Capharnaüm

Twelve-year-old Zain takes his parents to court. His complaint: they brought him into the world.

Twelve-year-old Zain is growing up without any hopes for the future in a crowded, dilapidated apartment in Beirut. After running away from home following a crisis, he finds shelter with an ‘illegal’ Ethiopian who takes him on to look after her baby. An energetic, poignant portrait of the expanding ‘precariat’ in this Lebanese metropolis.

Belmonte

At the age of 43, painter Javier Belmonte can no longer camouflage his fear of life and insecurity with bohemian bravura.

What’s wrong with Belmonte that makes him repel people with his divergent behaviour, even risking losing his young daughter? He wants both a free artist's life and normal family life, but on the other hand he doesn't. The director of A Useful Life and The Apostate takes warm, ironic pleasure in wrong-footing the viewer.

The Proposal

Strange things happen in the struggle to make the hidden archives of architect Luis Barragán public again.

It’s an unusual wedding gift: the archives of Mexican architect Luis Barragán. Federica Zanco asked her fiancé for them in 1995, and  has kept them since then from the rest of the world. Artist Jill Magid tries to regain this piece of heritage through flattering letters and a strange proposal.

The Baron

A Dracula-esque nobleman reigns with terror over his fiefdom's commoners. Universal horror meets Demy-style musical comedy in this disquieting political allegory.

A Dracula-esque nobleman reigns with terror over his fiefdom's commoners. Universal horror meets Demy-style musical comedy in this disquieting political allegory based on two works by Branquinho da Fonseca, a writer especially dear to Pêra and the source of three feature masterpieces – the latest being Magnetik Pathways.

Abolição

Bulbul made this powerful historical analysis of racial issues in Brazil in 1988, one hundred years after slavery was abolished there. 

Bulbul’s historical analysis on 'race' and racism in Brazil in the context of the celebration of the centenary of the abolition of slavery in 1988. Based on accurate research, this epic documentary points to the importance of acknowledging the racism that still confronts the black Brazilian population.

Pájaros de verano

A fascinating mix of native drama and hard-boiled crime film about the age-old Colombian Waayu people, who are being destroyed by the drug trade.

A fascinating mix of native drama and hard-boiled crime film about the age-old traditions of the Colombian Waayu people and the destructive effects of the drugs trade. Once their lives were simple and clear, but in the late 1960s drugs introduced money – and violence.

Vox Lux

Satirical drama about superstar Celeste (Natalie Portman) who is famous thanks to a terrible incident and who symbolises a society in moral decline.

Unconventional, visually spectacular drama about superstar Celeste (Raffey Cassidy ánd Natalie Portman), whose fame is due to a violent incident in high school and her elder sister’s talent. An incisive analysis of the violence and fame that turns people into cynical narcissists.

Lazzaro felice

A fable of contemporary Italy in which the endless patience of the innocent Lazzaro is sorely tried.

Award-winning Italian director Alice Rohrwacher’s modern fable concerns the innocent Lazzaro and the other villagers who live like Medieval serfs on a tobacco plantation. Following a dramatic incident, they are dragged kicking and screaming into the modern world – whether they’ll be better off there or not remains to be seen.

The Juniper Tree

Björk landed her first enchanting role in this rediscovered feminist allegory, shot in the deeply mysterious nature of Iceland. Now restored on 4K.

Aged 20, Björk played her first enchanting role in this rediscovered, feminist version of one of Grimms’ fairy tales, shot in the deeply mysterious Icelandic nature. Director Nietzchka Keene created a powerful allegory on witchcraft and misogyny, where the worlds of the living and the dead intertwine. Restored on 4K.

Rafiki

Romeo and Juliet, but in Kenya and with two Juliets. A sparkling adventure about Kena and Ziki fighting for their love.
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“Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives”, is what Kena and Ziki have heard all their young lives. But they want fun and adventure. And apparently not to be ‘good’, because they fall in love, to the dismay of those around them. A sparkling film in 'Afrobubblegum' style, in the words of director Wanuri Kahiu.

O homem-pykante – Diálogos com Pimenta

A multifaceted tribute to polymath Alberto Pimenta: poet, translator (Thomas Bernhard, among others), performer/performance artist, provocateur, porn proselytiser, political dissenter.

Alberto Pimenta is Pêra’s kind of polymath: experimental poet, inspired translator (Thomas Bernhard), fearless performance artist (who made happenings happen in Portugal), merry porn proselytiser, provocateur with a cause, and, as the only logical sum total of all this, a political dissenter at loggerheads with any 'status kwo'. A documentary paean.

No Data Plan

Living in the USA illegally for over 20 years, Miko Revereza takes the train from Los Angeles to New York.

Living in the United States illegally for over 20 years, Miko Revereza takes the Amtrak train from Los Angeles to New York in this critical moment of hostility against migrants in the country he has come to know as home. The journey seems daring, perhaps reckless, yet urgent and necessary.

Another Day of Life

Adaptation of war reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski’s most famous book mixes hyper-realistic animation, documentary, hallucinatory impressions and literary soul searching.

Ryszard Kapuscinski was the sole foreign reporter in Angola when a civil war erupted that developed into a new front in the Cold War. This animated adaptation of his book on that struggle does justice to his writing style, combining stark realism and literary subjectivity. Its news value is supported by documentary footage.

The Best of Dorien B.

One day, Dorien’s happy life is transformed into smoking ruins in this dry comedy drama.

