Respeto

Here's a film reminding us that true hiphop is political. In this era of extrajudicial killings under the reign of the current Phillipines president, Duterte, young Hendrix sets his sights on underground rap battles in the slums of Pandacan, Manila. But his true enemies don't have ears for his words.

Ella und Nell

Two women in their forties from Berlin go hiking and camping in the mountains on the border between Germany and the Czech Republic. What starts as a cheerful reunion develops slowly but surely into a disastrous journey, when it becomes clear that their friendship has not stood the test of time.

Nervous Translation

Sensitive, sparkling film that captures the confusing and magical moments alike in the life of a child who, while preferring to be by herself, deep down also longs to be heard. The events of 1987 in the Philippines play a role in the background, but shy Yael is more concerned with her absent father, her uncle who is a rock star and a pen with special powers. 

Azougue Nazaré

A feature debut, fresh and cheerful in tone, from the Brazilian state if Pernambuco, where IFFR finds so many beautiful films. Mysterious events and religious conflicts influence love and relationships in the sugarcane fields around the town of Nazaré. A conflict emerges between the recent wave of evangelicals and the carnivalesque African traditions of maracatu rural.

Dragonfly Eyes

Chinese artist Xu Bing’s directorial debut could be described as The Truman Show, but in Real Life. He weaves a story of a boy and a girl in modern-day China out of security camera footage. This by turns shocking and poetic, but always fascinating, experiment reflects on our obsessive visual culture.

Les garçons sauvages

In the early 1900s, five spoiled boys commit a violent crime. As punishment, they’re sent on a high sea cruise with a tough captain and end up on an island with disturbing secrets. A thrilling adventure that bends genres and genders, mixing Jules Verne, A Clockwork Orange and William Burroughs with an erotic twist.

Birds Are Singing in Kigali

Painstaking, poignant portrait of two women thrown together after the Rwandan genocide of 1994: Polish academic Anna and young Rwandan refugee Claudine. The two try to build a new life in Poland. Winner of (shared) best-actress award in Karlovy Vary and Chicago.

Santos #2, Work in Progress

Spiritual director Oliver Laxe (Mimosas) once again appears in front of the camera. In this debut long documentary by Anton Corbal, we see Laxe working on his new 16mm film while renovating his grandparents’ dilapidated home in the idyllic Spanish village of Vilela.  

Angkar

The filmmaker, daughter from a forced marriage in a Khmer Rouge detention village, returns with her father to meet his former persecutors in the obscure intimacy of the village in which they lived together for four years. Between past and present, the forgotten spectres re-emerge and the story, face-to-face, is finally told.

Arrhythmia

A passionate, yet often drunk paramedic is about to lose his home, his job and most of all his beloved wife who wants to leave him. A powerful and highly engaging study of a couple in crisis, which reflects the turbulent state of modern Russia.

Jimmie

Four-year-old, blonde Jimmie has to flee his home in Sweden. In this gripping, impressionist film, Jesper Ganslandt (Falkenberg Farewell, The Ape) turns a real crisis upside down and depicts a horrific flight through Europe through the eyes of a child. At times exciting and fun, but more frequently heart-rending. Opening Film IFFR 2018.

All You Can Eat Buddha

A mysterious stranger fascinates the clients of a South-American holiday resort. He starts performing miracles on the spot. Who is he? A weird, funny, Zen-like satire on mass tourism, as if simultaneously directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Monty Python (circa The Meaning of Life).

Latifa, le coeur au combat

After her son is killed in a terrorist attack, French-Moroccan Latifa becomes an influential activist striving to prevent such attacks. In this documentary, we follow Latifa as she travels France with unstinting energy, discussing integration, racism and of course Islam. Emotions at times run high.

Ruthless Man

Prabhu's already shaken but still safe-seeming middle-class existence finally falls apart when he loses his precious bike. Suddenly, he finds himself in a bleak world of betrayal and violence. A key work of modern Tamil cinema that plays like the psycho-thriller version of Vittorio de Sica's neorealist classic Bicycle Thieves (1948).

