ARMADILLO
Denmark/Sweden
101 min.
directed by: Janus Metz
produced by: Ronnie Fridthjof & Sara Stockman
Director of photography: Lars Skree
Editor: Per K. Kirkegaard
ARMADILLO is an upfront account of growing cynicism and adrenaline addiction in young soldiers at war. Mads and Daniel are serving their first mission in Helmand, Afghanistan. Their platoon is stationed in Camp Armadillo, right on the Helmand frontline, fighting tough battles against the Taliban. The soldiers are there to help the Afghans, but as fighting gets tougher and operations increasingly hairy, Mads, Daniel and their friends become cynical, widening the gap between themselves and the Afghan civilisation. Mistrust and paranoia set in, causing alienation and disillusion.
MIESTEN VUORO (Steam of Life)
Finland/Sweden
84 min.
written & directed by: Joonas Berghäll & Mika Hotakainen
produced by: Joonas Berghäll
Directors of photography: Heikki Färm & Jani Kumpulainen
Editor: Timo Peltola
Naked Finnish men in saunas speak straight from the heart and, in the warmth of rusty stoves, cleanse themselves, both physically and mentally, towards the film’s deeply emotional and unforgettable finale. The film travels through Finland joining men of all walks of life in many different saunas to let us hear their touching stories about love, death, birth, and friendship ─ about life. In all its simplicity the camera records the raw and rare beauty of landscapes, saunas and men in almost magical pictures.
The presence of the characters and the depth of their emotion reaches a limit where it is almost intolerable for the viewer to watch. STEAM OF LIFE reveals the men’s naked souls in an exceptionally intimate and poetic way.
NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ (Nostalgia for the Light)
France/Germany/Chile
90 min.
written & directed by: Patricio Guzmán
produced by: Renate Sachse
Director of photography: Katell Djian
Editors: Patricio Guzmán, Emmanuelle Joly & Ewa Lankiewicz
In Chile, at three thousand metres altitude, astronomers from all over the world gather in the Atacama desert to observe the stars. The desert sky is so translucent that it allows them to see right to the boundaries of the universe. It is also a place where the harsh heat of the sun keeps human remains intact: those of the mummies, explorers and miners. But also the remains of the dictatorship’s political prisoners. Whilst the astronomers examine the most distant galaxies in search of probable extraterrestrial life, at the foot of the observatories, women are digging through the desert soil in search of their disappeared relatives…