Alva
After his children are taken away by social services, a troubled loner seeks revenge and flees into the inhospitable forest.
98'
Portugal
IFFR 2019
Following several experimental shorts, Tarık Aktaş’ remarkable feature debut concerns seven-year-old Hay, who finds a dead horse in a field and witnesses how much effort it takes to get rid of this. Aktaş portrays the adult Hay’s life in relatively unrelated vignettes: wounded during ritual slaughter; a confusing meeting in a hospital; the felling of a tree.
References to Hay's childhood memories are subtle: blood; a body on the beach; a recurring rope. The relationship between humanity and nature is crucial. The elements water and fire, earth and the air, all appear in the opening. Seemingly guileless realism with the unmistakable gut feeling of impending doom as the bearer of a spiritual line. In – as Paul Schrader put it – a "transcendental style", Aktaş aligns with filmmakers such as Robert Bresson and Lisandro Alonso. Aktaş won Best Emerging Director in Locarno for this film.
IFFR 2019
Programme IFFR 2019
Emerging talent with original subject matter and an individual style. Includes the films nominated for the Bright Future Competition for first feature films.
Read more about this programmeAfter his children are taken away by social services, a troubled loner seeks revenge and flees into the inhospitable forest.
98'
Portugal
IFFR 2019
Fourteen absurd encounters of a melancholy girl with the surrounding world in this post-modern comedy filled with pastel and neon lights.
80'
Germany
IFFR 2019
Life’s key elements come together in this visual film symphony and ode to today's colourful Jamaica.
77'
Jamaica
IFFR 2019