World Cinema Fund Supported Films 2004 – 2016 Contents

More than money, talking about cinema, working together Supporting a new geography of innovative cinema Dealing with fiction and documentary, and everything in between WORLD CINEMA FUND SUPPORTED FILMS 2004 – 2016 CONTENTS

Welcome 8 – 9 Carne de perro Dog Flesh 38 FINISHED FILMS 2004-2011 Paradise Now 83 Cha và con và Big Father, Small Father Agua y sal Water and Salt 68 Pesni juzhnykh morej Song from the Southern Seas 83 Production Support and Other Stories 39 Ajami 68 El premio The Prize 84 Chilla 40 Atos dos homens Acts of Men 69 Post Mortem 84 PROJECTS IN PRODUCTION Ðap Cánh Giua Không Trung Bi, dung so ! Bi, don´t be afraid ! 69 Roma wa la n’touma Rome Rather Than You 85 Le banc d’attente The Waiting Bench 12 Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere 41 Chaque jour est une fête Every Day is a Holiday 70 Saratan 85 La cama The Bed 13 Ejercicios de memoria Memory Exercices 42 El cielo, la tierra y la lluvia The Sky, the Earth Sentados frente al fuego By the Fire 86 Retour à Kinshasa Back to Kinshasa 14 Félicité Felicity 43 and the Rain 70 Shekarchi The Hunter 86 Breve historia del planeta verde Historia del miedo History of Fear 44 Ciudadela Citadel 71 Shilton Ha – Chok The Law in these Parts 87 Brief Story from the Green Planet 15 Los hongos 45 El custodio The Minder 71 Shirley Adams 87 Cocote 16 Jauja 46 Death for Sale 72 La sociedad del semáforo The Stoplight Society 88 Les Éternels The Eternals 17 Kalo Pothi The Black Hen 47 Dioses Gods 72 Stellet Licht Silent Light 88 Etz Te’ena Fig Tree 18 Kuzu The Lamb 48 Ee’adat Khalk Recycle 73 Sur la Planche On the Edge 89 Flatland 19 Lelaki harapan dunia Men Who Saved the World 49 Faro − La reine des eaux Faro − Goddess Süt Milk 89 Körfez The Gulf 20 Mohammad sauvé des eaux Mohammad Saved of the Waters 73 Svet-Ake The Light Thief 90 Las herederas The Heiresses 21 from the Waters 50 Filmefobia Filmphobia 74 La teta asustada The Milk of Sorrow 90 Le fort des fous Madmen’s Fort 22 NN 51 Genenet Al Asmak Aquarium 74 Los viajes del viento The Wind Journeys 91 Monos 23 La obra del siglo The Project of the Century 52 Girimunho Swirl 75 Las vidas posibles Possible Lives 91 En attendant les girondelles La pasión de Michelangelo The Passion Hamaca paraguaya 75 Zion Ve’ Achiv Zion and his Brother 92 The Nature of Time 24 of Michelangelo 53 Hanotenet The Slut 76 Samui Song 25 Pelo Malo Bad Hair 54 Huacho 76 wcf europe Íse Yarar Birsey Something useful 26 Polvo 55 Independencia 77 Production Support Rojo 27 Rak ti Khon Kaen Cemetery of Splendour 56 Jean Gentil 77 Temporada de caza Hunting Season 28 Refugiado 57 Jermal 78 Projects in production Remote Control 58 La Khaneye Zire Âb The House Under the Water 78 La Belle et la Meute Beauty and the Dogs 94 Finished Films 2012-2017 Round Trip 59 Liverpool 79 Candelaria 95 3 / Tres 3 / Three 30 Siembra 60 Loong Boonmee raleuk chat Uncle Boonmee Cuadros en la Oscuridad Paintings in the Dark 96 Abaabi ba Boda Boda The Boda Boda Thieves 31 Te prometo anarquía I Promise you Anarchy 61 Who Can Recall His Past Lives 79 Daoud’s Winter 97 Akher Ayam El Medina In the Last Days of the City 32 La tercera orilla The Third Side of the River 62 Las malas intenciones The Bad Intentions 80 Los perros 98 Alaverdi I’m Going to Change My Name 33 Uroki Garmonii Harmony Lessons 63 Medianeras 80 Al-Wadi The Valley 34 Workers 64 Naoussé A Perfect Day 81 Finished Films Antes o tempo não acabava Time was Endless 35 Zai Jian Wa Cheng The Road to Mandalay 65 O céu de Suely Suely in the Sky 81 A cidade onde envelheço Where I grow old 100 Araf – Somewhere Inbetween 36 El otro The Other 82 Jesús 101 El Bella Vista 37 Pandoranin Kutusu Pandora’s Box 82 Oscuro animal 102

2 3 CONTENTS

Pendulal 103 Kebun Binatang Postcards from the Zoo 122 Rabih Tramontane 104 Kick Off Kirkuk 123 Inxeba The Wound 105 La León 123 Leonera Lion’s Den 124 wcf AFRIcA Loong Boonmee raleuk Chat Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives 124 Projects in production Madeinusa 125 I am not a Witch 108 Moolaadé 125 Rafiki Jambula Tree 109 Norté, Hangganan Icasaysayan Norte 126 La miséricorde de la jungle O homem que copiava The Man Who Copied 126 The Mercy of the Jungle 110 Octubre 127 The Number 111 Pandoranin Kutusu Pandora’s Box 127 Pelo Malo Bad Hair 128 distribution support Semaan Bil Day’ia The One Man Village 128 Shekarchi The Hunter 129 2004 – 2017 Sonbahar Autumm 129 El abrazo partido Lost Embrace 114 Svet-Ake The Light Thief 130 El abrazo de la serpiente 114 La teta asustada The Milk of Sorrow 130 Ajami 115 Un homme qui crie A Screaming Man 131 Al-khoroug lel-nahar Coming Forth by Day 115 El viento The Wind 131 Bamako 116 Workers 132 Bombón – El perro Bombón – The Dog 116 WWW What a Wonderful World 132 Caramel 117 Carne de perro Dog Flesh 117 wcf europe Daratt 118 Rak ti Khon Kaen Cemetery of Splendour 134 Días de Santiago 118 Inhebbek Hedi Hedi 134 Dol 119 Oscuro animal 135 Ee’adat Khalk Recycle 119 Fidaï 120 WCF Info 136 – 139 Gigante 120 Huacho 121 WCF vs WCF Europe 140– 141 Los insólitos peces gato The Amazing Catfish 121 Jodaeiye Nader az Simi Nader and Simin – A Separation 122

4 5 Apichatpong Weerasethakul Director, UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES and CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR, Thailand “ Even though my films have been shown at various places, finding funds remains a challenge. Perhaps because the only way I know to make films is to do something deeply personal. I imagine scenarios when I’d have no resources to carry on – one of them is to grow vegetables. Which is not bad. Healthy, and romantic. But I hope that, it won’t happen in the next few years. So I’m very grateful for the support from the WCF. It allows me to be able to continue exploring the lights, not yet the soil. ”

Torsten Frehse Distributor, Neue Visionen, Germany “ The WCF’s value as an organisation just can’t be underestimated, both financially and in terms of the support it provides ; particularly when it comes to us independent distributors. Along with us distributors, the funding provided by Michael Weber the WCF paves the only way to a respectable Sales Agent, The Match Factory, Germany theatrical release in Germany for many non- “ Many projects are made possible in the first place Alain Gomis European arthouse films. ” because the filmmakers are allowed to spend Director, FÉLICITÉ, Senegal the money ‘ at home ’ – without having to set “When the idea of a film is born, I quickly tell myself: ‘it is unfundable!’ up a disproportionate and costly co-production We actually spend a lot of time trying to explain films, long before which incurs increased post-production costs we start making them (which is impossible). Then, in order to in yet other countries. ” avoid completely draining ourselves, we look for good listeners. The World Cinema Fund is one of these good listeners, with a watch- ful eye. For us they are partners that are vital to the – increasingly Julio Hernández Cordón precarious – existence of independent cinema. So, thank you.” Director, POLVO and TE PROMETO ANARQUIA, Mexico – Guatemala “ I have received support for two different projects ; both are close, personal stories which depict my surroundings or my space. I am Guatema- Óscar Ruíz Navia lan-Mexican, therefore I breathe in very unequal and violent countries. Director LOS HONGOS and producer SIEMBRA, Colombia I do not understand borders well, which is probably why my stories “ Making a film is a long path ; you face all kinds of battles, not just combine documentary and fiction. For me, filmmaking is about docu- for financing but also in terms of ideas, wishes and dreams. The menting the frictions or demons from one’s place of origin. World support of the WCF makes an important difference. It strengthens Cinema Fund is synonymous with essential films that speak to their the project, giving you the trust, security and courage you need contexts and to cinematographic endeavour. I feel privileged to receive to keep creating and believing in cinema. ” this credit and share it with films I admire. ”

6 7 WELCOME

WORLD CINEMA FUND realities and the main protagonists of the vital other funding regions and countries. As much as We continuously strive to be a reliable and acces- and eclectic African film universe. ever, combining both passion and pragmatism, sible partner for all of our projects and to provide New funding opportunities, different structures and we continue to focus our efforts on the follow- assistance in any way we can. WCF funding there- goals, a common philosophy remains African cinema does exist: but more support ing regions and countries: Latin America and the fore offers support that reaches considerably be- 2016 marked one of the most important times in is needed in order to optimise film production Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, yond its monetary value. the World Cinema Fund’s (WCF) 12-year history. and promote and diffuse film culture in the Sub- the Caucasus, Southeast Asia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Twenty films and projects were recommended Saharan region. Certainly not an easy task, due Sri Lanka and Mongolia. A new geography of innovative cinema, beyond any for funding. In total, 745.000 euros were put to the radical lack of infrastructure in many of exoticism mainly towards the production, but also the dis- the region’s countries and more than a paradox, For more than 12 years, the WCF has helped give We not only consider general themes and a tribution, of films from across the WCF funding considering that most artistic, ambitious African shape and visibility to largely unseen cinema – project’s overall artistic vision, we also strongly regions. films often find a larger audience in Europe than by supporting film production in countries that believe in bold and ground-breaking projects they do in Africa. lack a constructive film industry and by giving linked to regional narratives, which develop in- How was this possible, particularly considering talented filmmakers the opportunity to gain tense content, social-political global issues and that up until 2014 we were only able to support But the first step has been taken. Thanks to the or improve international awareness and reach an innovative filmic language far from any exoti- an average of eight or nine projects annually? support of the German Federal Foreign Office a global audience. And the results so far: more cism. Since 2015 the WCF, whilst still retaining its tra- which has increased its commitment since 2014 than 140 successful projects and films supported ditional programme, has diversified its funding and is involved as an attentive main partner, in by the WCF. With its passionate and targeted support, the avenues. Initially by means of the WCF Europe 2016 the WCF launched its brand new special ini- WCF has also played a significant role in estab- programme – made possible thanks to the sup- tiative: WCF Africa. It is open to the countries of More than money. Talking about cinema. Working lishing a new geography of innovative cinema. port of the European Union’s Creative Europe/ the Sub-Saharan region and gives us the oppor- together. Our help is needed; but our commitment makes Media Programme – which paired projects from tunity to support African producers and directors Our goal from the start was to create an artisti- sense beyond its strong cultural-political sig- WCF regions with European producers. Following in a very concrete way. cally unique funding structure while also sup- nificance, considering that it is exactly in these on from this, we increased support for the Sub- porting an efficient production and cooperation regions where we have the privilege of reaching Saharan region. In 2016, four projects were supported by WCF Af- model. Although German producers – or Europe- and supporting filmmakers with enormous inno- rica – great projects from Rwanda, Kenya, South an in the framework of WCF Europe – are always vative and creative energy. Growing with Africa Africa and Zambia. The production of two other the administrative recipients of our support, they An important impulse was the WCF DAY held African projects was also made possible thanks are required to spend the money in the projects’ The challenge of real: what is documentary? during last year’s Berlinale, which focussed on Af- to the support of other WCF funding streams. regions of origin. This is a very effective way to The WCF is open to submissions from both fea- rican cinema. The event represented an intense support production in places where the money ture-length fiction and documentary projects. moment of reflection on/confrontation with Afri- A clear profile for the WCF funding regions is most needed. And everything in between. Does it make sense? can cultures and cinema. It also provided a great Our increased engagement with African cinema Now more than ever. opportunity to connect with different initiatives, doesn’t signal a decrease in our support for the

8 9 PROjects in production

We are open to bold proposals that call into which will open Panorama. A strong African pres- question the interpretation and reinterpretation ence that confirms our feelings about the state of reality. We just believe in cinema. And cinema of African cinema and the creative energy of its has many faces. many talented directors.

