Concrete Valley

Canada, Toronto Wavelenghts 2022, Berlinale Forum 2023

Feature film by Antoine Bourges

Synopsis

Rashid (Hussam Douhna), a doctor from Syria, struggles to adjust to his life in Canada
after five years in Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park with his wife Farah (Amani Ibrahim) and son
Ammar (Abdullah Nadaf). He tries to hold on to his old identity by working as an
unlicensed doctor for his neighbours. While Farah becomes more involved in their local
community, tensions between her and Rashid begin to take their toll on their fragile
marriage. Continuer la lecture →

Tora’s Husband

India , Toronto Platform, Busan A Window on Asian Cinema 2022

Feature film by Rima Das

Synopsis

Loss and lockdowns, life and death – like everywhere around the world, a small-town businessman in Assam is grappling with uncertainty and restlessness. Continuer la lecture →

About the Clouds

Argentina, FID Marseille competition 2022, best film FIC Valdivia, best director Mexico Black Canvas, Jeonju best picture prize 2023

Feature film by Maria Aparicio

Synopsis

Ramiro is a cook in a bar. Hernán is an unemployed technician. Nora is a nurse in a public hospital. Lucía is an employee in a bookstore. Four stories and a black and white city with a cloudy sky. None of them know each other, they are only inhabitants of the same city. Continuer la lecture →

Bentu

Italy, Venice Giornate di Autori 2022

Feature film by Salvatore Mereu

Synopsis

Raffaele has just gathered up his little pile of grain, which will be his provision for an entire year. Not wishing to be caught unprepared, he has been sleeping in the country for days, far from everybody, waiting for the wind to arrive and help him at last to separate the wheat-grains from the chaff. But the wind will not show up. Only Angelino arrives to visit him every day, making him feel less lonely. Maybe one day, when he has grown up, Raffaele may lend him his indomitable mare and he will finally manage to ride her. But Angelino does not want to wait… Continuer la lecture →

Geographies of Solitude

Canada, Berlinale Forum 2022 -Ecumenical Award, Arthouse Cinema Award, Caligari Film Prize-, Jeonju Grand Prize, Hot Docs Best Film & Best Emerging Director, Las Palmas Best Film

Documentary by Jacquelyn Mills

Synopsis

Geographies of Solitude is an immersion into the rich landscapes of Sable Island and the life of Zoe Lucas, a naturalist and environmentalist who has lived over 40 years on this remote strip of land. Continuer la lecture →

The River is not a Border

France, Locarno Critic’s Week 2022, IDFA

Documentary by Alassane Diago

Synopsis

Forty protagonists, witnesses and victims, look back at the 1989 massacres on both sides of the Senegal River, the border between Mauritania and Senegal, in order to understand what really happened, and try to take a step towards reconciliation together. Continuer la lecture →

We Had the Day Bonsoir

France, FID Marseille 2022 French competition Grand Prize & Prize of the National Center for Plastic Arts (CNAP), Rotterdam Harbour 2023

A film by Narimane Mari

Synopsis

Dying is an adventure, the last one, and we lived it. But what’s great is that we have added this film project like a future. Michel was involved right up until the end… and I can hear him telling me « there is no end ». Continuer la lecture →

We Haven’t Lost our Way

Poland, Berlinale Forum 2022

Feature Film by Anka Sasnal, Wilhelm Sasnal

Synopsis

This loose adaptation of the P.C. Jersild novel follows a professor who quits his job and a translator in difficulties. He sends her recordings of the mysterious journey he has embarked on, but is the journey even real? Or just proof of his madness? Continuer la lecture →

Footnote

USA, Rotterdam Harbour 2022

Documentary by Zhengfan Yang

Synopsis

An audio-visual portrait of a neighborhood in the city of Chicago. Life presents itself in two contradictory ways: as seen through the windows of an apartment filmed over the course of three years – peaceful, mundane, ambiguous; and as told through the local police scanner recorded during the last year of the Trump administration, also the first year of the ongoing pandemic – violent, tragic, absurd. From here, a neighborhood is observed, a city is echoed, and a country is footnoted. Continuer la lecture →

American Journal

France, Berlinale Encounters 2022

Documentary by Arnaud des Pallières

Synopsis

Think of America, I told myself. The cities, the homes, the people, the arrivals, the departures, the children coming and leaving, death, life, movement, speech. Think of the deep sigh inside of all things alive in America. Bend down. Pick up what others let go to waste from life. So the wind won’t blow it all away. Continuer la lecture →