IFFR 2016

Ciro Guerra

Amazonia at the beginning of the 20th century. A time in which new territories are being mapped and local populations are oppressed. An unusual encounter takes place between two explorers and a shaman, who embark on a dangerous journey through the jungle together. Filmed in breathtaking black-and-white.

Limelight

El abrazo de la serpiente

Kawase Naomi

Sweet red-bean paste - an - out of a can or homemade, it makes all the difference. Not only in your dorayaki pancakes, but in your life. That’s what a mirthless dorayaki seller learns from an elderly female cook. Director Kawase also asks the viewer for attention to beauty. Because after all, what use is cherry blossom if you never look up?

Miguel Gomes

Magical realism, documentary and political satire coalesce in this contemporary Arabian Nights. Scheherazade tells stories about the dismal state of Portugal and its impoverished citizens. The first part of a socially engaged and imaginative trilogy by one of Portugal’s great creative talents.

Arabian Nights: Volume 1 – The Restless One

In which Scheherazade continues to tell of the tormented Portuguese people, who turn away from the authorities and look for new heroes. Just as in the preceding volume, but with fewer eccentric sidetracks, Miguel Gomes captures the dominant mood in a mosaic of events, anecdotes and true-to-life characters.

Arabian Nights: Volume 2 – The Desolate One

While Scheherazade wonders how much longer she’ll be able to distract her cruel husband with stories, we discover how the love of birdsong came to Portugal from Flanders after WWI. In spite of the crisis, men from all kinds of backgrounds find one another in their aviary passion. A sensitive slice of life as conclusion to an idiosyncratic trilogy.

Arabian Nights: Volume 3 – The Enchanted One

Robin Pront

The characters in this grim Flemish crime drama cherish few illusions: they will never win the jackpot. Even so, one of them, a former criminal from an underprivileged neighbourhood in Antwerp, tries to build up an honest existence - together with the ex-girlfriend of his unpredictable and violent older brother.

D'Ardennen

Hou Hsiao-hsien

Hundreds of martial art films have been made in the wuxia genre over the years, but the Taiwanese master of the modern Chinese outlook on life gives it his own unique twist. With magisterial swordfights but also room for beauty and quiet, conferring a rare realism to the genre.

The Assassin

Eva Husson

In the respectable suburbs of Biarritz, adolescents fill the time with school, going to the beach, messaging and… group sex. One thing leads to another: the careless escapades of these affluent teenagers soon turn out to be no match for the real world. Dreamy realism that doesn’t mince matters.

Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)

Boudewijn Koole

A robust yet sensitive adaptation of W. F. Hermans’s famous novel Beyond Sleep (Nooit meer slapen), about a vain, struggling geology student during a gruelling expedition in Lapland. His struggles with nature, himself and others' expectations are visualized wonderfully by director Boudewijn Koole (Kauwboy), with a star role for Reinout Scholten van Asschat. Opening film IFFR 2016.

Beyond Sleep

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

In his most topical and politically charged film to date, Weerasathekul represents Thailand as a building that used to be a school, a place of study and contemplation, but which has changed into a hospital built on top of a cemetery, where the dead fight out their age-old battle at the expense of the living.

Cemetery of Splendour

Pablo Trapero

While Argentina was making the transition from dictatorship to democracy in the early 1980s, a former member of the junta carried on with the feared ‘disappearances’ - this time for ransom. But paying didn’t mean that the victims survived. This true horror story with a political subtext was a big domestic hit.

El clan

Jean-Marc Vallée

Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts sparkle under actor’s director Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club; Wild). Gyllenhaal as the recent widower whose life falls apart - whereby his own demolition frenzy lends a helping hand; Watts as the kind customer service rep he comes into contact with when a candy dispenser breaks down. A simultaneously hard and soft dramedy.

Demolition

Oliver Hermanus

Against the background of the vast South-African landscape, three people get caught up in a violent cycle of grief, anger and revenge. A moral narrative about mourning and reconciliation, with strong performances by Crystal-Donna Roberts, among others, and French actor Nicolas Duvauchelle as the proverbial outsider.

The Endless River

Jake Mahaffy

In the often ethnically coloured American storefront churches, the faithful piously pray for miracles. So does a single mother, who hopes a minister will cure her child of his demons. But how do you keep faith in a world where even among loved ones you can become the victim of best intentions?

Free in Deed

David Verbeek

An introverted soldier enters his own tormented subconscious, respectively portrayed as an island and a boxing school, desperately looking for full contact through sex and violence.

