‘The most difficult and the most important thing in life is to make a decision. The present depends on it and, what is more, it will always influence the future’, is what a father tells a teenage boy. When the first bombs fall, he will be faced with the choices determining the life of his family, friends, some completely unknown people and a turtle.
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In ‘Affairs of the Art’ everyone seems to be a freak of a kind. The narrator thinks she is the only normal person in her crazy family. Is that really true? The animation uses black humour to show, in an exaggerated way, our obsessions and persistent pursuit of our dreams.
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For the protagonist, breathing therapy and anti-stress techniques become a starting point for a life change. He enters the world of freediving, i.e. diving while breadth-holding. Risking his life, he starts practicing holding his breath for increasingly longer periods of time. Where is the boundary of his capabilities?
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Over the years, Lea Glob kept filming the charismatic artist Apolonia Sokol. The result is a fascinating portrait, spanning 13 years, of a young woman trying to find her place in the art world.
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Ted Hall did not partake in the joy of other scientists participating in the Manhattan Project. He was not delighted to see the artificial Sun burning over the New Mexican desert. He was concerned about the American monopoly on such a powerful weapon as a nuclear bomb. He thought the world would be safer if he shared what he knew with Russians. He was a fool, madman and enemy of the state. People spoke about him. His daughter refers to him as a designer of a better world. For Hall, compassion for humanity signified an ethically ambiguous act of rebellion.
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Mr. Battu, the film-loving owner of a travelling cinema, and his 80-year-old assistant Mama embark on another journey to show films in areas of India where there are no cinemas, no television, no electricity.
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Illustrated with fascinating archival footage, the correspondence between two friends who studied in Bucharest in the late 1970s serves as an excuse to go on a unique journey in time. What connects Iran in a revolutionary frenzy and socialist Romania where the society’s malaise is concealed by enthusiastic propaganda? In both countries, any hopes for a better future vanish in the shadow of ideological dogmas, always guarded by very much alike sad men in dark coats.
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Dancing is everything for her. At the young age of 14, Mali leaves her family home and moves to a bigger city to live with her older sister and be closer to her dream school. The teenage girl is ready to make sacrifices but her body does not always want to follow her dreams.
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Not well-known Ukrainian silent film, resplendent in its avant-garde manner of production. Shot for propaganda purposes, it was formally ahead of its time, turning an agricultural tale into an epic poem.
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Balder and Haakon arrived at our planet just two years ago. They find it difficult to move around it. The social norms applied are not clear for them and the place has been beset by waves of emotions which are hard to express. These two creatures have a long way to go. A Norwegian documentarian spent one year observing them.
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A recently retired father invites his son to help him with the cherry picking in the garden. The father is in no hurry to finish the cherry job though, as he tries to catch up with his son. The cherries remain in the background. EFA nominee at the Cannes Film Festival.
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In 1986 there was an enormous nuclear disaster in Chernobyl. Another one could have happened in 2022 when Russian soldiers entered the site of the power plant. Their presence was recorded by an anonymous cameraman. The memories became revived.
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Life is made of repeatable stories, accounts and questions. Birth and death, joy and sickness, youth and old age. In ‘Clinging’, Liat Glick focuses the camera on herself to tell a tender story about a trio made of a mature 47-year-old daughter, her mother and beloved aging dog.
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A story of birds, butterflies, fungi, moss and people. All these creatures, both dead and alive, were photographed by Jürgen F. Mahrt (1882–1940) with the same degree of attention. The former were captured for eternity, while the latter were depicted motionless but as if in a death-defying manner. The photographer was possessed by an obsession to act against the chaos of wars and the disaster of an abruptly changing landscape.
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‘A documentary fantasy played out by real people,’ – is how the director described his film bordering on observation and creation, cinema and theatre. The protagonists are five secondary school students from a town in Arizona and the main theme involves feelings, traumas and dreams of these young people.
