IDFA’14: Nominated for Best Mid-Length documentary

The Storm Makers

by Guillaume Suon
Tipasa Production, Bophana Production (Rithy Panh)
| 66’ - 62’ | France / Cambodge | 2014 | HD |
At the age of 16, Aya, a young Cambodian peasant, was sold into slavery by a “Storm Maker” - a human trafficker – who promised her a job as a maid in Malaysia. Now back in village, she is just as poor as when she left. Dishonoured and traumatised, what is left of her humanity? The unveiling of Aya’s fate, intertwined with the testimonies of human traffickers, offers an unsettling view of contemporary Cambodian society. By revealing the cruel exploitation of the rural population, the film raises an unsettling question: what is the price of a young peasant‘s life in Cambodia?





The Unforgiven

by Lars Feldballe-Petersen
Kinocompany Ltd., Film & TV Compagniet
| 75' | Finland, Denmark | 2017 | |






The Vanishing Spring Light

by Xun Yu
EyeSteelFilm
| 112’ | China/Canada | 2011 | |
A grandmother has a pleasant chat sitting in an alley as she often does, but she suffers a stroke and loses what little freedom she had. Facing the death of grandmother, the children’s conflict is frankly revealed.





The Woodmans

by C Scott Willis
C Scott Films LCC
| 82’ - 60' | USA | 2010 | HD |
The Woodmans are a family of well-known artists bonded in their belief of art-making as the highest form of expression, but for their daughter Francesca -- one of the late 20th century’s most recognized and influential photographer -- fame came only after a tragedy that would forever scar the family. The Woodmans traces the story of a family broken and then healed by their art.





Thy Father’s Chair

by Alex Lora, Antonio Tibaldi
GraffitiDoc, No Permits Produktions (USA)
| 74’ - 52’ | Italy | 2015 | HD |
Abraham and Shraga are Orthodox Jewish twins who live a secluded existence in their inherited Brooklyn home. Since the death of their parents, they have stopped throwing away anything, hosting stray cats and accumulating all sorts of stuff. Now, their upstairs tenant threatens to stop paying them rent unless the twins proceed to a radical cleaning. Abraham and Shraga have no choice but to open their doors to a professional company. A traumatic invasion of privacy ensues, forcing them to confront their memories in order to try to find a new beginning…





Timoteo's Fabulous Ragged Circus

by Lorena Giachino
Errante Producciones Limitada, Trivial Media (Argentina)
| 52’&76’ | Chile / Argentina | 2013 | HD |
The comedian Timoteo is the leader of a gay cross-dresser circus that has toured through Chile for forty years. Today his advanced age and health are reason for concern regarding the continuity of the show. The cast is worried the Circus will end, and with it, the family they’ve had for years. Small episodes and daily conflicts shape the comedian’s life while he debates between denial of a possible ending and the concrete need to project his circus.





Tokyo Idols

by Kyoko Miyake
Brakeless Limited, EyeSteelFilm
| 88' & 52' | UK/Canada | 2017 | HD |
Girl bands and their pop music permeate every moment of Japanese life. Following an aspiring pop singer and her fans, Tokyo Idols explores a cultural phenomenon driven by an obsession with young female sexuality, and the growing disconnect between men and women in hyper-modern societies.





Transfixed

by Alon Kol
Transfixed Films Inc
| 80’ - 52’ | Israel | 2015 | HD |
Transfixed tells the story of a very unconventional romance: transsexual Martine and straight-identifying John are “underdogs” with Asperger Syndrome, which makes communication with others extremely difficult. Despite their social limitations, both dream of getting married, but John refuses to tie the knot until Martine gets “a real vagina.’ The only problem:  no doctor in Canada will perform the surgery because Martine’s obesity makes her too great of a surgical risk. Will Martine and John find the happiness together that they deserve? Transfixed is a deeply human story about freedom, self-actualization and the quest for happiness – one that anyone who has ever longed for love and acceptance can empathize with and understand.





Twilight of a Life

by Sylvain Biegeleisen
Zen Production Ltd, Take Five
| 70’ - 52’ | Belgium / Israel | 2015 | HD |
How a son and a mother aged 94 deals with aging in an optimistic way full of humor, sensitivity and hope. When the doctor announced me that my mother, aged 94 had just a few weeks to live, I left my home and came back to Belgium to say her goodbye. But my mother decided that the time to pass away has not yet come. We shared together weeks and months of uncertainty and mystery. I found myself filming hours of incredible conversations, humoristic situations, poetic moments. "Au Crepuscule d'une Vie" is an Ode to Life !





European Awards Nomination Shortlist

Ultra

by Balazs Simonyi
Speak Easy Project
| 81’&52’ | Hungary, Greece | 2017 | HD |
A unique insight into the pasts, hearts and minds of four everyday athletes embraced by the running director. Their dream and burden is to finish an extreme running race to test their limits, heal their souls and release their demons.





