IFFR 2003

Velu Viswanadhan

The last part from a series about the five elements is an artistic adventure. The director makes an epic journey through India and records the rituals surrounding death in various religions.

hubert bals fund

Aakaash

Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

A beautiful and energetic example of pan-African cinema, in which the life of two brothers changes drastically when their father runs off. A strict re-education school and sickness threaten to temper their lust for life.

Abouna

Djamshed Usmonov

Poor Halima wants a beautifully decorated front door before she dies, one big enough for her coffin to be taken out of the house. Filmed in the director's birthplace with his own mother and brother playing the lead.

Angel on the Right

Nadia El Fani

Bedwin Hacker

Dariush Mehrjui

Fictional, but very realistic, powerful and moving story about three powerful young women in Ilam, a region of Iran where the suicide rate among girls is very high.

Bemani

Pablo Trapero

Trapero's eye for the struggles, absurdities and small joys of working class Argentinean life continues in this follow-up to his strong début Crane World. Run out of town for criminal activity, his 'hero' is recommended for a job with the cops in the big city. He fits in nicely, as we get to see...

El Bonaerense

Ali-Reza Raisian

Married couple who want children get stranded in the desert when the car breaks down. The local village teacher is also a mechanic. Committed story about the importance of teaching by a pupil of Kiarostami and based on a script by the writer of The Circle.

Deserted Station

Alvaro Velarde

Soaps - or telenovelas - are extremely popular in Peru. This is a funny and strikingly elegant pastiche of soaps, but also a blueprint for Peruvian society, with still a major difference between the social classes.

El destino no tiene favoritos

Elia Suleiman

Winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes festival was refused for the Oscars because Palestine is not an internationally recognised country. About two lovers on both sides of an Israeli border post, who can only meet at the checkpoint. Including ninja.

Divine Intervention

Amarnath Jayatilaka

Terrorism, injustice, lies, corruption, love - relationships between the two Sri Lankan families become increasingly complex.

A Drop in the Reign of Terror

Abderrahmane Sissako

Poetic observations in a small town on the coast of Mauretania, a transit haven where people wait for happiness. At the intersection of uprooting, melancholy and serenity.

Heremakono

Evgeny Yufit

A woman does anthropological research into the evolution from ape to man. The story largely unfolds in her subconscious. By the (only) master of Necro-realism.

Killed by Lightning

Karim Aïnouz

Penetrating portrait about the life of Joao Francisco dos Santos, who causes a storm in the 1930s as the Brazilian drag-queen Madame Satâ. Includes steamy close-ups, sex scenes and dark nightclub interiors.

Madame Satâ

Cristian Mungiu

Young and old Romanians all want to go abroad, but it looks as if they won't get any further than the local graveyard. Intelligent black comedy about social mobility in our 'globalised world'.

Occident

Jason Xenopoulos

London lawyer gets stranded with an eccentric Boer family on his way to the home of his deceased mother in South Africa. Exciting début with beautiful shots of nature.

Promised Land

Ossama Mohammed

Death, fear and power are the most important themes in this symbolic film that is almost Rembrandt-esque in its portrayal. A shadowy family tale in Syria with a political undertone and surrealist twists.

Sacrifices

Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Indian master of the poetic documentary gaze concentrates on the executioner, his dilemmas and his morality. In an intelligent and moving way, he tackles themes like free will, fate, society and guilt.

Shadow Kill

Norman Maake

Against a background of falling stones and mud slides, two miners fight their battle for power in the stone quarry. Exciting début was a student assignment for the young director.

Soldiers of the Rock

A poetic and atmospheric portrait of the director's home town, Vilnius.

SunDay. The Gospel According to Lift-man Albertas

Diego Lerman

The punk girls Mao and Lenin kidnap a lonely lingerie seller, because one of them is in love with her. Début shot in black &amp; white of the lost generation of Argentina.

Tan de repente

Aluízio Abranches

A real vendetta. The three daughters of Filomena have to avenge the death of their three brothers and father. A Greek tragedy on Cinemascope-format in a dustry corner of Brazil.

As tres Marias

Manijeh Hekmat

The harsh life in a women's prison as a metaphor for Iranian society in the last two decades. A young guard has lots of ideals when she starts work, but she gradually has to let go of all of them.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025