War in the Central African Republic(2014)

Sìrìrì(fr)

Since 2013, the Central African Republic has been embroiled in a conflict between Christian and Muslim armed groups. While diamonds and gold are traded in global indifference, a cardinal and an imam fight together for interreligious coexistence.

Dictator: One Crazy Job(fr)

They’ve become the human face of inhuman barbarity. Leaders like Hitler, Idi Amin Dada, Stalin, Kim Jong Il, Saddam Hussein, Nicolae Ceausescu, Bokassa, Muammar Kadhafi, Khomeini, Mussolini and Franco governed their countries completely cut off from reality. These paranoid leaders were driven to abuse their power by the pathology of power itself. Dictators are driven by a relentless, thought-out determination to impose themselves as infallible, all-knowing and all-powerful beings. But they are also men ruled by their caprices, uncontrollable impulses, and reckless fits of frenzy, which paradoxically render them as human as anyone else. The abuses they committed were clearly atrocious, yet some of them were as outlandish as the characters portrayed in the film The Dictator. They sunk to depths worthy of Kafka: so incredibly absurd, they are outrageously funny.

The War Against Women(es)

Sexual violence against women is a very effective weapon in modern warfare: instills fear and spreads the seed of the victorious side, an outrageous method that is useful to exterminate the defeated side by other means. This use of women, both their bodies and their minds, as a battleground, was crucial for international criminal tribunals to begin to judge rape as a crime against humanity.

Caterpillars(fr)

Elvis Sabin’s assured debut follows Albert and André, two Central African Aka Pygmies, as they attempt to establish a new education system in their forest community. The last in their village still attending school, they are determined to pass their knowledge on, holding classes for other Aka children every afternoon. But their project requires funding and they are counting on the year’s caterpillar (known as “Makongo”) harvest to provide much needed income. Evocatively capturing the visual and sonic textures of the forest, Makongo is a layered ethnographic study of two men working to build a sustainable future for their community.

Echoes from a Sombre Empire(de)

Documentary examining Bokassa's rule in the Central African Republic using the testimony of witnesses and visits to key sites.

Song from the Forest(en)

25 years ago, Louis Sarno, an American, heard a song on the radio and followed its melody into the Central Africa Jungle and stayed. He than recorded over 1000 hours of original BaAka music. Now he is part of the BaAka community and raises his pygmy son, Samedi. Fulfilling an old promise, Louis takes Samedi to America. On this journey Louis realizes he is not part of this globalized world anymore but globalization has also arrived in the rainforest. The BaAka depend on Louis for their survival. Father and son return to the melodies of the jungle but the question remains: How much longer will the songs of the forest be heard?

Arlette. Courage is a muscle(sg)

A pain management specialist in a Berlin hospital laments how difficult it is to see if black skin has turned blue. The patient, 15­year­ old Arlette, doesn’t understand German. Her knee was injured in the war, and unknown wealthy Germans have helped pay for her trip to have surgery in Europe. The camera follows Arlette on her journey, from her worried family in Central African Republic to the desolate rooms of the hospital and the rehabilitation centre. The girl’s gaze is captivating but impenetrable, and the easily bored teenager surrounded by adult strangers is only cheered up by an interpreter who knows her mother tongue. The story takes a gloomier turn when it transpires that rebel forces have taken up arms in Arlette’s home country.

Pygmies: The Children of the Jungle(en)

The adventurer, Ivan Bulík, traveled all through Africa. However, one of his dreams still eluded him: He desired to capture the life and customs of the smallest people on Earth, to find the undisturbed civilization of Pygmies.

Notre ami l'empereur Bokassa Ier(fr)

Bokassa Ier, empereur de Françafrique(fr)

The Silence of the Forest(fr)

A film about the difficulty for even the most well-intentioned person to know and respect another culture. In this case, the problem is so acute that there is even heated debate over what to call that 'other.' The subtitles in the film use the familiar word 'pygmies,' a relatively pejorative European term; the Bantu or villagers' expression for the same group, Babingas, carries similar negative connotations. These highly specialized, tropical rainforest hunter-gatherers should perhaps be called by their own ethnonym, Aka, MoAka (sing.) and BaAka (pl.)

Stripper(en)

A strippers' convention and a major contest. The movie focuses on a few strippers, each with her own strong motive to win.

Beyond Right & Wrong: Stories of Justice and Forgiveness(en)

A survivor of the Rwandan Genocide struggles to forgive the man who killed her children. A victim’s daughter strikes up an unusual friendship with the ex-IRA bomber who killed her father. And two men—one Israeli, one Palestinian—form a bond after tragedies claim their daughters.

Maidan(uk)

A chronicle of the civil uprising against the regime of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych that took place in Kyiv in the winter of 2013/14. The film follows the progress of the revolution: from peaceful rallies, half a million strong in the Maidan square, to the bloody street battles between protesters and riot police.

The White Stadium(de)

A profile of the 1928 Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Grizzly Man(en)

Follows the story of "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in his attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.

Gaps(ca)

Can oral history restore a forgotten part of our past? Can it break the silence perpetuated over generations? In 1969, seventeen-year-old Mariona was arrested and imprisoned in a reformatory governed by the Patronato de Protección a la Mujer (Women's Welfare Agency), which was dedicated to "regenerating fallen women" during the Francoist dictatorship. In 2023, Mariona and her daughter look back in an effort to piece together her story.

EFKA: The Fastest Girl In The Universe(cs)

New documentary about the career of world-class snowboarder Eva Adamczyková. This inspiring film takes you behind the scenes of her team and shows you where Eva comes from. The last years have been a difficult test for her in both her personal and professional life. In this documentary, you will learn how she coped with them.

Rave Toloka(uk)

The outbreak of the war was an impetus for the active development of civil society in Ukraine. The growing wave of civic consciousness has reached even the most remote corners of society - the rave community. Those who were considered "hedonists" organized one of the largest movements in Ukraine to help places destroyed by the war, not forgetting to bring their identity, their music with them.

Sanna från Nablus(sv)