2023 The Belt and Road Film Week Film Line-up

 

 

[Nominated Films]

 

ABSENCE

Director: Wu Lang

-2023-

 

The film ABSENCE is directed by young director Wu Lang, starring Lee Kang -sheng and Li Meng, with a special appearance by the band "WUTIAOREN", Renke.The film tells the story of Yu returns to hometown on Hainan Island after ten years in prison, and tries to rekindle his relationship with former lover, Hong. Hong’s plan to buy an apartment forces them to face predicaments in sight while tenacious perseverance empowers them to carry on with their lives and make up for each other’s absence. The film was nominated for Encounters Award at the 73th Berlin International Film Festival.

 

SAFE PLACE

Director: Juraj Lerotić

-2022-

 

A traumatic event—a suicide attempt—creates a rift in the family’s everyday life. Their lives fundamentally change, as if they are waging a war invisible to everyone else. The source of the story is autobiographical, it is addressed in the film and highlighted by the fact that the author/director plays himself.

 

SIX WEEKS

Director: Noémi Veronika Szakonyi

-2022-

 

Zsófi, the rebellious teenager lives in a tiny flat with her little sister Mesi, and her unstable mother, Bea. Zsófi discovered late that she was pregnant and decided to give up her baby through open adoption to a couple. Bea cannot accept her daughter’s decision, but she does not realize that neither her, nor the circumstances are suitable to welcome a newborn. Zsófi always had to behave like a grownup, working and making sensible decisions instead of her mother and for her sister. She is still at high school and her only vantage point is her table tennis career for which she works assiduously. She plans the adoption thoroughly with the help of a social worker. Following the birth, she is given six weeks by law to change her mind and ask for her child back. She seems to be able to control her feelings ruthlessly and continue towards the goals she set. At the same time, her maternal feelings intensify, doubts arise, and she slowly begins to question her own decisions.

 

DRIVING MUM

Director: Hilmar Oddsson

-2022-

 

The death of Jon's mother forces him to take on a journey with her corpse in the backseat to fulfill her last wish. Bresnef the dog comes along and this trip will be the gamechanger Jon never dreamt of.

 

BAGHDAD MESSI

Director: Sahim Omar Kalifa

-2023-

 

Iraq. Hamoudi (11) lives for football and his dream of being as outstanding as his hero Lionel Messi. One day, when he is unintentionally involved in an attack, he wakes up in hospital with only one leg. While his parents do everything to keep the family safe, Hamoudi fights to achieve his dream in spite of everything.

 

VALERIA IS GETTING MARRIED

Director: Michal Vinik

-2022-

 

Valeria, a young Ukrainian woman, arrives in Israel to meet her future husband, for an arranged marriage brokered online. She joins Christina, who has been living in Israel for some time and met her own husband through a similar arrangement. Christina is happy with her new life and wants the same for her sister, but over the course of the day doubts begin to appear.

 

THE HUMMINGBIRD

Director: Francesca Archibugi

-2022-

 

This is the tale of the life of Marco Carrera, known as Colibrì or "the hummingbird": a life of fateful concidences, loss and absolute love.

 

TIME THEOREM

Director: Andrés Kaiser

-2022-

 

Years after the death of my grandmother Anita, I inspected the old building where she and my grandfather Arnoldo worked all their lives as printers. Among offset machines, accounting notebooks and paper envelopes smelling of mothballs, I found thousands of photographs and hundreds of home movies. This vast collection of images not only revealed their secret profession as amateur filmmakers, but also related a painful line of family tragedies that marked the destiny of their existence.

 

[Selections]

 

THE KLEZMER PROJECT

Director: Leandro Koch / Paloma Schachmann

-2023-

 

Argentinian cameraman Leandro makes a living from filming Jewish weddings. At one of his jobs, he falls in love with Paloma, the clarinetist of the Klezmer band. To seduce her he pretends to be shooting a documentary film about traditional Yiddish folk music. What Leandro does not know is that his “fake” film project will take him on an unscripted journey throughout Eastern Europe in search of the last remaining Klezmer melodies.

 

THIS HOUSE

Director: Miryam Charles

-2022-

 

Bridgeport, 2008. A teenage girl is found dead in her room. While everything points to suicide, the autopsy report reveals something else. Ten years later, the director and cousin of the teenager examines the past causes and future consequences of this unsolved crime. Like an imagined biography, the film explores the relationship between the security of the living space and the violence that can jeopardize it.

 

MY BROTHERS DREAM AWAKE

Director: Claudia Huaiquimilla

-2021-

 

Ángel and his younger brother Franco have been incarcerated in a juvenile prison for a year. Despite the difficulties, they have formed a solid group of friends with whom they spend their days sharing dreams of freedom. Everything changes when the arrival of a rebellious young man offers a possible escape: the only door to make those dreams come true. Inspired by many true events.

