student film

A tribute to grandparents and an apartment on the top floor of a Bratislava apartment block overlooking the Danube and Austria takes the form of an intimate dialogue. Between generations, past and present, East and West. In the same space, through family experiences and traumas, the author's identity was also formed. “Pessimists look towards Petržalka, optimists towards Austria.”

Mark Bosselaers is a marine paleontologist for whom the skeletal fragments of whales are nearly his whole life. In this minimalist portrait, we learn about his sometimes almost detective-like work and his distinctive theories. Everything is connected in Mark's vision – the sunlight, the whales and the dust we eventually turn into.“Ideally, I would love to spend all day working on whale fossils, but of course I also have to do the occasional chores around the house for my wife.” — Mark BosselaersSource: KZGW

Els' daughter doesn't want to live anymore. The formerly cheerful child became suicidal at the age of 13, to such an extent that she has to spend most of her time under medical supervision. She sees euthanasia as the only solution to her desperate condition. She not only wants to abandon her life, but unfortunately also her mother, who can only stand by and watch. “The themes of motherhood, the motifs of the mother-child relationship, are inspired by the relationship with my own mother and my own possible relationship with motherhood.” Source: We Are Moving Stories

Halina is one of the last singers of mourning songs from Podlasie in eastern Poland. Her son Andrzej works as a gravedigger. For many years, they have accompanied others on their final journey. Death, before which modern society closes its eyes, is for them a natural part of life in which they find security and peace. “When you’ve dealt with funerals for over ten years, then well, everything happens.”

The documentary adaptation of the novel by the well-known Flemish writer Louis Paul Boon is conceived as a polyphony consisting of voiceovers of three characters inhabiting a common apartment. A man, a woman and their maid, the latter of whom is many years younger than them, take turns using their inner voices in expressing reflections on their own and each other's lives.“The poetics of the source novel take on new power as this highly original approach brings literature to life, while the apparent randomness of overlapping texts and recurring motifs makes for a very particular and unexpected filmmaking experience.”Source: Diagonale

This associative collage of images reflects on our inherent need to think of ourselves as autonomous individuals and to define ourselves in relation to external reality. Fragments from the educational films of the Łódź Film Studio are accompanied by an interview with British psychologist and therapist Halina Pytlasinska, who works with the concept of the collective unconscious. “The attitude of man is twofold, in accordance with the twofold nature of the primary words which he speaks.” — Martin Buber

On 8 May 2019, the Yellow Vests rehabilitate Gustave Courbet’s tomb in Ornans. Not far away, Christian Corouge, a former member of the Medvedkine group, a militant film collective, makes the painter's work his own. But “we're not going to discuss painting, everyone takes what they want, I don't care!”

A Frankenstein-esque portrait of a scientist who develops materials for the construction of robots with sensitive and flexible parts while losing control of her own consciousness. As a result of stress overload, she is unable, at least temporarily, to do what her products can already do – rely on her memory. “I started directing films when I was in my 2nd year of college. I came into it spontaneously and I’ve learned to love the art so much that sometimes I even direct my dreams.” — Inshallah Montero Source: GMA News

An elderly Vietnamese couple has been running a fresh orange juice stand for many years. They live and work at the Sapa market in Prague. This observational documentary about work and homesickness offers a unique sketch of everyday life in a place that is often described as the heart of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic. “Sometimes you suddenly die because of irony.”

Lucia "Pretty Beast" Krajčovič is a 34-year-old professional MMA* fighter and mother of two children. Shortly after giving birth, she is determined to become a champion in both disciplines - sport and motherhood. With a baby in her arms, she is preparing for her next fight. Under the immense pressure of her two identities, exhausted from lack of sleep, she wrestles with a question to which she had a clear answer not long ago. How to be both Pretty and Beast and for how much longer?*the sport formerly known as Vale Tudo, which means "everything allowed" in Portuguese

Jakub and Martin worship their own bodies. They are the source of their livelihood. They live half in Brno, half on the online OnlyFans platform, where they fulfil the fantasies of their followers – from displaying their biceps, which they build with regular visits to the gym, to golden showers and imitating pigs. They approach conversations about work the same way they approach their bodies – without inhibitions. “Look at these muscles. Me and Martin are flexing for you.”