It's Hard By Oneself...(1980)

Miyama, Kyōto Prefecture(de)

The follow-up film to “Barstow, California” takes us to the mountains of Miyama, a remote forest and tourist area north of Kyoto. Uwe Walter, a shakuhachi player from Germany, lives there with his wife Mitsuyo for 30 years. Together with the villagers he prepares the annual Gion Festival. On the eve of the festival, the village representatives tell him that his self-built studio is to be demolished. This brings back memories for him of earlier times and his first steps as a Nō actor. In the manner of a fresco, the film interweaves rural depictions of everyday life with the story of its German protagonist. In the village community with its togetherness of generations, Uwe shares life with his neighbours, with farmers, hunters, woodsmen, poultry farmers and anglers, tills his kitchen garden, and like other tradition-conscious villagers, he also grows his rice. The film shows them in a harsh mountain landscape between the rainy season and the first snow.

Bird Woman(de)

Annedore takes care of orphan birds. They give her that which humans througout her turbulent life could never give her: love.

The Deal(en)

Stop-motion animation on the arranging of marriages in 1950/60s set in the Eastern-Polish borderland. The script is based on a part of Mikołaj Smyk's diary, the director's grandfather. The biographical objects used in the animation, such as an authentic headscarf, Polish and Russian books, the copy of Mikołaj Smyk's diary and photographs help situate the story in its original environment.

Time(en)

Fox Rich, indomitable matriarch and modern-day abolitionist, strives to keep her family together while fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. An intimate, epic, and unconventional love story, filmed over two decades.

Ben Affleck & Jennifer Lopez: Never Say Never(en)

The love story of pop icon Jennifer Lopez and movie star Ben Affleck began with a movie set meeting in 2002, then weaved to a Las Vegas altar 20 years later.

La ruta de don Quijote(es)

A poetic journey through the paths and places of old Castile that were traveled and visited by the melancholic knight Don Quixote of La Mancha and his judicious squire Sancho Panza, the immortal characters of Miguel de Cervantes, which offers a candid depiction of rural life in Spain in the early 1930s and illustrates the first sentence of the first article of the Spanish Constitution of 1931, which proclaims that Spain is a democratic republic of workers of all kind.

Bucolic(pl)

Danusia and her daughter Basia live far away from the modern world, in tune with the rhythm and laws of nature, among animals and the spirits of the dead. The peace and sense of security offered by their enclave come at a price - the women increasingly long for contact with other people. Bucolic is an affectionate observation of people who live in a different way. It evokes a curiosity about their world and a desire to take a closer look.

The Balcony Movie(pl)

Composed from the conversations that the director holds with people passing by in the street under his Warsaw apartment, each story in 'The Balcony Movie' is unique and deals with the way we try to cope with life as individuals. All together, they create a self-portrait of contemporary human life, and the passers-by present a composite picture of today's world.

PLEH(nl)

An experimental journey through a year in the life of the director, using his always playing playlist to cross the boundaries of fiction and documentary. Through scenes of both comedy and tragedy, realistic documentary footage and experimental sequences of the director's environment and daily life we get a sometimes estranging image of a young man and also an intriguing insight in his mindset and how this translates to the imagery on screen.

Picture Proof(en)

Examines the intergenerational impact of addiction by chronicling the love, labor, loss, and uncertainty of one woman’s struggle to live a life of sobriety. Weaving together moments of glee, fulfillment, acceptance, sorrow, and disappointment, this documentary takes an intimate look at the bonds that hold one family together and a disease that threatens to tear them apart.

The Ugliest Car(pl)

The youngest protagonist of the documentary is Wartburg, an automobile over 50 years of age. The car is still on the road, driven by Bogdan, a 70-year-old who is taking his mother to visit the German factory where she was forced to work during WWII. In this road movie which takes place between Majdanpek and Germany, the trip becomes a journey into the past, retracing memories from the war and revealing a unique relationship between an old son and his elderly mother.

SYNCHRONOUS(nl)

SYNCHRONOUS is an intimate portrait of love and the reverse side of love: mourning. The granddaughter/maker looks idealistically at the endless love between her grandfather and grandmother. When her grandfather dies, she decides to look for answers by filming her grandmother. What happens when you've been together all your life and your great love dies? Where is the love then?

L'Amour vache(fr)

Past Projection(id)

Kurnia, a 37-year-old woman, returns to face her past memories through projected images that bring both emotion and sorrow. On this journey, she recounts the stories of love, acceptance, separation, and regret that shaped who she is today. Remininsing her memories, Kurnia slowly finds the strength to let go of her attachment to the past and attain a sense of acceptance.

Polsko(cs)

Partners(en)

18 partners discuss the choices they’ve made in deciding on their mates. At its heart, this unscripted documentary film is about acceptance; a gentle message that we shouldn’t judge the choices of others, even if they seem a little different.

Once My Mother(en)

Australian filmmaker Sophia Turkiewicz investigates why her Polish mother abandoned her and uncovers the truth behind her mother's wartime escape from a Siberian gulag, leaving Sophia to confront her own capacity for forgiveness.

Treehugger(en)

A Valentine's Day story about a young couple, how they get together, and how they fall apart. All because of one tree.

Qurbat(en)

It's been 2 years since they've been together. They haven't seen each other in person. Only pixels on a screen.

The Broker(fa)

In a traditional Iranian dating agency, the manager, Mrs. Sadri, and her female employees are dead set on finding their clients a husband.