An international competition for films dealing with humankind’s universal search for freedom and justice
Cielo’s teenage daughter, Laura, is kidnapped in northern Mexico. Despite paying several ransoms, Laura is not returned. When the authorities offer no support in the search, Cielo takes matters into her own hands and transforms from housewife into vengeful militant. Winner of the Cannes Un Certain Regard Courage Award.
Down in the American South, near the Mexican border, a number of homeless people live in constant danger; the poverty level is inconceivable, drugs and alcohol have become especially popular commodities, and violence dominates the streets. This debut film by Carlos Alfonso Corral is a lyrical documentary that makes use of spectacular black-and-white photography, beautiful music, and unconventional sound editing.
The employer is a young man who apparently has everything going for him, except one pressing concern: his baby’s health. The employee is looking for a job to support his newborn. He does not hesitate when the former decides to hire him to work on his land. But one day a horrible accident happens.
A handful of prisoners in WWII camps risked their lives to take clandestine photographs and document the hell the Nazis were hiding from the world. In the vestiges of the camps, director Christophe Cognet retraces the footsteps of these courageous men and women in a quest to unearth the circumstances and the stories behind their photographs, piecing together an archeology of images serving as acts of defiance.
During the war, Sonia, a young Yugoslav partisan, was one of the leaders of the resistance movement in Auschwitz. This film is a journey through her memories. Rather than delving into archival materials, film director Marta Popivoda employs the narrative voice of the protagonist to present contemporary landscapes emphasizing the relevance of the film to developments in present-day politics.
Amina lives alone with her 15-year-old daughter Maria. Her already fragile world collapses the day she discovers that her daughter is pregnant. The teenager does not want this pregnancy. In a country where abortion is not only condemned by religion, but also by law, Amina finds herself facing a losing battle.
Fei makes a living in the big city working as a hustler. His world collapses when he realizes that his family accepts his money but not his homosexuality. Broken-hearted, Fei struggles to create a new beginning in his life. An arresting film debut which premiered at the Cannes Un Certain Regard Competition.
We enter the Roj prison camp in Syria, which holds families of ISIS fighters. Among them, British recruit Shamima Begum, who fled London when she was 15, and Hoda Muthana, from the USA, who allegedly incited her followers on Twitter. Universally reviled by the media, they now tell their stories for the very first time.
In a former mining town in northern Ossetia, a place with no future, a young woman anxiously awaits the visit of her older brother – hoping he will help her escape the stifling hold of the family she loves as much as she rejects. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard Prize.
A brilliant cinematic reflection about technology and its impact on our lives. The camera follows jet streams, trains, trucks, and underwater cables that transmit information at the speed of light. But in the face of these scientific achievements, we are witness to ocean flooding, huge fires, scorched hills – a planet forced into a battle of survival. Winner of the Documentary Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
