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
Two lives cross in New York. Lamis, a Lebanese woman, has just moved to the city and describes her impressions while the Brazilian man Wilson has already lived there for 10 years. We never see them on the screen, but their relationship is described in poetic Arabic and Portuguese voice-overs, which contrast starkly with the images, shot in New York, Berlin and Brazil. In this way, the film speaks literally to the imagination: the events take place between what we see and what we hear.
This hybrid form of documentary, fiction, travelogue and letters makes this 'film diary' reminiscent of News from Home (1977) by Chantal Akerman. Whereas Akerman brings together two different worlds based on letters from her mother in Belgium and images of New York, While We Are Here adds macro and geopolitical issues, such as globalisation and migration, to this approach. The main thread remains intimate and human: desire, love, fear and memories.
Clarissa Campolina, Luiz Pretti
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