IFFR 2008

Albert Lamorisse

Masterpiece by Albert Lamorisse from 1956 that has won a lot of awards and still moves us now as much as then. An allegorical dream about the power of imagination that is more than a famous children's film. Le ballon rouge is a statement about the need for childlike amazement. See also Le voyage du ballon rouge.

Cinema Regained

Le ballon rouge

Lionel Rogosin

New print of what is now a classic 'docu-fictie' provides a unique picture of South Africa in the 1950s, made at that time under great pressure of time with non-professional actors and without permission from the authorities. Zacharia is a worker without a work permit and therefore falls victim to exploitation, sudden dismissal and arrest.

Come Back Africa

Takefuji Kayo

Richly variegated documentary with fiction about the old widower Yamagishi Tatsuji who has had a stroke. He was once a famous film maker, for instance of the official films of the Olympic Games in Tokyo (1964) and the Japan Expo (1970). The maker decides to make a feature about the director as a young man.

Half Empty or Half Full

Alberto Morais

Artistic documentary essay about the artistic and social heritage of Neorealism, the pioneering post-war Italian film movement that proved a lasting inspiration to film makers to make their own socially committed cinema. It focuses on Theo Angelopoulos, Victor Erice and Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Un lugar en el cine

blackANDwhite

Not a straight look, but a fascinating one in the kitchen of the unpredictable genius of master film maker David Lynch - a documentary sketch about a period of two years, made around the production of his last film Inland Empire.

LYNCH

Babette Mangolte

Meticulous reconstruction of seven notorious performances from the 1970s by Marina Abramovic in 2005 in the Guggenheim Museum, New York. By, e.g., Naumann, Beuys, Acconci, EXPORT and herself.

Seven Easy Pieces by Marina Abramovic

Peter Askin

Informative documentary about the well-known American scriptwriter Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976), whose life was made difficult after the notorious McCarthy hearings. With interviews, witness statements and 'lectures' by Liam Neeson, Michael Douglas, David Strathairn and Donald Sutherland.

Trumbo

Hou Hsiao-hsien

Imagine that a French director who doesn't speak a word of Chinese wants to make a Taiwanese film, then you would politely advise him against. In this case a Taiwanese master makes a French film. The result is amazingly pleasant, polite and successful. With Juliette Binoche. See also <strong>Le ballon rouge</strong>.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025