Aside from our interest in all cinematographic Last but not least, we also welcome the addition forms, we are aware that in many WCF regions of PENDULAR to the Panorama programme, by and countries, innovative documentary filmmak- Brazilian director Lucia Murat. ing is enjoying increased and continued success. Documentary filmmaking often represents the Present and future first approach towards cinema. On the one hand, What lies in store for the WCF, both now and in this is because creating cinema, particularly doc- the future? The WCF is growing and we don’t un- umentaries, has been made easier by the digital derestimate the challenge that lies ahead. That revolution, but on the other hand, the need to re- said, we remain optimistic. flect reality in a non-fictional way is growing. This We are in good hands. Of the German Fed- has certainly been the case in the WCF regions, eral Cultural Foundation for example, which such as the Arab world. launched the World Cinema Fund in 2004, alongside the Berlin International Film Festival – in co- As such, we are dealing with theoretical and operation with the Goethe Institute – and which practical questions. How closely is documentary has since trustfully and attentively accompanied related to reality? What about the identity of doc- us on our journey. umentary filmmaking? Our answer is to remain committed also to supporting challenging non- Dieter Kosslick, Festival Director, Vincenzo Bugno, fiction projects from WCF regions in future. Project Manager WCF

WCF at Berlinale 2017 This year started in the best possible way. We are particularly happy about the strong presence of WCF-supported films at the Berlinale 2017. Such as FÉLICITÉ, screening in international competition – a strong, poetic, innovative work shot in Congo by the Senegalese director Alain Gomis. Or South African THE WOUND by John Trengove,

10 11 le Banc d’attente LA CAMA The wainting bench THE BED by Suhaib Gasmelbari by Mónica Lairana

Synopsis “ What do you want to do ? Go back to Altayeb, all members of the Sudanese Film Group. Synopsis It’s a hot summer in Buenos Aires. Director’s note THE BED, my first feature-length Europe or sit on our bench with us ? ” This is the tale of their 42-year struggle to make films George (58) and Mabel (56) spend their last 24 hours film, revolves mostly around the bodies of an old and the tireless hope that unites them forever. together as a couple, locked in their family home. man and a woman, who, after 30 years of marriage, That is the dilemma I was presented by my Suda- The house has been sold, and now they have to dis- are forced to spend their last 24 hours together be- nese elders. The elders in question are the filmmak- I will tell the story of struggle, passion and a gang of mantle it and to divide up all their material belong- fore finally separating. ers who founded the Sudanese Film Group in 1968. crafty devils with a fine sense of humour. Through ings before the moving van arrives. They are now aged between 60 and 80 and journey their daily lives, their ambition to reopen a cinema throughout the country with a travelling cinema. and the memory of their disappointed dreams. That morning, Jorge and Mabel try to fuck in several They pass their knowledge on to young people and positions, but it’s all in vain. They both end up crying. inspire the love of cinema in a ravaged land, despite The rest of the day, locked in their home, they move only having a canvas screen that cannot withstand sudan / Chad furniture, eat, have a shower, laugh, pack things, cry, the desert storms. Even buying an inflatable screen laugh again, find their dead cat, bury their cat, play becomes an epic undertaking, a new adventure to Director : Suhaib Gasmelbari with their dog, throw away stuff. And in the middle Argentina achieve one last glorious feat, their “ heroic act ” ac- Producers : AGAT Films & Cie (France), of these emotional ups and downs, they say good- Goï-Goï Productions (Chad), Made in Germany Director : Mónica Lairana cording to Ibrahim : to resuscitate a cinema in Khar- Filmproduktion (Germany) bye to each other. Producers : Gema Films (Argentina), Sutor toum, in a country where consumer society has German WCF partner : Made in Germany Kolonko (Germany), Topkapi Films (Netherlands) completely outshone any cultural life. Filmproduktion GmbH German WCF partner : Sutor Kolonko World sales : Doc & Films (France) World sales : tbc

Director’s note The story of THE WAITING BENCH is Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2015 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2016 that of four filmmakers : Ibrahim, Soliman, Manar and Funding amount : 30.000 € Funding amount : 30,000 €

12 13 Retour à Kinshasa Breve historia del planeta verde Back to Kinshasa Brief Story from the Green Planet by Dieudo Hamadi by Santiago Loza

Synopsis Stalked by the Congolese security ser- Lumumba said: « One day, the history of the Congo Synopsis Tania is a trans girl who performs her personal lives, the courage with which they had vices for taking part in the youth uprising against won’t be written in the United Nations, in Washing- shows at night clubs in Buenos Aires. Pedro is a crea- dealt with certain experiences. The movie is about President Kabila’s third term in January 2015, Ben ton, Paris or Brussels but in the streets of Mbandaka, ture of the night, a regular dancer, a young gay man. the power of the weak. The hidden strength of flees to New York with the help of a few friends. Kinshasa, Kisangani… It will be a story of glory and Daniela works as a waitress in a bar. She is dealing outcasts. It is a tribute to all the losers. And an act of On the spot his asylum application is rejected. Ben dignity» If this day we have been waiting for has with a break-up, and is deeply melancholic. The poetic justice. has a choice between living illegally in the United come, then I want to be an eyewitness. three are friends and went to school together in States or returning clandestinely to the Congo. He their hometown. Tania receives the news that her chooses to return to Kinshasa. He makes a stop in grandmother has died. They find an alien body Brazzaville before crossing the river in secret, joining in her grandmother’s house, alongside a letter in the base which continues to mobilise against the which she asks Tania to please take the creature to third mandate. Democratic Republic of the place where it first appeared. Pedro, Daniela and Argentina Tania start a long and mysterious journey . Director’s note the Congo Director : Santiago Loza I want to take my camera to document the long- Director’s note I want to make a movie about Producers : Constanza Sanz Palacios Director : Dieudo Hamadi Films Srl (Argentina) term process of these young Congolese people, who, Producers : Kiripifilms (DRC), Les films de l’oeil beloved and hurt people, who are dragged to live Autentika Films (Germany) faced with no future, have decided to fight in order sauvage (France), Bärbel Mauch Films (Gemany) through an extraordinary situation, forced to experi- to have one. In this country, there have always been German WCF Partner : Bärbel Mauch Films ence a huge and strange adventure. An existential German WCF partner : Autentika Films men and women who have stood up against injus- World sales : tbc journey between the banal and the profound, the World sales : tbc tice. I want to show their courage and pay tribute to Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2016 daily and the sublime. I know the three actors. For Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2014 them by telling their stories. Funding amount : 40.000 € this film, I was inspired by some elements of their Funding amount : 30.000 €

14 15 les éternEls the EternAls COCOTE by Nader Takmil Homayoun by Nelson Carlos De Los Santos

Synopsis Alberto, a gardener working in the city, lence, I ask from what point do we constitute moral- Synopsis Isfahan, present day. Sahar dies whilst giv- Director’s note With LES ÉTERNELS, I want to travels to his hometown to attend a funeral for his ity ? I tackle this question by analysing our religions, ing birth. But then the young woman miraculously tackle a film genre that is completely unexplored in father, who was killed by a policeman. Upon arrival, a fundamental institution in the production of values. comes back to life a few days later. After mourning Iran : the vampire movie. It offers huge possibilities he finds that there is no burial, rather a three-day COCOTE becomes a platform where these religions, the loss of their child, little by little, life goes back to for mythological, symbolical and metaphorical de- ritual to mourn and celebrate his death. Having these institutions that produce values, confront and normal. However, Sahar feels profoundly different : velopments, notably due to the archetype’s sheer changed his beliefs to become a Protestant, how- try to defend themselves.I may know whether they to her horror she discovers an urge to feed on hu- force. The story and characters of LES ÉTERNELS ever, Alberto sees this ritual, with its Catholic and are happy or sad, but I cannot measure such feelings, man blood. thus allow me to question the different frontiers African roots, as something satanic and immoral. as my characters were living before the film began that mark out Iranian society, a society that falls prey and will continue to do so once the film has ended. One evening, after falling into a trap, Sahar’s bullet- to toxic oversimplification. Another surprise awaits Alberto during the three riddled body mysteriously vanishes. She wakes up days of celebrations : his family announces their true in a large villa inhabited by a small, strange com- desire for him to avenge his father’s death. Over- DOMINICAN REPUBLIC munity of vampires – the “ Eternals ”. But the confine- Iran whelmed, Alberto is lost in the small town life, his ment of this utopian setting is unbearable for her. thoughts confront different gods, and the idea of Director : Nelson Carlos De Los Santos She is drawn back to the city, but soon realises that Director : Nader Takmil Homayoun Producers : Guasabara Cine (Dominican Republic), Producers : Ex Nihilo (France), Alias Films (France), murder presents itself as the only solution to restore Nabis Filmgroup (Argentina), Pandora Film she can no longer be a part of its society. Forced to Hossein Zaimi (France), Road Films (Iran), some kind of order. Produktion (Germany) return to live with the Eternals, Sahar has no choice IGC Films (Germany) German WCF partner : Pandora Film Produktion but to finally accept her condition as a vampire. German WCF partner : IGC Films GmbH Director’s note I have always been interested in World sales : tbc However, she hasn’t reckoned with the determina- World sales : tbc the origins of the violence in my country. A strange Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2014 tion of Reza, who moves heaven and earth to find Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2015 violence, silent, always lurking. To talk about vio- Funding amount : 30.000 € his wife’s trail in the confusion of Isfahan. Funding amount : 50.000 €

16 17 Flatland by Jenna Bass

Etz Te’ena Fig Tree by Alamork Davidian

Synopsis Fourteen-year-old Mina lives in civil life during wartime; one moment playing peace- Synopsis FLATLAND is a contemporary, all-female journey of self-discovery within FLATLAND paints war-torn Ethiopia. One day, her Jewish family is pre- fully with friends and the next witnessing them be- western-adventure that tells the story of a lonely a vivid and unique portrait of femininity against a sented with the opportunity to escape the war by ing kidnapped. policewoman longing to reunite with her fugitive harsh frontier-land, and questions what it means to fleeing to Israel. But Mina won’t leave her boyfriend, boyfriend ; while simultaneously leading a mur- be a woman in contemporary South Africa and the Eli, behind. Confronting the war head on, she makes Above all, I want to tell the stories of the people that der investigation wherein a newly-married former world at large. desperate plans to save the love of her life before inhabit my memories and thus give refugees a face. housekeeper and a heavily-pregnant teen are their childhood ends. While they might look as if they have reached their the prime suspects. Helped and hindered along the goal when they arrive in a new country, the truth is way by an ensemble of wayward denizens, the un- Director’s note I spent the first years of my life in that for many of us, as for Mina, fleeing is not just likely trio soon become embroiled in a cross-coun- Ethiopia, sheltered under my grandmother’s loving a new beginning, but also the end of an era and a try chase as they navigate the Karoo semi-desert in wings. Through the gaps in her feathers I viewed a personal tragedy. freezing winter, at times on horseback, all the while magical world, occasionally interrupted by horror. I in search of a new life and a fresh start. was 10 years old when I left Ethiopia and despite the ISRAEL, ETHIOPIA SOUTH AFRICA war, my incognisant last days in Ethiopia passed by Director’s note Femininity, today more than Director : Alamork Davidian Director : Jenna Bass quite normally. Producers : Black Sheep Film Productions Ltd (Israel) ever, has become embattled and undefinable. Producers : Proper Film (South Africa), av medien penrose GmbH (Germany) And then, there’s “ What is South Africa ? “ a coun- IGC Films GmbH (Germany) I would like to create a world similar to the one that German WCF partner : av medien penrose GmbH try named purely after its place on the map, with German WCF partner : IGC Films GmbH has accompanied me since childhood. Yet the heart World sales : tbc 11 official languages and countless more peoples World sales : tbc of the film will be Mina’s daily life. Through Mina, I’ll Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2016 and cultures without their own names. For these Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2014 describe the surreal situation of building a normal Funding amount : 40,000 Euro three different but equally desperate women, the Funding amount : 45.000 €