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In the sea of crying funeral attendees and pouring rain, a woman who is bidding farewell to her husband seems unmoved. Only after successive glasses of wine when memories return, does she burst out with emotions and is provoked to demonstrate surprising behaviour. The absurd situation is intensified by a visit of a mysterious woodpecker.
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Natxo Leuza’s music documentary can be best described using the words transformation, counterculture and music. The director allows the eponymous protagonist to take the audience on a journey through the underground world of the political transformation era in Spain. One of its symbols was El Drogas, the icon of the 1980s music counterculture.
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A bike leaning against a tree, the memory of the last hug and the image of a boat sailing into the expanse of a lake are everything that a little girl was left with after her father, who he disappeared without a trace one day. The daughter continues to return to the lake hoping to hug her father again one day. Oscar-winning animation about longing and the passing of time.
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The world of ‘Fauna’ is a reality of contrasts and contradictions. In Barcelona’s suburbs, two apparently unrelated stories are taking place – one in nature, while the other one – behind closed doors of a scientific lab. Can these worlds remain independent of each other?
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A poignant and painfully honest film about the generation of 60-year-old Latvian women, friends from secondary school born in the era of communism. Contrasting sentimental archival footage with the interviews conducted over the years, the documentary author reveals the divide between the official image of gender equality and the crude reality.
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When a new law banning circus shows featuring animals enters into force, Adi and Mioara, animal trainers in a Bucharest circus, must come up with an idea of how to make their shows more attractive so that they do not lose their audience. A world-famous circus director arrives at Romania from as far as Las Vegas in order to help.
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The Volhynian massacre remains a taboo subject for the next generations of Poles and Ukrainians. Karolina’s family spoke about the events in which their relatives were murdered behind a closed door only. To discover the truth about her ancestors, Karolina sets off on a journey to Volhynia.
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In the days following the presidential election in Belarus in August 2020, numerous protests erupt throughout the country. The special police, OMON, take particularly brutal action against demonstrators, which even spills over onto passers-by. In total, almost 7000 people are arrested throughout Belarus. Hundreds of victims recount their experiences in interviews. Their reports reveal a system of repression, which is reconstructed in detail in the director’s room in Berlin Neukölln in the form of a cinematic guide.
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Everywhere where human and non-human lives met, the reality needed to become the subject of never-ending negotiations. The vectors of interests pointed to very different directions. With an anthropological insight, French documentarians capture the reconstruction of events from almost half a million years ago being acted out over a river near Tautavel.
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Centaurs are creatures from the Greek mythology with a head and torso of a man on the body of a horse. Supposedly, they lived in Greek forests. Some people who believe they really exist are willing to pay large sums for a meeting with them. In Hotel Centaur, located in picturesque surroundings, a group of colourful eccentrics organise a get-together.
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Every day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from their vertiginous cold house, attached to a cliff, to go to the village on the ground, far away where they sell the ice they produce daily.
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Eva is passionate about history and dreams about taking part in an enormous and prestigious historical reconstruction. Unfortunately, to join the Napoleonic army she needs to be a man. The girl decides to outsmart 200-year-old rules and regulations and join the army doubly dressed up – as a male soldier.
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In this poetic portrayal of Luigi Ghirri (1943–1992), a master of contemporary photography, the director gives voice and, in particular the image, to the protagonist. The photographer takes the audience on a tour of the outskirts of daily life as seen from the corner of his eye, the area in between what is artificial and authentic or grand and small – the meso-scale.
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A simple animated line and a powerful documentary story. Journalist Caroline Gillet receives unique recordings from two Afghan women she knows. In short messages, Marwa and Raha report the brutal takeover of the country by the armed Taliban. Very soon, one of the women flees her homeland.
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Lace, taffeta and subtle elegant adornments. Wide sleeves, frills, deep necklines and long colourful earrings. Canes, crutches and wheelchairs. This hypnotic dance show is a flamenco performance created by persons with disabilities who feel free and fulfilled while dancing.
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War is never far away, as Wojciech Młynarski wrote. The residents of Shestovitcha, a village liberated from under the Russian occupation, are trying to move on with their lives. Nevertheless, it is difficult to live in peace when danger is lurking just behind the corner. A terrifyingly true portrayal of people who are trying to remain normal in abnormal times.
