HRFF Zurich SAVE THE DATE: 1 – 6 DEC 2022

Cat in the Wall tells the true story of how a cat, stuck in a wall, changes the lives of aspirational migrants, benefit fraudsters and gentrified Brexiteers.
As documentarians, Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova have always been fearless. The duo’s rage permeates their first foray into fiction, Cat in the Wall. An examination of society’s absurdities and unfairness through the eyes of Irina, a single Bulgarian mother whose place in London is challenged in every way, turning her into a metaphoric “cat in the wall”, just like the real one. (Locarno Film Festival)

“You are strong wolves. Wolves don´t cry. Wolves bite. They howl. And they protect their home.”

Eight year old Max and his younger brother Leo don't have much, but they have each other and their mother Lucía. And they share a dream as well: To visit Disneyland one day. The family has recently emigrated to the USA from Mexico, and while Lucía tries to finance their new life by doing odd jobs, the two brothers spend their days in their sparsely furnished one-room flat. The walls of the room, which they are forbidden to leave, become a projection screen for imaginative adventures and open a window on their new life. Director Samuel Kishi Leopo recalls aspects of his own childhood in Los Lobos and resituates them in a currently highly charged context – brutally honest and yet poetic, melancholic and full of hope. (Berlinale 2020)

In a small Arctic town struggling with the highest suicide rate in North America, a group of Inuit students' lives are transformed when they are introduced to the sport of lacrosse.
An unflinching and uplifting story of how northern youth transformed a town.
From the producers of Angry Inuk and Beginners.

Merab is a dreamy and passionate young dancer, of whom his coach thinks to be a bit too soft: after all, traditional Georgian dancers are supposed to embody strength. Hailing from a family of dancers, Merab has trained with his dance partner Mariam since childhood, and everything seems to develop towards a relationship even beyond the ballroom. One day, when a new dancer appears on the scene, electricity fills the room. The mysterious Irakli’s ability to dominate the characters he dances with precision not only attracts the coach’s attention. While Merab and Irakli compete for a sought-after place in the main ensemble of the Georgian State Ballet, an affection between the two begins to bloom, becoming ever more difficult to supress. AND THEN WE DANCED is a light-hearted narration about yearning, self-realisation and the rebellion of a liberal generation in a conservative and highly homophobic society. (ZFF 2019)

Summer 1998 – Kabul under Taliban rule. Zunaira and Mohsen are young and in love. Despite the daily violence and misery, they hope for a better future. One day, a foolish gesture causes life to take an irrevocable turn.

“You are strong wolves. Wolves don´t cry. Wolves bite. They howl. And they protect their home.”
Eight year old Max and his younger brother Leo don't have much, but they have each other and their mother Lucía. And they share a dream as well: To visit Disneyland one day. The family has recently emigrated to the USA from Mexico, and while Lucía tries to finance their new life by doing odd jobs, the two brothers spend their days in their sparsely furnished one-room flat. The walls of the room, which they are forbidden to leave, become a projection screen for imaginative adventures and open a window on their new life. Director Samuel Kishi Leopo recalls aspects of his own childhood in Los Lobos and resituates them in a currently highly charged context – brutally honest and yet poetic, melancholic and full of hope. (Berlinale 2020)

Shimu, 23, works in a garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka. Faced with increasingly harsh working conditions, she decides to form a trade union. Regardless of the management's threats and disagreement of the husbands: together, the female workers decide to go through with it. The young director Rubaiyat Hossain accurately depicts both the difficult conditions in which our clothes are made and the boundless courage of these women. Based on a true story, the film is carried by admirable performances. (FIFDH 2020)

In 2016, outsider candidate Rodrigo Duterte upset the political establishment in the Philippines by winning the presidency and promising vengeance and violence. Within hours of taking office, bodies piled up in the streets. Rappler, the country’s top online news site, investigated the murders and revealed a government-sanctioned drug war targeting poor addicts instead of lucrative dealers. In an attempt to suppress independent reporting, Duterte unleashed a powerful disinformation campaign that spread like wildfire throughout social media.
Filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz follows key players from two sides of an increasingly dangerous war between press and government. Representing the journalists is fearless Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, who, despite arrests and harassment, continues to publish articles holding a lawless regime accountable. On the other side, influencers such as pop-star-turned-government-secretary Mocha Uson start incendiary social media movements and General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa spearheads a public execution campaign against addicts. As each side digs in, we become witness to an epic and ongoing fight for the integrity of human life and truth itself—a conflict that extends beyond the Philippines into our own divisive backyard. (Sundance 2020)

Days of Cannibalism accounts the social impact of a completely different economic model on a traditional society. When Chinese entrepreneurs arrive in Lesotho, in the district of Thaba Tseka, everything changes. Old structures begin to disintegrate, and latent violence threatens to explode. What is it going to be: to eat or to be eaten? (Visions du Reel 2020)

In the besieged Syrian city of Ghutta, which suffered the worst chemical attack recorded in the last 25 years, the inhabitants have built a makeshift hospital in the cavernous depths of the earth. As the conflict rages on, pediatrician Amani Ballour tries to do her job, despite some patients refusing to be treated by a woman. Above all, it is about saving lives, comforting people, obtaining medicines, feeding staff and the patients. After winning an Oscar for Last Men in Aleppo, Feras Fayyad returns to the FIFDH with this documentary, also nominated for the Oscar. (FIFDH 2020)

When night falls in rural Germany, old VW-caravans decorated with flashy lights line the highway roads which lead through potato fields and dark forests. Inside these buses prostitutes from Eastern Europe and Africa await their clients who are passing by. The film portrays these women who came from far away in search for money and a better life. Until one day, in the ghostly atmosphere, a murder of one of the sex workers happens and shakes up the whole scene causing everybody to take action. A film about a microcosm that describes a society at the outer edge of globalized capitalism. (Locarno 2019)

In 1999, nine-year-old Emmanuel Sanford-Durant and his family began filming their daily lives in America’s most dangerous neighbourhood — just 17 blocks behind the U.S. Capitol. They’ve been filming ever since. Made in a unique collaboration with filmmaker and journalist Davy Rothbart, and spanning two decades, 17 BLOCKS illuminates a nation’s ongoing crisis through one family’s raw, stirring, and deeply personal saga.

