dir. by Jack Raese 9’ United States

​

Markus - whose great-great-great-grandfather invented the nutcracker - makes nutcrackers for a living, as did each of his forefathers between him and the great inventor. Markus discusses his life decisions.

dir by Christopher Radcliff 15' Canada, United States

​

The story of Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che, who, in 1975, after fleeing the Vietnam War by boat and docking in the Philippines, were utilized as background extras in the filming of APOCALYPSE NOW

dir by Arief Budiman 23’ Indonesia, Singapore

​

This film tells the story of Arief and Edi, two videographers who exchange memories and imaginations about Papua based on the footage they captured during their time in the land of Papua. They reflect upon their contrasting backgrounds, Arief is a young man from Java, while Edi was born and raised in Papua. By contemplating on their journeys and experiences, they agree to create a short film using the archives they had before Edi returned to Papua. The archives serve as an image of a utopian imagination of Papua’s beautiful landscapes while highlighting the ironic reality of the existing conditions under Javanese people and military subjection.

dir by Raphaël Kaddour 23’ Belgium

​

At Recypark Buda, the workers receive the waste... and also the customers' moods.

dir. by Samuel Vela 20’ Spain

​

In the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the documentary The Strength of Silence follows the life of Letebirhan, a 17-year-old girl whose life was fractured by war. Kidnapped, a survivor of sexual violence, and left to raise a child born from trauma, she faces rejection from her community and family. Her survival relies not only on the bread she bakes to sustain herself but also on an ancestral ritual: the coffee ceremony, where women like her transform silence into a powerful act of resistance and sisterhood.

dir. by Yi-Chi Lin 21’ Taiwan

​

Two mixed-race children of the U.S. military in Taiwan, one speaking Hakka, the other Taiwanese. In the ruins of a former military dormitory, they speak slowly, uncovering a history their faces and languages could never fully inhabit. Their memories move like ghosts along the edges of history, where silence and fracture become a form of poetic gaze. Through a dual-channel, hypnotic narrative, the work resists fixed ways of seeing and speaking, and gives shape to voices and bodies long held in silence.

dir by Inka Achté, Einari Paakkanen 5’ Finland

​

Puolanka, a tiny village in Northern Finland is famous for its population decline, but also for its dark sense of humor about it. As the long summer evenings stretch out, teenage boys celebrate their new driver’s licences by endlessly circling the same few streets, while an older generation of local gents, proudly known as The Parliament, has already parked itself permanently at the petrol station café. Here, hunting and the legendary “Pussy Rally” aren’t taboos but badges of cultural identity. The only mystery that seems unsolved: where have all the women gone?

dir by Evgenia Arbugaeva 18’ United Kingdom

​

In the wilderness of the Siberian Arctic, Aisen Klimovskii, an Indigenous Sakha palaeontologist, descends into the depths of the melting permafrost and traverses the mythical realm of the Underworld in search of an ancient creature. Balanced between mythology and science, Aisen’s journey through the claustrophobic, dangerous caves is guided by a poetic narration inspired by the epic storytelling tradition of the Sakha people. The film explores one of the most pressing climate change issues of our time – accelerating permafrost thaw releases greenhouse gases and unearths creatures carrying viruses and microorganisms from the distant past.