RAISE THE BAR

Raise the Bar

by Gudjon Ragnarsson
Sagafilm, Pystymetsä
| 70’ | Iceland, Finland | 2020 | 2K |
High anxiety and a low self-esteem is a known and growing problem for young girls today. We get an insight into the mind of the girls and their path towards their teenage years. This is a story about growing up, were we explore the ideas the girls have about themselves and what is changing in their lives as they train basketball in a way we have hardly seen before. We look at them both as individuals, as girls in sports and as team players. The basketball is the red thread through the story, but adding the layers of the individual girls into the film to understand how they are taking the tools they are handed and using that in their everyday life. It therefore also deals with child participation in matters that are important to them.





Reach for the Sky

by Steven Dhoedt, Choi Wooyoung
VisualAntics, Boda Media Group
| 90’ & 52’ | Belgium/South Korea | 2015 | HD |
Every year, on the 2nd Thursday of November, the entire country of South-Korea is put to the test. That day, more than half a million senior high school students take part in the National University Exam, better known as Suneung. ‘Reach for the Sky’ tells the story of several South-Korean high school students, their families and teachers, as they prepare for the annual National Exam. The exam will not only determine where the high school seniors will attend university but ultimately also their status in the Korean hierarchical society.





Russian Libertine

by Ari Matikainen
Kinocompany LTD
| 75’ - 52’ | Finland | 2012 | HD |
Victor Erofeyev is a Russian author and dissident who has been in the teeth of authorities since the Soviet era. Now, before the Presidential elections 2012 Victor shows us deep inside into Russian society, which is facing yet another big change. Nothing can be taken for granted for Victor or Russia.





Shipwrecked America

by Alexandra Kandy Longuet
Crescendo Media Films, Eklektik Productions
| 52’ | France, Belgium | 2016 | HD |
On the 29th of August, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, the most violent storm in the history of the United States, ravages the city of New Orleans. The city’s entire population is displaced and the Crescent City is to be rebuilt completely. The disaster provides an opportunity for the city’s renaissance on a fairer basis: The film uncovers how New Orleans becomes the US laboratory and reveals the divisions of a whole country.


Silent Voice

Silent Voice

by Reka Valerik
Dublin Films, Need Productions
| 51’ | France - Belgium | 2020 | 4K |
Khavaj fled Chechnya when his brother discovered his homosexuality and promised to kill him. In Brussels, struck by mutism, he is forced to live in total anonymity to escape the Chechnyan diaspora.


Smog Town

Smog Town

by Meng Han
DuGood Productions, SonaFilm, MF Production
| 89’&52’ | China, South Korea, Netherlands | 2019 | HD |
Langfang is one of the most air-polluted cities in China. There, the interests of the local environmental protection bureau, which is under political pressure, clash with those of industry. A case study on China’s fight against pollution.






Stranger in Paradise

by Guido Hendrikx
Zeppers Film &TV
| 72’ | The Netherlands | 2016 | HD |
Being unwanted is a reality that the thousands of refugees flowing into Europe have to face. Three different scenarios of welcoming are presented to three groups of refugees: a dismissive, an empathetic and the actual European migration policy. Is it human to categorize someone else’s life?





European Film Awards Shortlist

The Good Postman

by Tonislav Hristov
Making Movies Oy
| 80' | Finland | 2016 | HD |
A small Bulgarian village just by the Turkish border has found itself in the middle of a European crisis, as at nights asylum seekers sneak passing the border. The forgotten village has become the most important secret loophole of Europe.
Ivan, the local postman, has a vision. He decides to run for mayor and turn the dying village alive by welcoming refugees . His opponents want to close their eyes, close down the border and reintroduce communism. As the campaign goes on, Ivan soon learns that while good intentions are not enough, even the smallest deeds matter.





The Hungarian Playbook

by Bence Maté
Film Five GmbH
| 45/52/60 | Germany | 04/22 | |
At the heart of the European Union, an authoritarian regime has been established. A key element in consolidating its political power is a degree of media control unprecedented in an EU member state. The next elections are due in April 2022. Can the regime celebrate its fourth victory in a row thanks to its media control? Or will the unthinkable happen, the fall of the creator of the "illiberal democracy" Viktor Orbán? The Hungarian Playbook examines the Don Quixote like struggle of young journalists against Prime Minister Orbán's propaganda machine, which now controls 80% of the domestic news market. They are insiders who turned against the system. They provide us with secretly made recordings and leaked documents from within the headquarters of state media that testify of a world that is held together by fear and humiliation. Internal communications prove unambiguously: public media are under the direct control of the cabinet office of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. It is a degree of censorship and content control that has not existed since the fall of the communist regime.





The Man who mends Women

by Thierry Michel
Les Films de la Passerelle, Ryva production Eric van Zuylen
| 115’ - 52’ | Belgium | 2015 | HD |
Winner of the Sakharov Prize 2014, Doctor Mukwege is internationally known as the man who mends thousands of women who have been raped during the 20 years of conflicts in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His endless struggle to put an end to these atrocities and denounce the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators is not welcome. But he is no longer alone in his struggle. The women to whom he has restored physical integrity and dignity, stand beside him, true activists for peace, hungry for justice.


The New Gospel

The New Gospel

by Milo Rau
Fruitmarket Arts & Media GmbH, Langfilm / Bernard Lang AG
| 107' | Germany / Switzerland | 2020 | 4K |

An authentically political, theatrical and cinematic New Gospel for the 21st century. What would Jesus preach in the 21st century? Who would his disciples be?




The Poetess

by Stefanie Brockhaus, Andreas Wolff
Brockhaus/Wolff Films GbR
| 88’ & 52’ | Germany, Saudi Arabia | 2017 | HD |
Hissa Hilal, a 43-year-old housewife from Saudi Arabia, tests her boundaries in the daily struggle for change. Veiled in a burqa, she gains international fame at Abu Dhabi’s prestigious contest “Million’s Poet” with her poems critical of terrorism and the ideologies of fanatic islamists.





The Road to Fame

by Hao Wu
Tripod Media LLC
| 80’ - 56' | China | 2013 | HD |
The film gives a rare, intimate look at the coming-of-age of some of China's most promising yet confused youth. It chronicles the staging of the musical 'Fame' by the graduating class of China's top drama academy, in China's first official collaboration with Broadway. It follows five students of divergent personalities and family backgrounds as they compete for roles, struggle with the expectations of teachers and parents, and prepare to graduate into China's reality of huge wealth gap and rampant corruption. Often confused by the conflicting cultural values shaping China today, the students must confront their anxieties about an uncertain future and negotiate their own paths to fame.





VOICES OF THE SEA

by Kim Hopkins
Labor of Love Films Ltd
| 90’ & 52’ | UK | 2018 | HD |
Revealing stark realities for the poorest of rural Cubans with unique access and empathy, this is the story of a 30-something mother of four longing for a better life. The tension between wife and aging husband - one desperate to leave, the other content to stay - builds into a high stakes family drama after her brother and the couple’s neighbors escape.


WHEN THE WAR COMES - POSTER

WHEN THE WAR COMES

by Jan Gebert
PINK, HulaHop
| 78’ | Czech Republic | 2018 | |
Hundreds of teenagers join the Slovak Recruits paramilitary group to get ready for the final clash of civilizations and to fight whoever invades their country.