youth

This autobiographical film, standing on the borderline between reality and fiction, explores diverse forms of faith and spirituality. Director Irene Dorigotti guides the film dressed in a Boy Scout uniform – a reminder of her family heritage – as she travels through her native Italy and remote areas, meeting spiritual leaders and ordinary people. For her, these encounters mark decisive moments in her spiritual journey and in her discovery of the role that religion can play in the life of contemporary man. Poetic images of landscapes, dreamlike passages and fragments of personal history, together with poignant music, create a powerful statement about the nature of humanity.“I spent most of my childhood walking in the woods and sharing the path with other children, seeking a God in falling stars – a God who could answer the big questions of a little life.” (Source)

This animated documentary, created using puppets made from newspaper clippings, is about a Kurdish-Iranian family of four who died in the sinking of a migrant boat in the English Channel in 2020. At the time of the tragedy, there were ten more people on board than the vessel could hold. One of the victims was nine-year-old Anita, from whose perspective we follow the story. But did strict laws restricting safe border crossings change her fate? And how many more victims will they claim? “A person who longs to leave the place where he lives is an unhappy person.” — Milan Kundera

Men still have a privileged position. Yet the concept of a “crisis of masculinity” is increasingly permeating the media, with a loosening of roles and a growing uncertainty about what it means to be a man today. The director Jan Hušek also asks this question. He was still wetting himself by the age of thirteen, which earned him the unflattering nickname that is the film's title. In his open video diary, he captures the physical and spiritual transformation of his journey from boy to man. He returns to the woods and the roots of his childhood trauma. In doing so, he turns the camera on himself as well as on various teachers or his father. Perhaps the mark of adulthood, after all, is not overwrought masculinity, but the acceptance of his inner “pisspants”.“I ran away from home at night, and while walking through the woods I realized that becoming a man was up to me alone.”

A young woman in love embarks on a dangerous journey to find a man she met on the internet and doesn't know much about. Her stubbornness goes so far that the director is forced to stop her. The film thus opens up questions about the author's responsibility for the subjects she is following in documentary filmmaking. “Bingru met Cai Jinlong, a guy from Guangdong, on QQ blog.”

Q&A with Hans BlixThe former head of the UN Security Council's weapons inspectorate, Swedish diplomat Hans Blix, is currently enjoying a peaceful retirement; nonetheless, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 sent tremors through his life and career. In the wake of the tragedy, he was entrusted with the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the accompanying role of supposed peacemaker who had the ability to influence the future fate of the country. Without any proof of the existence of the weapons, a year and a half later they served as a pretext for the invasion of Iraq by US troops. In her documentary, Greta Stocklassa asks where the limits of diplomacy, human empathy or personal responsibility for political decisions that have an impact on world history begin and end. “The world has gradually become hostile. Is it just the way one grows up? Why can't we live in peace?” — Greta Stocklassa

The medical profession requires not only detailed knowledge of diagnostic and treatment procedures, but also personal qualities or communication skills. Can these be taught? Jindřich Andrš' observational film shows new ways of teaching at the Second Faculty of Medicine of Charles University. We follow medics who find themselves in challenging simulated and real situations - for the first time in the role of a doctor. "I must say that this is a style of teaching that we have not had the chance to encounter before, and the actual experience is absolutely irreplaceable. The emotions are real and you don't feel comfortable at all."

Childlike imagination, naive playfulness and an enchanted view of the world are at the centre of this poetic film. The child protagonists talk about their dreams, fantasies and experiences while touching on metaphysical questions of body and soul, life and death. Magic permeates every frame of this colourful collage. “I don’t have any imaginary friend because I’m a realist.”

The three female protagonists present their personal relationship with intravenous drug use, and their intimate confessions are filled with fear and insecurity but also love for the state of intoxication. Ambient music in the background and colourful textures multiplying over shots of the everyday reality of drug users create an almost dreamlike world. “I won’t feel the full effects the whole night, but it will help take my mind off things.”

Els' daughter doesn't want to live anymore. The formerly cheerful child became suicidal at the age of 13, to such an extent that she has to spend most of her time under medical supervision. She sees euthanasia as the only solution to her desperate condition. She not only wants to abandon her life, but unfortunately also her mother, who can only stand by and watch. “The themes of motherhood, the motifs of the mother-child relationship, are inspired by the relationship with my own mother and my own possible relationship with motherhood.” Source: We Are Moving Stories

The documentary adaptation of the novel by the well-known Flemish writer Louis Paul Boon is conceived as a polyphony consisting of voiceovers of three characters inhabiting a common apartment. A man, a woman and their maid, the latter of whom is many years younger than them, take turns using their inner voices in expressing reflections on their own and each other's lives.“The poetics of the source novel take on new power as this highly original approach brings literature to life, while the apparent randomness of overlapping texts and recurring motifs makes for a very particular and unexpected filmmaking experience.”Source: Diagonale

Theatre director Jan Kačena poisoned himself in 2019 by inhaling fumes and suffered irreversible brain damage. While his partner makes a film as a declaration of love, he lies unconscious. In the film, the director follows moments in the everyday lives of three people close to him: Czech rapper Tyler Durden, painter Tadeáš Pochman and film director Helena Papírníková. In a naturalistic way, it captures drug addiction, self-destructive tendencies and family problems, which are the subject of intimate, often uncomfortable conversations. The result is a diary-style probe into the fate of the artistic bohemia of late capitalism. “Maybe you're just a spoiled brat playing the anarchist bit.”

Mike and Jeanne live together, spend their free time together, have sex – just about everything partners usually do. Except that at the beginning of their relationship, instead of mutual affection followed by gradual bonding, there is a legal contract. As contractual obligations, it lists some of the duties and rights that usually accompany the cohabitation of two people. The social experiment they both entered into with different expectations is the main theme of the film, which looks at the conflicting nature of emotions and reason in the web of interpersonal relationships. And it tries to answer the question: Is it possible to plan love just like a project with a set goal? “By behaving like a part of an ordinary couple's life, Jeanne tries to fit into a heteronormative world in order to show its absurdity.” Source: Leon Blog

Jiří Menzel, a bachelor, is looking for a partner in an instructional film about how not to be alone. This socially futuristic probe into the souls of singles with a lack of dating opportunities shows that new times offer new possibilities – like a Swiss computer for finding the partner of your dreams.

The film shows a cleansing ritual in the presence of two shoes and four girls who know that revenge is healthy for people.

An elderly Vietnamese couple has been running a fresh orange juice stand for many years. They live and work at the Sapa market in Prague. This observational documentary about work and homesickness offers a unique sketch of everyday life in a place that is often described as the heart of the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic. “Sometimes you suddenly die because of irony.”

Baby clothes on the line, a fictional mother and cots for sixty-five boys and girls stuck in time paint a sensitive portrait of the residents of a children’s home. The probe into a fragile world of those who are waiting accompanies Táborský's socially-themed feature films Escape in the Wind and Miraculous Puzzle.

Emma's mother first idolized Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was then replaced by Russell Crowe, and the household’s DVD collection grew to include all the actor's films. At the same time, however, there is no real man in her mother’s world. She lives for her daughter and makes do with a few close female friends with whom she throws frivolous house parties. The apparent contradiction between the manifestation of the sex drive and its fulfilment leads the director to question the things that remain unspoken and yet define her and her mother’s coexistence. And, in deep introspection, it also leads to the painful realisation that she herself might be carrying her mother's traumas. “I see myself continuing to research between the line of art and documentary film. Letting my voice be heard in today’s society as a filmmaker who happens to be queer and female.” Source: Film Freeway