18 19 KÖRFEZ THE GULF by Emre Yeksan

LAS HEREDERAS THE HEIRESSES by Marcelo Martinessi

Synopsis Leaving behind a career and divorce in any way out of the deteriorating state of our world? Synopsis Asunción, Paraguay. THE HEIRESSES is the ruins, 32-year-old Selim returns to his hometown Any hope? Yes there is, plenty of it. And that’s what I story of a woman of prosperous social background, Izmir. Unwilling to make any plans for the future, he want to examine in this film. with a comfortable life due to an inheritance. At 60, wanders around, revisiting people from his past. He however, she realises her inheritance is gone. This runs into Cihan, a pal of his from the military service: new reality alters the balance in which she has been a lower-class idler with a charming energy. As peo- living and forces her to transform a world that until ple start leaving the city due to an unbearable stink then had seemed motionless. caused by a maritime accident, Selim finds himself gradually drawn to a new environment of idlers Director’s note I“inherited” the diaries of a woman where he can embrace the possibilities of life again. who spent most of her life in the confinement of her own home, but difficult circumstances forced her to Paraguay Director’s note Today, many of us increasingly feel Turkey get out and confront life. In this process, a resurrec- that we live on the edge of a manmade disaster, an tion of sorts, she discovers her real self. Transforming Director : Marcelo Martinessi environmental breakdown or another world war. At Director : Emre Yeksan her experiences into a narrative feature film made Producers : La Babosa Cine (Paraguay), Pandora Producers : istos film (Turkey), BirFilm (Turkey), Filmproduktion (Germany), Esquina Filmes (Brazil), times, we can find inside ourselves the will to stand Kundschafter Filmproduktion (Germany), me think about Paraguay, my prison-country, and Mutante Cine (Uruguay), Norks Filmprodukjson up against this catastrophe, to overcome the fear, Homemade Films (Greece) our system of “values” passed from one generation (Norway) but often we just repress these thoughts to be able German WCF partner : Kundschafter Filmproduktion to the next, like a hereditary disease. A system that German WCF Partner : Pandora Filmproduktion to go on with life. At certain moments, however, we World sales : tbc doesn’t allow us to change. This film comes out of World sales : tbc feel perplexed, paralysed by its growing probability, Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2016 my desire to heal. Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2016 as does THE GULF’S main protagonist Selim. Is there Funding amount : 50.000 € Funding amount : 40.000 €

20 21 Le fort des fous Madmen’s Fort by Narimane Mari

MONOS by Alejandro Landes and Alexis Dos Santos

Synopsis It’s 1860 and the Algerian Sahara is cove- slaves, and tired merchants. Gradually, the fort has Synopsis On a faraway Colombian mountaintop, ronment. The cast will consist of real child soldiers ted by the colonial powers of the time, who dream become the anchor of a utopian society. One of what at first looks like a hedonistic summer camp, that have deserted Colombia’s many illegal armies of it as a rich land full of promise. the residents continuously photographs and col- is actually the setting of a mission : child soldiers and are now protected and reintegrated into so- lects information on the society, unwittingly build- with war names must ensure that the Doctor, a kid- ciety through governmental programmes. This Expeditions and ambitions of conquest, however, ing up a wealth of knowledge that the colonialists napped American woman, stays alive. When a bat- method involves a long period of pre-production have all been destroyed by this uncharted and mys- and the countries with the ambition to rule the tle breaks out and a milk cow is accidentally killed in at a mock campsite so they can develop intimate terious terrain. Nevertheless, there are men who rise commercial routes dearly miss. In one night the fort the fight, playtime is over. ties with each other and get used to the production above turf wars, and who believe in the power of plunges into tragedy. team and camera. this mystical land to establish a society that is out of Director’s note Within the intimate, self-contained the ordinary. They christen the place le fort des fous, framework of a squad of child soldiers belonging to or “ Madmen’s Fort ”. an illegal army, we intend to build a parallel reality, a fable of sorts, that allows us to get closer to the main Colombia An extraordinary mix of people, a new population algeria victims in armed conflicts around the world : children. that forms from multiple passages of men and Director : Alejandro Landes, Alexis Dos Santos Director : Narimane Mari Producers: No Franja (Colombia) Lemming Film women, pets and wild animals, carried by endless Producers : Allers Retours Films (Algeria), The idea came through Alejandro’s experience with (Netherlands), Mutante Cine (Uruguay) Pandora Film roads : the salt road, dreams of a Trans-Saharan rail- Joon Film (Germany) Columbian bureaucracy while requesting permits Produktion (Germany), Le Pacte (France) road, and the farthest trades. They come up from German WCF Partner : Joon Film for the main character of his previous film PORFIRIO. German WCF partner : Pandora Film Produktion black Africa or descend from Europe ; they have tra- World sales : tbc Together with Alexis, they share an interest in World sales : Le Pacte (France) versed the world all the way from Asia. They are of- Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2015 “ The Lord of The Flies ”, and built the idea to portray Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2014 ficers, nomads, Turks, escaped women, abandoned Funding amount : 40.000 € a subjective teenage experience within a war envi- Funding amount : 40.000 €

22 23 Samui Song En Attendant les Hirondelles by Pen-ek Ratanaruang The Nature of Time by Karim Moussaoui

Synopsis Six main characters are revealed through to the screen people’s aspirations for a better life Synopsis Viyada, a soap-opera actress in her 30s, is When Jerome passes away, Viyada discovers that three different narratives. Mourad (65) is focussed (through their desire, will and strategy), set against married to Jerome, a rich foreign national. Though she is pregnant. She slips away that night and flees. on his life: his work, his wife, his son. He will do any- the actual accomplishment of such aspirations. At their marriage starts out happy, Jerome becomes But no one can escape The Holy One. thing to avoid trouble, even at the risk of making the same time, the intention is to portray relation- increasingly controlling as he gets more involved immoral choices. Aicha (25) is trying to forget her ships between men and women, their individual with Buddhakaya, an alternative religious sect Director’s note Oddly enough, I feel that this film past by marrying a decent man, hoping to start a places within society, and to single out their respon- founded by a powerful figure named The Holy One. has come to me and taken it’s surreal form as a way new life with him. On the way to her new home, she sibilities in building modern Algerian society and of helping me to grasp the world and the time we starts having second thoughts. Dahman (45) is a working towards changing it for the future. One day, Jerome tells the abbot about his troubles live in : how we vanish in order to inexplicably re- doctor, also hoping to start a new life. He is waiting with Viyada, and to his surprise, The Holy One vol- turn, in utterly mysterious ways. patiently for a promotion that will improve his social unteers to help sway her to the “ rightful path ”. His standing, which in turn might open up the possibil- visit to the couple’s household, however, leaves ity of marriage. All of them are forced to deal with the woman violated and shaken. Viyada believes the consequences of the choices they have made ALGERIA that Jerome consented to this violation. Viyada then Thailand in life. meets Guy Spencer, a suave drifter with a shady past, Director : Karim Moussaoui Director : Pen-ek Ratanaruang Producers: Prolégomènes (Algeria), Les Films Pelléas, at a hospital canteen. He insinuates that he can have Producers : Bluering Company Limited (Thailand), Director’s note The stories in my film are first and (France), NiKo Film (Germany) her husband killed, and in a moment of weakness, augenschein Filmproduktion (Germany) foremost social stories, about ordinary people living German WCF partner : NiKo Film (Germany) she agrees – for a price. But the plans go wrong, and German WCF partner : augenschein Filmproduktion ordinary lives. The screenplay develops a series of World sales : MK2 instead of being killed, Jerome is in a coma at the World sales : Urban Distribution International (France) portraits of men and women coming to terms with Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November, 2016 hospital. Guy is forced to lie low, while Viyada strug- Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2014 everyday life and Algeria’s recent history. It brings Funding amount : 40.000 € gles with her guilt. Funding amount : 45.000 €

24 25 Í e Yarar Bir ey ROJO Something useful by Benjamín Naishtat by Pelin Esmer

Synopsis Leyla (42), a lawyer and a poet, takes the Synopsis As a wave of unprecedented political vio- While researching the period of the 1970s, I discov- long-distance train to attend her high school re- lence is unleashed and 1970s Argentina is plunged ered that many people found in that shaken context union dinner. On the train, she meets Canan (21), a into darkness, an ordinary man, in extraordinary cir- the opportunity to hide all sorts of “accidents” and young nursing student in distress. As the conversa- cumstances, finds himself hiding a very bad deed. bad deeds. tion develops, Leyla learns that Canan is travelling to assist with the suicide of a paralysed man, Yavuz Director’s note With Rojo, I want to deal with The focus in ROJO is therefore on rather ordinary (45), who wants to die. At the end of the long over- the issue of silent majorities during traumatic his- characters in exceptionally dark circumstances, who night trip, surrounded by the stories of people both toric times. During the 1970s in Argentina, initially happen to find themselves mixed up in extraordi- on and off the train, Leyla decides to accompany under democratic rule and then a dictatorship, nary events. Canan on her difficult visit. 30,000 people were killed by military or paramilitary groups. Director’s note Why does Leyla decide to accom- Turkey argentina pany a man who wants to die, and a young woman We have seen these traumatic events depicted who has taken on the difficult task of killing him ? To Director : Pelin Esmer several times, yet as of today we still hardly under- Director : Benjamín Naishtat Producers : Sinefilm (Turkey), Mars Production (Turkey), Producers: Pucará Cine (Argentina), Sutor Kolonko help them ? Because she is fascinated by them ? Be- Mîtosfilm (Germany), Les Films de l’Après-Midi (France), stand how they impacted the ordinary lives of or- (Germany), Desvia (Brazil), Ecce Films (France), cause she is fascinated by death ? In order to have Topkapi Films (The Netherlands) dinary people. We therefore fail, as a society, to ack- Viking Film (Netherlands) done something useful ? When art exists as a power- German WCF Partner : Mîtosfilm nowledge the necessary role of the silent majority German WCF partner : Sutor Kolonko ful and magical tool for understanding life, why does World sales : tbc during a genocide. World sales : tbc the artist continually seek to do something meaning- Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2015 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2016 ful ? Funding amount : 40.000 € Funding amount : 40.000 €

26 27 PRODUCTION SUPPORT finished films 2012 – 2017

Temporada de caza Hunting Season by Natalia Garagiola

Synopsis Nahuel has recently lost his mother. His Director’s note Like all the men in my family, my stepdad, Bautista, is unable to find a legal way to father hunts and fishes for sport. I always joined in keep custody of him, so Nahuel is forced to live with on these experiences with a single goal : to obtain his biological father, Ernesto, for three months until my father’s approval. I always believed that this his 18th birthday. Ernesto is a hunter, living an isola- activity allowed me to interact with him in a more ted life with a new family on the outskirts of a small direct way, as did my brothers. These seemed to be mountain town in Patagonia. the only moments when we really connected – during these moments, there is a wordless exchange, Upon his arrival in the South, their relationship a silent dialogue that cuts through everything and proves to be difficult – Nahuel is reluctant and ar- brings us to a primal, common level. rogant while Ernesto tries to follow his day-to-day routine without getting emotionally involved with the kid. Days go by and the tension grows. argentina

Director : Natalia Garagiola After a fight, Ernesto forces Nahuel to join him on Producers: Rei Cine (Argentina), Les Films de L’Etranger a hunting trip. In the depth of the forest, surround- (France), Augenschein Filmproduktion (Germany) ed by the hollow sound of gunfire, a link between German WCF partner : Augenschein Filmproduktion them appears to be possible. World sales : tbc Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2015 Funding amount : 30.000 €

28 29 3 / tres 3 / three by Pablo Stoll

Abaabi Ba Boda Boda The Boda Boda Thieves by Yes, that’s us !

