AJAMI, Germany / Israel
written & directed by Scandar Copti & Yaron Shani
produced by Mosh Danon, Thanassis Karathanos & Talia Kleinhendler
director of photography Boaz Yehonatan Yacov
main cast Shahir Kabaha (Omar), Ibrahim Frege (Malek), Fouad Habash (Nasri), Youssef Sahwani (Abu Elias), Ranin Karim (Hadir), Eran Naim (Dando), Scandar Copti (Binj)
Jaffa’s Ajami neighbourhood is a melting pot of cultures and conflicting views among Jews, Muslims and Christians. Back and forth in time, and through the eyes of various characters, we witness how impossible the situation actually is… Sensitive 13-year-old Nasri and his older brother Omar live in fear when their entire family is in danger after their uncle foolishly wounds a prominent clan member. Naive young Palestinian refugee Malek works illegally in Israel to help finance the surgery that will save his mother’s life. Affluent Palestinian Binj dreams of a bright future with his Jewish girlfriend. Jewish policeman Dando and his family undergo a frustrating search for his missing younger brother, a soldier… The tragic fragility of human existence is experienced in the enclosed community of Ajami, where enemies must live as neighbours. No location better expresses the dramatic collision of different worlds.
GAGMA NAPIRI (The Other Bank), Georgia / Kazakhstan
directed by George Ovashvili
written by Nugzar Shataidze
produced by George Ovashvili & Sain Gabdullin
director of photography Shahahir Assadi
main cast Tedo Bekhauri (Tedo), Sopho Gvritishvili (Keto), Galoba Gambaria (Tsupak), Nika Alajajev (Goshka), Tamara Meskhi (Miriam), Archil Tabukashvili (1st boy), Temo Goginava (2nd boy), Lia Abuladze (Zita), Berdia Intskirveli (Daur), Jano Izoria (Jangul)
Torn away from his father at the beginning of the Georgian-Abkhazia war, slightly cross-eyed 12-year-old Tedo is tired of living the life of a refugee. He works very hard at a garage while his young mother, Keto, is employed as a clerk, but their incomes do not suffice to get by, so Keto begins to prostitute herself in order to help them to survive. This is too much for Tedo to bear, so disregarding all warnings he decides to look for his father in war-torn Abkhazia. Unable to speak the local language and worried about his own safety, Tedo pretends to be deaf. His odyssey takes him across borders into physical and emotional landscapes where nationalism rules and the “eye for an eye” mentality dominates. The war-ravaged world he encounters reflects the complex state of affairs struggling inside the boy’s psyche.
This is a touching, unsentimental story of a boy dealing with grownup matters who finds his own way of living bravely.
KATALIN VARGA, Romania / UK / Hungary
written & directed by Peter Strickland
produced by Tudor Giurgiu, Oana Giurgiu & Peter Strickland
director of photography Márk Győri
main cast Hilda Péter (Katalin Varga), Tibor Pálffy (Anatol Borlan), Norbert Tankó (Orbán Varga), Lászlo Mátray (Zsigmond Varga), Melinda Kántor (Etelka Borlan), Roberto Giacomello (Gergely), Sebastian Marina (Gergely’s brother-in-law)
Banished by her husband and her village after a family scandal, Katalin Varga finds herself left with no other choice but to set out for a quest to find the biological father of her son Orbán. Taking Orbán with her under false pretence, Katalin travels through the Carpathian Mountains. The journey takes her to a place she once prayed she would never have to set foot in again in her life. She reopens a sinister chapter from her past and takes revenge.
SOIS SAGE (Be Good), France / Denmark
written & directed by Juliette Garcias
produced by Marianne Slot
director of photography Julien Hirsch
main cast Anaïs Demoustier (Eve), Bruno Todeschini (Jean)
A young woman in search of the man who abandoned her.
To make sense of their past.
The love to which she was subjected.
When she was a child.
His child.
SONBAHAR (Autumn), Turkey / Germany
written & directed by Özcan Alper
produced by F. Serkan Acar & Kadir Sözen
director of photography Feza Çaldiran
main cast Onur Saylak (Yusuf), Megi Koboladze (Eka), Cihan Camkerte (Onur)
Ten Years after being sentenced to jail as a 22-year-old university student, Yusuf returns to his village in the eastern Black Sea region. Welcomed only by his elderly mother, the only person he sees regularly is his childhood friend Mikail. Going with Mikail to a tavern, Yusuf meets Eka, a beautiful Georgian hooker. Neither timing nor circumstances are right for these two people from different worlds to be together. For all that, love becomes a final desperate attempt to grasp life and elude loneliness. With the 1990s as a backdrop, the film at once documents and criticises a slice of recent history, exposing the irony, ruthlessness and reality of the period.