Southern Border(2003)

Motherland(de)

Director Miriam Pucitta grew up as the child of Italian migrant workers in Switzerland in the 1960s and 1970s. She herself has only fragmentary memories of this time; her mother and other relatives evade Miriam's questions. Together with her daughter Giulia, she researches her family's living conditions in Switzerland and finds a new understanding of her parents' difficult decisions.

The Face of a City(fa)

The stories of four Iranian families who emigrate to Canada and the city they leave behind. As departure time approaches, social spaces become places of memory, fading into the distance.

Bastards(en)

At 14 Rabha El Haimer was an illiterate child bride, beaten, raped and then rejected. Ten years later, she is a single mother, fighting to legalise her sham marriage and secure a future for her illegitimate daughter. With unprecedented access to the Moroccan justice system, “Bastards” follows Rabha’s fight from the Casablanca slums to the high courts.

Khaïma(ar)

El precio de la risa(es)

The life of Paco Martínez Soria (1902-1982), one of the most famous and beloved Spanish actors, both on stage and screen; a comedian, a theatrical producer, an idol for the masses. A celebration of the uncommon gift of making people laugh.

A New Life, A New Fight(en)

A meeting between two strangers sparks the desire to understand each other through the medium of cinema. They both simultaneously start recording their surroundings on camera and crafting the resulting footage. They, Elettra from Italy and Hazem from Gaza, become the subjects of this film that documents their first moments together. It depicts a multi-faceted reality in which North and South confront each other in a discussion on rights and inequalities, a reality in which we witness a migration towards one another, while capturing an intimate way of making a film together.

Our Southern Home(th)

A documentary film tells the true story of the locals in southern of Thailand through the life of 4 families that live in different provinces, but hand and share their kindness to one another. The reality of their life is arranged into the story disclosing beautiful sides of the southern of Thailand and changing the point of view about the violence that's been happened in the area.

Orbayu(fr)

Nina Caprez and Cédric Lachat are passionate climbers. A passion they share and pushed them to become professionals. They travel around the world in search of walls and cliffs of exception. In Spring 2014 they set up camp beneath one of the most difficult multi-pitch routes in the world – Orbayu (2000 meters). Orbayu is a large limestone tooth which rises above the natural park of Picos de Europa in Spain. This huge wall is among the most beautiful in the world. It’s a mixture of extreme difficulty (8c). But the major problem with this type of wall lies in the fact that weather changes are very fast: rain, low temperatures, wind, etc… The ascent of such walls demand unusual experience. Nina and Cédric document joy, fear, danger, but also the beauty of climbing in Orbayu.

Children of Wool(en)

Shot on location in a very remote part of southern Morocco, this short film looks into the amazing craftsmanship and dedication of the Berber rug weavers in the region. These incredibly talented people are part of an ancient tradition that still employs centuries-old techniques to produce beautiful and unique handwoven rugs.

#AbroHilo(es)

Humor shapes the way Spaniards interact on Twitter: all sorts of topics can be used to make a joke and many anonymous commentators can become celebrities and compete with professional comedians. But sometimes certain jokes that defy political correctness have a high price for those who dare to make them, jokes that can freeze the smiles of thousands of people whose prejudices can put an end to some very successful artistic careers.

Special Flight(fr)

Switzerland still carries out special flights, where passengers, dressed in diapers and helmets, are chained to their seats for 40 hours at worst. They are accompanied by police officers and immigration officials. The passengers are flown to their native countries, where they haven't set foot in in up to twenty years, and where their lives might be in danger. Children, wives and work are left behind in Switzerland. Near Geneva, in Frambois prison, live 25 illegal immigrants waiting for deportation. They are offered an opportunity to say goodbye to their families and return to their native countries on a regular flight, escorted by plain-clothes police officers. If they refuse this offer, the special flight is arranged fast and unexpectedly. The stories behind the locked cells are truly heartbreaking.

