Higher Courses of Scriptwriters and Filmdirectors, Russia
Meanwhile, 19:30
From the moment we find ourselves unprepared for losing that significant other, to the moment when we can truly begin to exist in solitude, that is the time when we begin to dismantle ourselves and rebuild from the ground up. This is difficult and frustrating. Sometimes impossible, sometimes liberating. In the Polish drama “After Sunday”, a new encounter of former partners emotionally reflects the (un)breakable bonds and (im)possible new beginnings.The gentle Croatian animated film “Birdhouse” follows the journey of a romantic relationship,
from initial idealization through disappointment and separation to personal growth through experience. In the touching Estonian film “Days Without,” a year-old girl is left without her mother, and a husband without his wife. Will they find a common language and meaning as they wait for her return? The message of the heartfelt Israeli documentary “Unwell Mind” is that sometimes everything is easier when you have a true friend by your side. It depicts the friendship between Dana, a student, and Yael, a woman with a disability.
After Sunday
Sebastian Drożak, fiction, 23’, Poland, 2022
“After Sunday” is a story of two physically and mentally wounded people who once got entangled in one another, but their complicated togetherness was cut short. Now Milena arrives at Mariusz’s door with their dying dog, Homer, demanding help. But is that really all she wants? Words and silences leave deep scars which time doesn’t always heal. The margin of hope is a new beginning – a new week, a new day. Everything that comes after Sunday.
Producer: MUNK STUDIO, Poland
Distribution: MUNK STUDIO, Poland
Bird House
Petra Pavetić Kranjčec, animation, 4’, Croatia, 2023
A story about romantic idealization of a relationship, differences in expectations, deception, breakup and personal growth as a result of lived experience.
Producer: Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia
Distribution: Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia
Days Without
Ívar Erik Yeoman, fiction, 15’, Estonia / Portugal / Scotland, 2022
Nikolai must take care of their one-year-old daughter while he waits for his wife’s return, whenever that may be.
Producer: Kino Eyes Masters, Estonia
Distribution: Kino Eyes Masters, Estonia
Unwell Mind
Danna Levy, documentary, 39′, Israel, 2021
Unwell Mind is a documentary that follows Yael (36), a woman with a mental disability, at her weekly meetings with Danna (28), a film student and volunteer. An incident between Yael and her boyfriend pulls the two women into an unexpected journey, as Yael and her boyfriend undergo joint therapy while Danna documents the process. The story quickly turns to one on friendship and an unlikely sisterhood, as the two women analyze their respective relationships, recognizing they both have more in common than they have initially thought realized.
Producer: Sapir Academic College, Israel
Distribution: Costanza Film Distribution, Israel
Blaze, 21:00
Let’s scratch the surface and reveal the beauty of life in ordinary places. Some people, stories and experiences blaze distinctively, revealing the special moments in everyday, ordinary and sometimes sad times. And nothing shines as brightly for young Brits as the Spanish summer sun in the surreal cinematic journey titled “Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays.”
The protagonist of the Serbian documentary “Anatomy of Hypomania” is a bit disillusioned with life in general but in love with all its smallest details. Straddling the line between childhood and adulthood in the German coming-of-age drama “Babyboy,” sixteen-year-old Vincent searches for his place in the world, and maybe a little more tenderness… Who could blame him?
Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays
Christian Avilés, fiction, 24’, Spain, 2022
Driven by their desire for light and warmth, British teenagers take a trip to the Balearic Islands. They must absorb the sun and store it in their bodies to take it back to their cloud-covered kingdom. A surreal film about the real phenomenon of “balconing” which, in recent summers, has led to tragic, self-inflicted accidents particularly among young people travelling to Spain.
Production: ESCAC, Spain
Distribution: ESCAC, Spain
Anatomy of Hypomania
Mina Vavan, dokumentarni film, 31’, Serbia, France, 2022
While battling the challenges of living in the Anatomy department, a retired anatomy professor has dedicated his life to research in neuroscience and his two daughters.
Production: Atelier Varan, France / Serbia
Distribution: Atelier Varan, France / Serbia
BABYBOY
Jannik Weiße, fiction, 48’, Germany, 2023
Vincent is 16 and aspires to achieve everything that makes a boy a man: moving out of his mother’s house, finding acceptance among the boys on his football team, and sleeping with his girlfriend. But between his first love and the divorce of his parents, lies Vincent’s longing to feel at home again.
Production: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Germany
Distribution: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Germany
