IFFR 2014

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.

Signals: Mysterious Objects - 25 Years of Hubert Bals Fund

Celina Murga

A stunning Camila Toker plays a young woman who returns to her birthplace for the first time in years and seeks in vain the places, memories and intimacy she once knew. Melancholy film with a light touch, at once recognisable and mysterious.

Ana y los otros

Flora Gomes

In Guinea-Bissau, where the euphoria surrounding independence is gradually ebbing away, to be replaced by disappointment, a tragicomic love story unfolds. Yonta is in love with the former political activist Vicente. But he´s not interested. Can´t Yonta see that she has another admirer?

The Blue Eyes of Yonta

Elia Suleiman

Palestinian filmmaker Suleiman returns to Israel after years spent living abroad. We meet his family and friends in a series of often ironic scenes and sketches. On the loss of a national identity and becoming accustomed to conflict as a way of life.

Chronicle of a Disappearance

Sharunas Bartas

The originally nomadic people the Tofalars live in a remote corner of Siberia. Now housed in concrete homes, they struggle to keep up traditions and human contact. The drama of a disappearing people in the harsh Siberian landscape, by Lithuanian master Sharunas Bartas.

Few of Us

Vimukthi Jayasundara

How deep, indescribable traumas of war render real peace and human contact all but impossible in Sri Lanka, after more than 30 years of civil war. The Forsaken Land subsumes the viewer in fear, hatred, desires and lust. Awarded Best Debut in Cannes.

The Forsaken Land

Carlos Reygadas

In the ambitious, stunning debut by Carlos Reygadas (Silent Light, Post tenebras lux), a man leaves the city to die in a remote, majestic valley. The overwhelming nature and the old widow he meets bring him back to the land of the living. In super CinemaScope.

Japón

Chen Kaige

The world as imagined by two blind musicians. 'The Holyman', who is travelling through China with his acolyte Shi Tou, is waiting for a string to break on his instrument for the thousandth time. Only then will the formula to restore his sight be revealed. Second film by Chen Kaige.

Life on a String

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Various Thais are invited to tell an episodic story. We soon see aliens, flying balls and kidnappings. Funny, intelligent debut by Weerasethakul.

In this semi-documentary, various Thais are invited to tell an episodic story. We soon see aliens, flying balls and kidnappings. What starts off as a personal drama is transformed into fantasy, horror and romance. Funny, intelligent debut by later Golden Palm winner Weerasethakul.

Mysterious Object at Noon

Mohamad Malas

Quneitra on the Golan Heights was destroyed by Israel during the war with Syria in 1967. The father of Malas, a Palestinian freedom fighter, is buried there. To dispel his feelings of shame and humiliation concerning his father´s death, Malas rewrites his father´s story. A historic, personal and epic film.

La nuit

Ning Ying

Black comedy about the everyday conflict between tradition and progress in a Peking police station. An influx of semi-criminal newcomers from the countryside makes life difficult for the police officers. It´s not easy trying to track someone down in these anonymous tower blocks.

On the Beat

Garin Nugroho

The poet Ibrahim Kadir plays himself in a political drama about his arrest and incarceration in Aceh in the 1960s. Kadir survived the mass murder of suspected communists by the Indonesian government that cost between 500,000 and two million lives.

A Poet

Martín Rejtman

Wayward comedy that starts with a stolen moped and sneakers and a forged 100-peso note that no one will take. This precursor to the stream of independent films from Argentina brings us back to the 1990s. Complete with apathetic youth, cassette tapes and digital watches.

Rapado

Moufida Tlatli

The news of the death of Tunisian prince Sid'Ali takes Alia back to her childhood: she is the daughter of the prince's favourite servant. While outside the palace walls people are struggling for freedom and independence, the female staff within the palace are subject to domination. A Tunisian classic.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025