La Soledad

Venezuela, Venice Biennale College 2016, Miami Audience Award 2017

First feature film by Jorge Thielen Armand

Synopsis

Already struggling to survive in the urban jungle of Caracas, José discovers that the decrepit mansion he occupies with his family will soon be demolished. Driven by a desire for a better life and guided by the ancestral spirits of the house, José embarks on a mystical search for a cache of gold that is rumoured to be buried in the walls of the mansion. This film is based on a true story and played by the real characters.

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Atlal

Algeria/France, FID Marseille 2016- Best First Feature Film

First feature film by Djamel Kerkar

A poetic discipline that involves facing the ruins and bringing one’s memory back to the surface  and one’s memories from the visible to the invisible.  Algeria, in the grip of terrorism, officially experienced the loss of over 200,000 lives between 1991 and 2002.

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Isola

France, Cannes ACID selection 2016

Fabianny Deschamps

Synopsis

A story made of dreams without fairies, at the heart of a contemporary world where individuals must reinvent themselves to survive. On an island lost between two worlds, Dai, a young Chinese woman, survives alone in a cave, waiting for the baby that swells her womb day after day. By the harbour which, every day, flurry with the arrival of hundreds of migrants, she searches tirelessly the face of the man she loves, her husband. One night her wish is to be fulfilled…

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Heaven Sent

France/Lebanon, Cannes ACID selection 2016

First feature film by Wissam Charaf

Synopsis

After 20 years apart, Samir a former militiaman who was presumed dead, reappears in the life of Omar, his little brother who has become a bodyguard in Beirut. Between drama and comedy, Samir has to come to terms with a country he no longer recognizes.

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Life after Life

Hong Kong, Berlin Forum 2016, Hong Kong Firebird Award 2016, Tokyo Filmex Grand Prize 2016

First feature film by Zhang Hanyi

Synopsis

Industrial development and the migration of population have seen the gradual desolation of the village with few people left and houses collapsed. Some people die, and some ghosts return. Xiuying’s spirit who has wandered for over a decade returns to the village by borrowing her son’s body.

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Oscuro Animal

Colombia. Rotterdam Tiger competition 2016, Guadalajara 2016 Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Actress

First feature film by Felipe Guerrero

Synopsis

Oscuro animal tells the story of three women forced to flee their homes in a war-torn region of Colombia. Each woman’s journey, marked by terror, takes her on a trek from the depths of the jungle to the outskirts of Bogotá, where each must gather the strength needed to start a new life.

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Rio Corgo

Switzerland/Portugal, Berlin Forum 2016

Documentary by Maya Cosa & Sergio da Costa

Synopsis

Silva has trodden many paths over the course of his life, paths that criss-cross the north of Portugal. Now his steps echo in the narrow streets of a remote village, where he has moved into an empty house.

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Dust Cloth

Turkey, Berlin Forum 2016, Istanbul IFF- Best Film, Best Actress, Best Screenplay

First feature film by Ahu Öztürk

Synopsis

Nesrin and Hatun are two Kurdish cleaning women living in Istanbul. While Nesrin tries to survive with her little daughter in the big city, trying to understand why her husband left her, Hatun dreams of buying a house in the districts where she goes to clean.

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I, Olga Hepnarova

Czech Rep, Berlin Panorama Opening Film 2016

First feature film by Tomas Weinreb & Petr Kazda 

Synopsis

Olga Hepnarova was a young, lonely lesbian outsider from a coldhearted family who couldn’t play the part society desired of her. Her paranoid self-examination and inability to connect with other people eventually drove her over the edge of humanity when she was only twenty-two years old.

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The Ardennes

Belgium, Toronto Discovery 2015

First feature film by Robin Pront

Synopsis

Brothers Dave and Kenneth are reunited on Kenneth’s release after four years in prison following a failed home invasion. While Kenneth is anxious to dive headfirst into the drug-centered existence that ensnared him in the first place, both Dave and Kenneth’s erstwhile girlfriend Sylvie, have adopted clean lifestyles. Drugs, crime and the bonds of brotherhood create this dark crime thriller journey in The Ardennes.

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