“War is when some people shoot. And other people shoot the people who shot first. When they start to shoot, mum wakes us up and we go to the corridor. And when they stop, we go back to sleep.”
Outside, the streets echo with the sound of gunfire and exploding grenades. Inside their house, four siblings, together with their mother, cats and turtle, attempt to maintain some semblance of peace and normality in their everyday lives. War has been raging in Ukraine’s Donbas for five years. Nastja says it has made her easily irritable and angry. Her sister Myroslava, who dreams of studying cinematography, remarks that war is like a void. To fight back against the black hole, she decides to make a film, one about her family’s life in wartime, about the fears and small joys. Director Iryna Tsilyk observes everyday life under the shadow of war and one family’s collective creative response in a testament to resilience and the power of cinema. (Berlinale 2020)

Activist Greta Thunberg began making the international news in 2018, with her Friday climate strikes. While this film documents the fearless Swedish teen's meteoric rise and how much her efforts have affected and inspired people around the world, it also captures the moments of her daily life and considers her detractors and their attacks on her Asperger’s Syndrome. Arriving at a time of global crisis—when the portents of a pandemic, wildfires, hurricanes, and other climate change evidence are undeniable—the film has an urgency we cannot ignore.

Fleeing war-torn Syria, two doctors and their children have to face extremely painful consequences and choices. The intricacies and the hypocrisies of bureaucracy split the family apart. The kids, still underage, are stuck in Turkey. The father is shipped off to Canada while the mother struggles in Denmark trying to get her children to join her. A film as moving as necessary. (Visions du Reel 2020)

Brazil, 1971, César Benjamin is 17 years old. After a student demonstration, he is tortured and sentenced to 13 years in prison. Thanks to a campaign led by his mother Iramaya and backed by Amnesty International, the teenager is released after 5 years in solitary confinement. Exiled in Sweden, César will never speak of this tragedy, just as the fiery Iramaya becomes the figurehead of "Mother Courage" in Brazil. In the form of a moving letter to her father, who refused to appear in the film, Carol Benjamin uses video archives and letters to reconstruct the pieces of a family puzzle and a tragedy that is also one of a whole country. Her film letter pits words against the silence, memory against oblivion, but is above all a love letter to a father and his courage. (FIFDH 2020)

One of the major challenges of our times is how the global community is going to deal with artificial intelligence (AI). Who will control this technology? Has the train left the station, never to be stopped? What sort of society do we want to create and live in? Who knows the destination we are heading to?
With great access to influential voices on this subject, iHuman presents a wide range of views, from tech optimism in Jurgen Schmidhuber “the father of AI,” to more cautious voices like technology journalist Kara Swisher and human rights lawyer Philip Alston. Animated computer graphics visualize a polymorphous, self-developing structure with ever-greater autonomy guiding us forward.
AI can infinitely increase our potential for great good but it is already capable of contributing towards total surveillance states and a distortion of truth. AI development is hurtling forward with tech companies affiliated to the defence industry and algorithms in law enforcement enhancing existing biases. Will we allow the use of such powerful technology to open an unchecked Pandora’s Box dictating our future? (IDFA 2019)

In a small Arctic town struggling with the highest suicide rate in North America, a group of Inuit students' lives are transformed when they are introduced to the sport of lacrosse.
An unflinching and uplifting story of how northern youth transformed a town.
From the producers of Angry Inuk and Beginners.

Summer 1998 – Kabul under Taliban rule. Zunaira and Mohsen are young and in love. Despite the daily violence and misery, they hope for a better future. One day, a foolish gesture causes life to take an irrevocable turn.

Merab is a dreamy and passionate young dancer, of whom his coach thinks to be a bit too soft: after all, traditional Georgian dancers are supposed to embody strength. Hailing from a family of dancers, Merab has trained with his dance partner Mariam since childhood, and everything seems to develop towards a relationship even beyond the ballroom. One day, when a new dancer appears on the scene, electricity fills the room. The mysterious Irakli’s ability to dominate the characters he dances with precision not only attracts the coach’s attention. While Merab and Irakli compete for a sought-after place in the main ensemble of the Georgian State Ballet, an affection between the two begins to bloom, becoming ever more difficult to supress. AND THEN WE DANCED is a light-hearted narration about yearning, self-realisation and the rebellion of a liberal generation in a conservative and highly homophobic society. (ZFF 2019)

For two decades, the Enache family—nine kids and their parents—lived in a shack in the wilderness of Bucharest Delta: an abandoned water reservoir, one of the biggest urban natural reservations in the world, with lakes and hundreds of species of animals and rare plants. When the authorities decide to claim back this rare urban ecosystem, the Enache family is evicted and told to resettle in the city—a reality they know nothing about. Kids that used to spend their days in nature have to learn about city life, go to school instead of swimming in the lake, and swap their fishing rods for mobile phones. Their identity has been questioned and transformed, along with their sense of freedom and family ties.
Radu Ciorniciuc’s heartbreaking debut is a thoughtful study of gentrification, seen through the eyes of a family trying to adapt to the new life they never asked for. Is it better to go back to their “paradise lost,” with its life free yet harsh, or to become part of the society that offers comforts but comes with pressures and conflict? (Sundance 2019)

What would Jesus preach in the 21st century? Who would his apostles be? The filmmaker and his team return to the origins of the gospel and stage it as a passion play for an entire population. Together with Yvan Sagnet, a former farm worker and activist from Cameroon, Milo Rau creates a new gospel for the 21st century: A manifesto of solidarity for the poorest, a cinematic uprising for a fairer, more humane world.

“You are strong wolves. Wolves don´t cry. Wolves bite. They howl. And they protect their home.”

