Longing

Director  Nadav Mishali

• Israel

As every month Michal dips herself in the Mikveh as part of a religious ritual that allows her to have sexual relations with her husband, but when the long-awaited night arrives, nothing happens between the two. Her husband's absence, as well as the deterioration in the intimacy between them, evokes her suspicions about his true identity.

L'CHAIM! - TO LIFE!

Director  Elkan Spiller

• Germany

Chaim Lubelski is a Jewish scholar, was part of the jet set of St. Tropez and a successful businessman in New York. At 63, he moved to Antwerp to live with his mother – a concentration camp survivor – taking care of her, day and night, with true love and joy. In his feature documentary debut L’CHAIM!, director and producer Elkan Spiller introduces us to his eccentric and charismatic cousin, whose non - conformist life, as a second generation survivor, is deeply affected by the Holocaust and its traumatic aftermath. A life full of absurdities and tenderness, which, like Spiller’s film, breaks with every cliché.

Yeshua

Director   Krunoslav Adzievski

• Macedonia,

Yeshua is a documentary film, filmed in Macedoina and Israel. It’s narration is build based on juxtapositioning moving photographies, instead of classical film plot. The topic covered in this film is the high spiritual conscience which comes from the Lord Jesus Christ who’s our savior, Lord of the universe and low earth conscience. This film displays landscapes from places where the human kind was on a higher spiritual level then now, and on the other side the war like the lowest level of conscience that the human kind could reach.

We Weren't Given Anything for Free

Director  Eric Esser

• Germany

Annita Malavasi was just 22 when the Germans occupied Italy, their former allies, in 1943. As a partisan in the Italian resistance named “Laila”, she moved throughout the Apennines with and between fighting units, delivering information, transporting weapons, and taking part in battles. She spent over a year in the Apennines, fighting against the German occupation. At the same time, she had to assert herself against the men of the mountain villages. By the end of the war, Laila had risen among the ranks to become one of the few female commanders in the Italian resistance.

This film chronicles the story of a lifelong struggle for emancipation that began with the battle for Italy’s liberation from fascism. Laila and her two comrades, Gina “Sonia” Moncigoli and Pierina “Iva” Bonilauri talk about their time in the Resistenza and what it meant to them and many other women.

Espero

Director: Alessandro Quadretti

• Italy

A man, Pietro, is shipwrecked in the middle of a nameless sea, in an undetermined time, on a boat that is not his own boat and that he can barely drive; the only company he has is a cat named Achab, he has few things to eat and little water to drink. Time passes slowly, characterised by silences and the absence of any other human being; even the on-board radio only broadcasts scratchy sounds and interference, which, during a night, are interrupted by a distant female voice singing a singsong. Pietro never gets off the boat and doesn’t enter the waters of the sea. When loneliness seems to be ineluctable, one morning he is awakened by the collision with another craft, on which he finds a man, older than him and moribund, who Pietro takes with him. Their relationship is strained and characterised by silences and suspicions, which increase when the old man, Giacomo, picks up from the sea a boy, Enea, who quickly comes into conflict with Pietro. Thus, the moment in which the violence reveals itself comes and it breaks the precarious equilibrium between the three men, until the escape of Pietro, who can’t, on the other hand, avoid coming back and facing with Giacomo, with his conscience.

Four Wise Monkeys

Director Julija Iruskinaite

• United Kingdom

People often create fantasies and genuinely believe in them. Is that bad?
Louise has left Shawn and he is heartbroken. Now he is at the stage of finding out why, reviewing their time together with the help of his family. Will he be surprised?

THE BALLAD OF ELLA PLUMMHOFF

Director   Barbara Kronenberg

• Germany

While the 8th grader Ella faces a decisive math exam, which determines if she will be promoted to next grade, she dreams of last summer: love lessons of her grotesque ballet teacher, private tutoring by a know-it-all 7th grader, her first kiss and permanently annoying parents. An entertaining insight into the spring awakening of Ella Plummhoff.

FULL PAULA!

Director  Malte Wirtz

• Germany

Paula's last chance for her acting career is an audition for a bluesical. Randolf and Donnie are performing at the audition, too. Backstage Paula meets Max and Randolf falls in love with Paula's friend Louise, but she isn't interested. Five young people, bound together by friendship and their dream of big success. Everything is possible – but for Paula and Max as well?

THE RUN

Director Stefan Najib

• Germany

Martin is a teacher at a local high school. He thinks of himself as a good educator, but his own son begins to rebel against him. One day both drive to school together and get into a bad row over Bastian going on a camping vacation with his buddies. Soon after, Bastian's classmate Tom starts to shoot people in their school. Martin can stop the killing by volunteering to drive an escape car for Tom.
During the escape, a harsh psychological duel begins between the teacher and the crazed student.

Heroyna

Director  Alejandro Solórzano Garibaldi

     Mexico

King and Queen are robbers, addicts and -above all- lovers. Together they form the center of the universe. After a life of failure and loneliness, they are faced with the opportunity of one last, great crime that could buy their way to freedom. Now, they will stop at nothing in their pursuit of wild, violent euphoria; a paradise where they can be away from the world, alone with each other.

