IFFR 2008

José Luis Torres Leiva

Pure cinema, apparently casual in its story, image and sound, about ordinary, lonely people who live on a remote Chilean island. Who are we to contradict the film maker: 'I would dare say that it is a film of “strolls”: mental, virtual, on foot, in automobiles, aboard ferries…'

VPRO Tiger Awards Competition

El cielo, la tierra y la lluvia

Lucía Cedrón

Family drama grippingly links two periods from recent Argentine history. When the affluent Arturo (77) is kidnapped during the financial crisis in 2002, his daughter is forced to return to Buenos Aires, after living in exile since 1978.

Cordero de Dios

Liew Seng Tat

Two incomparable boys and the dog, and yet this isn't a children's film. Made with a comic timing of an experienced director. The motherless boys roam the streets while their father doesn't seem to be interested in them. Latest branch on the tree of Malaysian new wave.

Flower in the Pocket

Weng Shou-ming

Atmospheric, energetic and topical début by the young Chinese Weng is situated in his home province of Fujian. The first part is about the petty criminals who finance their modern lifestyle with blackmail. The second, partly overlapping story is about a gentle young man who wonders whether he will try his luck in the West.

Fujian Blue

Omar Shargawi

Jamil is in the middle of the circle, the violent and vicious circle of revenge and atonement. He knows he is responsible for his own future, for his little son, for his wife who doubts whether they can make a future together. An Arab story about age-old religious contradictions in a large Danish city.

Go with Peace Jamil

Jens Jonsson

Hero of the story is a large, fat adolescent who is beginning to wonder whether he has the same father as his smaller, more successful brother. Successful short-film maker Jonsson made the greatest possible use of the setting and lighting of snow-covered northern Sweden for his feature début.

The King of Ping Pong

Michelange Quay

Elegant lyrical surrealism and restrained fury in a political pamphlet, all rolled into one: a director from Haiti shows us in breathtaking tableaux vivants the dramatic colonial heritage of his parents' birthplace. With Sylvie Testud and a great amateur cast.

Mange, ceci est mon corps

Ihor Podolchak

Dean Karr

Feature debut by the Ukrainian visual artist Podolchak. He brings to life a claustrophobic and dysfunctional family life as if it were a painting in motion. Avant-garde and demanding, but worthwhile and enchanting, with an especially fine soundtrack.

Las meninas

David Verbeek

Young Dutch director made an (almost) entirely Chinese film. In a city where everything is new, an outsider is in any case no more out of place than the locals. Cinematographic portrait of modern life in the mega-city of Shanghai is made up of three separate stories about dreams and loves of twentysomethings.

Shanghai Trance

Abai Kulbai

The young Kazakh city girl Ainur wrestles with life. Everything and everybody seems to be against her: school, family, her best friend. But Ainur is no push-over. Modern Kazakh cinema with a tone of its own.

Strizh

Alexis Alexiou

The disappearance of his recently conquered girlfriend drives the rather shy Iasonas to despair and evokes confusing delusions in his already fragile mental makeup. A psychological thriller without redemption, with an outspoken visual language.

Tale 52

Shingo Wakagi

The filmmaker, a well-known photographer in Japan, had a very nice grandfather. He was even nice in his profession. He was a recognized manzai performer (a kind of Japanese stand-up comedy). The film maker looks back on his childhood and pays homage to his idiosyncratic grandpa.

Waltz in Starlight

Jake Mahaffy

As if the travelling salesman never died. And he still collect wasps nests. That will surely get him into trouble. Even in the countryside of Pennsylvania, people don't allow themselves to be taken in. Beautiful sad portrait of real people. Played by real people.

Wellness

Aditya Assarat

An architect from Bangkok spends some time in a forgotten coastal town in southern Thailand for a building commission. A doomed place that has not recovered from the tsunami three years ago. When something beautiful blossoms between the architect and the owner of his hotel, they are not to find happiness.

Wonderful Town

John Torres

A film that openly describes the childhood of the film maker and his father who also had children outside their family. The frankness is cloaked by a series of interpretations and poetic reflections. The maker analyses his own diary.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025