What to do if your parents' marriage is in crisis, your husband is behaving suspiciously and you discover a lump in your breast? Dorien experiences many misfortunes, one after another, but courageously carries on. Fabulously paced, warm, comedic drama.

Thirty Years of Motion Pictures (The March of the Movies)

When Ramsaye embarked on this endeavour, he wanted to summarise film's first two decades – but cinema developed faster than he could edit. 

When Terry Ramsaye embarked on this endeavour, he intended to sum up film’s first two decades. But then, the art evolved so fast that he spent ten years catching up. The result is one of the first attempts at explaining cinema to a mass audience – a milestone of meta-moviemaking.

Animal indireto

Moments of modest happiness amongst the tension of today's Brazil. A subtle, personal report on dealing with fear and depression.

To escape fear and depression, the filmmaker picks up his camera and allows it to lead him. In the tension of contemporary Brazil, he focuses on the everyday and creates moments of happiness. He also makes room for stories of fellow-sufferers from Cuba and Haiti.

Camino, een feature-length selfie

Martin de Vries walks the pilgrims’ way to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain, wondering all the while why.

Aching feet and moments of despair – but also minor miracles and growing strength. Doggedly stepping along the pilgrims’ way to Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain, Martin de Vries films himself with his iPhone, in the hope of putting his life back on a firm footing. A self-portrait in two million steps.

Sons of Denmark

Claustrophobic political thriller in which two young men cornered by xenophobia become embroiled in a devilish dilemma.

Cornered by xenophobia, two young men become embroiled in a devilish dilemma. In response to intimidation, Zakaria decides it's time to act, violently if need be. In Copenhagen, a member of the intelligence community tries to professionally combat the threat.

Tarde para morir joven

Coming-of-age story about three Chilean teenagers reflects the growing pains of Chile’s new democracy in the early 1990s.

Through the eyes of teenagers Sofia, Lucas and Clara, we see life in a Chilean commune in the summer of 1990, as the residents prepare to celebrate the new year. The experiences of the three teenagers reflect the growing pains of Chile’s new democracy, after almost two decades of military dictatorship.

Beats

Summer 1994: two Scottish teens share a final night out together before life sends them in different directions.

Summer 1994, with rave culture on the rise, teens Johnno and Spanner have a final night out together in a Scottish town before they each go their own way in life. A raw, black-and-white portrait of a United Kingdom in transition, set to pounding techno beats.

Domains

Drifting apart as adult women, childhood friends Aki and Nodoka's story is told through line-readings, whose structures reveal the complications of friendship.

Aki and Nodoka are childhood friends who are drifting apart as adults. The familiar plot is told in an unexpected way: through actors line-readings. The suffocation of role patterns in friendship and family are conveyed through repeated lines that are occasionally dislodged to show that life can take unexpected turns.

Black Mother

Life’s key elements come together in this visual film symphony and ode to today's colourful Jamaica.

Life’s key elements come together in the colourful Jamaica portrayed by Khalik Allah. In this polyphonic film symphony, every inhabitant views their island paradise differently, be they prostitutes, graybeards, rappers, Rastafarians or pregnant women.

Harpoon

When a boat breaks down at sea, a triangular relationship becomes a nerve-wracking struggle to survive, sparing no one’s secrets – or blood.

A love triangle gets out of hand when Richard, armed with a harpoon, Sasha and Jonah are marooned at sea due to engine failure. A struggle for survival quickly unfolds, sparing no one’s secrets – or blood. Tense thriller based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe, which also leaves space for laughs.

Symphony of the Ursus Factory

Workers at the closed-down Ursus tractor factory relive their working lives though re-enactments. The symphony they create is an ode to a passionate community.

Proud workers from the closed-down Ursus tractor factory relive their past through re-enactments. The muscle-memory of the movements they made so often is still in their bodies and combined with the sounds of their work a symphony is formed. An ode to a mega-factory where life was all about community and work.

Soy tóxico

A splendid post-mega-disaster wasteland zombie film based on a comic book which, in turn, was inspired by an earlier attempt to film the same story. 

Following the success of their feature debut Jennifer’s Shadow (2004), Parés & De la Vega worked for a US company on a post-mega-disaster wasteland zombie film that was never made: but the screenplay was turned into a (still unfinished) comic – which they then adapted for this low-budget horror delight!

The Night Shifter

A pathologist hears the last words of the dead. An innocent gift until he uses it for revenge.

Stênio doesn’t just work with the dead at São Paolo’s mortuary, he also talks to them. When a gang member who was stabbed to death reveals his wife’s secret, Stênio loses control of his supernatural gift. A haunting, unpredictable horror film about revenge, urban crime and family trouble.

Rojo

Darkly funny crime thriller and a vivisection of the Argentinian national psyche in 1975, the year before Jorge Videla’s military coup.

Atmospheric crime drama set in a provincial town dissects in an almost darkly comical way the mindset of Argentinians in 1975, the year before Jorge Videla’s military coup and the four subsequent juntas. Naishtat’s third feature film adds to his chronicle of recent Argentinian history, ruled by fear and aggression.

Lettre à Théo

The unfinished film recordings Theo Angelopoulos left behind when he died in 2012, finally result in a complete and surprisingly contemporary film.

Even if you have no affinity with the work of Theo Angelopoulos, who died in 2012, this fictional documentary will not leave you unmoved. Lélu paints a portrait of the master filmmaker by contemporizing his recurring themes, such as migration and exile, from his final, uncompleted film to today’s Greece.