Synopsis For Rodolfo, life at home feels empty and Key festivals and awards Cannes International Synopsis In Kampala, Uganda, the city streets are story deals with this huge issue from the perspec- cold, as if he doesn’t belong. Meanwhile, his first wife, Film Festival 2012 ; Itamaraty Prize, Festival de Cine always congested with traffic and the fastest way tive of one small family trying to make it in the city. Graciela and their teenage daughter, Ana, are liv- Latinoamericano de Sao Paulo 2012 ; Valdivia Inter to travel is on motorbike taxis we call “ boda bodas. ” ing through defining moments in their lives. Subtly, national Film Festival Chile 2012 ; Toronto Internation- The men who drive these boda bodas have a repu- World premiere Berlin International Film Festival Rodolfo will try to slip back into the place he once al Film Festival 2012 ; BFI London Film Festival 2012 ; tation as tough hustlers. City life has been unkind to 2015, Forum had next to them but walked away from ten years Busan International Film Festival 2012 ; Itamaraty Price Goodman, Rosa and their teenage son Abel. They ago. 3 is a comedy about three people and the ab- stake everything on a joint venture whereby Abel Key festivals and awards Berlin International Film surd fate to which they are doomed : being a family. will become a boda boda man in order to support Festival 2015 ; Seattle International Film Festival 2015 ; the family. Disaster strikes however, when the mo- Dorben International Film Festival 2015 ; World Cinema Director’s note 3 is a film about selfishness and torbike is stolen on Abel’s first day at work. Deter- Amsterdam Festival the pursuit of redemption. It is about growing up mined not to give up, Goodman and Abel set off and about those moments in which, although un- into the city in search of the stolen boda boda. Uganda, 2015 noticed, our personality takes a specific shape. It Uruguay, 2012 is a story about second chances and the fear they Director’s note The greatest migration in human Director : Yes, that’s us ! Director : Pablo Stoll Producers : Switch Films (South Africa), awake, the fear of failure. Producers : ControlZ (Uruguay), history is happening right now in sub-Saharan Afri- Deddac Films (Uganda), Hot Sun Films (Kenya), Pandora Film (Germany), Rizoma (Argentina) ca. People are leaving the land and villages in a mass augenschein Filmproduktion (Germany) World premiere Cannes International Film Festival German WCF partner : Pandora Film exodus to stream into the cities. Their numbers German WCF partner : augenschein Filmproduktion 2012, Quinzaine des réalisateurs World sales : Wide Management (France) swell the burgeoning ghettos that surround the World sales : Rushlake Media GmbH (Germany) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2009 urban centers. They come in search of a better life. Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in 2011 Funding amount : 40.000 € Sometimes they find it, more often they don’t. Our Funding amount : 60.000 €

30 31 Akher Ayam El MedinA AlAverdi In the Last Days of the City i’m going to change my name by Tamer El Said by Maria Saakyan

Synopsis In the fading grandeur of downtown later the entire world was watching Cairo. It seemed Synopsis A neglected teenager struggles with her this poem are body and soul, music and chaos, a Cairo, Khalid, a 35-year-old filmmaker is struggling that what we had been longing for was happening. blossoming sexuality and suicidal thoughts while river and old factories, a girl and mother and also to make a film that captures the pulse of his city at searching for the father she has never known. love and desire as 14-year old Evridika understands it. a moment when all around him dreams as well as World premiere Berlin International Film Festival Evridika will be 14 soon. Her mother Sona (36) is an buildings are disintegrating. With the help of his 2016, Forum attractive director of a 13-man choir performing Ar- World premiere BFI London Film Festival 2012, friends who send him footage from their lives in menian sacred music. They live in a small Armenian Experimenta Section Beirut, Baghdad and Berlin, he finds the strength to Key festivals and awards: Berlin International town next to a railway, but Evridika’s horizon is the keep going through the difficulty and beauty of liv- Film Festival 2016, Forum; Best Director, BAFICI 2016, fansite of a book, “ Coin Locker Babies ” by Murakami, Key festivals and awards BFI London Film Festi- ing IN THE LAST DAYS OF THE CITY. Grand Prix, T-Mobile New Horizons International where she’s registered as “ Anniko ” and posts ani- val 2012 ; Best Film, Hayak National Film Awards Ar- Film Festival 2016, BFI London Film Festival 2016, In- mations and poetry that she dedicates to her future menia 2013 ; Locarno International Film Festival 2013 Director’s note In the winter of 2007 I started work- die Lisboa International Film Festival 2106 prince. When Pyotr (47), a man from Sona’s past, ing on this film, driven by a need to understand my re- drives back into her life in a red BMW, passion erupts lationship with Cairo, the city where I live and that has Egypt, 2016 again, and Evridika feels completely estranged from Armenia 2012 made me what I am. I was haunted by a strong and her mother. She is going to change her name as Director : Tamer El Said Director : Maria Saakyan peculiar feeling shared by everyone in the Arab world Producers : Zero Production (Egypt), Sunnyland Film soon as she turns 14. Producers : Anniko Films (Armenia), Oscar Film that we can’t keep going like this – the end is near. We (Egypt), Autonomous (UK), Mengamuk Films (Germany) (Denmark), Flying Moon Filmproduktion (Germany) longed for it to bring a new beginning, while fearing it German WCF partner : Mengamuk Films Director’s note This is a film about the feelings German WCF partner : Flying Moon Filmproduktion would take with it everything we loved. World Sales: Still Moving (France) of a 14-year old girl. Maybe not a film in traditional World sales : Anniko Films (Armenia) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2013 terms, but a kind of poem or song, words and Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2010 I finished shooting in December 2010. Six weeks Funding amount : 20.000 € images of which her mind is full of main heroes of Funding amount : 50.000 €

32 33 AL-Wadi The Valley by Ghassan Salhab

Antes o Tempo nÃo Acabava Time was endless by Sérgio Andrade and Fábio Baldo

Synopsis After a car accident on a lone mountain World premiere Toronto International Film Festi- Synopsis Anderson is an indigenous young man ments of the indigenous and urban Anderson. As road, a man loses his memory. He continues to val 2014, Contemporary World Cinema in conflict with the leaders of his community, lo- he discovers who he is, so do those that live around walk along the deserted path. He encounters peo- cated on the outskirts of Manaus. In this huge city him in the community. ple with engine trouble and helps them get their Key festivals and awards Toronto International in the heart of Amazon, the traditions indigenous car running again. They are reluctant to leave him Film Festival 2014 ; Best Director Award, Abu Dhabi people struggle to keep alive seem out of keeping World premiere Berlin International Film Festival stranded, so they take him to their large estate in International Film Festival 2014 ; Carthage Inter with the contemporary lives they lead. In search of 2016, Panorama the Bekaa valley, a place he may never leave again … national Film Festival 2014 ; Dubai International selfaffirmation, Anderson moves into the city centre, Film Festival 2014 ; Berlin International Film Festival where he lives alone, experiencing new feelings Key festivals and awards: Berlin International Film Director’s note I was on Ouyoun El Simane, one of 2015, Seattle International Film 2015 ; La Rochelle and facing new challenges. However, the old sha- Festival 2016, Cinélatino, Rencontres de Toulouse Lebanon’s mountaintops. On that particular day, a International Film 2015 ; FIPRESCI Prize, Fribourg man plans to bring him back for one last ritual. 2016, Brazilia Festival of Brazilian Cinema 2016, São feeling of fright, even terror, arose in me. Mostly, it International Film 2015 Paulo International Film Festival 2016 was as if the state of affairs in Lebanon, the invari- Director’s note TIME WAS ENDLESS addresses the able state of threat in this loaded part of the world, Lebanon, 2014 conflict between tradition and modernity in ur- Brazil, 2016 had spread across the mountain heights in an elu- ban indigenous communities. The most populous Director : Ghassan Salhab Director : Sérgio Andrade, Fábio Baldo sive, intangible form. Strangely, this threat took on Producers : Abbout Productions (Lebanon), indigenous ethnic groups settle on the periphery Producers : Rio Tarumã Filmes (Brazil), 3 Moinhos its full meaning in this remote, seemingly serene Les Films d’Ici (France), Unafilm GmbH (Germany) of the city, creating an alternative world – their cul- Produções (Brazil), Autentika Films (Germany) place. It hovered densely, like a low, looming sky, German WCF partner : Unafilm tures not fully supported by cultural programmes or German WCF Partner : Autentika Films ready to burst. THE VALLEY came into being on that World sales : Doc & Film International (France) socio-educational initiatives. The film approaches World Sales Urban Distribution International (France) day, from that forceful sensation. Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2013 the dialogue between urban identity formed by Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2015 Funding amount : 30.000 € indigenous groups through the coming-of-age mo- Funding amount : 30.000 €

34 35 araf somewhere in between by Yesim Ustaoglu

El bElla vista by Alicia Cano

Synopsis Zehra and Olgun spend most of their World premiere Venice International Film Festival Synopsis The Bella Vista is the story of a house Key festivals and awards Karlovy Vary Inter young lives working in a service station cafeteria 2012, Orizzonti that began as a football club, becoming a successful national Film Festival 2012 ; Zurich Film Festival 2012 ; near a lonely highway. Their monotonous work transvestite brothel and at last becomes a Catholic Audience Award, Valdivia International Film Festival shifts are broken up only by sparks of naive expect Key festivals and awards Venice International Film Chapel, all in a small conservative village in Uruguay. 2012 ; Mexico City International Documentary Film ations of a brighter future. Festival 2012 ; Adana Golden Boll Film Festival 2012 ; Two transvestites, a brothel’s Madam, a gaucho foot- Festival 2012 Best Actress, Tokyo International Film Festival 2012 ; ball player, and a charming old lady will bring to life The once important industrial area is now a faceless Black Pearl Award – Narrative, Abu Dhabi Film Festi- this battle for control of a single physical space, driv- place of economic waste and unemployment. Most val 2012, New York Film Festival 2012 ; Toronto Inter- en by the same motivation : passion. of the area’s occupants have escaped to the big city national Film Festival 2012 in search of opportunity. But Zehra, Olgun and their Director’s note I discovered this story reading a friends still remain, caught somewhere in between newspaper, and I found it so closed to my memo- the past and an uncertain future. Zehra dreams that ries that I decided to go to the place and meet the love will take her away from her meaningless job Turkey, 2012 protagonists. This playful documentary film is the Uruguay, 2012 and life and becomes fascinated by an older truck result of my research and therefore a portrait of the Director : Yesim Ustaogˇlu Director : Alicia Cano driver. As Zehra’s desire for Mahur turns into a tragic Producers : Ustaogˇ lu Film Yapim (Turkey), villages where I come from. Producers : Thomas Mauch Filmproduktion (Germany), first love, her rebellious friend Olgun becomes more CDP (France), The Match Factory (Germany) Alicia Cano Films (Uruguay), MJ Producciones (Uruguay) and more frustrated, not yet a young man on his own. German WCF partner : The Match Factory World premiere Karlovy Vary International Film German WCF partner : Thomas Mauch Zehra and Olgun will experience a bittersweet rite of World sales : The Match Factory (Germany) Festival 2012 World sales : Tazkovski Films (UK) passage, leading to both suffering and awakening. Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2010 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2011 Funding amount : 30.000 € Funding amount : 30.000 €

36 37 Carne de Perro CHA VÀ CON VÀ dog flesh Big Father, Small Father by Fernando Guzzoni and Other Stories by Di Phan Dang