Eight year old Max and his younger brother Leo don't have much, but they have each other and their mother Lucía. And they share a dream as well: To visit Disneyland one day. The family has recently emigrated to the USA from Mexico, and while Lucía tries to finance their new life by doing odd jobs, the two brothers spend their days in their sparsely furnished one-room flat. The walls of the room, which they are forbidden to leave, become a projection screen for imaginative adventures and open a window on their new life. Director Samuel Kishi Leopo recalls aspects of his own childhood in Los Lobos and resituates them in a currently highly charged context – brutally honest and yet poetic, melancholic and full of hope. (Berlinale 2020)

In modern Iran, Maryam, 22, accidentally kills her husband, Nasser, 65. She is sentenced to death. The only person who can save her is Nasser's daughter Mona, born of a previous marriage. All it would take is for Mona to agree to appear on a TV reality show and forgive Maryam in front of millions of viewers. But forgiveness proves hard to come by once the truth about the past resurfaces... A rare and unusual Iranian film, which skillfully portrays showbiz society. (FIFDH 2020)

The Molenbeek district of Brussels. A believed jihadi capital to some but familiar home to the 6 year-old boys Aatos and Amine. This is where they listen to spiders, discover black holes and quarrel over who gets to command the flying carpet that is to take them to the lands of their ancestors. They live in the same building, yet come from different worlds.  Together they search for answers to the big questions. Aatos wants a god of his own, as Amine already has Allah but the question is complicated by his friend Flo’s belief that people who believe in God have gone crazy. (catndocs)

The Molenbeek district of Brussels. A believed jihadi capital to some but familiar home to the 6 year-old boys Aatos and Amine. This is where they listen to spiders, discover black holes and quarrel over who gets to command the flying carpet that is to take them to the lands of their ancestors. They live in the same building, yet come from different worlds.  Together they search for answers to the big questions. Aatos wants a god of his own, as Amine already has Allah but the question is complicated by his friend Flo’s belief that people who believe in God have gone crazy. (catndocs)

Charting her experiences of civil war and migration to her rise as a popular but controversial star, this documentary film traces the life of the singer and pop icon M.I.A. Born in Sri Lanka to the founder of the Tamil independence movement, Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam – alias M.I.A. – fled to London with her mother and siblings at the age of nine. Her original plan being to become a documentary filmmaker, she returned to Sri Lanka as an art student and began filming her family members. Her journey and her experiences with Sri Lanka’s military regime have shaped her artistic and political attitudes. She began making music and has developed a culture clash aesthetic inspired by street art, hip-hop and various migrant communities in London that has lead to worldwide success. However, her support for the Tamil rebels and her ‘bad girl’ identity have been harshly criticised by mainstream media, politicians and conservative members of the public. Using archive material from the last 22 years, most of which was shot by Maya herself, Steve Loveridge reveals how Maya uses pop music as a political mouthpiece and does not shy away from being an outsider. (Berlinale)

"Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives,” but Kena and Ziki long for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and remain close friends, supporting each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety. (trigon)

Stephane, only just arrived from Cherbourg, joins the anti criminality brigade of Montfermeil in a sensitive district of the Paris suburbs. Paired up with Chris and Gwada whose methods are sometimes "special" he rapidly discovers the tensions between the various neighborhood groups. When an arrest starts to get out of hand, a drone is filming every move they make.

Much of the seafood in our daily lives – sushi, frozen fish, shrimp cocktail, and the vast amount that goes into pet food – has been caught by slaves. Thailand is one of the world’s largest seafood exporters with a huge fishing fleet that requires thousands of fishermen. Decades of overfishing has decimated fish stocks in the region and today the Gulf of Thailand is one of the most barren parts of the ocean. Thai captains now scramble to find crews willing to travel thousands of miles to find fish. Human traffickers have started to fill the labour shortage by selling men from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and other impoverished nations to fishing companies for as little as a few hundred dollars each. Once at sea, these captive men go months, even years, without setting foot on land, earning little or no pay – becoming slaves at sea. Ghost Fleet follows a small group of activists who risk their lives on remote Indonesian islands to find justice and freedom for the enslaved fishermen who feed the world’s insatiable appetite for seafood. Bangkok-based Patima Tungpuchayakul, a Thai abolitionist, has committed her life to helping these ‘lost’ men return home. Facing illness, death threats, corruption, and complacency, Patima’s fearless determination for justice inspires her nation and the world. (Berlinale)

How did a war in Iraq founded on deception end up with the court marshall of the truth teller? This question frames XY Chelsea, a documentary set in the aftermath of the release from prison of Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army soldier and intelligence analyst convicted of violating the Espionage Act in 2013, after leaking classified U.S. documents to WikiLeaks. Manning’s information revealed illegal practices—such as torture and abuse of detainees and the unreported deaths of over 15,000 civilians—engaged by the U.S. military.
While imprisoned, Manning, a trans woman, also began to transition medically. The film offers insight to her motivations for whistleblowing, and ultimately, for taking on the U.S. government. What is seemingly a portrait of a polarizing figure in recent American history also doubles for the blueprint on how patriotic Americans can resist an unlawful ruler. (Tribeca Film Festival)

For Wang, now a first-time mother, investigating the policy of forcibly restricting family size in China spawns traumatic recollections from her own family’s recent past. These stories, in turn, unleash a dizzying number of revelations from journalists, officials, parents, and activists about the widespread enforcement of sterilization, child abandonment, and state-sponsored kidnappings. With chilling clarity, Wang’s new documentary reveals how relentless propaganda brainwashed and terrorized countless Chinese citizens into committing unspeakable crimes against fellow villagers and family members. Through interviews with both victims and instigators, along with revelatory data regarding the sheer number of abandoned children (nearly all of them infant girls), One Child Nation breaks open decades of silence on a vast, unprecedented social experiment that shaped—and destroyed—countless lives. (Sundance Film Festival)

When Pablo arrives at his family’s house outside Guatemala City, everyone is already waiting tensely for this beloved brother, son and husband to appear. Everyone at the clan’s villa is horrified: Pablo has fallen in love with another man, Francisco. In doing so, he is calling into question all the values by which this deeply religious evangelical family lives. In spite of resistance from his relatives, Pablo moves in with Francisco, who is closely linked to the city’s subculture and leads a completely different, liberated existence. Pablo loses his old home, but somehow never really settles in the new one. His wish to unite the two worlds turns out to be a dead end. Putting their faith before everything else, his relatives are adamant that Pablo can be ‘healed’. With help from their ultra-religious community, the family does everything in its power to get their prodigal son back on track, no matter the cost.
In his very personal second film, Jayro Bustamante makes use of a consistently direct cinematic style to describe one individual’s bid to break away and find their identity and a sense of belonging. In a deeply repressive society God loves the sinner, but not the sin itself. (Berlinale)

