Traditions and rituals
15 films
Azza
dir. Stefanie Brockhaus
dok2025
The eponymous character is a driving instructor in a country where, until recently, women were not allowed to drive. At the same time, she is a victim of another Saudi law – after the divorce, it was her husband who took custody of their children. Azza decides to fend for herself and embarks on a journey into the desert.
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A Song of Humble Beauty
dir. Anna Konik
dok2025
In the era of mass production of disposable goods, this trip to present-day Karachi resembles a journey back in time. By taking a sneak peek at the work of traditional dyers, potters or embroiderers, we gain more than an ethnographic record – a cinematic meditation.
Read moreCaliu: Nothing else, what else can I do? (Caliu: Nicidecum altceva, ce sa fac altceva?)
dir. Simona Constantin
dok2025
After the breakup of the Roma group Taraf de Haïdouks, violin virtuoso Gheorghe ‘Caliu’ Anghel is trying to return to his glory days with a new lineup and under a different banner, although his personality is not helping him. What unfolds is a full-blooded portrayal of a brilliant artist and a difficult man.
Read moreCosmic Balance
dir. Andrea Johnsen
dok2025
Reak is an Indonesian trance ritual. Its participants wish to connect with ancestral spirits and the energy of the Cosmos through music and ecstatic dance. The Javanese band Juarta Putra is currently preparing for its first overseas tour, which will begin at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark.
Read moreCroak Show
dir. Suresh Eriyat
anim2024
As night falls over the marshes, a frog concert begins. Turtles, fish, snails and even a creeping snake pick up the rhythm of the music. Will the serpent, too, succumb to the magic of sound? A dynamic animation, full of anxiety as well as humour, which shows that one should not give up – even when things do not go as planned.
Read moreEarly Feelings (Erken Hissler)
dir. Nurlan Hasanli
fab2024
The life of an 11-year-old hero revolves around football – the pitch, stickers with football players, T-shirts with the name of his idol. The routine is interrupted by the death of a neighbour when the family from abroad turn up at the funeral. Among them, there is a girl, from whom the boy cannot take his eyes off. Have his mates noticed it, too?
Read moreFandango
dir. Remedios Málvarez Báez, Arturo Andújar
dok2024
The Andalusian province of Huelva is famous for nurturing its traditional music, sometimes despised and considered a plebeian version of flamenco. Nevertheless, fandango is a separate style, which is still alive among the locals.
Read moreHorde (Zgraja)
dir. Janina Księska
anim2024
A psychedelic parade of bizarre creatures is proceeding rhythmically towards a red tower in the middle of nowhere. Inside, a hypnotic party is in full swing, its tempo controlled by a mysterious figure at the top of the tower. Dance, frenzy and colourful chaos engulf everyone except for a certain little blue man.
Read moreHousewife of the Year
dir. Ciaran Cassidy
dok2024
A warm dinner on the table, a tidy house, children who have been looked after and a content husband. Behind this ideal, traditional image of the Irish household, there were sometimes exhausted and lonely women. The national competition for the ‘Housewife of the Year’, a television show that was broadcast between 1969 and 1995, offered them an opportunity to get out of the house.
Read moreQaher
dir. Nada Khalifa
fab2025
‘Where is better? Here or there?’, are asking the people Jason meets when after many years he goes back to Palestine as a Canadian citizen. He tries to get to his native village, but the last mile will turn out to be most difficult part of the journey. It will make the protagonist aware of the power of eponymous quaher.
Read moreShadowland
dir. Otso Tiainen
dok2024
This was supposed to be a documentary about an esoteric community living today in the French Pyrenees. While it was being filmed, serious accusations were made against one of the sect’s members, Hollywood director Richard Stanley. Consequently, the documentary seems stretched between a utopian fantasy and a brutal clash with reality.
Read moreSilver
dir. Natalia Koniarz
dok2025
Without this metal, there would be no modern technologies today. In the 21st century, there are still murderous working conditions in the Bolivian silver mines of Potosí, from which the profits are reaped by international corporations. The entire lives of people from this area revolve around mines, and the documentary is a raw observation of their daily routine.
Read moreAwards:Silver Horn / Nagrody specjalne
The next screenings
Taking Up Serpents
dir. Matthias Lawetzky
dok2025
Members of some evangelical communities in Virginia perform a peculiar ritual involving venomous snakes. They believe that this is how they can defeat Satan. A film for people with strong nerves and guts.
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Where Dragons Live (Waar draken wonen)
dir. Suzanne Raes
dok2024
Where Dragons Live is an intimate and enchanting portrait of childhood fears, imagination and the enduring power of the family myths and artefacts that shape our lives. We follow the Impey siblings as they prepare their family home for sale. They face difficult choices about which treasures to keep and which to discard, reflecting their struggle with conflicting memories.
Read moreZima
dir. Tomek Popakul, Kasumi Ozeki
anim2023
A cat lover, Jesus leaving the cross and Christmas carollers holding pitchforks in a snowy and icy scenery. ‘Zima’, a psychedelic journey to a small fishing village, collects as if in a lens the behaviour, customs and vices of the Polish provinces. A horror-like animation in the convention of magic realism.
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