I Wish

Lucyna and Krzysztof are a long-time married couple who operate a salvage yard in a socially excluded area of Łódź, Poland. Patrycja Polkowska’s observational documentary captures how the couple transforms the salvage yard every day into an eccentric microcosm where all those who are offended or humiliated can find help.

Four migrants from Mozambique provide eyewitness testimony about the racially motivated attacks that took place in Hoyerswerda, Saxony, in 1991. Their report is read to accompany archive shots, obtained directly in the streets of German city, which are shown in one half of the frame. The other half contains drone surveillance footage obtained by Frontex, the agency responsible for protecting the European Union’s borders.DETAIL:“They shouted ‘Blacks out of this country’. They threw stones at the windows. On this day there were three of us seriously injured. Two came from the fair, one was beaten up at the intersection.”

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.”

The director and his camera dive into the world of small organisms. Insects, clams and mushrooms are shot in macro close-ups to create richly textured video images. The filmmaker’s presence in the footage reflects man’s interference in the natural order of nature. Hirofumi Nakamoto publishes his 2016 Spacecraft Diaries.

A documentary study of the eye and its functions. A compilation of images from various places gives the function of the eye new meanings. It is a tool for instilling fear, the soldier uses it to find his target, and looking into the eye of your executioner can cause him to doubt his actions. What happens when the eye stops looking?

The film is a skit on the parallels between a caretaker and a security guard embodied by the character of a young man who keeps watching over everything all the time. Repetitive and automated everyday tasks are accentuated by monotonous aesthetics of the camera and a slow-moving pace, introducing the audience into the world of Korean pragmatic mentality and sense of responsibility. 

This minimalist portrait of young parents offers a voyeuristic look at their daily routine. The intimate scenes, dominated by just two colors (grey and red) and shot using a slow zoom, are accompanied by the sounds of the city and barely audible dialogues.DETAIL:“I now remember my dream, daddy. You were at work. I was across the street. Helping some lady I think. I don't really know why. I don't remember. But I was afraid.”

In the Western Sahara desert, large cars disintegrate into the sand, surrounded by a refugee camp. Against a yellow backdrop of sand, two small boys play in one of the wrecks. A static shot like a moving photograph of time, which flows slowly in the refugee camp.DETAIL:Hamdi and Ali are playing in a rusty car wreck. They take turns in singing songs that sound almost as if they were sang by grown men and not by two kids from a refugee camp.

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 essay filmed against the backdrop of lyrical images of feather plucking or drawing with chalk presents the clerical orders of Islamic women and how they rein in their impure desires. As a subversive element of Islamic fundamentalism, the director recites a poem by Iranian feminist writer Forough Farrokhzad.

A raw statement on the life of a criminal unjustly accused of the murder of the son of a prominent Texas attorney, committed by his accomplice during a robbery. Through footage shot in prison, the film captures the desperation felt by a man a few hours before his scheduled execution.DETAIL:“Where you taking me to? I’ll probably give approval... if you tell me what you're doing. How you expect me to participate in something if you don’t tell me what you’re doing to me.”

During the day, Oxana paints frames as a man; at night, she puts on her female skin. Oxana is a transsexual living in Moldova, where even expressions of tolerance towards sexual minorities can be dangerous. This short film is an intimate look at gender and at the social isolation of people denied to right to their own identity.