IFFR 2005

Ilya Khrzhanovsky

You won't have seen Russia like this very often. Three characters meet in a bar and talk about their lives. The stories are both banal and intriguing. But are they true? Khrzhanovsky gives us radical, absurd and realistic impressions of modern Russia. Won a Tiger Award in 2005.

tiger competition

Thomas Durchschlag

Fancy having a girlfriend like that. The respectable Maria, with her library job, is in reality ian unbridled monster, who succumbs to drugs, alcohol and sex. Painful sex. And she even manages to find warmth.

Allein

Jose Eduardo Alcazar

Fascinating mix of silent marital drama and deconstruction of a political film in a film. The 'friend from the North' is a young French writer who arrives in Brazil in the 1970s, years of dictatorship, and dreams of an exotic life and love. He makes friends with a film maker who tries to realise a drama about the love-hate relationship between a blind man and a paralysed woman.

O amigo Dunor

Doan Minh Phuong

Doan Thanh Nghia

In a legendary Vietnam before the war, before the colonial era, yes, basically before everything, the tragic story is told of a young unmarried mother. a mother who chooses to remain silent, making her life an intriguing puzzle. Refined and aesthetically overwhelming Vietnamese epic.

Bride of Silence

Mercedes Álvarez

Mercedes Alvarez

Stunning film about the passing of time in the Northern Spanish village of La Aldea. The director was once the last to be born in the village as it bled dry and now returns to portray the essence of simple country life, painting with the camera.

El cielo gira

Renata Litvinova

Bizarre and fairy-tale police thriller about a female detective who tries to solve a cold case about a missing girl. Directed and acted by the Russian cult star Renata Litvinova. With a catchy soundtrack including music by Nick Cave.

Goddess

Erik Poppe

Five powerful stories about love woven together in Oslo on the hottest day of the year. A dying man lies in the street, while the people who gather around him are more alive than ever. One longs for Hawaii, Hawaii. One longs for Hawaii, Oslo. All of them seeking love and everything is interconnected.

Hawaii, Oslo

Vera Fogwill

Martín Desalvo

Vera and Martin Desalvo Fogwill

Intimate portrait of an irresponsible junkie mother (co-director Fogwill herself) who tries to kick the habit, her ten-year-old daughter who would know better is she was mother and their colourful extended family. Almost optimistic, beautifully acted ensemble film about issues hard to discuss. As honest as matter-of-fact and with humour.

Kept and Dreamless

Daniele Gaglianone

Two secondary-school friends lead a dead-end life in a decaying industrial city. A painful portrait of kids growing up in an awkward, occasionally even hostile world.

Nemmeno il destino

Francesco Fei

He is blind, she has a large red stain on her face. Dreams and nightmares, present and past mingle together. A story of budding love and an ingenious portrait of human shortcomings in a demanding world.

Onde

Fow Pyng Hu

Three women, three stories, three locations. Three initially carefree lives are each disrupted by a male figure - respectively a friend, a father and a son. The three reactions display determination and an unconscious love for life.

Paradise Girls

Ho Yuhang

Tranquil, realistic drama about alienation, identity and loneliness in Malaysia that is imprisoned between tradition and modern life. Lai sells toy rifles on the market and spends his spare time gambling in pool halls. He lives with the ailing See, who does monotonous copying work, day in, day out.

Sanctuary

Takahashi Izumi

Kitigawa suffers panic attacks. His girlfriend Shizu tries to get through to him, but Kitigawa seems to seek help from a suspect source. The lengthy silences are eloquent. A painful statement about the demise of a relationship.

The Soup, One Morning

Whang Cheolmean

Two men look as if they are bored to death in a rancid, sweltering hotel room. They read Dostoevsky and film with a video camera. But they have a reason to be there. An unpredictable and excellent character study and a tragic political thriller.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025