IFFR 2015

Bjørn Melhus

The beauty of death captured by highly appropriate camerawork. The freedom of the afterlife. Not only legends are eternalised by death.

IFFR+

Afterlife

An essay on the impact of icons who died young, such as James Dean and Janis Joplin, on American society. How a people is lulled asleep by pretty tales and illusions.

Auto Center Drive

Sonia Herman Dolz

Film showing how Sjarel Ex ‘directs’ the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum. A director must have many faces, as you have to deal with wondrous artists, ancient collectors, business people, fellow directors, staff and many others. Multi-talent Ex seems to have no problem with this at all.

Conducting Boijmans

Johan Jonason

A Swedish singer trades Europe for China. Like a blonde nephew of Bryan Ferry, he enters the burgeoning music scene in Shanghai, where electronic dance music dominates. But is this new land of opportunity ready for his soul-searching, tormented voice? Is music really such a universal language? Free admission

Conquering China

Walérian Borowczyk

A civilised bourgeois dinner party encounters disruptions that outdo Buñuel - when the host, Dr Jekyll, keeps slipping away to transform into his lawless double, the sex-murderer Mr Hyde. A disconcertingly lyrical combination of B-movie horror and surrealistic abandon from Polish master Walérian Borowczyk. Selected by Adrian Martin &amp; Cristina Álvarez López for Critics' Choice.

Docteur Jekyll et les femmes

John Pirozzi

While war was raging in Vietnam, youth culture in Cambodia blossomed to the beat of local imitations of rock, chansons, and even hippy psychedelics. This lively music scene came to an abrupt end with the brutal takeover by the Khmer Rouge. After many years of research, a unique sound has been revived. Free admission

Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll

Maria Visser

Candid, inspirational portrait of Marga Weimans, one of the most interesting contemporary fashion designers in the Netherlands. For a year, this creative multi-talent is followed as she scales the heights of the fashion and art worlds, as well as on a trip to the interior of Surinam in search of her roots. Where do her drive, inspiration and philosophy come from?

Fashion House Marga Weimans

HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN

34-part film-poem that reinterprets traditional opera conventions to ask: 'What happens to the black body when it is haunted by "a blackness" outside of it?' The spoken, sung and screamed libretto (by Dawn Lundy Martin) explores the consequences of centuries of global racial strife thrust upon on those of African descent. Admission free

Good Stock on the Dimension Floor: an Opera

Filmwerkplaats Collective

Lichun Tseng 

Nick Aberson

Esther Urlus

Nan Wang

An initiative by Rotterdam’s WORM. Film workshop: four directors go in search of traces of heroism in the city, under the guidance of a producer/supervisor and armed with 16mm black-and-white film. A highly visual, experimental, at times difficult but always intriguing operation. Made in Rotterdam.

Hometown

What changes in the lives of soldiers returning home after a war? For those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, 'home' means 'hell'.

I'm Not the Enemy

Lynn Shelton

Adulthood is so appealing as a kid: all the things you'll be able to do once you're a grownup! But, as Megan discovers, growing up is not as easy as growing older. It's rather scary, in fact. Can't she just lag behind a little longer? Selected by Hedwig van Driel for Critics' Choice.

Laggies

Steve James

The inspirational life of America’s best-known film critic, Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Ebert (1942-2013), as told by Ebert himself on the basis of his memoires. Also featuring friends, family, colleagues and filmmakers such as Errol Morris, Martin Scorsese and Werner Herzog in a personal, funny and awkward portrait. Selected by Kevin B. Lee for Critics' Choice

Life Itself

Christoph Hochhäusler

Whose reality is this, anyway? Constructed truth and political paranoia meet in this media thriller set in contemporary Berlin. The passage through a hypermodern metropolis recalls old portrayals of Berlin. In the end we know that the fabrication of consent starts in our own head. Selected by Rüdiger Suchsland for Critics' Choice