UNDERPRESSURE

Director Lilli Schwabe

• Austria

Clara, an aspiring gynecologist, is enthusiastically supporting her patients, no matter if they are bringing a child into the world or are making the decision to have an abortion. At the same time, she is attempting to be a good wife and loving mother to her two little children. However, with the increasing pressures of daily life, her self imposed belief systems are beginning to falter, her duties in the clinic suddenly seem insurmountable and her family life is slipping away.

#HELP

Direcnor  Peter Engelmann

• Hungary

Virág, a young student has lots of friends and suitors on the internet, but one night she gets into trouble and needs help, in real life. But the most important question is: Have you recorded it?

Normalna

Directors   Noga Bash

• Israel

   

"Normalna" tells the story of a Russian immigrant family in a small town that is located in the Galili area in Israel. While the people of the town enjoy the annual folklore dance festival, the family faces inner conflicts that threats on their family stability.

None of your affair

Director: Grigory Glyants and Dmitry Vakulin

• Russian Federation

Open carriage of a third class car. Trees flit outside the window, then waves and sea, a roaring motor and a serpentine road. A man and a woman. Kabuletti, Georgia, hospitable people and uneasy relationship against a background of a gentle lapse of local life.

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY

Director  Patrick Vollrath

• Austria

Michael stands in front of a house. He rings the bell. He waits. Nobody opens. He rings again. But nothing happens. Then suddenly Lea, a little eight-year-old girl, exits the house. She is followed by her mom. Lea jumps into Michael‘s arms happily: „Daddy!“ He hugs her. Then the two drive off.

It pretty much seems like every second weekend. But after a while Lea can‘t help but feel that something is just not right.

CHERRY CAKE

Director  Silke C. Engler

• Germany

Don’t fill life with days, fill days with life
After her husband’s death, Käthe doesn’t want to impose on anybody. She already ordered old people’s home brochures. But an accidential meeting with the love of her youth Hannes arises old contending feelings. Heartache and disappointment are mixed with desire and intimacy. Is it too late to forgive? Everyday Hannes is waiting for her on a bench in front of Käthe’s house. One day the bench stays empty and Käthe has to make a decision.

Stand Up! A Comedian Backstage

Director: Moritz Jakobi

• Germany

Hennes Bender has been successful as a comedian for over 20 years. In Stand Up! A comedian backstage, he gives us a glimpse into his life as a comedian. What happens behind the scenes? How does he see his job himself and how does he make his performance accessible to deaf people?

Rivertown

Director: John Baunsgard

• United States

In a small town in the valley below the mighty cascades, we meet a group of friends who have developed a finer taste for the smaller things in life. Perhaps being raised away from the skyscrapers of major cities has left them unwilling to improve their station in life, or perhaps they have stumbled upon a deep, inner peace that exist within the hearts of small highway towns. It is the story of a college girl, Amanda, meeting a local boy, Todd, and his fight to win her heart in a matter of days, it’s the story of his burnout friends Murphy, Rad and Vera and their struggle with their pawn and loan business, and it’s the story of a town, Rivertown.

The Lightguard

Director: Bob Demper

• Netherlands

Alone in his lookout, lighthouse keeper Chien Baak oversees the shore of a small coastal village. One grey afternoon an unknown ship looms in, seemingly a harbinger of doom. The nights that follow bring more questions than answers. One thing is for sure: the sea awaits…

Useless Eaters - Lüneburg 45

Director: Moritz Jakobi

• Germany

May 1945: WWII is over. Yet months later, disabled children still die at the Lüneburg Special Children’s Ward. The liberators know nothing about these victims of the Nazi regime. How could this be, and why are we only learning the truth now? The docu Useless Eaters aims to shed a light on their story.

ECCE HOMO

Director: Dimitar Kutmanov

• United Kingdom

At a desolate country village, Ada, a young girl, and her sick mother are living a hard life. Taking charge of the household chores and livelihood instead of her mother. As the mother’s condition gets worse, the film witnesses Ada’s anxiety and terror. An overwhelming air of oddness is amplified by the overlap and contrast of life and death, light and darkness, silence and aphorisms, dreams and reality, image and sound, black-and-white and color.

Tightened

Director  Aurora Vernazzani

• France

   

Fragments that build up a portrait. Franck is a former inmate from Marseille. He'll try to take back his image with me, with cinema. He'll resist, too, to my efforts to reach him. Can cinema change a man's vision of himself?

Cobain & His Raincoat

Director: YaChen,CHENG

• Taiwan

Cobain was a talented illustrator Artist, he like to express his inner world with painting. Because of contract social phobia, so Cobain always stay at home and listen to music, and he will dress himself with raincoat if he wants to go out, because the raincoat was like a talisman. Cobain gross and weird behaviors and not adapt to community life make him drop out his study, and opened his own studio, he never contact his family for many years.
On New Year's Eve day, Cobain escape to a little mystery shop to hide his friends, but he was hijacked by a suspect into the bus, be forced to stay with other within a small and enclosed space, would Cobain choose to escape this exciting and funny journey, or brave to face the fear?

Sad Monsters

Director: Justyna Tafel

• Poland

The world as seen through the eyes of a little girl who believes herself to be a princess and her father – a knight fighting bad monsters. She possesses a universal weapon- imagination, which helps her survive in the non-ideal reality of grown-ups. Though every day brings her a step closer to crossing that magic border of our childhood when we realize that the world might be different from what we believed...