HRFF ZURICH | 11TH EDITION 26th March – 1st April 2026 | RIFFRAFF

The Zeit_Raum_Forum (ZRF) is a two-day event that has been held annually since 2023. On September 23 and 24, the third edition will take place at HUMBUG Basel on the topic of temporary spaces - this time with the focus: “Interim use - more than a gap filler: from planning tool to permanent temporary solution”. The aim of the event is to network stakeholders from the fields of urban development, architecture, administration, politics, culture, real estate and education and to discuss temporary spaces. With a mixture of lectures, panels, excursions, workshops and other formats, the participants of the forum will deal with interim and conversion uses, circular construction, cultural and open spaces from different perspectives and with different approaches.

After her time working for the UN, Noam Shuster Eliassi devises a one-woman show about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But as the region sinks deeper into devastating violence, she must challenge her audiences with hard truths. A must-see film, driven by a brave and endearing woman, which cannot help but interweave humour and grief.

In 2022, four Sudanese filmmakers and a British writer-director began filming the everyday lives and dreams of five very different residents of Khartoum. Street boys Lokain and Wilson scour a garbage dump so they can buy two beautiful shirts; tea seller and single mother Khadmallah diligently studies maths so she can start her own business; resistance committee volunteer Jawad protests against the military regime; civil servant Majdi escapes office life by racing pigeons with his son. When filming begins, they are all living under a military regime that had recently overthrown the civilian government in Sudan. A short time later, the regime splits and a war begins between the military and the Rapid Support Forces militias that displaces more than ten million people. The filmmakers and their protagonists, too, are forced to flee to East Africa. Using animation, green screen reconstructions and dream sequences, they find alternative ways to tell their stories. The result is an emotional, lyrical portrait of five people from Khartoum at a key moment in African history.

Late at night, on her way home from a costume party, Shula drives down a deserted street and discovers her uncle lying dead on the ground. As preparations for the funeral ceremony get underway, she and her cousins gradually bring the family's hidden secrets to light, while their aunts would rather have buried them with Uncle Fred. With her Cannes award-winning feature film, oscillating between comedy and social drama, Rungano Nyoni delivers a bitterly angry reckoning with the lies we tell ourselves, breaking several taboos in the process.

A young aspiring journalist investigates his father’s mysterious murder within the boundaries of one of Kenya’s largest wildlife conservancies. As a ravaging drought encroaches, his quest to find the killer shifts as the collateral damage of a warming world is revealed. (Autlook)

Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta on the West Bank, has been fighting the mass expulsion of his community by Israel's occupation since childhood. He documents the slow-motion eradication of the villages in his home region where soldiers deployed by the Israeli government are gradually demolishing houses and driving out their residents. At some point, he meets Yuval, an Israeli journalist, who supports him in his efforts. An unlikely alliance develops. But the relationship between the two is strained by the enormous inequality between them: Basel lives under military occupation while Yuval lives freely and without restrictions. This film by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists has been made as an act of creative resistance on the path to greater justice.

Melrick, a 13-year-old boy, spends his summer with his grandmother Nicole in Cayenne, French Guiana. His presence and his desire to learn how to play the drum bring back the specter of Lucas, Nicole's son, also a drummer, who tragically died 11 years earlier. Faced with the grief that haunts his family and Lucas's best friend's desire for revenge, Melrick seeks his own path to forgiveness.

After living undocumented in the UK for two years, Nigerian migrant Isio is caught and sent to the Hatchworth Removal Centre. She hopes for a fair asylum hearing and is convinced that, as long as she strictly follows the rules, she will be released – even if her charismatic new roommate Farah tells her this is a naive mistake. As Isio adjusts to life in the Removal Centre, she finds herself falling for Farah, as well as becoming close to her new friends Nana and Atefeh. When Isio’s asylum application is rejected, Farah suggests they escape together to give their love a chance. Isio initially refuses. But when events beyond their control threaten the promise of a new life, she realises that she has to start playing by her own rules. Freedom is elusive, but love is eternal.