If you want to see the war live, all you have to do is pay five shekels to look across the Israeli border at the devastated Gaza Strip. In Sderot, Jewish and Israeli society come together around a tourist telescope trained on the front line. An observational sociological study on the monetisation of war and the loss of compassion asks who these people are and how they feel.“Compassion, even when it feels almost impossible, may be the only place from which healing can begin.” This film was created independently through the voluntary collaboration of all creators. This is a fully independent film. No member of the creative or production team, and no member of the crew, received any payment for their work on the film. 

Ahmed moved back to Egypt from Saudi Arabia in 2017. That was the last time he saw his classmate and best friend. This evocative account of loss uses videos and an inner monologue to look back in time and, through six symbolic gifts, explores why some friendships fall apart and where the line between care and dependence lies.“I don't claim to have told the complete truth… but I hope that everything I’ve said here is true.”

This time-lapse documentary condenses the entire 21-day development of a chicken – from fertilised egg to the hatching of the chick – into a nine-minute film. In microscopic detail and in full colour, we observe the early stages of life within the fragile shell, which so often cracks prematurely at the hands of humans seeking to satisfy their base appetites. “What is particularly interesting I think, is that the basics of embryonic development are the same for all animals, including us. I think the way we develop is a true miracle.” — Jan van IJken Source: Colossal

Through an intimate, unfiltered video diary, Mariana Macháňová captures her family’s grief as her mother approaches death. For the filmmaker, the camera becomes both a therapeutic tool and a means of creating distance. She records meanderings down sterile hospital corridors, taking what is likely their last selfie together in her mother’s hospital bed, and the scattering of her ashes. Coming to terms with loss also prompts reflections on the ethics of this kind of filming. The filmmaker asks whether it is acceptable to bring a camera into moments of extreme vulnerability, when the act of filming helps one turn fleeting fragments into something lasting and thus process grief. “So I thought I’d heal myself by making a film.”

Nieves wants nothing more than to have a rabbit. But it wasn’t always like that. After having her fallopian tubes tied, she woke up longing for a long-eared friend. Nieves is, in fact, mentally disabled. Since her mother’s death, she has been living with her sister in a workers’ cottage on the outskirts of Madrid, working at a laundry mangle (calandra), where rabbits scamper past her windows. calandra (Spanish) – an industrial ironing machine used in professional laundries (hotels, hospitals, laundry facilities) for ironing and drying flat linen. Source of the quote.

This apocalyptic cinéma vérité depicts the socio-economic situation in a remote Iranian village, which is lashed by violent sandstorms for 120 days a year. This is not a scene from the apocalypse, but the harsh reality for the inhabitants of Taj Mir in South Khorasan Province. Their sole source of income is hand-sewn “dotuk” dolls, a traditional ritual object that has become a commodity. “Villagers revive ancestral dolls as a means of survival, confronting the fragile line between cultural heritage and harsh contemporary realities.” 

Every year in August, thousands of people flock to the area around the Bulgarian village of Zheravna, where a folk-costume festival takes place. For a few days, the combination of picturesque countryside, the sound of drums and traditional bagpipes, and costumes from days gone by brings back the feeling of a world governed by the cycles of human life and the seasons – even if there is a “need” to take the odd selfie now and then.“With this type of work, it’s about the relationship as much as it’s about filming.” — Sophia Bartholomew, Public Parking

More than 100,000 Ukrainians have already lost a limb as a result of the unjust war unleashed by Russia. Their scarred bodies are tended to by nurses behind the front lines. This is a film about touch – comforting and essential – that seeks to rekindle life from the flesh of the body where the soul is suffering.“This only happens with time — in their case, two and a half years of production — but above all with the trust, the bond and the respect that forms with the people, the stories and the realities you set out to tell.” — Giacomo Locci, FerraraToday.

For a woman, having an abortion can outwardly bring humiliation, social condemnation and an admission of inevitability. What goes on inside often remains hidden. This analytical piece on attitudes towards motherhood is built precisely upon the contrast between the visible surface (archival footage of mothers and flowers) and the unknown inner world (women’s anonymous accounts).“This topic is personal to me. If for no other reason, then simply because as a woman, I am disturbed by the curtailing and limiting of my own freedom to decide about my fate and health.” — Dorota Vlnová Source: European Short Pitch

The brothers Raul, Raimundo and Juldemar Batista de Souza recall human trafficking, violence and killings reminiscent of slavery in the American South. However, their employer was the German car manufacturer Volkswagen, which bought part of the rainforests in Brazil and, between 1973 and 1987, hired labourers for logging and cattle farming. “My films blur the boundaries of non-fiction and explore bodies, landscapes and orality as archives where past and present fold into each other.” — Benjamin Hindrichs Source: Benjamin Hindrichs's website.

This intimate documentary follows a bride-to-be who, according to Manding tradition, must spend the three days before her wedding in seclusion. Silence gives rise to questions: Was her mother afraid too? How can she be gentle, strong and true to herself? Between rituals and prayers, she enters a state of deep introspection and senses there is very much she has not been told. “It is a very special cinematic genre, because these are unique and unforgettable moments that we live through.” — Zeinab Soumahoro, Abidjan.netSource 

A short documentary set in a chicken slaughterhouse, where, amidst the filth, stench, decaying remains of animal carcasses and swarms of insects, a cat and her kittens manage to survive. In a place so deeply marked by human indifference to the death of other creatures, they paradoxically provide at least a hint of the unyielding desire to play, explore, or simply to live. “I strive for a naturalistic style in which viewers become immediate, situational observers.” — Eric M. WeglehnerSource: The Gap