Real Life

A short film exploring queerness, blackness and religion.

An uptight student must work with the hotshot designer he wronged during an earlier school project. But past conflict soon gives way to romantic tension.

A small town shortly before the end of the GDR: 15-year-old Ulla lives with her mother in a dilapidated old building where not even the electricity works properly. Economy of scarcity and national bankruptcy are visible everywhere. Only higher party comrades live in the lap of luxury. When Ulla meets Winfried after a summer bathing trip, the two fall in love. Winfried is the son of an influential general director and owns things from West Germany that others only dream of: a computer, a games console, a walkman. On an excursion with her biology class, the high school student discovers that a dacha is being built in the middle of the nature reserve and the creek has been dammed. Winfried's father turns out to be the culprit, but the mayor is on his side. Ulla rebels against this environmental destruction connected to political corruption and organizes a protest. Her activism not only endangers her own future, but also her first great love.

Jozef embarks on a journey via a ghostly train to visit his dying father in a remote Galician sanatorium. Upon arrival, he discovers that the sanatorium exists in a realm where time is distorted—his father's death has not yet occurred, as time here lags behind the outside world by an undefined interval. Jozef's experiences become increasingly fragmented and dreamlike as he confronts various manifestations of his father, each representing different aspects of their relationship and his own psyche.

Sin and Illy have a plan: on a Greek island they want to get 'clean' on their own. But the intention of the two girls fails already on the way to the airport. Finally Sin realizes she has to go the way out of heroin addiction all alone.

Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.

Captain Záruba investigates after an anonymous tip flags the seemingly extravagant lifestyle of Chemotex technician Dagmar Králová. Summoned to discuss the matter, Králová’s quarrel with engineer Vaněček, who secretly runs a suburban bootleg alcohol factory, triggers panic among the illicit network led by hotelier Černý. When Králová is found dead near the site of a murdered hitchhiker, autopsy reveals a different killer, launching parallel murder investigations. Forensic teams uncover the clandestine distillery, and gradually piece together motives and perpetrators behind both deaths.

Somewhere between dream, life, and death, a girl sees HERself confronted with HER images of two important people in HER life and HERself.

When two lovers embark on an adventurous journey through Lithuania, an unexpected crisis puts their relationship to the test.

EKAJ is a love story between two drifters, a naive teenager and a hustler. Ekaj meets Mecca who takes him under his care. Mecca has AIDS and multiple problems of his own. He is high all day but still manages to be the only voice of reason in Ekaj’s hopeless world. They cruise the city together looking for money and places to stay. Although Ekaj makes some money as a prostitute, he finds himself discarded, and lacking what it takes to survive in the city. Their mutual loneliness leads to genuine friendship.

18th century Vienna. Maria Theresia von Paradis, a gifted piano player and close friend of Mozart's, lost her eye-sight as a child. Desperate to cure their talented daughter, the Paradis entrust Maria to Dr. Mesmer, a forward-thinking-physician who gives her the care and attention that she requires. With the doctor's innovative techniques of magnetism, Maria slowly recovers her sight. But this miracle comes at a price as the woman progressively starts to lose her gift for music.

In 1976, the Czech New Wave philosopher and director Evald Schorm came to the Na zábradlí Theatre. He stayed there for twelve years, until his death. He raised a generation of actors who were aware of their own personalities. In The Brothers Karamazov, the then compact acting ensemble performed in full force on stage. Schorm created from ban to ban (Hamlet, Macbeth, The Brothers Karamazov, Marathon) and in front of Zábradlí, there were queues for tickets in double rows all the way to the Vltava embankment: when the subscription began, people slept outside from midnight until ten in the morning, when the box office opened, in sleeping bags, they brought fishing chairs to the theater. A ticket to Zábradlí was more valuable than Tuzex vouchers...

Abandoned by her father, a young woman embarks on a thousand-mile odyssey through the backroads of America where she meets a disenfranchised drifter. But despite their best efforts, all roads lead back to their terrifying pasts and to a final stand that will determine whether their love can survive their otherness.

Like tears in the rain, water is the metaphor for growing pains and so much more in these four tales about young boys coming to terms with a host of emotions for the very first time. These polished productions and festival favourites are brought to you by a host of talented directors from across Germany, Denmark, France and the Netherlands. The short films are: Ocean [Océan] (2013); Go Daan Go! [Daan Durft] (2014); The Boy in the Ocean (2016); Beach Boy (2011).

On a rooftop, surrounded by clouds and concrete, two friends find a space to spend their last day together. They look back on their childhood and share new laughs before embarking on their life journey.

Felix is a friendless achiever in high school whose life changes after the arrival of the half-American Snyder brothers, entangling him in their dark ambitions.

SWEAT follows the last three days of a friendship between two girls. Marion and Elisa live in a quiet village in the countryside that offers them very little. They roam their rural surroundings, go to parties, watch videos, swim in the lake and fight. Angry about the accustomed, they develop new, unexpected power. And start to act it out.

An African American teenager, attending a predominately white high school, is in danger of compromising her self-worth when her principal offers her an opportunity that will change her life.

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