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
Aki and Nodoka are childhood friends who are drifting apart as adults. Immersed in her family life, Nodoka now has a husband and daughter; Aki, on the other hand, remains single and is on leave from work due to a personal crisis. The plot might sound familiar but it has never been told like this. The director Kusano Natsuka stages the interactions through an actors’ table-read and, as the lines are repeated, the scenes gradually develop into on-location conversations. Moreover, she repositions the dramatic peak of the story to the beginning: Aki has murdered Nodoka's daughter.
Structurally inventive, Kusano's daring cinema implements ‘distantiation’ effects to get to the heart of friendship issues at times when life has settled. While the repetitions convey the suffocation of role patterns in both friendship and family, a line left out or added in unsettles and reminds us life can take unexpected turns.
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