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The film director and protagonist in one defies stereotypes related to otherness and disability. Despite a severe body deformity, she lives her life to the fullest and finds fulfilment as a woman and artist. To find out whether there are people with a similar affliction elsewhere in the world, she sets off on a journey.
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A small community lives in a village isolated from the world by a Himalayan mountain range. A mysterious sound, a thunder or rumble, can be heard from afar but only by two young shepherds. What does it bode? Why cannot others notice it? The young men decide to solve this mystery and go to the mountains regardless of danger.
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Simon Intihar’s film will delight geeks, bring memories back and encourage young people to google even quicker. It is a nostalgic journey to the times when a talented and somewhat extravagant student could develop an international gaming phenomenon in his own room.
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After 15 years, Diana finds the letters her father used to send her. Will she forgive him for leaving their family? The author uses a collage of old letters, archival films and photographs as well as children’s drawings and cut-outs to recreate the past.
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Meet a saxophone virtuoso who breaks glass ceilings – her name is Maria Faust and she is an eminent Estonian jazz artist who improvises on stage and in her life with equal bravado. She lets the camera in as close as possible; therefore, an intimate portrayal of this expressive and independent women can be achieved.
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Mångata is a reflection of the Moon’s light on a water surface which indicates the way to the Moon. This light also helps to rescue little Alya. She is the only one saved from a refugee boat that sunk in the Mediterranean. Many years later, as an astronaut on a pioneering mission, she will need this light again.
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A dramatic and shocking picture of the Russian invasion in Ukraine presented from the perspective of a four-year-old girl. To create the animation, authentic photographs of destroyed buildings and drawings of war made by children were used. This terrifying film does not allow the viewer to remain indifferent.
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It is a morning in September. A storm is about to break. A mother drives a girl to school in the morning and picks up a woman at the end of the school day. Anna, a fifteen-year-old girl sneaks out of school, and with the help of her boyfriend, they visit a hospital. There, she has to face an event that will jolt her into adulthood.
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While she is practicing yoga, he is looking at his phone. When he sits behind a desk, she goes to the kitchen to prepare a shake. Suddenly, the protagonists and their rituals begin to revolve around each other as if they were celestial bodies and their flat becomes the centre of the universe.
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There are many legends that surround the in vitro procedure. The film directors decided to give voice to the women who have experienced this form artificial insemination from two different perspectives. Ioanna is a recipient who owes her maternity to the procedure, while Rosa, who has never wanted to be a mother, becomes an anonymous donor.
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Welcome to Hamsterland - the land of happy corporation workers, constantly growing GDP and money that is enough to pay for everything. Statistics is a religion here, while economic indicators reflect the level of satisfaction among residents. A satire on the world founded on money and power.
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The practice of hazing in the Belarussian military has a lot in common with political terror. This is why Svetlana does not believe that her son committed suicide in the barracks. Somewhere else, another young man is putting on a uniform. Their parallel lives make a shocking image of the post-Soviet reality.
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The director returns from India to London to take care of his elderly uncle. David, a former actor, is a single gay man, an eccentric and colourful person. The plan was to record a farewell, but the uncle is not intent on dying. He gives his nephew one last lesson.
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In 2039, a delegation of the International Climate Tribunal arrives at Moddergat, a small village on the Dutch coast. The time has come to make a human sacrifice to Mother Earth or other forces. Who, if not humans, is responsible for the terrible condition of our planet? Can a volunteer change his mind at the last moment?
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An awarded author, Helen is a public person. Her photographs can easily be found online and on her social media profiles. Has someone used these public sources to create vulgar illustrations containing her image and illegally placed them on porn sites?
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Gio is a new-born baby who joins Jack and his sisters. His birth turns the family’s life upside down as the boy has Down syndrome. Initially, Jack is delighted with his brother’s uniqueness and sees him as a superhero, but this attitude changes with time.