 

BLACK STONE

Director: Spiros Jacovides

-2022-

 

A documentary filmmaking duo stumble upon a distraught, overprotective Greek mother searching for her missing civil servant son. But when his name is linked to government fraud with a foreign female accomplice, she sets out with her other disabled son to clear his name and bring him home.

 

YUNI

Director: Kamila Andini

-2021-

 

Yuni is a smart teenage girl with big dreams. She wants to attend university. She thinks everything is possible, then one day she got proposed by a man she barely knows. She rejected the proposal, and then she became the talk of her society. The second proposal came, Yuni still believes in her dream, so does the family. But something came up this time. A myth, that a woman should not reject more than two proposals; otherwise, she will never get married. Facing all this pressure, there are two things that Yuni runs into: a relationship with Yoga, a shy younger boy in her school, and poetry from literature class thought by her favorite teacher, Pak Damar. With poetry, Yuni feels she can disappear and hide for a minute from her world. Until Pak Damar, came to her house, become the third guy who proposed to her. Yuni still has two options in her hand; to run away with Yoga or get married to Pak Damar. Both of the options sound like a good deal. But does marriage always have to be a ‘deal’?

 

THE START

Director: Yernar Nurgaliyev

-2022-

 

This is a story about two brothers who, after the death of their father, begin to hunt for robberies. They are noticed by an athletics coach who came from the city to the village to select talented youth. Difficult trials fall to the brothers. A tragic incident changes their lives. One of the brothers now has to defeat the world champion in the marathon.

 

BEIRUT HOLD'EM

Director: Michel Kammoun

-2022-

 

The life of Ziko, a 40-year old ex-con gambler, and his boyhood friends, as they fight their way up through their lower-middle class Beirut. In a country on the edge of war and bankruptcy, sheer existence is a form of gambling and everyday life feels like Russian roulette.

 

DAME VALERIE ADAMS: MORE THAN GOLD

Director: Briar March

-2022-

 

This 90’ feature documentary is the candid and inspirational story of five time Olympian, double Olympic gold medallist, Tongan/New Zealander Dame Valerie Adams; one of the world’s most celebrated athletes. It is also the story of a mother, a daughter, a sister, and a survivor.

 

THE IN-LAWS

Director: Jakub Michalczuk

-2021-

 

The In-Laws is a dramedy that takes place at a wedding reception after a ceremony during which the sacramental “yes” was not uttered. But since the guests are already here, and some have traveled a long way, it’s only polite to at least invite them to lunch. The parents of the almost-newlyweds meet in the back of a wedding venue. This is their story. They come from two different worlds, different social strata. Małgorzata and Andrzej, the groom’s parents, belong to the Polish upper class. They are well educated and wealthy. One might even call them “bourgeoisie”. Wanda and Tadeusz, the bride’s parents, are simple, uneducated, working-class people, who are also much poorer. At first, both couples are in shock. Weronika and Łukasz, despite coming from different social backgrounds, seemed to be happy and in love. What happened? Why did Łukasz changed his mind? Maybe he’s seeing someone else? Weronika’s parents want to find out the truth, as do Łukasz’s. Who is at fault here?

 

DAY OF THE TIGER

Director: Andrei Tănase

-2023-

 

Vera is a small-town veterinarian from Transylvania, whose marriage with actor-director Toma is going through a difficult period. On a particular day, while a new tiger is brought to the zoo where she works, Vera finds out that her husband is hiding something.

 

EARTH BENEATH A DARK LID

Director: Amir Muratović

-2022-

 

On his journey around the world with ultralight aircraft, aviator, photographer and environmentalist Matevž Lenarčič collects data about black carbon, the second largest climate forcing agent contributing to global warming.He has already circumnavigated the world three times in his ultralight aircraft. With his ‘flying laboratory’, Matevž measures black carbon on remote locations and shares his measurements with Griša Močnik, who researches the impact of black carbon on the climate and our lives. A reduction in these emissions caused by the incomplete combustion of the biomass could slow global warming. Matevž flies over Cape Verde, Marshall Islands, India and both poles. The documentary follows him from his hometown Trbovlje, Slovenia, to some of the hotspots of climate change: Milan, Sarajevo, Patagonia, Nepal and Bhutan. A view from above shows our planet as something truly wonderful and magical.

 

SNOW AND THE BEAR

Director: Selcen Ergun

-2022-

 

In a small, snow-covered town of Turkey, winter has always been tough, but this year it seems endless – in an almost surreal way. The roads have been blocked due to heavy snowfall. Rumor has it that the bears have risen early from their hibernation and killed some animals around. Though no one has seen them, people are afraid the bears will reach the town soon. Aslı is a young nurse who has recently been appointed to the town for her obligatory service. One cold night, a local man goes missing. In this small town – where the biggest problem for the gendarme has been bats haunting the police station – the sudden disappearance creates all sorts of talk. Step by step, Aslı finds herself in a whirlwind of power relationships, secrets and doubts.