Between the Seas: Student Film Competition

A sequence of bucolic black-and-white fragments of the southern Tuscan countryside opens a portrait of a peaceful daily routine, of reconciled old age spent in a sun-drenched idyll. Without a hint of emotion, Jochen, aged seventy, outlines the unsettled life of a retired drug smuggler, the life of a person with two stories – one as an outlaw, the second as the respectable head of a family. The account starts with the first days of the hippy movement and psychedelia in Germany, covers the profitable illegal subsistence associated with marijuana, opium and heroin, and ends with a transitory existence in the Tuscan paradise. It is a monotonous narrative of an uncommon life intertwined with the motif of personal freedom as symbolized by a ride on an unsaddled horse.   Q&A with Daniel Fill:  

Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny – the National Radical Camp – ONR. The last knights defending the right in Poland. An extremist neo-Nazi group defending the values of nationalism and true faith. This focused collection of scenes showing the executive apparatus of power honestly and consistently uses trust and opportunities to take a look behind the scenes at the organization of marches, meetings with citizens, and even volunteer efforts to collect clothing for the elderly. In precisely composed shots, the atrocious leap from the Warsaw Uprising to genocide, to a modern day Kristallnacht, is interwoven with the intimate confessions of the protagonists. Snapshots from the life of these mercenaries of hate reveal the ideology of the right-wing extremism that has taken control of public space in Poland.You can watch the director’s introduction HERE.Q&A with the director Michał Edelman:

The Făgăraș Mountain in the northern part of the Eastern Carpathians in Romania. The camera is concealed at the heart of an avalanche. Sunlight is a symbol of rescue. The daily work of the mountain rescue service oscillates between the omnipresent threat of death, the chilling beauty of the mountains and the endless efforts to save human lives. The solidarity of mountain pilgrims permeated by not only a sense of freedom but also hopelessness during the search for twisted bodies and brain tissue buried under tons of snow. The closeness of death as a fascinating path leading towards God.You can watch a short introduction from the director Ioanna Grigore HERE.Q&A with the director Ioanna Grigore and editor Cristian Georgescu :

The freezing environment of a depopulated Chechen village during the harsh winter months is in stark contrast to the warmth of a traditional, Slavic, country home where a mother lives with her daughter and tabby cat. Everyday activities and simple rituals like embroidering, watching television, or shelling sunflower seeds can easily be disrupted by the unexpected arrival of a former resident who returns to her native village after a long period of absence. This aesthetically pleasing and captivating film calmly introduces the viewer to the simple life of Chechen peasants, acting as a melancholic suspension of modern, hectic times that have hardly affected the protagonists in the film.   “In my camerawork, I like to play with light and silhouettes. This comes from the time when I was still living in Chechnya. In the evenings, we had to turn off all the lights to avoid snipers and bombings. As army trucks passed by, their headlamps shined against the walls, forming intriguing shadows.” Z. Kourazov, Interview 2018   Q&A with Zaur Kourazov:  

The earth is scorched; trees are dying; species are becoming extinct; rivers are drying up. Human interventions have thrown the ecosystem off balance. The irreversible changes will have a devastating impact. A trip of a young urban couple to the country provides a base for a spontaneous poetic contemplation on dried-up landscape and mankind's environmental grief. Nature has ceased to be a relaxing place. Looking at nature can cause anguish. In this film about contradictions of ecological awareness, the ability to articulate such grief, be it through a prosaic statement or poem, meets the inability to let go off one's thoughts and feelings, to think outside the box and act on it.