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In 2015, Turkish-Kurdish singer Mutlu Kaya was shot in her own house. The film authors follow the life of the girl who decided to bring the culprit to justice and put up a fight for the recovery of her voice becoming the symbol of opposition against the impunity of perpetrators of honour killings.
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How can you understand a violent past? Somali-born Abdi is furniture designer and support worker. He reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbour and filmmaker Douwe. Through playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, Abdi and Douwe embark on a candid and investigative journey through a painful history, focusing on the creative process throughout.
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In eponymous Nocturna, there is an old orphanage. A little boy lives in it. Tim is terrified of darkness. At night, he is protected from it by the light of the stars. One day Tim notices that his favourite star is gone. What is worse, more of his night companions soon begin to disappear. The boy decides to find out what is going on.
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A train is travelling through a harsh, icy landscape. Out of the sleeping crowd, only three men wake up. Confused, they stay somewhere at a station in the middle of sinister wilderness. Here begins their dramatic journey in the shadow of the power of nature. Each viewer will come up with a different interpretation and for everyone it will cause a different kind of distress.
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When a new law banning circus shows featuring animals enters into force, Adi and Mioara, animal trainers in a Bucharest circus, must come up with an idea of how to make their shows more attractive so that they do not lose their audience. A world-famous circus director arrives at Romania from as far as Las Vegas in order to help.
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To the surprise of village residents, a stone figure of Virgin Mary suddenly starts moving, leaves the chapel and walks ahead. Soon, it is joined by other animated statues. Such miracles do happen and a boneless little girl is the most fascinated by them.
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Whitney from the US and Yara from Germany are divided by an ocean but connected by the Internet and their passion for gymnastics. The former develops her sporting career combining it with her presence in the social media and singing, while the latter is her fan and, above all, a regular teenager looking for her own path in life.
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Freshly washed shirts on a string, high-heels and a vivid lipstick – everything that will make the partner happy. A moment of inattention is enough to provoke the man to aggression. A macabre animation about violence in the family.
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Meet Laci and Aniko – people for whom the fortune has been truly good. Their lottery win turned them into millionaires within a day. How to invest money they have not had to pay for practically anything until now? What does an ordinary day in the life of a man who suddenly turned from a pauper to a local mogul look like?
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The film is a reconstruction of the attack on the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv carried out by Palestinian terrorists in 1975. Its authors have employed rich archival footage, media reports as well as professional and amateur audio materials to capture what happened in the most comprehensive way possible. The material includes notes taken by Kohava, the key figure who was also an incidental victim of the drama that shook the world.
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Russia’s war against Ukraine as seen from a less obvious perspective than the one presented by the media every day. Younger Kolya and older Kostya, two brothers who live in faraway Donbas, have a different view of what is going on. One backs the rebellion, the other puts security above all.
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The war which is raging in Ukraine now began nine years ago. French reporter Pierre Crom documented that period and today, using words and images, he talks about his experiences from the front and Ukrainian streets as well as the forebodings, sometimes surreal, that harbingered a full-scale invasion back then.
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‘Girls should not have opinions. If you have a daughter, she will cook you a meal or give you medication. A son will protect you and a daughter will feed you.’ Don’t they both deserve to live? The animation touches upon a difficult and hidden subject – sex-selective abortions performed in Montenegro.
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Many years go the director left her family home. Today, she returns to the mountainous region of Western Norway with a camera, walking in the footsteps of her parents and ancestors in order to answer the question: where do I come from? Her family story is transformed into a breadth-taking poem, both visual and auditory.
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It symbolises eternity and infinity, entirety and perfection. At the same time, there is no perfect circle, although the possibilities it offers can make your head spin and your mind fear. In her ‘round’ film, the director confronts unlimited quantifiers with an aim to tame what is uncertain and in fact impossible to grasp.
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Two young Berliners at the peak of the pandemic decide to turn their life around and finally settle down somewhere far from civilization. Warm and full of humour and positive energy, it is a film about a family, roots and dreams that become reality. At the same time it is a practical manual for enthusiasts of organic farming.