See also Distribution Support

Synopsis Junior is nine years old and has stub- World premiere Toronto International Film Festi- Synopsis Ignacio produced a documentary on wo- Key festivals and awards Locarno International bornly curly hair, or – as he keeps being told – “ bad val 2013 men who are looking for their men who were dis- Film Festival 2012 ; Toronto International Film Festi- hair ”. He wants to have it straightened for his year- appeared in 1982 during the armed conflict in Gua val 2012 ; Vancouver International Film Festival 2012 ; book picture, like a fashionable pop singer with long, Key festivals and awards Golden Seashell, San temala. The story focuses on the daily goings – on Havana International Film Festival 2012 ; Prize of the ironed hair. This puts him at odds with his mother Sebastián Film Festival 2013 ; Bronze Alexander and and how they become more aware by what they see Jury and Best Direction, Valdivia International Film Marta. The more Junior tries to look beautiful and FIPRESCI Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival 2013 ; Best and hear during the recording of the documentary. Festival 2012 ; Grand Prix Coup de Cœur, Rencontres make his mother love him, the more she rejects him. Director and Best Script, Mar del Plata International Cinémas d’Amérique Latine de Toulouse 2013 ; Best He finds himself cornered, facing a painful decision. Film Festival 2013 ; Around the World in 14 Films Ber- Director’s note My narrative intention is to ex- director award, ícaro international film festival 2012 lin 2014 ; Best Actress, Torino Film Festival 2014 ; Best pose certain wounds that did not heal in Guate- Director’s note My characters are helpless. They Director, Viña del Mar International Film Festival 2014 mala. I am most interested in what happens to are wounded and hurtful adults and children who my characters, even to the supporting characters, are learning how to hurt. Caracas is also hostile to which are distant and confused as they are the Guatemala, 2012 them, a city of urban, political and family violence. Venezuela, 2013 result of a historical and political time. This film is Dreams encapsulated in multi-family buildings, the about revenge, fatherhood and family in a time Director : Julio Hernández Cordón Director : Mariana Rondón Producers : Melindrosa Films (Guatemala), result of Le Corbusier’s “ utopian city ” project in the Producers : Sudaca Films (Venezuela), Imagen Latina, with a postwar atmosphere. Tic Tac Producciones (Spain), Fábula (Chile), 50s, now turned into massive vertical hells. (Perú), Hanfgarn & Ufer (Germany) Autentika Films (Germany) German WCF partner : Hanfgarn & Ufer Filmproduktion World premiere Locarno International Film Festi- German WCF partner : Autentika Films I want to talk about intolerance in a social context that World sales : FiGa Films (USA) val 2012, Competition World sales : M-appeal (Germany) is riddled with dogmas which don’t embrace other- Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2013 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2011 ness, where public affairs extend to the private life. Funding amount : 9.000 € Funding amount : 30.000 €

54 55 Rak ti Khon Kaen Refugiado Cemetery of Splendour by Diego Lerman by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

See also Distribution Support WCF Europe

Synopsis In a small town in Thailand, a troop of sol- have produced many movies in dreams. I shun the Synopsis 7 year old Matías returns home from a World premiere Cannes International Film Festi- diers have contracted a strange case of sleepingsick- malady of reality, and together we take refuge in friend’s birthday party to find his mother, Laura, un- val 2014, Quinzaine des réalisateurs ness. Jenjira, a middle-aged Thai lady, volunteers to dreams of forever. conscious on the floor. When she recovers her sen- tend to them in a makeshift hospital set up at the ses they decide to leave home and rush to a shelter Key festivals and awards Cannes International school. She takes special interest in Itt, one of the World premiere Cannes International Film Festi- for abused women where they spend 48 hours Film Festival 2014 ; Silver Hugo, Chicago Inter affected soldiers. Throughout her rounds, she also val 2015, Un certain regard before Laura decides to rebuild her life somewhere national Film Festival 2014 ; Best Film, Sale Films des befriends a clairvoyant girl named Keng. Although Itt else. Through the eyes of Matías we will discover Femmes ; San Sebastian International Film Festival is only awake for a few hours a day, he manages to Key festivals and awards London Film Festival their escape in a city where everything Matías once 2014 ; Munich International Film Festival 2014 ; Laki- make Jenjira’s heart flutter. She takes him to the lake 2015, Lighthouse Award, Poncevo Film Festival 2015 knew feels dangerous and foreign until Laura finds a no Berlin 2014 ; La Habana International Film Festival where, like in a dream, a large unidentified creature secure place to raise her son. 2014 ; Silver Condor Best Film, Script and Actress, Ar- has washed ashore. Itt falls asleep at the park pavilion. Thailand, 2015 gentinian Film Critics Association 2015 There, Jenjira encounters Keng, who offers to speak Director’s note Refugiado is an urban road Itt’s thoughts. She leads Jenjira through a labyrinthi- Director : Apichatpong Weerasethakul movie and a sort of domestic thriller at the same Argentina, 2014 an cemetery of kings that exists in another dimension. Producers : Illuminations Films (UK), Kick the Machine time. It’s a living, simple and very emotional film. Films (Thailand), Detalle Films (Mexico), Louverture Director : Diego Lerman Films (USA), Tordenfilm (Norway), Furthermore, it’s a film about relationships, about Producers : Campo Cine (Argentina), Director’s note My parents are doctors. I grew up The Match Factory (Germany), among others differences, and the powerlessness that comes from 27 Films Production (Germany) in hospital housing. The school and my home were German WCF Partner : The Match Factory not being able to resolve one’s conflicts through German WCF partner : 27 Films Production full of memorable illnesses. For Love in Khon Kaen, I World sales : The Match Factory mutual understanding. World sales : Memento Films International (France) imagine rooms where people do nothing but sleep. Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2013 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2012 Lately, I have noticed that I started to sleep more. I Funding amount : 30.000 € Funding amount : 40.000 €

56 57 Round Trip by Meyar Al Roumi

Remote Control by Byamba Sakhya

Synopsis Is the story of Tsog, a runaway boy who World premiere Busan International Film Festival, Synopsis Damascus, Syria, present day. A taxi drives Syrian middle class, a class that must find ways to longs to control his dream world and harsh reality 2013 into a traffic jam. Walid, at the steering wheel, is a adapt in front of moral imperatives of the tradition. with the help of a stolen remote control. Tsog and student and a part-time taxi driver. Souhaire, a rogu- his little brother are growing up in a loveless home Key festivals and awards New Currents Award, ish young woman, sits in the back seat of the cab. World premiere Dubai International Film Festival with a bitter stepmother and a drunken father. His Busan International Film Festival 2013 ; Göteborg Inter She is not a mere customer, she is Walid’s girlfriend. 2012, Muhr Arab Feature only survival is to retreat inside his imaginary world. national Film Festival 2014 ; Rotterdam International The two lovers drive out of the city in search of an And he constantly draws pictures of his favorite Film Festival 2014, Vilnius International Film Festival isolated place. As they are not married, they must Key festivals and awards Muhr Arab Special Men- hero – a young monk. He finds joy and pleasure in 2014 hide to share their intimate moments. Walid parks tion Best Actress, Dubai International Film Festival 2012 ; observing other people’s lives. What begins as an the cab. They start to kiss but a car parks nearby and Feature Film Audience Award, EntreVue Belfort 2013 innocent game turns gradually into obsession and they must stop. Souhaire is fed up with their furtive Tsog starts focusing on a beautiful young woman, meetings. She mentions a friend from high school, Anu. Just like Tsog, she seems to be longing for af- Sulmaze, who lives in Teheran. Why not visit her ? Syria, 2012 fection and care, wandering through memories and That way, she and Walid could spend time together dreaming of future happiness. Mongolia, 2013 far from Damascus. Walid is surprised but accepts. Director : Meyar Al Roumi Producers : Bizibi (France), Belle Epoque Films Director : Byamba Sakhya They embark on a train to Iran … (Germany), Collage Film Production (Egypt) Director’s note The film is a story of two young Producers : Guru Media (Mongolia), Ma.ja.de (Germany) Production (Egypt) people – Tsog and Anu. The theme emerging German WCF partner : Ma.ja.de Director’s note With Round Trip, I hope to tackle German WCF partner : Belle Epoque Films through their storylines is control. Both have been World sales : Deckert Distribution (Germany) universal feelings about love through a particular World sales : Bizibi (France) trying to control their own lives – symbolically be- Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2012 couple’s story. And I built the particularities of the Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2011 ing able to fly above the circumstances of their lives. Funding amount : 30.000 € story in order to expose aspects of the life of the Funding amount : 30.000 €

58 59 Siembra Te Prometo Anarquía by Ángela María Osorio Rojas and Santiago Lozano Álvarez I Promise you Anarchy by Julio Hernández Cordón

Synopsis A man and his son move from the Pa- Key festivals and awards Swiss Critics Borsalino Synopsis Miguel and Johnny have a close relation- World Premiere Locarno International Film Festi- cific coast of Colombia to Cali, but have a difficult Award, Locarno International Film Festival 2015 ; Jury ship which they hide in front of others. They skate val 2015, Competition time adapting to the city. When his son is killed, the Award, Tarragona International Film Festival 2015 ; all day and sell blood in hospital emergency rooms. father must go through the hard process of grief Stokholm International Film Festival 2015 ; Festival Trafficking blood is a way for them to earn money Key festivals and awards Locarno International while trying to find roots in a place that does not de Cine Global Republica Dominicana 2015 and keep skating without following other peoples’ Film Festival 2015 ; FIPRESCI Prize, Baja International belong to him. rules. A drug cartel contacts them to supply the Film Festival 2015 ; Guerrerro Award, Morelia Inter blood to his clandestine clinics. They accept, but national Film Festival 2015 ; FIPRESCI Prize, Rio de Ja- Director’s note Death is the human event that the first deal does not go well. Miguel flees to Texas neiro International Film Festival 2015 ; San Sebastián leads to the emergence of rituals. Like rooms for a with the help of his parents and Johnny uses the International Film Festival 2015 constant eternity, graves, catacombs, pyramids, bur- event to end the relationship. ials, are signs that represent a place where someone inhabits that piece of land – even an underground Colombia, 2015 Director’s note The idea is to make a male love story, one. These signs are an appropriation of a place, in which emotions are contained, and the silence and Director : Ángela María Osorio Rojas, Mexico, 2015 celebrated like in the act of sowing a seed. We com- Santiago Lozano Álvarez actions have much more impact. In this film, I want memorate death. Thus we also feel that we belong Producers : Contravía Films – Bárbara Films (Colombia) to focus on people who engage in criminal activities. Director : Julio Hernández Cordón to the place where we mourn. Autentika Films (Germany) Whilst avoiding clichés, my criminals will not appear to Producers : Interior 13 (México), Rohfilm (Germany) German WCF Partner : Autentika Films be criminals despite their dirty appearance. They are German WCF partner : Rohfilm (Germany) World premiere Locarno International Film Festival World sales : Cineplex Inc. (USA) common guys who are passionate about an extreme World sales : Latido Films (Spain) 2015, Cineasti del presente Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2014 sport and what they want is to live in the present, as Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2013 Funding amount : 30.000 € often happens with people who engage in crime. Funding amount : 30.000 €

60 61 La Tercera Orilla UROKI GARMONII the third Side of the river HARMONY LESSONS by Celina Murga by Emir Baigazin

Synopsis Nicolas, a 16-year-old boy, lives in the pro- during the time in which he is beginning to realize Synopsis Following a humiliation in front of his World premiere Berlin International Film Festival vince of Entre Ríos. Nicolas’ father, a doctor, lives par- that this is not what he wants for himself. classmates during a medical check-up, Aslan (13) 2013, Competition allel lives. First, he has a marriage to a woman with falls ill with an obsessive-compulsive disorder. whom he has a son. Second, he has a relationship World Premiere Berlin International Film Festival Key festivals and awards Silver Bear for an Out- with another woman who has born him four children. 2014, Competition Aslan is a student at a village school in a crime-rid- standing Artistic Contribution, Berlin International Only six blocks stand between the two houses, but den section of Kazakhstan. The dirty criminal world Film Festival 2013 ; NETPAC Award, Abu Dhabi Film Nicolas’ father does not allow the boy to walk those Key festivals and awards Berlin International Film of the school conflicts drastically with Aslan’s per- Festival 2013 ; Best New Narrative Director, Tribeca streets, and does not allow him to call him “ dad ” in Festival 2014 ; Special Jury Award, Cartagena Inter- fectionism and sense for beauty and purity. Film Festival 2013 ; Critics Special Award, São Paulo public. The life of the women is a sotto voce secret. national Film Festival 2014 ; Best Screenplay, Havana International Film Festival 2013 The whole town is aware of the situation and Nicolas Film Festival 2014 Aslan sees all the evil in the school gang leader Bolat takes it for granted. Yet, the tension of the situation (13), the one responsible for Aslan’s humiliation. must inevitably explode one way or another. Argentina, 2014 Bolat collects money from younger kids and beats KAZAKHSTAN, 2013 them up severely. With good intentions to rid his Director : Celina Murga Director : Emir Baigazin Director’s note In the Argentine province of Entre school of violence, Aslan decides to kill Bolat. Producers : Tresmilmundos Cine (Argentina), Rommel Producers : Anna Katchko (Russia), JCS Kazakhfilm Rios, there are many small towns far removed from Film (Germany), Waterland Film (The Netherlands) (Kazakhstan), The Post Republic (Germany), both the popular tourist towns, and the centers of Executive Producer : Martin Scorsese (USA) Director’s note HARMONY LESSONS is a spiritual Arizona Productions (France), Rohfilm (Germany) business and politics. I intend to portray the life of a German WCF partner : Rommel Film journey, a coming of age story and at the same time German WCF partner : The Post Republic boy who lives in one of these cities. His story has the World sales : The Match Factory (Germany) a controversial social drama. It touches universal World sales : Films Distribution (France) common traits of alienation and hypocrisy to which Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2011 and still very intimate subjects of violence and lone- Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2012 many youngsters succumb. The film takes place Funding amount : 40.000 € liness as well as the decisions that we make in life. Funding amount : 40.000 €