Die Lügen der Sieger

Aaron Naar

Among the numerous mariachi singers in Los Angeles, there is only one red-haired Caucasian man. Moreover, he is also the most ambitious. More musically than socially gifted, this lone musician blossoms each time he visits Cuba. A melancholy portrait of a curiously charming ex-convict. Free admission

Mateo

William Eigen

At the height of the Cold War, legendary folk singer Pete Seeger took his wife, children and his amateur film camera on a musical world tour. In less than a year, he visited twenty-eight countries and recorded the most extraordinary musical performances. An anthology of world music at its purest. Free admission

Pete and Toshi Get a Camera

Rosie Stapel

At a centuries-old Dutch estate, a gardener and an 85-year-old pruning master work passionately and painstakingly on perfecting the fruit trees and crops. An ode to the garden and gardeners. Sowing, potting, thinning, pruning and finally reaping. Accompanied by beautiful lute music by Jozef van Wissem.

Portret van een tuin

Caroline Troubetzkoy

A young French filmmaker decides that the charismatic Russian punk band Oz deserves a career in the West. Besides two years of fun and frustration, this autobiographical rockumentary also offers surprising insights into alternative music from the former Soviet Union. Raw, energetic and pretty self-destructive. Free admission

Rock on Bones

Demolition and construction. An exploration of the relation between man and environment in pre- and post-war Rotterdam. With live musical accompaniment from the Plastic Fantastic Timemachine. Produced by the Municipal Archive of Rotterdam, with the Nederlands Fotomuseum, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, and EYE.

Rotterdam Classics: Photography in Motion

Bianca Stigter

How can we see the past? Critic Bianca Stigter investigates a 76-year-old home movie from Poland that writer Glenn Kurtz turned into a rich historical document. Selected by Bianca Stigter for Critics' Choice.

Three Minutes Thirteen Minutes Thirty Minutes

Phil Collins

Imagining an entirely new take on the city symphony, Collins turned his documentary on Glasgow into a musical. He scouted his lead vocalists in maternity hospitals, schoolyards, prisons and social clubs for the elderly. An eccentric mix of songs, animated clips and parodies of commercial television. Free admission

Tomorrow Is Always Too Long

A girl tries to create her doppelganger using her mobile telephone after seeing something like this on TV. It turns out to be harder than she thought.

Weit weit weg

Erik van Lieshout

It was to be an ‘epic on the artist as worker’. Which WORK undoubtedly is. Above all, however, it is a cheery shambles, featuring a manly search for the essence of the story. A search that leads us into in the basements of The Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, among countless cats.

WERK

Yonebayashi Hiromasa

Ghibli in Japan was perhaps the best animation studio in the world, but work at the studio stopped last year. Temporarily, we hope. If not, this will be the very last Ghibli film. A beautiful swan song, featuring a grouchy heroine and a mysterious house by the water. Selected by KEES Driessen for Critics' Choice.

When Marnie Was There

Robert Nazar Arjoyan

After surviving the Islamic Revolution, bullying by American kids and later the excesses of the New York drag scene, Armen Ra found his true passion in the most ethereal of musical instruments: the theremin. A control freak with a strong talent for superstition, the glamorous Ra became a favourite of Nick Cave. Free admission

When My Sorrow Died: The Legend of Armen Ra and the Theremin

Adirley Queirós

Formally sassy, politically accurate, and in tune with Glauber Rocha’s rebellious spirit, Adirley Queirós’ new film delves into the past to show a case of police abuse against blacks on the outskirts of Brasilia, in the neighbourhood of Antiga Ceilândia. In doing so, the film invents a new genre -fictional poetical justice. Selected by Roger Alan Koza for Critics' Choice.

White Out, Black In

A look at subjectivity in media culture. On watching and being watched in a television society. Based on Broken Arrow, a novel from the 1950s.

Das Zauberglas

André Luiz Oliveira

For decades, the sympathetic Renato Matos has stood for a fusion of samba, reggae and funk in his home country. Both relaxed and distinctively restless, the multi-talented painter and poet takes us on a musical journey through the popular culture of his native region Bahia and of the modernist capital Brasília. Free admission

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025