In the streets of Sicily, beautiful, gutsy Letizia Battaglia pointed her camera straight into the heart of the Mafia that surrounded her and began to shoot. The striking, life-threatening photos she took documenting the rule of the Cosa Nostra define her career. Battaglia married young and had children, yet her restless spirit refused to renounce her passions. Breaking with tradition, she devoted herself to photojournalism. Battaglia’s lens was defiant: though her life was in danger she fearlessly captured everyday Sicilian life—from weddings and funerals to the brutal murders of women and children—to tell the narrative of the community she loved that had been forced into silence. (Sundance Film Festival)

Ryszard Kapuscinski (1932-2007) was one of the 20th century’s principal and most colourful war reporters. He reported on 27 revolutions during his career, was imprisoned 40 times and sentenced to death four times. He was primarily active in Africa as a correspondent for a Polish news agency. When civil war erupted in Angola in 1975, he was the only foreign reporter on the ground. His book Another Day of Life describes how that diamond and oil-rich country was used as a Cold War pawn.
Kapuscinski’s writing style is subjective, sometimes even surreal. This animated adaptation does complete justice to his form of literary reportage. Hallucinatory impressions of chaotic firefights are recorded in a graphic-novel-like style. Interviews with the main characters were made in real life, 40 years later – some have become successful, others have gone mad. This is a story, but no work of fiction. (Rotterdam Film Festival)

PRISONER OF SOCIETY
OVe | Rati Tsiteladze | Georgia 2018 | 16’
An intimate journey into the world and mind of a young transgender woman trapped between personal desire for freedom and the traditional expectations of her parents amid the growing tensions provoked by LGBT politics in Georgia.

GARDI
OVe | Lendita Zeqiraj | Kosovo, Croatia, France 2018 | 15
Several women from different generations of the same family loudly confront each other with their views on life, love, desire, and the patriarchy, while the only boy is looking for an escape.

ALL THESE CREATURES
E | Charles Williams | Australia 2018 | 13'
An adolescent boy attempts to untangle his memories of a mysterious infestation, the unravelling of his father, and the little creatures inside us all.

SOEURS JARARIJU
OVe | Jorge Cadena | Switzerland 2018 | 22’
Viviana and Yandris, two teenage sisters from the Wayuu ethnic group in Colombia, discover their traditions through ancestral rituals. When their father dies, the sisters leave their country in an act of courage.

BROTHERHOOD
OVe | Meryam Joobeur | Tunesia, Canada 2018 | 25'
Mohamed is deeply shaken and suspicious when his estranged eldest son returns home to rural Tunisia with a mysterious young wife. A wrenching drama is infused with the emotional complexities of a family reunion, the consequences of past wounds, and misunderstanding.

Suliman and three further members of the ‘Sudanese Film Club’ have decided to revive an old cinema. They are united not only by their love of cinema and their passionate desire to restore old film stock and draw attention to Sudanese film history once more, but also by the fact that they have all enjoyed a film education in exile. Tirelessly, they try to get the cinema’s owners on their side and make the place operational again, but repeatedly find themselves up against considerable resistance. In the meantime, they sit together and talk about the past – including their experiences of persecution and even torture as oppositional artists. They also read out old letters written while in exile and dream of a Sudan in which art and intellectual thought can be free. ‘We are smarter than them, but not as strong,’ is how they unanimously summarise their situation. It is in laconic moments such as these that the viewer is able to perceive the friendship, as well as the bond and ideological solidarity that exists in the struggle for common ideals. Suhaib Gasmelbari puts the history of Sudanese cinema at the centre of his film and at the same time sheds light on the current situation in a country shaken by ongoing crises. (Berlinale)

All around the world, human rights activists, journalists and lawyers
collect evidence of human rights violations – with the help of victims. Using mobile devices to film and photograph their experiences, they become digital witnesses. Amateur videos of bombs exploding, people being abused or even shot dead are distributed almost in real time via social media. Digital investigators use various forensic methods, from internet tracking to DNA analysis, to analyse and verify this deluge of images, supporting them with other evidence and scientific expertise. These criminological investigations have only one purpose: to bring to justice those who violate human rights. We meet investigative teams who use these cutting-edge technologies to document their research into the war in Ukraine, the destruction of Mali’s cultural heritage, the search for mass graves in Colombia and the “Black Friday” bomb attacks in Gaza. We witness the entire investigative procedure, from training and visiting the scene of the crime, securing and analysing forensic evidence, to presenting their evidence in court. (IDFA)

Kenyan farmer Kisilu Musya records climate change’s roller-coaster ride of flash floods and devastating droughts. For the past five years, he’s kept a video diary documenting the damaging effects of wild weather on his family’s life and livelihood. Convinced that planting trees is the answer to counteracting global warming in his community, Kisilu organizes local farmer groups, makes endless presentations and, with the support of his wife and Norwegian filmmaker Julia Dahr, takes his message all the way to the COP—the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change. But is anyone listening? This emotional, earnest and essential film about climate change is driven by Kisilu’s point of view. It gives voice to a natural leader who expects politicians to be doing as much as he is—to care and to be interested in hearing from those directly affected by the environmental transformations taking place on this planet we all share. (Hot Docs)
Introduction by Georg Klingler, Greenpeace Switzerland

Israeli human-rights lawyer Lea Tsemel is a force that won’t be deterred. Having defended Palestinians against a host of criminal charges in Israeli courts for nearly five decades, she is a staunch supporter of compassion within the court system. Frequently subjected to harsh criticism in the press and in the public view, Tsemel remains optimistically steadfast in her belief that justice can be served.In this impressive documentary, Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaïche masterfully juxtapose two of Tsemel’s cases, one professional and the other personal: the defense of a minor accused of attempted murder and a past case in which she defended her activist husband from an accusation of treason against the state. Delicately animated sequences conceal defendants’ identities as Tsemel frankly addresses their best possible chances for acquittal, while interviews with Tsemel’s adult children reveal her unique ability to see the humanity of those accused. Advocate is an original, provocative film that both exposes the human fallout of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and provides hope for a peaceful resolution. (Sundance FF)

"Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives,” but Kena and Ziki long for something more. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and remain close friends, supporting each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two girls will be forced to choose between happiness and safety. (trigon)

First-time filmmaker Bing Liu's documentary Minding the Gap is a coming-of-age saga of three skateboarding friends in their Rust Belt hometown hit hard by decades of recession. In his quest to understand why he and his friends all ran away from home when they were younger, Bing follows 23-year-old Zack as he becomes a father and 17-year-old Keire as he gets his first job.

