Chess Story

The Seventh Seal(sv)

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

Europa(de)

A young, idealist American gets a job as a train conductor for the Zentropa railway network in postwar, US-occupied Frankfurt. As various people try to take advantage of him, he soon finds his position politically sensitive, and gets caught up in a whirlpool of conspiracies and Nazi sympathisers.

Pawn Sacrifice(en)

American chess champion Bobby Fischer prepares for a legendary match-up against Russian Boris Spassky.

Fresh(en)

Death and violence anger twelve year old drug courier Fresh, who sets his employers against each other.

Searching for Bobby Fischer(en)

A seven-year-old chess prodigy refuses to harden himself in order to become a champion like the famous but unlikable Bobby Fischer.

Saturn 3(en)

In the future, Earth is overcrowded and the population relies on distant bases to be fed. In the Saturn 3 station, Major Adam and the scientist Alex, who is also his lover and has never been on Earth, have been researching hydroponics for three years in the base alone with their dog Sally. Captain Benson arrives Saturn 3 with Hector, incapable to controlling his emotions he transfers his homicidal tendency and insanity to Hector. Now Major Adam and Alex are trapped in the station with a dangerous psychopath robot.

Analysis Paralysis(en)

A man’s head is bursting with thoughts and decisions. A gardener is about to explode – somebody has trampled on her flowerbeds. The man is looking for somebody who is better at playing chess than his dachshund. The gardener is looking for a mysterious vandal who is missing a yellow boot. In the end, they might just be looking for the same thing.

All the Pretty Horses(en)

The year is 1949. A young Texan named John Grady finds himself without a home after his mother sells the ranch where he has spent his entire life. Lured south of the border by the romance of cowboy life and the promise of a fresh start, Cole and his pal embark on an adventure that will test their resilience, define their maturity, and change their lives forever.

The Island Within(az)

Seymour Tahirbekov is an international chess grandmaster from Azerbaijan. Having won the Candidates Tournament, Seymour earns the right to challenge the defending world champion Skroten Gudmonson in the World Chess Championship match. With a few weeks left before the championship match, Seymour’s psychological and emotional state deteriorates under escalating abuse and pressure to succeed by any means.

The Chess Player(fr)

A toymaker in Poland specializes in building lifesize mechanical men. He builds a chess-playing "automaton" to hide a pretty young Polish activist who is being hunted by occupying Russian forces.

Stalag 17(en)

It's a dreary Christmas 1944 for the American POWs in Stalag 17 and the men in Barracks 4, all sergeants, have to deal with a grave problem—there seems to be a security leak.

Knight Moves(en)

A chess grandmaster is in a big tournament, and when his lover is found painted up and the blood drained out of her body he becomes a chief suspect. After he gets a call from the killer urging him to try and figure out the game, he cooperates with police and a psychologist to try and catch the killer, but doubts linger about the grandmaster's innocence as the string of grisly murders continues.

Die Grünstein-Variante(de)

The plot revolves around three men waiting to be deported in a prison. To escape the monotony, they form chess pieces from their bread rations, with which they then play against each other. Grünstein, a Polish Jew, proves to be a real talent, because although he is a beginner, he manages to defeat even the experienced player Lodeck, a German sailor, with his "Grünstein Variant".

Rondo(sh)

Every Sunday, lonely bachelor and refined judge Mladen goes to play chess with his friend, sculptor Fedji. Slowly, he engages in a love affair with Neda, Fedia's wife, and almost invisibly, a love triangle forms. Chess board is the central part of the film, as moves on the board reflect emotions of the characters.

The Hussites(cs)

What if the events in a key era in our history were actually completely different than what our history textbooks try to tell us? What if Master Jan Hus didn't even get warm in Constance, let alone burn up? What if Jan Zizka had more than one healthy eye? This animated comedy from director Pavel Koutský playfully breaks the myths about the Hussite era as the pedestal of history is occupied not by preachers and military leaders but by two unbelievable scatterbrains, who become the heroes of their time against their will.

The Coldest Game(en)

Warsaw, Poland, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962. Josh Mansky, a troubled math genius and former US chess champion, is recruited to hold a dangerous public match against the Soviet champion, while playing the deadly game of espionage hidden in the darkest shadows of a hostile territory.

WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko(en)

Set in an alternate WWI reality where a senseless war rages on, two soldiers on opposite sides of the conflict play a joyful game of chess. A heroic carrier pigeon delivers the soldiers' chess moves over the battlefield as the fighting escalates. Neither soldier knows his opponent as the game and the war builds to its climatic final move. Whoever wins the game, one thing is for certain: there are no winners in war.

Stalemate(en)

Upon a stay in his grandparent's countryside house, young writer Matt begins to encounter strange happenings as he attempts to write his first novel.