62 63 workers See also Distribution Support by José Luis Valle

Zai Jian Wa Cheng The Road to Mandalay by Midi Z

Synopsis After a whole life of work at Tijuana, World premiere Berlin International Film Festival Synopsis Lianqing and Guo meet when they ille- World Premiere: Venice International Film Festival, Rafael and Lidia are victims of injustice against 2013, Panorama gally crossed into Thailand. Lianqing finds a job as 2016, Venice Days their rights and dignity : Rafael learns that due to a dishwasher in a restaurant while Guo works in a a paperwork mistake, he will not be entitled to his Key festivals and awards Berlin International Film textile factory in the suburbs. But Guo’s faith in Lian- Key festivals and awards: Fedeora Award for Best retirement pension. As for Lidia, she finds out that Festival 2013 ; Golden Colon, Huelva Latin American qing is diminishing rapidly; their love is irreversibly Film, Venice International Film Festival 2016; Golden her employer’s will leave the entire heirloom to the Film Festival 2013 ; Mezcal Award, Guadalajara In- doomed. Unicorn for a Feature Film ; Amiens International dog. Alone and silently, they´ll begin a battle : Rafael ternational Film Festival 2013 ; Grand Prix, Split Film Film Fstival 2016 ; Toronto International Film Festival against a company, Lidia against a dog. Festival 2013 ; LA Film Fest 2013 Director’s note Individuals who live in a group 2016; Busan International Film Festival 2016, Vien- tend to keep pursuing a sense of security and exist- nale 2016 Director’s note I once saw a maid leave the house ence. In society, the things that support this sense she worked in. She silently observed the empty of security are money, material comfort, jobs and Myanmar, 2016 room that used to be hers. It was an uninteresting ID papers. Furthermore, some people need spirit- space, barely a few square feet, but she looked at Mexico, 2013 ual comfort like the protagonists in the script – Guo Director : Midi Z it intensely. Her eyes travelled across every crack, needs love in order to prove his existence, while Producers: Flash Forward Entertainment (Taiwan), Director : José Luis Valle Myanmar Montage Films (Myanmar), Bombay Berlin Film every rough spot in the wall’s texture. I felt a natural Producers : Zensky Cine-Foprocine (Mexico), Lianqing desperately needs her “ papers ”. Production (Germany), Pop Pictures Company Limited, empathy towards this fragment of life I was a spec- Autentika Films (Germany) Seashore Image Productions tator to, because we’ve all experienced these feel- German WCF partner : Autentika Films How can people prove their “ existence ” ? If we can’t German WCF partner: Bombay Berlin Film Production ings of belonging, the strength of habits, and we’ve World sales : MPM Film (France) provide any proof, to which group do we belong ? World Sales: Urban Distribution International (France) all become fond of things and places. Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2011 To which country ? To which ethnicity ? In the end, Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2015 Funding amount : 40.000 € Guo chooses destruction to emphasise and prove Funding amount : 30.000 € his “ existence. ”

64 65 Production SUPPORT Finished Films 2004 – 2011

66 67 Agua y sal Ajami atos dos homens water and salt by Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti ACTS OF MEN by Alejo Taube by Kiko Goifman Bi, dung so ! bi, don´t be afraid ! by Di Phan Dang See also Distribution Support

Argentina, 2010 Israel / palestine, 2009 Brazil, 2006 Vietnam, 2010 Director : Alejo Taube Director : Yaron Shani, Scandar Copti Director : Kiko Goifman Director : Di Phan Dang Producers : Ruda Cine (Argentina), Producers : Inosan Ltd. (Israel), Twenty Twenty Vision (Germany) Producers : Paleo TV and Plateau Produções (Brazil), Producers : Acrobates Film (France), Arte France Cinema Pandora Film (Germany) German WCF partner : Twenty Twenty Vision Cachoeira Films + Mil Colores Media (Germany) (France), Vietnam Media Corp & Vietnam Studio (Vietnam), German WCF partner : Pandora Film World sales : The Match Factory (Germany) German WCF partner : Cachoeira Films + Mil Colores Media Vblock Media Joint Stock Company (Vietnam), TR9 Film (Germany) World sales : Primer Plano Film Group (Argentina) World sales : Paleo TV (Brazil) German WCF partner : TR9 Film Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in October 2005 World sales : Acrobates Film (France) Funding amount : 65.000 € Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2005 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2007 Funding amount : 25.000 € Funding amount : 50.000 € Funded by the WCF Jury meeting in October 2008 Funding amount : 50.000 € Synopsis Water is represented by a married couple from Buenos Synopsis Jaffa’s Ajami neighbourhood is a melting pot of cul- Synopsis ATOS DOS HOMENS should have been a film about the Synopsis IIn an old house in Hanoi, Bi, a 6-year-old child lives Aires who walks down the beaches of Mar del Plata, visits the tures and conflicting views among Jews, Muslims and Christians. daily lives of massacre survivors in Brazil. Shooting was scheduled with his parents, his aunt and their cook. His favorite playgrounds fishermen pear, takes pictures and goes on a boat tour that ends Back and forth in time, and through the eyes of various characters, to start in April 2005. But reality did not wait. On the last day of are an ice factory and the wild grass along the river. After being up with the man in the water almost drowned. Later we will find we witness how impossible the situation really is … March things changed : A terrible massacre took place in Baixada absent for years, his grandfather, seriously ill, reappears and settles out they have been trying to get pregnant for a long time but she Fluminense, near the city of Rio de Janeiro. Twentynine people at their house. While Bi gets closer to his grandfather, his father can’t conceive. The salt is represented by a couple from Mar del Sensitive 13-years old Nasri and his older brother Omar live in fear were killed by a death squad, the largest massacre in the history tries to avoid any contact with his family. Every night, he gets Plata, he’s a thirty-some fisherman and she’s a sixteen year old when their entire family is in danger after their uncle foolishly of Rio de Janeiro. The killers are extermination groups made up of drunk and goes and see his masseuse, for whom he feels a quiet girl. She just told her family they’re going to get married but didn’t wounds a prominent clan member. Naive young Palestinian refu- policemen who work in the area, and who are involved in extor- strong desire. Bi’s mother turns a blind eye on it. The aunt, still sin- mention her pregnancy. Between the two stories, AGUA Y SAL gee Malek works illegally in Israel to help financing the surgery tions, kidnapping, drug dealing and homicide. This has been going gle, meets a 16-year-old young boy in the bus. Her attraction to draws a thin line to separate its two universes while also seems that will save his mother’s life. Affluent Palestinian Binj dreams of a on since the 1950s, but it has never been as extreme as it is today. him moves her deeply. to blend them together one on top of the other, like a sort of ho- bright future with his Jewish girlfriend. Jewish policeman Dando lographic overprint in which Rafael Spregelbud plays both male and his family undergo a frustrating search for his missing young- The film is organised in four parts : “ Daily Life in Baixada Flumin- Director’s note Imagine relaxing and watching a fish tank. Big roles. Through this “ divided indivisibility ” featured in his second er brother, a soldier … The tragic fragility of human existence is ense ” shows footage of residents of the town, “ The Massacre ” de- and small fish live together in a narrow tank. They are full of desire feature, Alejo Taube’s wisely ambiguous storytelling addresses experienced in the enclosed community of Ajami, where enemies scribes the carnage and the feelings it provoked. “ Death Squads ” for food and reproduction. Yet, they themselves can’t recognize the abyss that hides behind crystal clear appearances. must live as neighbours. No location expresses the dramatic colli- deals with the killing commandos in the area and includes an that they are burdened with desires. sion of different worlds better. interview with a professional assassin. “ Daily Life 2 ” shows the World premiere Mar del Plata International Film Festival 2010 people in Baixada Fluminense and their attempts to process what World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2010, Se- World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2009, Quin- they have experienced. maine de la critique Key festivals and awards Mar del Plata International Film Festi- zaine des réalisateurs val 2010 ; Miami International Film Festival 2011 World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2006, Forum Key festivals and awards SACD Prize, ACID / CCAS Support, Key festivals and awards Camera d’Or Special Distinction, Cannes International Film Festival 2010 ; Grand Prix du Jury, An- Cannes International Film Festival 2009 ; Best Picture, Best Direc- Key festivals and awards São Paulo / Rio de Janeiro “ It’s all true ” gers Premiers Plans 2011; Best First Feature, Best Cinematography, tor, Best Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Composer, Ophir Israeli Documentary Film Festival 2006 ; Guadalajara International Film Fes- Film and Television Academy Award 2009 ; Nomination Academy tival 2006 ; BAFICI 2006 ; São Paulo International Film Festival 2006 Awards USA for Best Foreign Language Film of the year 2010

68 69 Chaque Jour El Cielo, la Tierra Ciudadela el custodio est une fête y la Lluvia Citadel THE MINDER every day is a holiday THE SKY, THE EARTH AND THE RAIN by Diego Mondaca by Rodrigo Moreno by Dima El-Horr by José Luis Torres Leiva

Lebanon, 2009 Chile, 2008 Bolivia, 2011 Argentina, 2005 Director : Dima El-Horr Director : José Luis Torres Leiva Director : Diego Mondaca Director : Rodrigo Moreno Producers : Ciné-Sud Promotion (France), Orjouane Productions Producers : Jirafa Films (Chile), Charivari Films (France), Producers : Manosudaca Videofilmes (Bolivia), Producers : Rizoma Film (Argentina), Eddie Saeta, (Spain), (Lebanon), Nikovantastic Film (Germany) Rommel Film (Germany) Pucara Films (Bolivia), Blinker Filmproduktion (Germany) Pandora Film (Germany), Control Z Film (Uruguay) German WCF partner : Nikovantastic Film German WCF partner : Rommel Film German WCF partner : Blinker Filmproduktion German WCF partner : Pandora Film World sales : UMedia (France) Word sales : Memento Films International (France) World sales : Pucara Films (Bolivia) World sales : The Match Factory (Germany) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2008 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2006 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2005 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2009 Funding amount : 50.000 € Funding amount : 40.000 € Funding amount : 40.000 € Funding amount : 30.000 €

