Oyster Factory

Japan. Locarno official selection 2015

Documentary by Kazuhiro Soda

Synopsis

In the Japanese town of Ushimado, the shortage of labor is a serious problem due to its population’s rapid decline. Traditionally, oyster shucking has been a job for local men and women, but for a few years now, some of the factories have had to use foreigners in order to keep functioning. Hirano oyster factory has never employed any outsiders but finally decides to bring in two workers from China. Will all the employees get along?

Continuer la lecture →

Roundabout in my Head

Algeria/France/Lebanon. FID Marseille 2015- Grand Price for the French competition, IDFA Special Jury Award for First Appearance, Turin Best Film for Documentary

Documentary by Hassen Ferhani

Synopsis

To a slaughterhouse in the centre of Algiers, men live and work behind closed doors to the throbbing rhythms of their tasks and their dreams.Hope, bitterness, love, paradise and hell, the football stories as of the Chaabi and Rai melodies that set their lives and their world.

Continuer la lecture →

The Magic Mountain

Romania, Karlovy Vary 2015- in competition- special mention of the jury

Animation Feature Film by Anca Damian

Synopsis

In the form of an animated docu-drama,
the biography of Adam Jacek Winker wonders through nearly half a century of history.

A Polish refugee in Paris, Adam lived a boundless life, wanting to change the world.

Continuer la lecture →

(Be) Longing (Volta a Terra)

Portugal, Cannes ACID 2015

Documentary by Joao Pedro Placido

Synopsis

The story of an endangered community: farmers who practice subsistence farming in a mountainous village of northern Portugal, deserted because of immigration. Between the evocation of the past and their uncertain future, we follow the 49 inhabitants through four seasons, from the wintry fallow until the return of the prodigal sons in August. Among the inhabitants is António – a former emigrant who fulfilled his dream of returning home – who prepares the village festivities for the coming summer, and Daniel, a young shepherd who dreams of love at dusk.

Continuer la lecture →

Ivy

Turkey, Sundance World Cinema competition 2015

Tolga Karacelik

Synopsis

After months without pay, the already disgruntled crew on a Turkish cargo ship arrives in an Egyptian port and learns that the port authority is foreclosing on them. Continuer la lecture →

Until I lose my breath

Turkey, Berlin Forum 2015

A first feature film by Emine Emel Balci

Synopsis

Serap is a quiet but hot-headed adolescent who is working long hours in a cramped clothing workshop as a runner. Fed up with her abusive brother-in-law and detached sister, the only thing that keeps Serap going is the hope of moving into an apartment with her father who is a long distance truck driver. Since the father is quite indifferent to Serap’s wishes, however, she decides to take matters in her own hands.

Continuer la lecture →

Violencia

Colombia, Berlin Forum 2015

A first feature film by Jorge Forero

Synopsis

A man in chains, a young man who dreams of being part of something and a militant from an armed group who must wield a cruelty in which he may not believes in. All of them in the center of a violence that they don’t understand. The film, through three successive stories, gives unique faces, not interchangeable, to the tragic reality of the war.

Continuer la lecture →

Impressions of a drowned man

Cyprus, Rotterdam Tiger award competition 2015

A first feature film by Kyros Papavassiliou

Synopsis

Totally disconnected from his past and memory, the Passenger tries to define himself, confronted by his pre-determined fate, a fate that he has to re-live upon every anniversary of his death.

 

Continuer la lecture →

Labour of Love

India, Venice Days 2014- Fedeora Award for Best Debut Film, Rotterdam 2015

A first feature film by Aditya Vikram Sengupta

Synopsis

Set in the crumbling environs of Calcutta, LABOUR OF LOVE is a lyrical unfolding of two ordinary lives suspended in the duress of a spiralling recession. Continuer la lecture →

Between 10 and 12

Netherlands, Venice Days 2014, Rotterdam 2015

First feature film by Peter Hoogendoorn

Synopsis:

BETWEEN THE HOURS OF TEN AND TWELVE A PIECE OF NEWS STOPS A FAMILY IN ITS TRACKS, WHILE AROUND THEM LIFE GOES ON AS BEFORE.

Continuer la lecture →