The Molenbeek district of Brussels. A believed jihadi capital to some but familiar home to the 6 year-old boys Aatos and Amine. This is where they listen to spiders, discover black holes and quarrel over who gets to command the flying carpet that is to take them to the lands of their ancestors. They live in the same building, yet come from different worlds.  Together they search for answers to the big questions. Aatos wants a god of his own, as Amine already has Allah but the question is complicated by his friend Flo’s belief that people who believe in God have gone crazy. (catndocs)

Charting her experiences of civil war and migration to her rise as a popular but controversial star, this documentary film traces the life of the singer and pop icon M.I.A. Born in Sri Lanka to the founder of the Tamil independence movement, Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam – alias M.I.A. – fled to London with her mother and siblings at the age of nine. Her original plan being to become a documentary filmmaker, she returned to Sri Lanka as an art student and began filming her family members. Her journey and her experiences with Sri Lanka’s military regime have shaped her artistic and political attitudes. She began making music and has developed a culture clash aesthetic inspired by street art, hip-hop and various migrant communities in London that has lead to worldwide success. However, her support for the Tamil rebels and her ‘bad girl’ identity have been harshly criticised by mainstream media, politicians and conservative members of the public. Using archive material from the last 22 years, most of which was shot by Maya herself, Steve Loveridge reveals how Maya uses pop music as a political mouthpiece and does not shy away from being an outsider. (Berlinale)

A film about the unprecedented Swiss grassroots movement of regular citizens who rise to aid thousands of refugees stranded at the European borders. In rich and safe Switzerland people from all backgrounds leave their regular life behind to support people in need. There is a Swiss farmer and his wife who keep cows in the Swiss Alps, a former commander of the Swiss Army, an elder rich lady residing at the lakeside, and a successful comedian and entertainer. These unexperienced volunteers take on an adventure that will change their lives for ever.

The young Nuria flees the civil war in Colombia. She arrives at dawn on a mysterious island in the furthest reaches of the Amazon. Nuria gradually understands that her father, who supposedly died in a landslide caused by an oil company, may be hiding in their house. The violence and collective memory of Latin America intertwine in this bewitching film, tinged with magical realism. (FIFDH Geneva)

Stephane, only just arrived from Cherbourg, joins the anti criminality brigade of Montfermeil in a sensitive district of the Paris suburbs. Paired up with Chris and Gwada whose methods are sometimes "special" he rapidly discovers the tensions between the various neighborhood groups. When an arrest starts to get out of hand, a drone is filming every move they make.

First-time filmmaker Bing Liu's documentary Minding the Gap is a coming-of-age saga of three skateboarding friends in their Rust Belt hometown hit hard by decades of recession. In his quest to understand why he and his friends all ran away from home when they were younger, Bing follows 23-year-old Zack as he becomes a father and 17-year-old Keire as he gets his first job.

Fateful developments and surprising twists in the lives of their protagonists are welcome ingredients for documentary filmmakers. But when the director and his family are themselves the protagonists in their own film, every threatening situation becomes a conflict of conscience. Is it right to film every dramatic moment or is it morally wrong to think about a good film scene in the midst of misfortune?
In 2015, a death threat from the Taliban saw Afghan director Hassan Fazili and his wife Fatima Hussaini, also a filmmaker, in exactly this situation. Together with their two daughters Nargis (11) and Zahra (6), they flee from their homeland to distant Europe in search of safety. The couple, and their two daughters, use their mobile phones to film their journey, which was to last several years. On the Balkan route, during long and uncertain stays in various refugee camps, they draw strength from documenting their difficult situation. Despite adversities and setbacks, the parents never once lose their humanity. They bear all manner of hardships and hope for a better future for their daughters, who become more and more independent as the long journey progresses. (Berlinale)

When an amnesiac graveyard guard stumbles upon the body of a woman killed at a protest, he embarks on a long journey to find her name and bury her properly. In this film, deeply imbued with magical realism, Khatami skillfully weaves the collective memories of Iran and Chile, through a fable that is both universal and deeply intimate. (FIFDH Geneva)

A gang's friendship and dreams are put to the test when Mirja comes out of prison intent on breaking with the past and embarking on a new life. Her choice is between being loyal to her sick mother and younger sister, or standing by the friends who truly were her family.
Beyond Dreams is about who you are expected to be and who you want to be, both in your chosen group and society beyond. A humorous and refreshing film about young women's rebellion.

Kafiya, a young girl on the brink of adulthood, has to leave behind a lot of what defined her Somalian life as she tries to adapt to her new existence in Hungary. As the family’s cultural values and taboos start to fall apart, Kafia tries to explain and make sense of all these changes to her mother left behind. (Locarno FF)

In My Room is a coming-of-age story about six teenagers, told entirely through home videos they have shot and uploaded to YouTube. These are their video diaries. For years, the camera is pointed towards them and into their rooms. It allows us to be present during their most fragile, painful, confusing and amusing phases of growing up, trying to become the people they dream of being. (Docaviv FF)

Leïla, Elhadj und Eddy are French students at the university of Saint-Denis, who all wish to exceed in rhetorics and participate in the infamous competition “Eloquentia”, in which the best rhetorician is chosen. The adolescents of different cultural background learn that good language technique can grant power. They are advised by lawyers, slam poets and directors on how to improve their performance skills and take on the challenge of speaking up and standing in for their opinion in public.

