time and love and I

The biggest train station in the Balkans was built during the peak of the socialist era, but today is a place that many people try to avoid. This surreal meditation showing the wanderings of a conifer, an empty hotel, a shuttered café and snippets from the lives of the station’s inhabitants provides a portrait of the current state of an entire country. Birds fight over a piece of bread. A radio announcement. Nobody at the hotel, a bored receptionist, disgruntled rail workers forbidden from watching television – for even in the half-life of decay there must be a clear sense of order.

Hypnotic black-and-white static views of a mountain provide the intense experience of touching by sight. In their consuming concentration, the images are a contemplative experiment in contrasts (the motionlessness of the mountain massif versus the movements of the ant-sized skiers; light versus shadow; black versus white) and a visual touching of the surface texture.The sound of breathing and crunching of snow, minimalist music, the cold metal sound of a ski lift. Dusk falls on the landscape, slicing into the light-sculptured countryside, absorbing the sensations offered to the eyes. The day closes its eyes and through the night slithers a snake of light.

Three micro-stories from contemporary Libya – specifically the town of Benghazi, stigmatised by the terrorist attack on the American consulate and the death of the American ambassador – present the city during a time of change and offer a look at the life of a used-car salesman, a fisherman on the sea, and a young doctor as she learns to drive a car. Seen from the air, the cars covered in a fine layer of dust and sand look like toy cars lined up on a shelf. In the words of the jovial salesman, "you can still smell the factory."

Contrary to popular belief, rape most often occurs among those who know each other and those who are close, all in a seemingly safe home environment. This documentary draws attention to the problem and reconstructs the memories of victims of sexual violence whose testimony manages to free a standard furnished apartment of its aura of innocence.

During the Soviet era, Ukraine was a difficult place for members of the LGBT community, and even today the country remains less than welcoming to sexual minorities. Working with archival interviews of women from the past thirteen years, the film brings together two eras and thus contributes to a discussion of today’s situation.

Two professors settle personal accounts at the Department of Philosophy of Brno's Masaryk University. In 2008 professor Jaroslav Hroch received a total of 17 anonymous abusive emails. His colleague Břetislav Horyna was eventually indicted (and convicted) of sending these emails. Interviews with both participants in this bizarre case. "As for Hölderlin, shut the fuck up!"Ich und ich im wirklichen leben.Ich und ich in der Wirklichkeit. Ich und ich in der echten Welt.Ich und ich. Ich fühle mich so seltsam. DieWirklichkeit kommt. die Wirklichkeit kommt.

Director Zaina Erhaim has decided to explore her Syrian hometown of Idlib, which is controlled by anti-regime forces. Original footage captures familiar neighborhoods in ruins, where Erhaim leaves what is perhaps the last human footprint. This secretly-filmed documentary presents a visual experience of the loss of home and of meeting loved ones in a new reality.

Nomads in the seas of Indonesia say that when a women gives birth to a child, she also gives birth to its twin in the form of an octopus. A look at a cultural environment shaped by traditional folk beliefs. The camera follows a man swimming with his face submerged in the sea in a ritual honouring the octopus. Dishonouring your aquatic brother can lead to misfortune.

A woman sells her five-year-old son to a French tourist for 100 dollars, but the dream of a better life turns into years of physical and sexual abuse. This animated film looks at young Fekri’s journey during the most vulnerable years of his life. Can he recover enough to leave his family?

An older woman living in Latvia regularly Skypes with her sister and daughter, who are stranded in the war zone in Eastern Ukraine, helplessly listening to their woes. Close-ups of her troubled face alternating with photographs from her family archives testify to the impact of armed conflict on specific human fates.DETAIL:“In some neighbourhoods people have been hiding in basements since August 3rd. Without water. Without electricity. We had electricity for 24 hours. And then the Ukrainian army blew it up again.”

A VHS installation from the realm of documentary film. The pair of home video recordings, both made in 1992, are shown on two separate monitors in order to provide an aestheticised trip back to the time when the reunified German was a fragile construct and young people succumbed to (self-)destruction. VHS technology, prefab housing estates, the former East Germany, the sharp rise in neo-Nazism, the spread of hard drugs. Replace East Germany with Czechoslovakia and you see the shared experiences of the post-communist states.

This film about the life of Cubans without a roof over their heads shows how they go about their everyday activities: preparing food, discussing politics, singing songs, reading old texts by Fidel Castro, and sleeping off a hangover. Fourteen minutes of detailed observation of people overlooked by others.