Von heute auf morgen

In a decaying Soviet-era retirement home, a vibrant group of elders cling to life by staging Shakespeare. Yet loneliness lingers beyond the theater’s doors, until drama begins to blur with reality.

An avant-garde documentary film on English guitarist, composer and improviser Fred Frith.

This special focuses on a group of men who have fallen in love with their life-size dolls, called "Real Dolls." For these men, their $10,000 lifelike, built-to-order creations have replaced human women. For some people, finding a partner in life can be difficult. For these men, it's almost impossible. Some years ago, a small factory in California began making an alternative partner. Each one is tailored made to suit every taste. There are now 3000 real dolls across the world providing some of those with love and companionship that real women cannot.

Comme un rayon de soleil sur la peau

Belarus, Vileika district of Minsk region. Lonely elderly people are leaving for winter to the home of seasonal residence. Each of them carries their own experience and beliefs, but they will have to stay the winter together. The days pass in sicknesses, conversations, watching TV... In mid-winter, there appears a new resident of the house, and the life inside changes.

A short documentary examining the consequence of time within the fragility of memory, exposing a sense of self, trapped within materiality and fantasy. We observe Chrystalla in her safe place, her home, reflecting on her childhood, her successful beauty business in 70s Cyprus and her deeply troubled marriage. Loneliness, abandonment and regret are prevailing themes within cycles of reflection, jest and contradiction.

Valhalla

Little is known about the figure of Isabel Santaló, an old artist, today fallen into oblivion. But occasionally some visitors come to her flat. Through them and the voice of Antonio López (Dream of Light, Víctor Erice), the only painter who remembers her, we shape a multifaceted film. This is a cinematic portrait, which well into the film takes a surprising turn. A film that reflects on memory and oblivion, art and the creative process; posing the question of what it means to be an artist and a woman.

Five seniors, the eldest is 91 years old, train together in a gym in Rotterdam to keep fit. But the body falters and their environment is getting smaller and smaller. By doing sports, the seniors support each other: origin and social status disappear. The gym fraternizes and gives the elderly unprecedented pleasure. Despite the fanatical sports, the decline is unstoppable. This documentary also shows the seniors alone at home and the confrontational fight against the body that is becoming stiffer, with the realization that that battle is always lost in the long run.

Lucienne Schnegg is an energetic little woman. At eighty, she is still at the helm of the "Capitole" cinema. Hired as a secretary in 1949, she became the heiress and soul of the cinema. Cashier, housekeeper and director all in one, she tells us all about her cinema, Lausanne's oldest, largest and most beautiful.

After 20 years of separation, brothers Adrian and Valentin spend a week together. 32-year old Adrian lives with their parents and benefits from a disability pension. Valentin, barely older, seems to have found his autonomy. Brothers - A Family Film is a dizzying dive into a relationship as impossible as it is established, where violence and tenderness are one and the same.

"Everybody should have a home. If you punish a nation, this is so abstract, it's very mean to use your power to put another country in your control... Instead of punishment, maybe we should have love." Eliane from Chile, Milad from Iran, and Georgia from Greece, three migrants in the UK and their thoughts on love, home, family, and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

A short documentary on a grandson returning home to visit his aging grandmother who was crying to see him on the phone.

A Nice Place

Like ghosts, the temporarily shut down cruise ships lie in the port of Hamburg. A young man comes into town and is stranded on the riverbank, waiting for a message. He watches couples strolling along in the sunset and gets himself some sweets. In a moment of collective pause, ISLANDS IN THE CITY captures a fragile romance. There is a departure in the air, the destination of which no one seems to know.

Reila

Al Ritmo Allegretto

A look at the pervasive power of dust from its tiny particles settling in unseen places to its ability to cause illnesses and create the cosmos.

A light-hearted yet deeply moving portrait of the Asian- and Jewish-American women who play this centuries-old Chinese game, shedding light on the common and uncommon experiences of the players that simultaneously define and transcend cultural boundaries. Along the way, it proves again and again to be a bridge connecting seemingly unlike individuals, spanning generations, continents and cultures, and transcending classification as merely a game.

Les D'Arcy is a living legend. At 89 years old, he's obviously not received the memo about slowing down, and is going for gold, literally. He's headed to China to compete in the over 80s Table Tennis Championships in Inner Mongolia. A seven time world champion, he still lifts weights to train - something he's been doing for decades, after surviving a sickly childhood. Of course compared to some, Les is a spring chicken. Australian legend Dorothy deLow is 100, and finds herself a mega celebrity in this rarefied world. She'd better watch out though- Texan Lisa Modlich is fifteen years her junior and is determined to do what it takes to win her first gold. Director Hugh Hartford follows eight players from five countries, as they prepare to compete in this extraordinary sporting event that is as much about the tenacity of the human spirit as it is about taking home the title.