The death of a Burkinabé family’s patriarch and the division of his estate unearths conflict between his heirs and larger questions about inheritance, belonging and the communal customs of West Africa versus Westernized courts.
Rodrigue and Reine live with their three children in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. They make their living from a meager yield of cassava flour and are very active in the local church, where the battle between God and Satan is central, and believing in evil spirits, curses and witchcraft is common.
Aswang follows a group of people whose lives have been caught up in these events: a journalist who tries to make a stand against lawlessness, a coroner, a missionary brother who comforts bereaved family members, and a street kid with parents in prison and friends in the cemetery. The film is a shocking account of unprecedented violence and the moral bankruptcy of a regime that still enjoys support from voters.
Parisian taxi drivers Ahmed, Jean Jacques, and Madame Tang document La Base - a gigantic transit hub isolated on the outskirts of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport - reappropriated by the drivers to become a rich microcosm of community life, a refuge facing the decline of their trade and the fast-changing world.
The story of Jasna, a Croatian ex-pat who, due to her mother Anka's declining health, is forced to return to a place she has been avoiding most of her life - her home. The two haven't been in touch for years, but the proximity of death forces them to confront the ghosts of their past. It is also a portrait of life in a typical small town in the midst of Mediterranean hinterland. Plunging into the anxieties of the community, MATER subtly uncovers class, status, and gender issues that shape Anka's and Jasna's personalities - their stubbornness, strength, and tragic flaws.
For two decades, the victims of the Six-Day War have been fighting in Kisangani for the recognition of this bloody conflict and demanding compensation. Tired of unsuccessful pleas, they have finally decided to voice their claims in Kinshasa, after a long journey on the Congo River.
Two friends, both Indigenous fishermen, are driven to desperation by a dying sea. Their friendship begins to fracture as they take very different paths to provide for their struggling families.
Of the thirty inhabitants of Arki, a windswept island in Greece’ Dodecanese, Kristos is the last remaining child and the only student of the small elementary school. To finish compulsory education, he needs to leave Arki and move to a larger island. However, his family cannot afford this and his father wants him to become a shepherd like his older brothers. The child’s teacher, Maria, cannot accept this situation and is determined to find a solution to further his education. Will Kristos stay on the island or will he leave Arki to continue his education on the other side of the sea?
In her debut feature, Alexandra Pianelli captures the unique world in and around her family’s Paris newsstand, presenting a film diary that lovingly documents her time working there. Sequestered behind the cramped counter, Pianelli films the world as it passes before her with a boundless sense of curiosity and compassion. iPhone or GoPro strategically set up before her, she records idiosyncratic interactions with charming regulars who drop by for their newspapers and a chat, or the lost passers-by simply looking for directions. Le Kiosque is a tender study of humanity, as well as a bittersweet sketch of physical media’s dying days as the newsstand’s future becomes increasingly unclear.
This is the story of the quiet disappearance of a public service in France: the telephone box. Barely forty years old and already totally "out".
In the Philippines, women get deployed abroad to work as domestic workers or nannies. In one of the many training centers dedicated to domestic work, a group of trainees are getting ready to face both homesickness and the possible abuses lying ahead during a series of role-playing exercises.
Humaira Bilkis has a problem: after a pilgrimage to Mecca, her mother, who was previously an emancipated poet, has now become devout. The filmmaker has to fight to get her to accept the camera, since her religion forbids images, while hiding her relationship with a Hindu man from Calcutta. Her film plays out like a closed-door documentary, spot-on and moving.
Bastian, a young trans boy, has to face a very difficult time in life: adolescence. It becomes even harder when he has to put his best efforts into asserting his individuality. From age 12 to 18, Bastian is filmed by his dear cousin Lorena who catches every glimpse of intimacy and difficulties. We witness how social and economical obstacles can put at risk Bastian’s transition.
As a child, Marie-Pascale began to make a raucous sound. As a young adult, she discovers that this voice can be the instrument of katajjaq, or Inuit throat singing. This discovery propels her on a quest and jostle her life. She learns to practice throat singing with the Inuk singer, Charlotte Qamaniq. She meets the Inuit people of today. By listening to their stories and History, she senses parts of her own, intimate, and collective story.
A tumultuous family drama unfolds as Gara (59) and Nada (13) defend their land set to become a military polygon, revealing layers of complexity that bond mother and daughter. The story of violence against women echoes in the violence against nature.