When the 1987 revolt breaks out in Gaza, Naila Ayesh is faced with saving her love, her family or her freedom. Imperturbable, she joins a clandestine network of women who will endeavour to make the world recognize the self-determination of Palestine. Julia Bacha chronicles the remarkable career of this Palestinian activist and the most vibrant nonviolent mobilization in the history of the country. (FIFDH Geneva)

In My Room is a coming-of-age story about six teenagers, told entirely through home videos they have shot and uploaded to Youtube. These are their video diaries. For years, the camera is pointed towards them and into their rooms. It allows us to be present during their most fragile, painful, confusing and amusing phases of growing up, trying to become the people they dream of being. (Docaviv FF)

José Galante cannot and will not accept that his torturer is living only a few metres away from him, unpunished. Maria Martín is fighting to ensure that her mother’s bones are exhumed from a mass grave and buried next to her father’s remains. However, an amnesty law passed by a large majority in the Spanish parliament in 1977 not only guaranteed the release of all political prisoners, but also prohibited prosecution of any of the crimes committed by Franco’s dictatorship. For this reason, many atrocities remain unsolved to this day. Over a period of six years, the filmmakers spoke to victims, relatives and human rights lawyers about their long-standing struggle to obtain admissions of guilt and the abolition of the amnesty law. (Berlinale)

Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. The film exposes a legacy of physical abuse of black women and reveals Rosa Parks’ intimate role in Recy Taylor’s story. (Venice FF)

Drawing inspiration from his personal encounter with the Italian refugee child Giovanna during World War II, Markus Imhoof tells how refugees and migrants are treated today: on the Mediterranean Sea, in Italy and in Switzerland.

Kafiya, a young girl on the brink of adulthood, has to leave behind a lot of what defined her Somalian life as she tries to adapt to her new existence in Hungary. As the family’s cultural values and taboos start to fall apart, Kafia tries to explain and make sense of all these changes to her mother left behind. (Locarno FF)

In My Room is a coming-of-age story about six teenagers, told entirely through home videos they have shot and uploaded to YouTube. These are their video diaries. For years, the camera is pointed towards them and into their rooms. It allows us to be present during their most fragile, painful, confusing and amusing phases of growing up, trying to become the people they dream of being. (Docaviv FF)

A gang's friendship and dreams are put to the test when Mirja comes out of prison intent on breaking with the past and embarking on a new life. Her choice is between being loyal to her sick mother and younger sister, or standing by the friends who truly were her family.
Beyond Dreams is about who you are expected to be and who you want to be, both in your chosen group and society beyond. A humorous and refreshing film about young women's rebellion.

Kafiya, a young girl on the brink of adulthood, has to leave behind a lot of what defined her Somalian life as she tries to adapt to her new existence in Hungary. As the family’s cultural values and taboos start to fall apart, Kafia tries to explain and make sense of all these changes to her mother left behind. (Locarno FF)

Following the deaths of his father and many others from his village, filmmaker Daniel Lambo sets off on a passionate quest to find the truth about the deadly asbestos industry. His search takes him to the largest asbestos waste dump in India and unveils a cold-blooded industry still endangering the lives of workers and consumers around the world. A gripping story on the fight of individuals against a booming asbestos industry. (Flanders Image)

23-year-old Nadia Murad leads a harrowing but vital crusade: to find the most influential platforms in the world and speak out on behalf of the embattled Yazidi community who face mass extermination by ISIS militants. Having narrowly escaped with her own life, Nadia must now relentlessly recount on radio shows, at rallies, and even on the floor of the United Nation’s general assembly her ordeal as a Yazidi sex slave and witness to her family’s brutal killings. For without her testimony, the genocide happening right in front of the world’s eyes might go completely unnoticed. With a formal precision and elegance that matches Nadia’s calm and steely demeanor, filmmaker Alexandria Bombach brings us inside an exhausting, destabilizing journey fraught with personal pain and profound ethical urgency. (Sundance Film Festival)

Poh Lin is a trauma therapist who lives with her family in this place of hostile and wild landscapes - one of the last places on the planet to be discovered. Every day, she talks with the asylum seekers held indefinitely in a high-security detention centre, attempting, relentlessly, to support them in a situation that is as unbearable as its outcome is uncertain. Comparing the natural migration with the chaotic and tragic migration of humans, subject to the constant metamorphoses of the decision-making structures, Gabrielle Brady undoubtedly succeeds in evoking a challenge that is much greater than that of the microcosm she is reporting on. (Visions du Reel)

What happens when your nation is swallowed by the sea? With the harsh realities of climate change looming, the low-lying Pacific nation Kiribati must find a new solution for the survival of its people. With sweeping cinematography, Anote’s Ark interweaves two poignant stories. Anote Tong, endearing president of the island, races to find options - advocating in international climate negotiations and even investigating building underwater cities. At the same time, warm and sharp-witted Sermary, a young mother of six, tackles every struggle with humour. She must decide whether to leave the only culture she knows on the island and migrate to a new life in New Zealand. Matthieu Rytz sharply captures the next evolution in the shifting dynamics of climate change—one where borders, technology, and global treaties are urgent and can change daily life as we know it. This portrait of the Kiribati people exudes strength of character and grace as they confront the inevitable change they are facing head-on. (Sundance Film Festival)

In a small seaside town, two schoolgirls are assaulted by a middle-aged man in a motel. Mia, a teenager who was working on reception that night, is the only witness. For fear of losing her job, she says nothing. Meanwhile, 12-year-old Wen, one of the victims, finds that her troubles have only just begun. Trapped in a world that offers them no safety, Mia and Wen will have to find their own way out. Vivian Qu tells a story about women. About the society that shapes our perceptions and values. About the choices that are allowed us and the courage to make different ones. About the interchangeable roles of the victim and the bystander. About truth and justice. And above all, about love. (Venice Film Festival)

Pushed to the limit by racism, a black police officer pours his frustration on the privileged and white community he's sworn to protect. By turning a mirror on the viewer, Cory Bowles presents a brilliant, intimate satire, burning with indignation over police brutality and racial profiling. Alternating between found footage, hidden cameras and theatricality, this debut film is imbued with a unique energy. (FIFDH Geneva)