Until Cancer Do Us Part

by Jan-Olof Svarvar
Pampas Production
| 86’ - 52' | Finland | 2016 | HD |
A man in his prime learns that he suffers from the most aggressive form of brain cancer, also known as "the terminator". The mortality rate is 100%. The doctors gave him a year to live. He has a large family and his youngest daughter was only 4 years old. This documentary closely follow him, his wife and the children, trough the hard road filled with despair and love - from diagnosis to death. But most of all this is a story about the power of love.





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.





WAITING FOR GIRAFFES

by Marco de Stefanis
Volya Films - Cassette for timescapes | 84’ - 55’ | Netherlands - Belgium | 2016 | HD
Who is more restrained in Qalqilya, its citizens or the zoo animals? The village is for the most part surrounded by Israel’s wall. A lot of the zoo animals were killed during the intifadas, and most recently a giraffe couple.





Wake up on Mars

by Dea Gjinovci
Mélisande Films , Alva Film, Amok Films
| 74’ | France, Switzerland | 2020 | 4K |
A 10-year-old Roma boy living in Sweden attempts to come to terms with the mysterious Resignation Syndrome that has put his two sisters in a coma. The tight-knit family is trying to rebuild a normal life far from their native Kosovo where they were victims of persecution. While their entire future hangs in the balance of a pending asylum request, the little boy dreams of building a spaceship to leave it all behind.





We did it on a Song

by David André
Brotherfilms
| 82’ | France | 2014 | HD |
This film tells the stormy tale of a group of friends from Boulogne-sur-Mer, a French town hit by the financial crisis. A year between dreams and disillusion, imagined by teenagers from a working or middle class background, with songs that regularly add poetry, laughter, and emotion to reality.


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.





Where is my Son?

by Chaimin Ahn
Min Production - Creative Group 917
| 52’ | South Korea | 2013 | HD |
This documentary is a record of one’s last year-and-half life story who lived her 95 years as a woman and a mother. 'Giseon Kwon'(95) lost her husband right after she had her son. And she dedicated her entire life for the only son. Her son 'JunKyo Lee'(70) had a successful career in a big city. After 50 years, he came back to his hometown hoping to make his mom happy during her last years. Now, the mom has left his side. They will guide you to realize how destined and enduring the love is between a mother and a child.





WICH WAY HOME

by Rebecca Cammisa
Reason Pictures - Mr Mudd - White Buffalo Films - Cactus Three
An HBO Documentary Films
| USA | 2009 | 82' | Color | HD |
As the United States continues to build a wall between itself and Mexico, Which Way Home shows the personal side of immigration through the eyes of children who face harrowing dangers with enormous courage and resourcefulness as they endeavor to make it to the United States.





Wild. Life, Death and Love in a Wildlife Hospital

by Danel Elpeleg, Uriel Sinai
Anemos Productions
| 60’ | Israel | 2018 | HD |
Patient-doctor relationships are always complex, but when the patient cannot talk or make decisions for himself it becomes particularly complicated. This is the everyday reality for the protagonists of this film: Ariella, a veterinarian, and Shmulik, the chief caretaker of a wildlife hospital.


WINTER'S YEARNING


Winter’s Yearning

by Sidse T. Larsen, Sturla Pilskog
Blåst Film AS, Bullit Film & Anorak Film
| 75’&52’ | Norway, Greenland, Denmark | 2019 | Red raw 5k |
When the American aluminium giant ALCOA decides to build their next aluminium plant in Maniitsoq, Greenland, the citizens of the small finishing town have high hopes. Could this be the first major step towards Greenlandic independence? But as years go by and ALCOA is nowhere to be seen, the people of Maniitsoq fall into a state of waiting. The future has been postponed, but for how long? "Winter's Yearning" is a cinematic film about dreams, lives on hold and the human capacity to rise again.





With or Without You

by Hyuckjee Park
Hiharbor Production, filmquadrat.dok
| 92’ | South Korea | 2014 | HD |
Maggi and Chunhee lived for 45 years under one roof as wives of one man. Now they are old and approaching the end of their extraordinary intertwined lives. Recently, Maggi started to teach Chunhee how to take care of herself, even though Maggi has looked after Chunhee just like a baby totally dependent on her for 44 years. But, now, Maggi changed. Maggi, 88 years old woman, is in big worries. She gets older and weaker day by day. "What’s gonna happen to Chunhee if I die?"





Women of The Venezuelan Chaos

by Margarita Cadenas
MC2, Les Films d’Ici
| 83’ - 57’ | France | 2017 | HD |
Five Venezuelan women, from different backgrounds and generations, draw a portrait of their collapsing country that faces possibly its worst social, economic, power and political crisis in its 200-year-history.





You Have No Idea How Much I Love You

by Pawel Lozinski
Lozinski Production ltd., TVP SA, Mazovia Film Fund
| 80’ | Poland | 2016 | HD |
What does the word «love» really mean? During our lives, we often create bonds and ties with our close ones, which with time seem to us impossible to untangle. The film tells the story of the tragedy of two women, mother and daughter, bound together by a difficult, complicated feeling. For the protagonists, the crucial event is a meeting with a third person, a stranger who becomes a close one, an experienced therapist. His basic tools are words and empathy.