Silent Mist

When describing a film by Zhang Miaoyan, you can’t avoid using terms like ‘hypnotic tracking shots’. Lurking in all corners behind the beauty of a quiet, misty canal town in a Chinese delta, however, is a menacing reality: (male) sexual violence and corruption. A dreamy poem becomes a wordless indictment.

Kemtiyu, Cheikh Anta

The remarkable story about the lifework of Senegalese scientist Cheikh Anta Diop who studied philosophy, physics, chemistry, history and linguistics. All this knowledge came together in his thesis: Africa is the birthplace of civilisation and the Egyptian pharaohs were black Africans. A claim with a high price to pay.

Life and Nothing More

Nothing more, but certainly nothing less than life. Two lives, to be precise: that of the black teenager Andrew and of his single mother, in a small town in Florida. The underprivileged kid gets into trouble and the system doesn’t budge an inch. Meanwhile, his young mother yearns for a life of her own.

Zama

At the end of the eighteenth century Zama, a servant of the Spanish crown, whiles away his time on the banks of a South American river waiting for a letter from the king to reunite him with his wife – and civilisation. Martel’s film is an enchanting and original masterpiece that seems to have been made in a different era.

Ravens

The Swedish leasehold farmer Agne wants his son Klas to take over the farm, but Klas prefers to sit in the library bus and read a book. The landowner wants to modernise, something that the stubborn Agne doesn’t want. Does his farm have any future? Beautifully filmed debut, full of telling details, that slowly nestles under the skin.

Fango

Two friends decide to form a 'tango-trash' band. The woman of one of these friends is kidnapped by the leader of a female gang, bringing consequences in its aftermath. This all happens in the precarious urban regions surrounding the European-like city of Buenos Aires; in these areas everything resembles the universe of Western films.

Milla

Milla and Leo are teenage misfits, sleeping in empty houses or in the back of a car. They hang on to each other at any cost. An intimate film about growing up in dire straits, where bleak everyday life is filled with peculiar beauty.
 

El perro Molina

Perro Molina, Calavera, and Natalia are probably the best three characters in Campusano's filmography, together with Vikingo. In this story of prostitution, thievery and revenge, friendship is a supreme value and love a modest redemption.

Le fort des fous

In three acts, Mari investigates in a brilliant, complex way the heritage of the colonisation process. From a historic portrayal in her birthplace Algeria, where those in power speak a language only they understand, the film changes into a documentary report of utopians and anti-imperialists in Greece.

Vikingo

Vikingo, a man of his word, stands out and shines in the diverse biker community. He helps a stranger, Aguirre, who also loves motorcycles: sufficient reason for Vikingo to offer his loyalty and hospitality. As they live in a time of transitions, they will have to face life-and-death confrontations.

Pororoca

The unthinkable happens in a sunny playground: suddenly five-year old Maria is gone. Her disappearance destroys her family’s everyday joy.  Father Tudor's soul-destroying descent into blinding desperation follows as he seeks answers. Won the prize for Best Actor in San Sebastían.

Café com canela

Violeta lives in a Brazilian Bahia village full of striking characters. Everyone struggles with daily life, scarred by loss and mourning, yet all find comfort in the sense of community and spirituality. Only Margarida suffers in solitude and silence. A transforming film about transformation.

Aviyal

Perhaps more than any other younger Tamil auteur, director/producer Karthik Subbaraj still honours his roots in shorts. In Aviyal, he unleashed his second omnibus project on Tamil audiences – a roller-coaster of moods and ideas with thrills and laughs, strange sex, a brawling film crew and family problems of a sensual nature. 

El azote

The determination and dedication of a former musician who is now a social assistant in Bariloche – one of the best-known tourist resorts in Patagonia – is not enough to avoid the misfortunes experienced by local youths. This film reveals, without concessions, the picture never presented in the postcards of this town.

Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?

In 1946, filmmaker Wilkerson's great-grandfather shot a black man dead – and no one batted an eyelid. Seventy years later in Alabama, when he asks for more details about this family secret, he soon realises that people don’t want to awaken the ghosts of the past.