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Nikita loves to listen techno music and dreams to go to Berlin and visit the famous club “Berghain”. His mother Irena doesn’t know about his son’s dreams and soon enough their mutual expectations will clash.
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What purpose can you use tea leaves for? To paint an experimental animation where the protagonist is a little dot moving through winding tunnels and corridors. The rhythmical movement of the dot combined with baroque music creates a hypnotic film experience.
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The mouflon, wild sheep with beautiful curved antlers, were brought to the island as an attraction. Nevertheless, they should not be admired but killed. One animal becomes separated from the herd – will it manage to survive? Based on real events, the animation documents the harm done to the species in Tenerife.
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Have you ever thought who the people riding with you on the bus are? Where are they going? What are they dreaming about or what plans do they have for the weekend? Sandra Reina decided to check it. The Spanish director took a camera on her suburban journey and turned it on to give voice to other passengers.
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Deep inside the Russian forests, against the wishes of the authorities, 60-year-old Yuri Dmitriev searches for mass graves from the era of Stalin’s terror against his own people - until one day he is arrested and sentenced to 15 years in a penal colony. Following Yuri closely, the film paints a shocking picture of the way the Russian state rewrites history and treats its citizens.
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Eva is a woman in her forties. We meet her when she is a long-term patient of a psychiatric hospital. She is looking forward to the day when she will be able to leave the facility. As she repeatedly states, she dreams of ‘going at large’ and ‘being a normal person’. Yet what is a ‘normal life’ for her?
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They were called the Beatles because before they joined the ISIS, they had grown up in the UK. They were the ones who kept watch over Western hostages and inflicted particular cruelty. The interviews with jihadists were confronted with the memories of victims, negotiators and witnesses, which makes a true documentary thriller.
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To conduct an interview, the protagonist needs just a microphone, sound recorder and an interlocutor. The latter is not easy at all because the people he approaches are busy with their own affairs. However, the charming man does not get discouraged and keeps wondering around the world with a smile on his face looking for someone who would like to talk to him.
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There are no real klezmers any more. A young Argentinian film maker who has Jewish roots wants to prove otherwise and sets off with his camera for Moldova. This musical and documentary road cinema combined with a love story sometimes may change into a self-deprecating joke or an essay on the dying Yiddish culture.
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From Northern Italy to Bucharest is a long way to go for the film director in search for her biological family. This journey is also an expedition inside her own identity. Adopted by an Italian couple in her early childhood, she has no idea what the missing Romanian piece of the puzzle will be like.
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Black ink combined with pastel watercolours, dynamic animation and a story based on a Taoist legend enthralled the audience and critics alike ensuring a Cesar award as well as Oscar and BAFTA nominations for the film.
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European cities as seen from the boards of aircraft during carpet-bombing made a stunningly beautiful picture which was horrifying in a primeval manner. These images of hell, like never before, were planned by the engineers of war with scientific precision. To create the choreography of destruction, they employed the instruments of mathematics and physics.
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A castaway stranded on a desert island does not admire paradisial landscapes. He does whatever he can to escape from it at the first opportunity. His perspective, however, changes when he meets a red turtle. This poetic story which won an Oscar nomination is an invitation to meditation on beauty, nature and the consecutive stages of human life.
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The early 1990s. The Soviet Union collapsed, communism disappeared. All that millions of people in the Soviet Union believed in ceased to exist. People began to look for a new sense of life. Orthodox churches once again filled with believers, and a host of sorcerers, healers and fairies appeared. There was a veritable explosion of sex in Russian media and art.
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Distant lights draw the city. Shining ships arrive with sleeping people and the night turns liquid. The stars’ sower wakes them up and they travel through the city, talking about this and that, while saying goodbye to everything.
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Young Mohamed Dih, who in Seville, returns to his birthplace – a refugee camp in Western Sahara. Time flows differently here: the times of the day are marked by calls to prayer and the seasons – by the rainfall. When a torrential downpour destroys his family’s home, the protagonist stays in the camp for longer to help to rebuild it.
