Programme IFFR 2018

Hearing is believing: Japanese Misako writes audio descriptions for blind and visually impaired film audiences. She receives harsh criticism from an almost blind photographer in her feedback panel. Nevertheless, the two of them come together in Kawase’s sensitive exploration of loss and acceptance – which also probes the role of photography and film.

This deaf-and-dumb young man who is called ‘the Goose’ by his scoffing acquaintances makes the most psychedelic of journeys by fax machine. Like a goose leaving for the sun in the winter, this anti-hero is looking for somewhere else to find his own voice. Absurdist drama that makes eager use of stop-motion carpet figures, silent-film references, computer animation, video and arcade games.

Paula hates Paris. Chain smoking she wanders its streets. Dumped by her older boyfriend she tries to regroup. Chameleonic she accommodates everyone she meets only to scare them off again with her emotional unpredictability. Dark character study with fabulous role for Laetitia Dosch.

A minimalist, choral tale in which several characters typical of indie American films issue a collective statement on an era and its politics. The register is essentially maximalist − everything is shown in 360 degrees, establishing an aesthetic possibility which could be called the 'expansion of the field'. VR experience!

Hilarious, in-your-face adventure set in a South African township focusing on teen best friends Lefa and Papi. They dream of riches and girls, and plan to make these come true by growing their own weed. However, reality proves less predictable.

What feeds nationalist ideologies? They always arise in 'empty time', asserts this documentary on nationalism in Thailand. Various groups are observed, from military cadets to pupils at a Christian boarding school. They have very different views on politics or religion, but they share boundless confidence in the monarchy.

On his 60th birthday, Van Pao-te is told he is seriously ill. Together with his son, he goes in search of the father who abandoned him as a child. Past and future revolve around the present like a whirlpool in this calm, well-thought-out family story with subtle references to Taiwanese history.

As often happens in Korean films, we meet a fretful filmmaker who has ground to a halt with an ambitious film project: what would you wish for on the last day before the end of the world? Followed by a trilogy of mysterious surprises, black humour and sympathy for lonely outsiders.

Atmospheric, almost wordless feature debut about a boy aged 13 who runs away from a children’s home and flees into the forests of Brandenburg. On the fringes of civilisation, he rediscovers his freedom. But what’s that freedom worth, if you have nothing else to live for?

Fate brings together three fascinating lost souls – a monk with a sack of money, an innkeeper with an uneasy conscience, and a father who’s lost his son – in young Chinese director Zeng Zeng’s mysterious tale of guilt, punishment and ambiguous redemption.

The number of female filmmakers who break through in South Korea still forms a small minority. Hit the Night, in which Jeong Gayoung herself plays the lead as a cheeky filmmaker who spends the evenings researching nice men, is a welcome surprise. Sharp dialogues, but in the end mild and moving.

When an algorithm repeatedly beats the holder of 18 international titles Lee Sedol at the board game Go, that isn’t just an anecdote for the sport’s annals. Google’s ambitions for the DeepMind software are to not only equal, but to outdo human thinking. Is that a good idea though?

Wang Bing continues to work, his empathy and concentration as great as ever, on an oeuvre depicting the struggles of poor Chinese to survive in a country in transformation. Here, he trains his camera on Mrs Fang and those gathered around her deathbed. Confrontational, poignant and intimate, this film won the Golden Leopard in Locarno.

This programme features new works by Nazlı Dinçel, Wim Catrysse, Hiwa K and Diogo Baldaia.

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.

In a specially fitted-out 1990s hangout in Het Nieuwe Instituut, you can immerse yourself in a collection of bizarre short films by a new generation of American filmmakers. Also featuring new work from Rotterdam artists’ collective Lastplak, and you can play on pinball machines with ’90s film themes from the Dutch Pinball Museum.

Experience Pan-Africa in four VR works: Let This Be a Warning by The Nest Collective (Kenya); Spirit Robot by Jonathan Dotse (Ghana); Hard World for Small Things by Janicza Bravo (USA) and The Other Dakar by Selly Raby Kane (Senegal). At the same location: June Givanni's Pan-African Cinema Lounge.

A long matt-black building offers an immersive experience of silence and peace, forming a black hole in the sensory overload of its outside environment. This anechoic chamber has no sound or echo. The lighting reduces all colours to black and white. A rare experience of the self in an unmediated state.

Only a few live streams could be found of the moment when the Turkish army moved in to defeat the Kurdish PKK. To reinforce these rare images, Gürcan Keltek put them in a wider context where hard facts and dark poetic fantasy mingle. Intriguing and occasionally delightful.

In the late 1980s, found-footage pioneers Gianikian & Ricci Lucchi travelled to Russia looking for living memories of the avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s. The result is a work consisting of a 10-metre-long watercolour roll with their notes and drawings from the trip, as well as a video installation showing their search for the survivors.

On 16mm film, Żmijewski filmed six men who had had a leg amputated. They look us in the eye, each from his own frame, and silently show us their disability. With this six-channel installation, the artist allows us to pause and consider our ideas about disabled people.

In this stylish film set at the end of the 1970s, 55-year old Hollywood diva Gloria Grahame has what proves to be a unique affair with Peter, who is in his twenties. He sees something the studio bosses of yesteryear never did: she is more than just a pretty face.

June Givanni's Pan-African Cinema Lounge: four screens providing absorbing films from the African diaspora, exploring the expansive notion of Pan-Africanism encompassing 100+ years of Africa's relationship to the rest of the world. Featuring key voices and events on the topic: W.E.B. Du Bois/Aimé Césaire/C.L.R. James/First Festival of Negro Arts, Dakar.