Synopsis Three women who do not know each other are on the Synopsis The life of four solitary persons that live throughout Synopsis Situated high up in the Bolivian capital of La Paz, the Synopsis As a bodyguard it’s Rubén’s duty to keep the Minister same bus headed for the same place : a men’s prison in the heart the routine and silence in the south. They gather to eat, stroll by San Pedro Prison is a bustling city within a city. It has its own of Planning under constant surveillance. As a shadow, Rubén of the Hermel desert. Against her parents wishes, Tamara is going the beach, be transported in the ferry or simply carry along each church, soccer field, dental practice, shops, workshops, and carni- witnesses everything from the sidelines, as if life was passing by to visit her husband, who was incarcerated on their wedding day. other without saying a word. To a certain extent, they attempt to val parades. Around 2,500 people are packed into San Pedro, but some metres away from him. Yet, despite his insider’s view, he Lina is determined to get her husband, whose sentence is long, to save themselves in a silent, furtive, extreme manner. They search by no means are all of them prisoners : the spirited Mechita and never understands clearly what’s going on, what’s being talked sign the divorce papers which will finally set her free. Hala travels for love, sex, non-existent family ties, private space and time not her son keep their husband and father company – and they are about, nor where the characters come from or go to. with a secret knot of fear in her stomach : hidden in her suitcase, only to detach from the solitude that intimately constitutes them not the only ones. she carries the weapon forgotten by her husband, a prison guard. but rather, to finally find themselves. An absolutely visual, atmos- Single Rubén is hardly even a protagonist in his own life. A lonely A fatal incident changes the tone and sets everything adrift. Con- pheric movie where human being and landscape fuse. Solitude Director’s note Citadel captures, through a technique of ap- life, involving a mentally unstable sister and a dizzy niece, sale of trary to their intentions, the women are left to their fates and find and isolation portrayed not as a negative consequence, but as an parent explosive disorder, the disturbing and mysterious world of illegal arms and cheap prostitutes. Plus the monotonous routine themselves lost in the middle of an arid landscape. They continue internal process of learning. the men’s prison in La Paz, Bolivia. The film attempts to expose of being a bodyguard and the occasional humiliation from the along their road, plunging deeper into what proves to be an inter- life inside the detention facility which does not adhere to the tra- Minister or his family … Such pressure can ultimately explode. nal journey. Like Lebanon seeking to reclaim its own freedom, the World premiere Rotterdam International Film Festival 2008, ditional icons of prison as some inmates’ wives and children live This is Rubén’s inevitable outcome. voyage of these three women becomes no less than a quest for Competition alongside the prisoners. Despite physical marginalization and the their own independence. punitive prejudice that hovers over the inmates and their families, World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2006, Key festivals and awards Fipresci Award, Rotterdam Interna- this unique co-existence alongside the tenement architecture Competition World premiere Toronto International Film Festival 2009 tional Film Festival 2008 ; BAFICI 2008 ; Bucharest Film Festival constructs an unexpected community. 2008 ; Paris Cinema 2008 ; Sydney International Film Festival 2008 ; World premiere IDFA International Film Festival 2011 Key festivals and awards Alfred Bauer Prize, Berlin International Key festivals and awards Toronto International Film Festival Munich International Film Festival 2008 ; Durban International Film Film Festival 2006 ; Best Film, Best Script, FIPRESCI Award, Guada- 2009 ; Rome International Film Festival 2009 ; Dubai International Festival 2008 ; Locarno International Fim Festival 2008 ; Lima Film Key festivals and awards IDFA International Film Festival 2011; lajara International Film Festival 2006 ; Winner of Horizontes, San Film Festival 2009 ; Black Nights Film Festival Tallinn 2009 ; Inter- Festival 2008 ; New York Latin Beat 2008 ; Special Jury Prize, Jeonju DocBuenosAires 2012 ; Taiwan International Documentary Film Sebastián International Film Festival 2006 ; Best Film, Best Director, national Film Festival Rotterdam 2010 ; Seattle International Film International Film Festival 2008 ; Best Film, FICCO Mexico 2008 Festival 2012 ; Festival Internacional Unasur Cine 2013 Best Actor, Bogota Film Festival 2006 ; Best Director, Best Actor, Festival 2010 Havana Film Festival 2006

70 71 DIOSES Ee’adat Khalk F A R O − L a R e i n e GODS RECYCLE des eaux by Josué Méndez by Mahmoud al-Massad FARO − GODDESS OF THE WATERS by Salif Traoré death for sale by Faouzi Bensaïdi See also Distribution Support

Morocco, 2011 Peru, 2008 Jordan, 2007 mali, 2007 Director : Faouzi Bensaïdi Director : Josué Méndez Director : Mahmoud al-Massad Director : Salif Traoré Producers : Agora Film (Morocco), Producers : Chullachaki Producciones (Peru), Lagarto Cine Producers : iSee (Jordan, The Netherlands), Producers : Sarama Films (Mali), P.A.V. Communication (France), Entre Chien et Loup (Belgium), Heimatfilm (Germany) (Argentina), TS Productions (France), Mil Colores Media and mec film (Germany), Jo Film (Jordan) Boréal Films (Canada), Bärbel Mauch Film (Germany) German WCF partner : Heimatfilm Cachoeira Films (Germany) German WCF partner : mec film German WCF partner : Bärbel Mauch Film World sales : Urban Distribution International (France) German WCF partner : Mil Colores Media and Cachoeira Films World sales : Wide Management (France) World sales : Wide Management (France) World sales : Doc & Film International (France) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2006 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in October 2005 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2010 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2006 Funding amount : 30.000 € Funding amount : 60.000 € Funding amount : 30.000 € Funding amount : 55.000 €

Synopsis Tetouan, a city wedged between a hill and an impos- Synopsis Diego and Andrea are about eighteen, they are beauti- Synopsis What makes a terrorist ? In Zarqa, Jordan’s second Synopsis Zanga, a child born out of wedlock, is driven from his ing mountain. Malik, Allal and Soufiane live off small crimes. ful, rich and bright. They live in the most beautiful house by the largest city with a population of nearly one million, it is a much- village. He returns after many years to find out who his father is. At beach, on the most beautiful beach in Peru, with their rich and debated question. Zarqa’s political Islamists are a powerful force the moment of his arrival, something happens that the villagers One day, they decide to change their destinies. They are going to successful father. This is a world where there are no problems, no in this industrial center, and Zarqa was the birthplace of Abu Musa interpret as the river spirit Faro’s angry reaction to Zanga’s return. rob a large jewelry store in the city. But soon, it turns out that their material needs ; a world of forms and beauty, an artificial world, a al Zarqawi, a brutal Al Qaeda leader in Mesopotamia before being motivations for the robbery diverge and set them against each world of appearances. killed by American forces in 2005. The film uses this fateful moment in the history of a village to other. bring us closer to the changing rural regions of Africa : suddenly, GODS is about a family where apparently nothing is wrong, but Inspired by his reporting on al Zarqawi and Al Quaeda for inter- oppressed people are making demands and the local authorities Director’s note Three losers, dreaming of a better life see this after scratching the surface a little, a cruel way of life, a world of national news agencies, filmmaker al Massad returned to Zarqa, are under pressure. Tradition must find compromises with moder- dream inescapably disappear before their eyes, revealing to all the unbreakable and inflexible social customs, is revealed. where he grew up, to make RECYCLE. In a deceptively calm man- nity so that life can go on. cowardly acts, the betrayals and the pettiness of the human soul. ner, the film slowly unravels the hidden agents of terrorism : pov- They will realise that they aren’t strong enough to live out their GODS is the story of this family, its decadence, its rigid mech erty, humiliation, lack of opportunity and religious doctrine define World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2007, Forum dreams, that they don’t have the dimensions of the people they anisms when it comes to social involvement, and its efforts to the daily rhythms of a man and his family, all against the backdrop dreamed of becoming and that they will pay a heavy price in their conceal any interior ugliness under a beautiful cover. of an era when jihad that spans the globe. RECYCLE suggests that Key festivals and awards Berlin International Film Festival 2007 ; fight against the powerful forces of money, greed, destiny, blind evil acts can emerge from the most ordinary of circumstances. Festival Panafricain du Cinéma et de la Télévision de Ouagadou- love and the manipulation of faith. World premiere Locarno International Film Festival 2008, gou ( FESPACO ) 2007 ; Toronto International Film Festival 2007 ; World premiere Toronto International Film Festival 2011, Con- Official Competition World premiere Dubai International Film Festival 2007, Muhr Festival du Film Francophone de Tübingen 2007 ; Dubai Inter temporary World Cinema Awards, Official Competition for Documentaries national Film Festival 2007 ; Göteborg Film Festival 2008 ; Winner Key festivals and awards Locarno International Film Festival of Bayard d’Or – Best First Feature, Festival International du Film Key festivals and awards Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2011; Mar- 2008 ; Toronto International Film Festival 2008 ; San Sebastian In- Key festivals and awards Cinema in Motion Award, San Sebas- Francophone de Namur 2007 rakech International Film Festival 2011; Berlin International Film ternational Film Festival 2008 ; Best Peruvian Film, Audience Award, tian International Film Festival 2008 ; World Cinema Cinematog- Festival 2012 ; C.I.C.A.E. Award, Berlin International Film Festival Lima Film Festival 2008 ; Best Film, Biarritz Film Festival 2008 raphy Award, Sundance International Film Festival 2008 ; Special 2012 ; Cineuropa EN Award and Golden Iris Award, Brussels Film Mention – Planete Doc Review, Warsaw Documentary Film Festival 2012 ; Melbourne International Film Festival 2013 Festival 2007

72 73 filmefobia Filmphobia by Kiko Goifman Genenet Al asmak GIRIMUNHO HAMACA AQUARIUM SWIRL PARAGUAYA by Yousry Nasrallah by Helvécio Marins Jr. and Clarissa Campolina by Paz Encina

brazil, 2008 Egypt, 2008 B r a z i l , 2011 Paraguay, 2006 Director : Kiko Goifman Director : Yousry Nasrallah Director : Helvécio Marins Jr., Clarissa Campolina Director : Paz Encina Producers : PaleoTV e Plateau Produções (Brazil), Producers : MISR International Films (Egypt), Producers : Teia Produções (Brazil), Dezenove Som Producers : Slot Machine (France), Fortuna Films (The Netherlands), Autentika Films (Germany) Archipel 33 (France), Pandora Film (Germany) e Imagem (Brazil), Eddie Saeta (Spain), New Crowned Hope (Austria), Lita Stantic Producciones (Argen- German WCF partner : Autentika Films German WCF partner : Pandora Film Autentika Films (Germany) tina), Wanda Vision (Spain), Black Forest Films (Germany) World sales : Paleo TV (Brazil) World sales : Sunnland Film INt. German WCF partner : Autentika Films German WCF partner : Black Forest Films World sales : Urban Distribution International (France) World sales : Scalpel Films (France) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2008 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2006 Funding amount : 25.000 € Funding amount : 100.000 € Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2005 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2011 Funding amount : 30.000 € Funding amount : 30.000 € Synopsis Jean-Claude Bernardet (one of Brazil’s prominent film Synopsis It all takes place over 48 hours, in today’s Cairo. Laila Synopsis In the backlands of Minas Gerais, where time seems to Synopsis It’s already autumn and it’s still hot – the heat never critics) plays the director of a documentary that was never com- is 32 and works as a radio talk show host. People call her on her pass at the river’s pace, two elderly women keep the whirlwind goes away. In a remote place in Paraguay, an elderly peasant cou- pleted. FILMPHOBIA is a making-of of a fictitious documentary film, show “ Night Secrets ” to reveal their innermost secrets. She plays of life in full swirl. Bastú has just lost her husband, but tearlessly ple Candida and Ramon are waiting for their son who left to fight which is about fear in contemporary society. The main belief of the squash, she swims, sometimes she writes children’s stories, and seeks comfort in daily life and in memories. But it is in the freedom the Chaco War. They are also waiting for the rain to come, it keeps documentary director – Jean-Claude – is that the only image that is sometimes goes out with her friend to discos. She lives with her of dreams and the freshness brought by her grandchildren that announcing its arrival but it doesn’t come ; and for the wind that authentic, real and truthful is that of a human being challenged by mother and her brother. Youssef is an anaesthetist. He is about she manages to work her own transformation. never comes either ; and for the heat to go away but it never does his or her phobia. The crew of the documentary explore the lim- 35. In the morning he works in a perfectly respectable private in spite of the season ; and for the dog to stop barking, but it will its of the psyche, exposing phobic people to emotionally violent hospital. At night he works in an illegal abortion clinic. His father Helping her through it is Maria, whose drum pounds with all the never stop and, all in all, they are waiting for better times to come. situations, dealing with different kinds of phobias : airplane phobia, is dying of cancer. Youssef likes to hear his patients’ delirium, just joy and power of her people, beating out the sounds of other ocean phobia, snake phobia, blood phobia and so on. before they go deep into anesthesia. When they wake up, he tells places and resounding with a presence that can never die. The instant of the eternal waiting is found between the “ before ” them everything they’ve said. He also likes to listen to Laila’s ra- and the “ after ” of time. The couple faces these waiting moments FILMPHOBIA provokes the question : Why was the film never dio programme. Sometimes, he spends parts of his nights with World premiere Venice International Film Festival 2011, Orizzonti with different attitudes : Ramon, a farmer, waits with optimism ; finished ? Is the director of the documentary – 71 years old – start- a woman he likes, but doesn’t love. Two characters, who don’t Candida, a mother and a washerwoman, believes her son is al- ing to go blind ? Is the director’s condition as an HIV-carrier get- know each other, who will meet. Their lives will not change drasti- Key festivals and awards Interfilm Award, Venice International ready dead, therefore it makes no sense to keep waiting. ting worse ? Did the situation result in trauma when he dealt with cally. They just realise how lonely they are. Film Festival 2011; Toronto Internatio-nal Film Festival 2011; San blood phobia ? Sebastian International Film Festival 2011; Rio de Janeiro Interna- World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2006, Un World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2008, tional Film Fes-tival 2011; Valdivia International Film Festival ; Spe- certain regard World premiere Locarno International Film Festival 2008, Panorama cial Jury Prize, Havana International Film Festival 2011; Best Film by Competition, Filmmakers of the Present Youth Jury, Nantes Film Festival 2011; Munich International Film Key festivals and awards FIPRESCI Award, Cannes International Key festivals and awards Berlin International Film Festival Festival 2012 Film Festival 2006 ; Critics Award, São Paulo International Film Key festivals and awards Saravejo International Film Festival 2008 ; Best Actor, Arab Film Festival Rotterdam 2008 ; Best Script, Festival 2006 ; Pusan International Film Festival 2006 ; Rotterdam 2008 ; Havana International Film Festival 2008 ; Rotterdam Inter- Wahran Film Festival 2008 ; Best Supporting Actor & Best Director, International Film Festival 2007 national Film Festival 2009 ; Best Film (Official Jury, Critique Jury), Alexandria International Film Festival 2008 Best Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, Festival de Brasília do Cinema Brasileiro 2008