During the winter of 1991, Croatia defended itself against the military aggression of neighbouring Serbia. Among the innocent victims of this conflict was Aleksandra Zec, a teenager of Serbian origin, who was hatefully lynched in Zagreb. A generation later, while in Croatian schools, Serbian pupils continue to be taken for the “enemies” of yesterday, Oliver Frljić adapts “the Zec affair” at the theatre, with Nina, a Serbian, born in 2001, in the title role. In front of Nebojša Slijepčević’s camera, the troupe’s rehearsals turn into collective psychotherapy, interspersed by shots of an empty stage haunted by personal accounts that build up in voiceover. Through skilful metatheatre that involves both the troupe’s acting and sense of self as they work on their own memories, distanced by the theatrical device, Srbenka delineates a public space likely to break the cycle of vengeance. Slijepčević’s film also constitutes a powerful reflection on one of the possible functions of art: to dry out, metre by metre, the cesspool of hatred fed by the entrepreneurs of ethnic cleansing who continue to act today. (Visions du Reel)

Dive into a secret, third-world shadow industry of online content moderation. Here we meet five “digital scavengers,” a handful of thousands of people outsourced from Silicon Valley whose job is to delete “inappropriate” content off of the internet. In a parallel struggle, we meet people around the globe whose lives are dramatically affected by online censorship. A typical “cleaner” must observe and rate thousands of intense images every day, from war zone photography to pornography, leading to lasting psychological impacts. Yet underneath their work lies profound questions around what makes an image art or propaganda and what defines journalism.The Cleaners reveals the bitter reality that social media is as much a tool for expression as it is a platform for radicalized social and political opinions, the impacts of which are still unknown. Debut directors Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck unpack an urgent conversation surrounding Silicon Valley’s control over our perception of free speech that we must all grapple with as it threatens to unravel the fabric of our society: both online and IRL. (Sundance Film Festival)

Seen through the eyes of children, war is just as exciting and beautiful as it is threatening. Oleg and Yarik live with their grandmother in a mostly-abandoned village near the war-struck Russian-Ukrainian border, managing to maintain their own little bubble. The sound of shelling has become the ever-present soundtrack of their lives. Gunfire, abandoned weapons’ caches and columns of soldiers are all opportunities for new games. The film, winner of the First Appearance award at IDFA, shows how the children and their grandmother manage to find joy in life’s small pleasures, each in his or her own way, even in the shadow of war. (Docaviv Film Festival)

Few things on Earth are as miraculous and vital as seeds. Worshipped and treasured since the dawn of humankind. SEED: The Untold Story follows passionate seed keepers protecting our 12,000 year-old food legacy. In the last century, 94% of our seed varieties have disappeared. As biotech chemical companies control the majority of our seeds, farmers, scientists, lawyers, and indigenous seed keepers fight a David and Goliath battle to defend the future of our food. In a harrowing and heartening story, these reluctant heroes rekindle a lost connection to our most treasured resource and revive a culture connected to seeds. SEED features Vandana Shiva, Dr. Jane Goodall, Andrew Kimbrell, Winona Laduke and Raj Patel.

Mara, a nurse from Romania, got married whilst on a working visit to the USA. Together with her husband Daniel, whom she met as a patient, she is now waiting for her Green Card. She has already brought to the States her little son Dragos from a previous relationship. However, the naturalisation process is proving to be difficult and Mara increasingly begins to realise that the America she imagined has little to do with the reality. After the immigration officer responsible for her case exploits her plight, the situation seems almost hopeless. ‘Even the people who hate the United States want to live here’ is a statement the heroine of this film hears again and again, and her own experiences are characterised by a similar ambivalence.
Based on real events, Ioana Uricaru’s first feature film addresses themes such as mental attitude, corruption and patriotism. Mălina Manovici is sensitive and convincing in the role of Mara who, despite all of her adversities, remains convinced that: ‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.’ (Berlinale)

In a small seaside town, two schoolgirls are assaulted by a middle-aged man in a motel. Mia, a teenager who was working on reception that night, is the only witness. For fear of losing her job, she says nothing. Meanwhile, 12-year-old Wen, one of the victims, finds that her troubles have only just begun. Trapped in a world that offers them no safety, Mia and Wen will have to find their own way out. Vivian Qu tells a story about women. About the society that shapes our perceptions and values. About the choices that are allowed us and the courage to make different ones. About the interchangeable roles of the victim and the bystander. About truth and justice. And above all, about love. (Venice Film Festival)

Drawing inspiration from his personal encounter with the Italian refugee child Giovanna during World War II, Markus Imhoof tells how refugees and migrants are treated today: on the Mediterranean Sea, in Italy and in Switzerland.

Leïla, Elhadj und Eddy are French students at the university of Saint-Denis, who all wish to exceed in rhetorics and participate in the infamous competition “Eloquentia”, in which the best rhetorician is chosen. The adolescents of different cultural background learn that good language technique can grant power. They are advised by lawyers, slam poets and directors on how to improve their performance skills and take on the challenge of speaking up and standing in for their opinion in public.

Drunk racists attack a Roma settlement at night, throwing petrol bombs and shooting at fleeing families. The mother of nine-year-old Ricsi is killed. Since his father is still serving a two-year prison sentence for a minor crime, the traumatised boy is sent to live with his grandparents. His harmonious childhood world now irredeemably shattered, he is desperately searching for stability ... High school student and passionate archer Virág suspects that her boyfriend Misi might have been involved in the attack on the Roma village. When her suspicions are confirmed, she finds herself thrown into a deep emotional conflict. She makes a momentous decision.Hanna, a lawyer who is accustomed to success, is appointed Misi's lawyer. Moral questions as well as her own past force her to reappraise her path in life. The background for these three interwoven, visually powerful stories is the 2008/09 attacks by Hungarian neo-Nazis on Roma villages during which six people were killed. (Berlinale)

Stellen Sie sich vor, ein europäischer Sender zöge länderübergreifend Millionen Zuschauer in den Bann – mit Gedichtvorträgen. Genau das gelingt Abu Dhabi TV seit zehn Jahren mit der Sendung Million’s Poet. Diese Talentshow sucht nach einem Superstar der präzisen Sprache. Nachdem die Saudin Hissa Hilal vollständig verhüllt in schwarzem Tuch auf der Bühne Extremisten anklagt, erhält sie Morddrohungen. Und die Aufmerksamkeit der westlichen Medien. In Hissa Hilal haben die beiden Filmemacher Stefanie Brockhaus und Andreas Wolff eine wahre Heldin gefunden. Ihre Augen, oft in Nahaufnahmen gezeigt, drücken Witz und Lebenslust, aber auch Leid aus; der Rest ihres Gesichts bleibt bedeckt. Dass die Geschichte der Poetin und die Saudi-Arabiens nahtlos ineinander übergehen, liegt einerseits an Hissas Erzählkunst, andererseits an der atmosphärischen Musik und dem Schnitt, die Showaufnahmen, Archivmaterial und Interviews zu einem Ganzen fügen. (Flavia Giorgetta)