Dutch director David Verbeek shows the mental unraveling of a drone pilot who accidentally bombs a school. The introverted soldier enters his own tormented subconscious, respectively portrayed as an island and a boxing school, desperately looking for full contact through sex and violence.

Full Contact

Laurie Anderson

Within a short period of time Laurie Anderson was confronted with the deaths of her mother, her partner Lou Reed and her dog Lolabelle. All three are present in this highly personal essay about life, love, death and language. Stylistically, Anderson plays all possible registers; her narrating voice and music hold the disparate elements together. With Critics' Talk in LantarenVenster Foyer on Sun 31 Jan.

Heart of a Dog

Dalibor Matanic

Three times Romeo and Juliet against the background of the Balkan Wars that caused Yugoslavia to fall apart. Love is impossible at the beginning of the conflict, at the end and even 10 years after. The tragedy evolves in form from resistance through incapacity to regret. Won the jury prize in Cannes in the section Un Certain Regard.

The High Sun

Hany Abu-Assad

This heart-warming feature by Abu-Assad (Oscar-nominated for Paradise Now and Omar) tells the true story of Palestinian singer Mohammad Assaf, whose winning of Arab Idol in 2013 gave his homeland a rare taste of victory. With a heroic role for his feisty sister, who guides him through his childhood years. With Critics' Talk in Lantaren Venster Foyer on Fri 29 Jan.

The Idol

Annette Apon

A portrait of the Netherlands' greatest pre-war actress: Fien de la Mar. Using extensive archive material, this documentary sketches the life of a diva who could do anything but wasted her talent. The tragic story is narrated by Johanna ter Steege without false sentiment. Appealing for laymen as well as for theatre history connoisseurs.

Ik wil gelukkig zijn

Guillaume Senez

Empathic and realistic drama about a talented 15-year-old goalkeeper who hears that his girlfriend is pregnant and wants to keep the baby at all costs. A refreshingly honest impression of teenagers facing a major challenge, with a loving eye for the fragility and light-footedness of adolescence.

Keeper

Martin Zandvliet

The horror of World War II throws a harrowing shadow in this intense drama about captured German soldiers who are forced to neutralise the remaining landmines along the Danish coast. An interesting game with the viewer's sympathy, in which every scene is fraught with tension.

Land of Mine

Rebecca Daly

Incisive drama about raw grief and suffocating love, or the incapacity thereto. A divorced woman who has just lost her son and a homeless boy with criminal inclinations develop an unusual relationship. With an impressive leading role by Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under, Hilary and Jackie).

Mammal

Anders Thomas Jensen

Two brothers go in search of their father in this mysterious and hilarious, philosophical and absurdist horror comedy. By far the weirdest Danish film in recent years, performed by a top cast with infectious pleasure (Mads Mikkelsen, Nicolas Bro, Nikolaj Lie Kaas) and directed by the maker of Adam’s Apples.

Men & Chicken

Nabil Ayouch

An intimate and candid drama about the life of prostitutes in Marrakesh. Once again Ayouch (Les cheveaux de Dieu) uncovers a reality that some people find hard to swallow. In Morocco the film was prohibited sight unseen; both the director and the courageous leading actress Loubna Abidar received threats.With Brave Talk in Lantaren Venster 1 on Tue 2 Feb.

Much Loved

Gabriel Mascaro

On the road with a travelling rodeo troupe through Brazil, the camera registers panoramic views. Sublime images, which alternate with a less idyllic reality: the hard work amidst the cows. Jointly they form a fabulous choreography, against the background of a rapidly changing society.

Neon Bull

Manu Riche

Bipul has forgotten who he is and where he’s from. But thanks to his knowledge of languages and his qualities as an intermediary, he has grown into a natural leader at the asylum seeker centre in Brussels where he resides. Irony prevails in this second adaptation of a novel by Dimitri Verhulst (after The Misfortunates).

Problemski Hotel

Lenny Abrahamson

Original psychological thriller (by the director of Frank), after the international bestseller by Emma Donoghue. The peaceful life of Ma and her five-year-old son Jack, in their unusual universe, takes a blood-curdling turn when the yearning for the outside world becomes too strong. Moving performances by Brie Larson and the young Jacob Tremblay.

Room

Martin Butler

Bentley Dean

On an island in the Pacific, two young lovers rebel against old customs, causing tensions to rise high. Enthrallingly photographed drama about the necessity of change and a desire to break the chain of violence. Based on a true event and performed with brio by the local population.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025