Three couples at different parts of life navigate big turning points in their lives over the holidays.
Safira
With a sense of strange timelessness, this fable immerses us in the daily life of a child fascinated by the elusive rays of the sun that stir life on the atypical lands of Himalia.
Roya is a middle-class Muslim woman that struggles to find herself in the sprawl of urban Bangladesh. When she discovers that she will be replaced by a younger actor for the role of Nandini —a central character of Rabindranath Tagore’s political play Red Oleanders —she battles to reconstruct the part, reclaiming her identity and sexuality in the process. As she sets the play in a modern day ready-made garment factory in Dhaka, her journey to establish her individuality is juxtaposed with the journey of her housemaid Moyna, who later joins the industrial workforce.
Two estranged brothers return to the family cottage after the death of their father. Over the course of three days they must learn to let go of the man they thought they knew, and accept responsibility for the men they have become.
An awkward teenage outcast finds unlikely companions in two aged residents of the retirement home in which she works.
In a quirky, small town, situated in the outskirts of everything, 14-year-old Martin is getting ready for one of the most formal transitions from boy to man; the communion. It's 1976, music's in the air and hormones are blossoming. But in the midst of it all Martin's mother suddenly passes away and her tragic death trickers a series of events that not only changes Martin's life forever, but also affects everyone else in the local community. Overwhelmed with grief neither Martin's dad, nor his older brother, is capable to comfort Martin. He enters adulthood in a mixture of drunken happiness and immense sadness over the loss of his mother, and his relationship to both his friend Kim and girlfriend Kristine comes to its natural conclusion.
Ostia is a fascinating short film directed by Julian Cole and produced for the Royal College of Art, which reconstructs the events leading up to the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Ostia relocates the proceedings to London and stars Derek Jarman as Pasolini. The film features an evocative dream sequence which is accompanied by poignant excerpts from Pasolini’s own poetry, as read by Jarman.
Documentary about the Lyon sex workers who occupied the church of St. Nizier on June 3, 1975.
Sent to Afghanistan for 6 months, legionnaires Markov and Hamilton are caught in an ambush during an unauthorized expedition. Markov saves Hamilton, seriously wounded by rebel fire, but leaves the Legion without honors. Once back in Paris, Hamilton, convalescing, hopes to remain a legionnaire, while Markov, now a civilian and without working papers, tries to make ends meet with his son Khadji. Hamilton lends his identity to his Chechen friend, so that he can work legally. But one day, Markov disappears, leaving Hamiltion disorientated and Khadji alone in the world.
Nadia is an apathetic 16-year-old girl with no friends of sorts, in or outside school. One day, she takes a walk with local no-good Brando, and the boy rapes her. From that moment on, Nadia's life changes forever.
A troubled teen turns his life around with the help of a classmate. Years later, their reunion sparks old feelings, but uncertainty clouds their story.
Mohammad Javad Halimi is a simple government's employer who manages after years to buy a house for himself outside the city's limits. But in the second night in his new house a thief is coming to his house. He manages to catch the thief but delivering him to the authorities is another story.
A bangla natok starring Tawsif Mahbub, Sabila Nur, Himey Hafiz, Ratan Hasan, Sadia Rubayet written and directed by Mehedi Hassan Hridoy.
Sergio is a brooding, alienated man who works as a trash collector in Lisbon by day and roams the city streets by night seeking rough, anonymous sex with men. One night he meets a man who seems to be the embodiment of his tormented fantasies, and he becomes obsessed with the stranger until loneliness and unfulfilled desire propel him finally into a dark and dangerous animalistic state.
An epistolary feature film: a cinematic discourse between a British director Mark Cousins, and an Iranian actress and director Mania Akbari which extends the concept of "essay film" with startling confrontations in the arenas of cultural issues, gender politics and differing artistic sensibilities. A unique journey into the minds of two exceptional filmmakers which becomes a love affair on film.
A few minutes in the life of two people: a young woman who has her whole life in front of her and an old man ill with asthma who has only one more night to live.
Lisa, an aspiring songwriter, whose farming family has suffered foreclosure is forced to work at a new, 'urban farm' where she meets Dalia. Her casual racism leads her to be fired but the women end up drawn into a passionate affair.
Anna, the daughter of an elderly owner of Kõrboja farm, is told by her father that if she won't move in their home farm then it will be sold to strangers. But the farm needs also a master, and Anna has been living in town for years. She comes back home and reunites with Villu, her friend from childhood.
During the German occupation of Estonia a young mother finds a Red Army soldier hiding in the hay in her barn.