Eine palästinensische Mutter plant ein Selbstmordattentat. Es scheitert und im Gefängnis lernt sie den Schmerz der Gegenseite kennen, als der Bruder ihrer Gefängniswärterin einem Anschlag zum Opfer fällt. Ein israelischer Soldat leistet an einem Checkpoint Dienst; als er einem palästinensischen Vater und dessen kranken Kindern den Weg zum Arzt versperren muss, beginnt er, umzudenken. In einer Collage aus Interviews, Archivmaterial und sorgfältig inszenierten Szenen porträtiert der Film die Organisation «Combatants for Peace», in der ehemalige Kämpfer beider Seiten sich für eine gewaltfreie Lösung des Nahostkonflikts einsetzen. (mg)

Daje ist 17 Jahre alt, sie wächst in einem «all black» Viertel von St. Louis auf. In der Schule eckt sie wegen ihrer aufmüpfigen Haltung und wird deswegen mit ihrer Mutter vor den Jugendrichter zitiert. Doch wirklich begreifen lässt sich ihreSituation erst allmählich, als man auf ihrem Schulheft die gekritzelten Namen von ihren Freunden sieht – dahinter ein R.I.P. und ein frisches Datum. Mit ihrem Freund überlegt sie, ob sie wohl auch so jung sterben werden, viele von ihren männlichen Freunden sind bereits tot – niedergeschossen von Polizisten oder Gang-Mitgliedern. Zwei Jahre lang haben die Regisseure ihre Protagonistin durch ihren von Stigmatisierung geprägten Alltag begleitet und machen erfahrbar, was es heisst, in Amerika jung und schwarz zu sein. (slb)

Im Frühling 2016 haben wir die Schlagzeilen gelesen, gehört und uns kurz empört: «Zwangsumsiedelungen in Rio», «Favela muss Olympischen Spielen weichen» hiessen sie. Die Schlagzeilen verschwanden wieder und mit ihnen die Erinnerung an die Menschen, die diesem grössenwahnsinnigen Sportanlass im Weg waren. Favela Olímpica von Samuel Chalard holt diese Geschichte zurück auf die Leinwand. Eigentlich wäre die «Vila Autódromo» eine Art Vorzeigefavela: Hier leben Familien, die ihre Favela von Kriminalität und Drogen freizuhalten versuchen und selbst verwalten. Obwohl vieles nicht ideal ist, obwohl sie von der Regierung vergessen werden, wenn es um Kanalisation, Strom und Infrastruktur geht. Nun aber geraten sie in den Blick der Stadt: Umgesiedelt sollen sie werden oder für wenig Geld entschädigt – die Favela stört den olympischen Glanz. Was Chalards Film unterscheidet von den Zeitungsberichten: Die Bewohner sind Individuen, Menschen mit Gesichtern und Geschichten, mit einer Vergangenheit in diesem Dorf, das sie ihre Heimat nennen. (Brigitte Häring)

„In Syrien weiss jeder, wie Zement schmeckt“, sagt Regisseur Ziad Kalthoum zu seinem Film Taste of Cement. Der Krieg zerstört und zerstäubt den Zement - und begräbt die Menschen, die in ihm lebten. Hauptschauplatz ist eine Baustelle in der libanesischen Hauptstadt Beirut. Die geflohenen Syrer, die hier arbeiten, dürfen die Baustelle nicht verlassen. Tagsüber bauen sie unter Lebensgefahr an einem Hochhaus, nachts wohnen sie in dessen kahlen, noch unfertigen Untergeschossen. Besorgt verfolgen sie auf ihren Smartphones die Nachrichten aus der in Trümmer liegenden Heimat. Für diese Existenz zwischen Zerstörung und Aufbau findet Kalthoums preisgekrönter Film Bilder von schlichter, roher Schönheit. (mg)

Die 18jährige Zahira ist ein Teenager, deren Leben sich zwischen Schule und Freundeskreis abspielt. Sie wächst in Bel­gien in einer moderat religiösen Familie auf. Dann wird sie von den Eltern gedrängt, den traditionellen Weg einer arrangierten Ehe zu gehen – via Skype soll sie sich für einen Anwärter entscheiden und ihr künftiges Leben in Pakistan vorbereiten. Zwischen familiären Bräuchen und westlichem Lebensstil navigierend, wendet sich die junge Frau an ihre beste Freundin Aurore und ihren geliebten Bruder Amir. Denn neben der geplanten Heirat stemmt Zahira eine zweite Herausforderung: Sie ist schwanger und will das Kind trotz dem Rat der belgischen Sozialhilfe nicht abtreiben. (slb)

Die drei jugendlichen Straftäter Juan, Jarad und Antonio schreiben im Gefängnis ein Drehbuch – ein Kurzfilm über ihr Leben vor der Festnahme soll entstehen. Damit «die da draussen» verstehen, unter welchen Bedingungen sie aufgewachsen sind. Den drei mutmasslichen Mördern stehen lebens­längliche Freiheitsstrafen bevor, die letzte Hoffnung sind ihre Verteidiger vor Gericht. Doch die Eltern des 17jährigen Jarad können sich keinen teuren Anwalt leisten. Eine Billig­anwältin vertritt den Jungen ohne jedes Interesse. Das Urteil: Lebenslange Haft ohne Aussicht auf Bewährung. Die Langzeitstudie fängt den Alltag der drei Häftlinge ein, ohne zu moralisieren, und lässt auch die Opfer zu Wort kommen. Der Film entlässt uns nicht mit Antworten, sondern lässt ­Fragen nachklingen: Wer sind die wahren Monster und gibt es ein Entkommen aus dem Teufelskreis von Armut und unverhältnismässig hohem Strafmass? (slb)