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Together with her husband and two children, Zdenka moves from the Czech Republic to Spitsbergen to carry out studies on social change occurring in the northernmost city on Earth – Longyearbyen. Life at the end of the world feels like a dangerous adventure. The island is changing – a mine needs to be closed down because of climate change, while globalisation limits the freedom once enjoyed by the residents.
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The documentary ‘Walls Can Talk’ is the last work of Carlos Saura. It is a cinematographic reflection of a mature artist on the role of art in human life from the pre-historic times until the present. Confronting cave paintings with the latest representations of urban art, the director is looking for an answer to the question about the nature of art.
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What are you thinking about when you sit down on a dental chair? The best option is to focus on something pleasant. Imagine a fisherman in a small boat, angling and a sunset. An animated metaphor of human life in which we avoid problems and ignore real danger.
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The director attempted to delve into the old walls of Vilnius, capturing the history of the city and resurrecting its phantoms. This is the only poetic documentary film from the Soviet era where Vilnius serves as the main character.
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Gags straight out of a slapstick comedy, bright and vivid colours as well as a happy tune turn this animation into a satire on society that has no respect for human work or the environment.
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The film uncompromisingly depicts actions of government officials, which took place behind the closed doors of Basque prisons. Iratxe Sorzabal and Nekane Txapartegi are women who were subjected to torture. Now they talk about their experiences. Their terrifying stories and those of many other female prisoners are confirmed by a forensic doctor.
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Winter, by night. Mirko, a 23-year-old student, has only a few hours left to pay back his unpaid rent or he will be evicted. As a bicycle deliveryman at night, he must succeed in making a maximum of orders to pay off his debt.
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Vika, who is 84, is one of the eldest DJs in the world. Because of her attitude, she is far from any stereotypes about senior citizens. Bittersweet documentary musical about consistence in following your own path and fighting for your dreams.
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Donbas, 2019. The prospect of a new Russian invasion hangs in the air, while the sound of gunfire resulting from the old one can still be heard in the distance.
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Directed by the Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald ('The Last King of Scotland', 'Waiting for Joe'), this moving documentary is dedicated to the memory of pop and R&B legend Whitney Houston. "A gripping" (The Guardian), yet intimate and strikingly honest cinematic portrait, offering a unique insight into the life, dizzying career and slow decline, of a star gifted with unparalleled talent. Filled with the memories of the artist's loved ones, previously unreleased films and music that has already achieved the status of immortality.
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Sharon was a finalist of the Miss South Africa beauty pageant, while Dimakatso is a well-known activist. What they share is intersexuality, i.e. they possess traits of both sexes. Meanwhile, the world requires them to unambiguously declare their identity, which is not always in line with their subjective feelings.
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Somalia. A policewoman sits in her parked car. After a while, she gets out, puts on her service cap, and enters the prison. There, decisive hours have dawned for young Farah. Organizational machinery starts up around him. Farah is examined by a doctor, instructed by the bailiff, and looked after by an imam. Farah is waiting for his parents to visit. “How are you?” is the question everyone asks him that day. Each time, “Good” is his concise answer. Only when the policewoman takes Farah out of town the next morning does the unspeakable become a painful reality.
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What does a beautiful palace in Berlin have in common with a dilapidated fortress in Ghana? An answer to this question can be found in a remarkable documentary essay by Moritz Siebert. On the example of the two buildings, the director has managed to capture the essence of European colonialism in a witty manner.
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When parents discover that their new-born son in a mysterious way can roam the world, they decide to attach him to themselves using a rope. Full of fantastic events and supernatural elements, a fairy tale about adolescence and parenthood.
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The movie is about Yarik "Rascal" Godunok, the commander of a volunteer squad in the Russo-Ukrainian War. His small unit held the defense of one of the villages in Kyiv region against Russian troops for almost a month. During this time, he survived many shellings, got wounded several times, and had to overcome the distrust of military officials.
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