Este maldito país

Serena is drawing the portrait of Enzo. In a cozy and intimate atmosphere, he tells us his story. This life is extraordinary, because it is a life of a Female-To-Man (FTM) transgender.

Features stories from around the globe that explore identity and relate to one another in unexpected and meaningful ways. This documentary traverses the inner worlds of diverse characters as they face their own parallel identities.

Luis Tayori is an indigenous Harakbut descendant whose origins trace back to the depths of the Peruvian jungle. Years after the first contact with Dominican missionaries, Luis recounts the memories of his childhood and those of his grandparents.

An old, ailing general is losing his memory. His anarchist son wants to connect. They share a passion for the Wild East, where grandfather was a famous explorer among Mongol tribes. He died under mysterious circumstances in 1948 in Afghanistan. Rumors say he was a British agent and gunrunner. Michael, the grandson, takes his father Søren out of the nursing home. He wants him to taste life, and he wants them to spend time together. The odd couple travel across China. They encounter temples, chiefs, and ancestors who reveal that the grandfather was a true Lawrence of the East. A man who fought to unite the Mongol tribes and defend them against the Soviet Reds.

Cintia is currently 30 years old. On January 6, 2022, she decided to publish on her social networks, a story she lived in her childhood. When she was 6 or 7 years old, she wrote an unusual letter to the Three Wise Men.

Spanish musician Santiago Auserón soaked up the rhythmic wisdom of son during his first visit to Cuba in 1984, an influence he soon transferred to his own work.

Since more than 10 years the director Darío Aguirre lives between two totally different worlds, Germany and Ecuador. He decides to make an extraordinary journey, visiting five unknown men called Darío Aguirre as well: One in Mexico and four in Argentina. Meeting each other develops into a reconcilement with their own past lives and permits a brief glance into the protagonists’ present time. For two months Darío shares five different lives, adapting himself to situations and activities he has never done before.

12 years ago, Rolf suffered a violent accident that caused him severe amnesia. During his long rehabilitation, Rolf had to rebuild his identity from scratch and, while doing so, he invented a flying machine that would give him the freedom of a bird. In a very intimate following of a four year period we discover Rolf´s way of perceiving the world and the contradictions of a character who suffers at discovering that he has fathered two girls and that he has to make up his mind either at becoming an adult or persuing his life long dream of the flying machine.

Insides and Outsides is a documentary film project, which captures a timeline from the end of 2019, when the CAA/NRC protests were at their peak, till 2022 when the pandemic had upturned everyone's personal life. In an increasingly hostile environment of escalating violence, Arbab explores what it is like being a Muslim in India. The film ebbs and flows between looking outside, where a constant stream of hate erupts, and inside, where Arbab's parents renegotiate their place in the country with changing times.

Filmmaker Herbert Alfonso and musician Glenn de Randamie travel to Ghana to do some research on polyrhythm and the West-African spirituality. However, their trip to The Motherland makes them realize that home is more than the place where they grew up. Years later, they recollect their faded memories and try to find the right words to describe their intense experience. What exactly made them feel at home and lost at the same time? What does being home actually mean for a black individual from Europe while visiting Africa? Only abstractions seem to persevere as this colourful and musically-charged collage serves to show how a life-changing experience can leave us with nothing but fragments of a truth that has yet to be discovered.

How are biographies charted? How is identity constructed? Can we relive our past, reinvent it, rearrange or recycle it? Can we really know who we are if we ignore where do we come from?

A documentary short that uses fish to explore identity and belonging in a metropolis.

Edward Said's book Orientalism has been profoundly influential in a diverse range of disciplines since its publication in 1978. In this engaging and lavishly illustrated interview he talks about the context within which the book was conceived, its main themes, and how its original thesis relates to the contemporary understanding of "the Orient" as represented in the mass media. "That's the power of the discourse of Orientalism. If you're thinking about people and Islam, and about that part of the world, those are the words you constantly have to use. To think past it, to go beyond it, not to use it, is virtually impossible, because there is no knowledge that isn't codified in this way about that part of the world." -Edward Said

Openland is an art film guided by issues surrounding micro states and its derivative definitions. Through intertwining interviews, meta-narratives, and digital landscapes, Openland unfurls a dialogue between consciousness, individuality and collectivity.

Reporter Nicolaas Veul decides to set up his first Instagram account and accumulate as many followers as possible. Over time, he becomes more interested in the social network's inner workings and uncovers a well-oiled machine based on fraud. While users enthusiastically give likes to selfies, a brisk business with user accounts is underway behind the scenes. There are huge numbers of fake profiles, and internet bots are producing new followers for those who want to feel more successful. Can anything on Instagram be believed?

"Africa Light" - as white local citizens call Namibia. The name suggests romance, the beauty of nature and promises a life without any problems in a country where the difference between rich and poor could hardly be greater. Namibia does not give that impression of it. If you look at its surface it seems like Africa in its most innocent and civilized form. It is a country that is so inviting to dream by its spectacular landscape, stunning scenery and fascinating wildlife. It has a very strong tourism structure and the government gets a lot of money with its magical attraction. But despite its grandiose splendor it is an endless gray zone as well. It oscillates between tradition and modernity, between the cattle in the country and the slums in the city. It shuttles from colonial times, land property reform to minimum wage for everyone. It fluctuates between socialism and cold calculated market economy.

Shelley is a timid elderly lady who is competing in the Miss Senior USA pageant. Immersion in an extravagant world that also touches on the universal need for visibility, beauty and being included.

Filmmaker Sophie Dros enters into a dialogue with strong women in a powerfull document about being a woman in the Netherlands today. Inspired by Simone de Beauvoir's essay The second sex, filmmaker Sophie Dros (winner of the NFF Debut Competition 2017) talks to four women and a group of young girls. Together they go in search of universal stories; about dealing with expectations, empathy and connection, desires, fear, need for confirmation and losing control.

La Meilleure Façon de tracer

While millions of birds migrate freely in the skies above, Fadia, a Palestinian refugee stranded in Lebanon, yearns for the ancestral homeland she is denied. When a chance meeting introduces her to the director, Sarah, she challenges her to find an ancient mulberry tree that once grew next to her grandfather’s house in historic Palestine, a tree that stands witness to her family’s existence.