Shattered Games(pl)

The Polish national chess squad, the 'Golden Team', won the world chess championship in Hamburg in 1930, and was renamed by the German press as the 'Bombenmannschaft' ('Bomber Crew'). The film focuses on team leader, Akiba Rubinstein, alongside his fellow players Dawid Przepiórka, Ksawery Tartakower, Mieczyslaw Najdorf, Paulin Frydman and Kazimierz Makarczyk. They battle to win the trophy as well as dealing with the mental illness of Rubinstein and the outbreak of World War II. The film tracks the fate of the Polish players, some of whom are Jewish, as the Nazis occupy Poland.

Knights of the South Bronx(en)

A business man decides that he wants to teach school in the inner city and chooses a tough school in the South Bronx. He teaches the children how to play the game of chess, and along the way they learn a lot about life.

Berlin Alexanderplatz(de)

In 2015, thirty year old refugee Francis, the sole survivor of a boat that illegally crossed the Mediterranean, is drawn into Berlin's seedy underbelly.

Cycle(hu)

A messed-up astronaut runs from the deadly black fog that slowly covers everything. He seems to have only a short memory but he needs to find a way out. We repeatedly follow him through different strange scenes where he seems to meet the same people on an on again, but each time they are different and the stories they tell seem to differ as well. The film focuses on a universal problem solving situation rather than on classic linear storytelling.

Dark, Almost Night(pl)

A reporter, Alicja Tabor, after many years returns to her hometown of Wałbrzych to write a report about kidnapped children and also to face her own dark family history.

Prestij Meselesi(tr)

The film, which deals with the birth and rise of the Prestige Music generation, tells the passions and life struggles of artists, including Özcan Deniz, Haluk Levent and Mahsun Kırmızıgül, from the 1990s to the present.

Forebodings(uk)

Slow life in a small seaside town N is suddenly disturbed by a local scandal around a man who has recently passed away. Only his wife and his friend know where he was buried, and they refuse to tell the others, seemingly in accordance to his last will. Each character seeks answers to the questions of their own, but they are searching on the outside, inquiring society and each other, so their efforts are futile. Something is about to happen.

Apfelsenfsuppe(de)

Lost Horizon(en)

British diplomat Robert Conway and a small group of civilians crash land in the Himalayas, and are rescued by the people of the mysterious, Eden-like valley of Shangri-la. Protected by the mountains from the world outside, where the clouds of World War II are gathering, Shangri-la provides a seductive escape for the world-weary Conway.

It's Just a Phase, Honeybunny(de)

The successful writer Paul and the sought-after voice actress Emilia were always considered to be the absolute dream couple by friends: Harmonious, happy, successful, with three charming children named Bo, Marie and Fe. But now, in their late 40s, their relationship is threatened by a crisis.

Virgin Mountain(is)

Fúsi finds comfort in the familiarity of his routines, until an involuntary dance class forces him to encounter the real world.

Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom(uk)

A documentary on the unrest in Ukraine during 2013 and 2014, as student demonstrations supporting European integration grew into a violent revolution calling for the resignation of President Viktor F. Yanukovich.

The Fearless Vampire Killers(en)

A noted professor and his dim-witted apprentice fall prey to their inquiring vampires, while on the trail of the ominous damsel in distress.

Black Site(en)

A group of officers based in a labyrinthine top-secret prison must fight for their lives against Hatchet, a brilliant and infamous high-value detainee. When he escapes, his mysterious and deadly agenda has far reaching and dire consequences.

The Devil's Own(en)

Frankie McGuire, one of the IRA's deadliest assassins, draws an American family into the crossfire of terrorism. But when he is sent to the U.S. to buy weapons, Frankie is housed with the family of Tom O'Meara, a New York cop who knows nothing about Frankie's real identity. Their surprising friendship, and Tom's growing suspicions, forces Frankie to choose between the promise of peace or a lifetime of murder.

Inside(en)

An art thief trapped in a New York penthouse after his heist doesn't go as planned. Locked inside with nothing but priceless works of art, he must use all his cunning and invention to survive.

Pawn Sacrifice(en)

American chess champion Bobby Fischer prepares for a legendary match-up against Russian Boris Spassky.

The Informer(en)

In New York, former convict Pete Koslow, related to the Polish mafia, must deal with both Klimek the General, his ruthless boss, and the twisted ambitions of two federal agents, as he tries to survive and protect the lives of his loved ones.

The Innocents(no)

Four children become friends during the summer holidays, and out of sight of the adults they discover they have hidden powers. While exploring their newfound abilities in the nearby forests and playgrounds, their innocent play takes a dark turn and strange things begin to happen.

Dream House(en)

Publisher Will Atenton quits a lucrative job in New York to relocate his wife, Libby, and their daughters to a quaint town in New England. However, as they settle into their home the Atentons discover that a woman and her children were murdered there, and the surviving husband is the town's prime suspect. With help from a neighbor who was close to the murdered family, Will pieces together a horrifying chain of events.

Operation Finale(en)

In 1960, a team of Israeli secret agents is deployed to find Adolf Eichmann, the infamous Nazi architect of the Holocaust, supposedly hidden in Argentina, and get him to Israel to be judged.

30 Minutes or Less(en)

Two fledgling criminals kidnap a pizza delivery guy, strap a bomb to his chest, and advise him that he has mere hours to rob a bank or else...