Avant-premieres of some of the cinematic highlights of the year: eagerly anticipated festival favourites and international award-winners.Still: Dear Comrades!

IFFR 2021

Dea Kulumbegashvili

Jehovah’s Witness Yana refuses to be oppressed by her husband, church and the police. She commits the ultimate act of resistance against patriarchal society.

Yana is assailed from all sides. The Jehovah’s Witness church to which she belongs is burned to the ground. Her husband, a church elder, says she is crazy. The police make unwanted advances. But Yana fights back uncompromisingly, in this rock-solid debut that picked up awards at various international film festivals.

Regular Programme

Limelight

Beginning

David Verbeek

After a weird night, five super-rich friends find out they are vampires. Panic! Is this really what they have become?

To fill the inner void, five super-rich, bored twenty-somethings in a big Asian city take turns giving each other unique experiences. After one weird night, however, they are shocked to discover they have become vampires. Can they still trust one another, in this clever take on the classic genre?

Dead & Beautiful

Andrei Konchalovsky

A workers’ strike is violently put down by Soviet troops in this current, urgent historical drama by master director Konchalovsky.

In 1962, the Soviet Army brutally suppressed a workers’ strike in Novocherkassk, Russia. Russian master director Konchalovsky has made this well-kept secret into an urgent black-and-white historical drama that devastatingly reveals how citizens’ protests frequently meet with violence.

Dear Comrades!

Kelly Reichardt

Beautiful, thoughtful western focusing on friendship rather than strife. And on the diversity of the American frontier around 1820.

A timid cook and a Chinese immigrant find solace together in a harsh world. This thoughtful western by Kelly Reichardt has already picked up several awards with its focus on friendship rather than strife, on the power of the domestic and the diversity of the American frontier.

First Cow

Quentin Dupieux

Two easily-distracted layabouts find a Labrador-sized fly in this new film from master absurdist Dupieux.

You are more likely to catch flies with honey than vinegar, but a few cans of cat food go a long way too, discover Manu and Jean-Gab. In the new film by master absurdist Quentin Dupieux, these two layabouts find a Labrador-sized fly and anticipate a windfall.

Mandibules

Kaweh Modiri

A traumatised mother gets the opportunity to avenge her daughter’s execution in Iran. Is her victim really the perpetrator?

Can the desire for revenge get the better of reason, asks Dutch-Iranian director Kaweh Modiri in this atmospheric political thriller. Flashbacks to Iran in 1982 illuminate the story of traumatised Haleh, who –  37 years later –  gets the chance to avenge her daughter’s execution.

Mitra

Philippe Lacôte

The power of storytelling underpins this stifling, inventive film from Côte d’Ivoire about life inside a gigantic prison.

To save his skin, a brand-new inmate has to entertain his fellow prisoners until sunrise by telling them a story. Director Philippe Lacôte from Côte d’Ivoire builds this into an inventive, stifling prison drama in which stories, film styles and narrative forms playfully interweave.

La nuit des rois

Jasmila Žbanić

Bosnian UN interpreter Aida is trapped between factions in this moving, urgent drama about the genocide in Srebrenica in 1995.

UN interpreter Aida is caught between factions in this moving drama about the Srebrenica genocide in 1995. Director Jasmila Žbanić meticulously dissect what went wrong in the communication between the Dutch UN soldiers, the Bosnian Muslim population and the advancing Serbian army.

Quo vadis, Aida?

Anders Thomas Jensen

Act of revenge devised by grumpy widower (Mads Mikkelsen) gets out of hand   – with therapeutic consequences. Bittersweet, absurdist tragicomedy.

How a train accident elicits a series of therapeutic acts of revenge and whether or not this is related to a stolen bike and a disgusting sandwich – everything falls into place in this fabulous tragicomedy of fate by the maker of Adam’s Apples and Men &amp; Chicken. Featuring Denmark’s best actors.

Riders of Justice

Anders Ølholm

Frederik Louis Hviid

When a tense, deprived Copenhagen neighbourhood violently explodes, two cops have to save their own skins.

A hellish day in the lives of two cops in a deprived neighbourhood the day after a young inhabitant dies during his arrest. When the pressure cooker explodes, Høyer and Pederson only want one thing: to get out alive with their arrestee. Easier said than done.

Shorta

You follow our lead and are kept in the dark until the film starts. Let us take you by surprise!

With the Surprise Film, you follow our lead and are kept in the dark until the film starts. Never fear though, you can trust IFFR to always make a great choice. Be carried away and let the festival take you by surprise!

Surprise Film

Benoît Jacquot

Effective, minimalist, supremely French film adaptation of a play by Marguerite Duras about a wealthy woman (Charlotte Gainsbourg) receiving her lover.

Were it not for Niels Schneider’s significant role, this could almost be a one-woman acting masterclass by Charlotte Gainsbourg. Millionaire’s wife Suzanna receives her lover in a holiday villa on the French Riviera. She has a decision to make about her life as a mother, a wife, a friend and a lover.

Suzanna Andler

Magnus von Horn

Psychological drama about fitness influencer Sylwia, who is forced  to adjust her perfect impression of herself after encountering a stalker.

Psychological drama about stunning young fitness influencer Sylwia whose perfect Instagram life starts to develop cracks the more she shares with her myriad fans. An encounter with a lonely stalker forces her to realise that she has more in common with him than she’d care to admit.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025