relationships

The genealogical journey to discover the origins of exotic plant species begins in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Madrid. It was here that a mysterious box containing seeds from an expedition to South America in 1936 was found. The journey back in time and space to southern Peru involves uncovering layers of a turbulent past. Scientific knowledge and the cataloguing of flora helps explain the nature of colonial extraction of everything valuable and contributes to establishing at least partial justice and eradicating historical injustices. National heritage here functions as a non-obvious social construct that must be fought for and cared for in order to preserve its integrity. The ambient still life of the hacienda reveals the suspected brutality of the slave era. “The presence of the observer could never be neutral. Whether he is aware of it or not.”

Everything Works Out (In the End) tells the authentic story of a young woman who, out of economic necessity, decided to pay off her debts by working in the adult entertainment industry. What was meant to be a temporary solution ultimately becomes a defining chapter in her life. Sixteen years later, Katelyn seeks to change her life and reconnect with her faith; she begins working in a retirement home for aging Catholic priests and devotes herself to creative pursuits, like recording her first album, writing a book, and even taking up boxing. When, after a series of inexplicable disturbances, the Church declares her possessed by a demonic entity, Katelyn undergoes a series of exorcism sessions and a meditation on faith and redemption unfolds. Feeling the need to reconnect with her roots, she leaves Chicago and embarks on road trip across the United States towards her hometown in Massachusetts, during the last days before the 2024 presidential election. This intimate confession is intertwined with an analysis of America's political and cultural polarisation and explores how faith and creativity can shape a woman's extraordinary life experience.

Louise is a young woman with a rich imagination who fills her diaries with fragments of thoughts. When a young man named Thomas discovers one of her notebooks, he becomes part of her ghostly world. Together, they find themselves in a dark forest, where light and laughter penetrate only through narrow cracks. This space, shaped by memories and unconscious forces, is both a refuge and a portal to another reality for the young lovers. In her documentary dream, Isabel Pagliai explores the fragile inner universe of the heroine as she processes her deepest fears and desires. Reality and illusion, fantasy and emotion merge into a single hypnotic composition. “I had a strong desire to hold together two things that might seem contradictory: what happens in the moment, and what belongs to the realm of the uncanny, to the world of dreams.” — Isabel Pagliai

Sang has struggled his entire life with the stigmatizing label of being a “child of dust.” This is how the unwanted offspring of Vietnamese women and American soldiers are referred to. Tens of thousands of them were born during the Vietnam War. Most of them never knew their fathers. Fifty years after the end of the conflict, Sang continues to search for his. He hopes that with the help of a DNA test, he will finally be able to find out where he belongs. But in order to find his new family, he must leave his current one. Just like his father once did. Nevertheless, he manages this emotionally demanding journey of self-discovery and acceptance with stoic calm. The same composure is evident in Mikael Lypinski's unobtrusive camera work and the gently melancholic soundtrack by Argentine composer Joaquín García. “Fatherhood in Vietnam is your social status. When something wrong happens to you, your father is your insurance for life… not having a father means that you don’t have social relevance.” — Weronika Mliczewska

Driven by the chaotic energy of Prague’s streets, the film consists of several spontaneous surveys. Together, they paint a picture of widespread apathy, and the values of today’s Czech youth. In addition to the author herself, the film features more or less sober young people who unabashedly share their views on the climate crisis, feminism, and the war in Ukraine, with the camera. But they also talk about the meaning of life, the secrets of good sex and love, the search for (and failure to find) which is one of the central themes of the film. “We have too little time in this world to be filled with hatred.”

There was no other choice for her. She had to go and fight the evil that had taken over her country. An evil she had experienced first-hand in 2014, when she spent four days in Russian captivity in Donbas. She was so determined that she was able to leave her young son behind for an extended period of time. Now she composes letters to him in her head as helicopters fly overhead and mortar shells explode nearby. This evocative documentary portrait of life in close proximity to the front lines builds on the contrast between an incredible will to live and the duty to risk one's life for a higher cause. Not for the nation, not for the homeland, but for the free future of one's own children. “My camera has been with me since the first day of the full-scale war.” — Alisa Kovalenko

Director Diana Fabiánová's documentary offers an exceptionally intimate look at the topic of open relationships. The film does not reflect much on the social debate surrounding this issue, but instead replaces it with a personal story that shows what unexpected factors can come into play in such a marital agreement. The filmmaker turned the camera directly on herself and her family and documented how she and her partner are managing to live in a partnership with shifted “boundaries of fidelity.” She and her husband film many situations with a handheld camera, which allows us to get to the heart of their several years of experimentation with other sexual partners. The film, which is accompanied by the director's monologue and primarily follows her perspective, ultimately deals with the question of honesty in marriage, but also with identity, inherited patterns of behaviour, and the meaning of the nuclear family as such. In connection with the film and its title, Fabiánová also talks about the topic of setting and breaking boundaries between romantic partners. “The definition of infidelity depends on what the couple agrees constitutes infidelity for them.” — Diana Fabiánová Source: Forbes

Giuseppe Polerà chose an excerpt from a poem by Italian lyricist Sandro Penna as the title for his short film. However, he transposed the verse from its lyrical context into the harsh material reality of the Cuban countryside, where Leonardo and Mercedes coexist with farm animals. The middle-aged couple lives in extreme poverty, but not in sadness. Their private world, in contrast to their unchanging work routine, is imbued with warmth and joyful sensuality. Although they have almost nothing, they never cease to desire. This intimate portrait does not shy away from even the most physical expressions of love, which are also the most authentic expressions of the self in otherwise bleak social conditions. “It's the time when sleepy children are kissed on warm knees. But I, on long roads, with my eyes uselessly. Me, a worthless monster.” — Sandro Penna

Inspired by Jonas Mekas' diary films and his father's home videos, Michal Böhm composes a candid self-portrait of his own desire for fatherhood from numerous visual fragments. Six years of life, dozens of gestures, smiles, and silent faces captured by the nimble eye of an 8mm camera. A breakup with a partner, a new relationship, his mother's serious illness, meetings with friends. Demonstrations, pandemics, war, and weddings. Things both fleeting and fundamental. Life as a fabric of fleeting impressions and the camera as a tool that captures, shapes, and preserves them for future generations. And above all, reflections on the future and the legacy we will leave behind, and doubts about whether this is the right world and the right time to have a child.“But there had to be a soundtrack, and an 8mm camera doesn't record sound on its own. So in the end, I used fragments of conversations and excerpts from my own and other people's speech.” — Michal BöhmSource: Dok.revue

Director Victoria Hely-Hutchinson offers us a glimpse into a hermetically sealed, highly privileged, yet deeply toxic microcosm in her family portrait Vacances. This time-lapse film, shot over a period of ten years, follows members of several generations of a wealthy aristocratic family with Austro-Hungarian roots. The entire film is set in a Provençal villa, whose social heart is the swimming pool, around which the women gather to exchange various observations and, surreptitiously, gossip. The centre of the family is the aging matriarch, who likes to talk about her extravagant, promiscuous life, but at the same time commands all the attention and authority of those around her. However, her influence gradually weakens with each passing generation. The director herself is a member of the family being filmed and captures the dynamics of their relationships with a directness that some of her relatives describe on camera as cruel. “You would like to get all the sort of the crunchy wickedness out of people. And then you’re like a little elf going, ‘Hahahaa! Look what I have. I’ve got the money to splurge.’ And I think to myself, ‘Yeah, but you’re pretty wicked.’”