Manda huevos(es)

A look at the different masculinities portrayed in Spanish cinema through time. (A sequel to “Barefoot in the Kitchen,” 2013.)

Magnicidios Poe(es)

The sarcastic account of the assassination of five Spanish politicians between 1870 and 1973 is mixed with the narration of five short stories by Edgar Allan Poe illustrated by five skillful pencil artists. A documentary, a video essay, a collage, a provocative experiment where various pop culture figures and icons perform unexpected cameos. The macabre joke of a jester. Never more.

Chasing Red(en)

Everyone has heard of Pamplona's Running of the Bulls, yet so few know much about it. Even fewer know that there is an elite group of runners who brave dozens of bull runs each year, risking their life to run inches away from the sharp horns of the 1000+ pound ferocious animals they revere. Chasing Red is a character-driven documentary following 4 runners across the eight bull runs of a single fiesta in Pamplona. Braving through injury and looming risk of death, they embark on an endeavor that will shape their lives forever.

Gyrischachen - von Sünden, Sofas und Cervelats(en)

A high-rise apartment built in the 1960s provides housing for 2500 people from 42 nations. Separated from the city by a river and bounded by towering sandstone cliffs, everyone attempts to live and survive in their own way. Foreigners who have a go at being Swiss, and Swiss who observe with scepticism. They meet in the corner shop run by an Iraqi living in exile, send their kids to a children’s club managed by a missionary, and old drinking mates meet regularly over a beer in the neighbourhood’s only bar. Despite all the differences, they are rather proud of the fact that they come from here.

Our Family(en)

"Our Family" is a film about the time that we can't get back. I left my home along with my friends and family behind in 2017, when I was aged 15 to study in the United States. In some ways I feel like I may have not been best suited to make that decision for myself at the time, but 4 years later, I decided to take this opportunity to reflect on my departure and to reconnect with my family. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I haven't been able to go home to Sikkim in over 2 years. Talking to my parents over WhatsApp, I recorded two interviews with them discussing stories from the collective past of our family as well as individual ones. I was able to discover the love story my parents were a part of before I was even born, recollect the bits and pieces of my childhood that I'm beginning to forget, and process how my departure has affected my relationship with my parents and the course of our lives.

Lessons for Zafirah(es)

A metaphor of the Flood in our times, The Flood is the rain of violence that washes over us. Noah´s Ark is the train that runs through Mexico toward the United States and migrants are the species attempting to save their lives. For the directors, cinema moves people not just by condemnation, but by confronting and fostering emotions which lead to new, constructive ideas. This documentary became a cinematographic diary for their first viewer, their three-year-old daughter, Zafirah.

Mirage(it)

Mali - Algeria - Libya - Italy. Issa’s escape from West Africa to the European mainland lasted ten years. Everything was supposed to be better here. But when he arrived in Rome, the only thing waiting for the young man was a life of homelessness and unemployment – which meant no money to send home. Drissa and Sekou share a similar fate, waiting in Italian asylum centres for a residence permit. Then there’s Bubu, who, forced to move from job to job, is unable to settle down. And lastly comes Alassane, who lives without identity papers in a state of constant uncertainty in a refugee camp near Rome. They all have one thing in common: after a gruelling odyssey, none of them has found the Italy they were hoping for when they arrived. Disillusioned, they find themselves in a vacuum of waiting, reflecting on the time they live in and the time that lies ahead.

Cierzo(es)

At the border between Navarre and Aragon we find the moors known as the Bardenas Reales, characterized by the dust and the omnipresence of the northern wind. This is a portrait of a land, but also a journey through Pilar’s memories. It is a glance at the past but also the present, and about how everything has changed, for better or worse.

Viramundo(pt)

Viramundo shows the saga of the northeastern migrants that arrive in São Paulo, beginning with a train arriving and ending with a train leaving São Paulo in a cycle repeated every day. Viramundo's aim was to question why the military coup d'état in Brazil happened without any popular resistance or revolution or reaction of the society.