74 75 Huacho by Alejandro Fernández Almendras Hanotenet independencia The slut by Raya Martin jean gentil by Hagar Ben-Asher See also Distribution Support by Laura Amelia Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas

Israel, 2011 Chile, 2009 Philippines, 2009 Dominican Republic, 2010 Director : Hagar Ben-Asher Director : Alejandro Fernández Almendras Director : Raya Martin Director : Laura Amelia Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas Producers : Transfax Films (Israel), Sophie Dulac Producers : Jirafa Films (Chile), Charivari Films (France), Producers : Cinematografica (Philippines), Atopic (France), Producers : Aurora Dominicana (Dominican Republic), Canana Productions (France), Rohfilm (Germany) Pandora Film (Germany) Volya Films (The Netherlands), Razor Film (Germany) Films (Mexico), Bärbel Mauch Films (Germany) German WCF partner : Rohfilm German WCF partner : Pandora Film German WCF partner : Razor Film German WCF partner : Bärbel Mauch Films World sales : Films Distribution (France) World sales : Films Distribution (France) World sales : Memento (France) World sales : Aurora Dominicana (Dominican Republic) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2006 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in October 2008 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2009 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2009 Funding amount : 50.000 € Funding amount : 50.000 € Funding amount : 50.000 € Funding amount : 40.000 €

Synopsis Tamar’s behaviour stays the same. It’s one man after Synopsis On a long and eventful day, four members of a south- Synopsis Early 20th century Philippines. The sounds of war sig- Synopsis The Haitian professor Jean Remy Genty is always on another, and her reputation proceeds her. But she is also the ern Chilean peasant family (Pedro and his wife Olga, their daugh- nal the arrival of the Americans. An aing mother and her son flee the move, looking for work. A graceful figure, he stands out in the mother of Mika and Noa, 12 and 8. She no longer seeks redemp- ter Marta and their grandson Rodrigo) struggle to adapt to the to the mountains, hoping for a quiet life. One day, the son discov- crowd : a model Christian. Although a job on a building site is a tion, until Shai arrives. He’s there to take care of his late mother’s changing world in which they live in ; a world where a gameboy ers a wounded woman in the middle of the forest, and decides possible option for the unemployed Haitian, Jean does not feel property. Shai is not aware of Tamar’s behaviour, but soon enough or a new dress can be as precious as a litre of milk or a glass of to bring her home. Years pass. The man, the rescued woman and up to it, feeling old and weak. He is looking for something more discovers her ways. He does not care for it, but he thinks he can wine ; where the boundaries between tradition and modernity their child live in total isolation from the growing chaos all over suited to the intellectual he considers himself to be. And so he save her. They fall in love and soon Tamar stops messing around. are quickly disappearing. the country. But a coming storm soon threatens their existence, spends years looking for employment worthy of himself and his The tightly knit society is skeptical of her newfound purity, but the and American troops draw nearer … education. Jean starts to give up hope. His desires and thoughts true trouble lies in this new daily routine, creating a harsh sense of Director’s note With a mix of candor, empathy and simplicity, become confused. Bad feelings start to grow, distorting his per- emptiness in Tamar’s core. HUACHO depicts a day in the life of four members of a peasant Director’s note The American occupation in the Philippines ception of everyday life … family who live on the outskirts of the city of Chillán, in the south revolves around disappearances. Unaccounted deaths occurred Director’s note Sex, violence, religion, motherhood, and the of Chile, dealing with the many transformations of the life of the in the many villages where invading troops had settled in. The Director’s note Everyday more Haitians arrive in the Dominican one thing which unites them all together – guilt – are the primal peasantry at the turn of the century. mysterious disappearances of Filipinos have affected many lives. Republic to find jobs. For a man like Jean Gentil, this is no help resources of this film. With a clear view, this film shows no vic- This is the real disappearance of the times : a void of emotions since he’s been searching the past years for a job worthy of his tims and no desperate psychological motivations, just a physical World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2009, and affection for the missing and people’s suspended feelings for studies. In his transit, we are able to recognise the changing scen- animalistic being. Quinzaine des réalisateurs their loved ones. ery as a character and the narrative conductor of the story.

World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2011, Se- Key festivals and awards Munich International Film Festival World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2009, World premiere Venice International Film Festival 2010, Oriz- maine de la critique 2009 ; Jerusalem International Film Festival 2009 ; Toronto Inter Un certain regard zonti national Film Festival 2009 ; San Sebastian International Film Fes- Key festivals and awards Cannes International Film Festival tival 2009 ; Best Film, Viña del Mar International Film Festival 2009 ; Key festivals and awards Toronto International Film Festival Key festivals and awards Thessaloniki Internatio-nal Film Festi- 2011; International Women’s Film Festival Israel 2011; Chicago Best First Film, Havana International FilmFestival 2009 2009 ; Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2009 ; Pusan Inter val 2011; Rotterdam International Film Festival 2011; Viennale 2010 ; International Film Festival 2011; Pirchi Family Award, Jerusalem national Film Festival 2009 ; Golden Kinnaree, Bangkok Inter BAFICI 2011; Jury’s Special Mention, Venice Film Festival 2010 International Film Festival 2011 national Film Festival 2009 ; Grand Jury Prize 2009, Cinemanila International Film Festival 2009

76 77 JERMAL La Khaneye Zire Âb LIVERPOOL Loong Boonmee by Ravi Bharwani The House under the Water by Lisandro Alonso raleuk chat by Sepideh Farsi uncle boonmee who can recall his past lives by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Indonesia, 2008 Iran, 2010 Argentina, 2008 Thailand, 2010 Director : Ravi Bharwani Director : Sepideh Farsi Director : Lisandro Alonso Director : Apichatpong Weerasethakul Producers : ECCO Films Indonesia (Indonesia), Producers : Rêves d’Eau Productions (France), Neshaneh Films Producers : Slot Machine (France), Fortuna Films (The Netherlands), Producers : Kick The Machine Films (Thailand), RTC Media (Germany) (Iran), Sweet Water Pictures 4L (Argentina), Black Forest Films (Germany), Eddie Saeta (Spain) Illuminations Films (UK), The Match Factory (Germany), ao German WCF partner : RTC Media (The Netherlands), Pola Pandora Film (Germany) German WCF partner : Black Forest Films German WCF partner : The Match Factory World sales : Ecco Films (Indonesia) German WCF partner : Pola Pandora Film World sales : The Match Factory (Germany) World sales : The Match Factory (Germany) World sales : Anniko Films (Armenia) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting of November 2007 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2006 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in October 2008 Funding amount : 55.000 € Funding amount : 35.000 € Funded in WCF Jury meeting in June 2007 Funding amount : 60.000 € Funding amount : 30.000 € Synopsis After his mother’s death, Jaya (12) is sent to his father, Synopsis Two teenagers, Morteza and Taher, are involved in the Synopsis Farell is a 48-year-old man sailing back because he Synopsis Suffering from kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has cho- Johar, who works as a supervisor on a jermal (a fishing platform accidental drowning of Taher’s younger brother. With this, an in- wants to find out if his mother is still alive, he is back since on the sen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the perched insecurely on log stilts in the middle of the sea). Never delible seal has marked their destiny, linking them forever. ocean nobody trusts him anymore. He is back to see, if it is possible countryside. Surpri- having known that he had a son, Johar is shocked and rejects to ask his mother for forgiveness. Perhaps that way he will finally be singly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and the boy as his kin. Fully aware that he can’t bring Jaya back to Thirty years later, Morteza is just coming out of jail, having been able to free himself from something that doesn’t let his head rest. his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplat- land due to dark past, Johar is forced to accept the boy as a suspected of murdering a child. Taher, who is now a police officer, Before leaving, he used to share the bed with his mother at night. ing the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle worker on the site. at first thinks he is guilty, like all the others, but then finds out that As soon as he got home Farell used to pull down his pants and do it with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave – the birthplace of his he’s wrong and decides to prove Morteza’s innocence. without even asking. Throughout the years, he worked in different first life … Faced with constant rejection from his father and relentless bul- places, on different ships ; he drank until he fainted without caring lying by the other boys who work on the jermal, Jaya decides to Director’s note The screenplay is an adaptation from several of at all where he was. Director’s note A few years ago I visited a temple near my home take fate into his own hands. He gives the hope of being accepted Bijan Najdi’s novels, whose universe is stamped with a magical yet and a monk there gave me a little book called “ A Man who Can and learns the skills and attitude he needs to survive on the jermal. poetically tinged reality. A universe where a couple can adopt a And now he comes back to his home village and arrives at his Recall his Past Lives. ” In it, the monk wrote about Boonmee, who Jaya increasingly becomes like the other boys : tough, rough – a dead child to fulfil its desire of never having had one. And where mother’s house. However, she doesn’t talk anymore. Farell watch- could recall his multiple lives in the cities of the northeast. During survivor, while Johar is gradually forced to face and accept his a boot found under water is enough for a man to mourn his lost es her without being seen ; he spies on her until the coldness pen- this time when rapid annihilation processes of everything from past. Eventually, both Johar and Jaya learn that they are bound son who never had a sepulchre. Characters in shades of grey, in a etrates him and then decides to go in. There he also gets to know species to cultures have become commonplace, it is important to by their past, united by the space in which they move, and con- country where things are too often black and white. a new relative. simply remember. nected by the inescapable truth. In the beginning, they meet as World premiere Dubai International Film Festival 2010 strangers, in the end, they leave as father and son. World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2008, World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2010, Com- Key festivals and awards Dubai International Film Festival 2010, Quinzaine des réalisateurs petition World premiere Pusan International Film Festival 2008, A Moscow International Film Festival 2011 Window on Asian Cinema Key festivals and awards Cannes International Film Festival Key festivals and awards Palme d’Or, Cannes International Film 2008 ; Jerusalem International Film Festival 2008 ; Rio de Janeiro Festival 2010 ; Best Foreign Language Film at the Toronto Film Crit- International Film Festival 2008 ; Filmfest Hamburg 2008 ; Vancou- ics Association Awards, Toronto International Film Festival 2010 ; Key festivals and awards Pusan International Film Festival ver International Film Festival 2008 ; Films from the South Festival Best Cinematography Award, Dubai International Film Festival 2008 ; Rotterdam International Film Festival 2009 ; Edinburgh In- Oslo 2008 2010 ternational Film Festival 2009 ; Montréal Film Festival 2009

78 79 Medianeras naoussé o céu de suely by Gustavo Taretto a perfect day SUELY IN THE SKY by Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas by Karim Aïnouz las malas intenciones THE bad intentions by Rosario García-Montero

Peru, 2011 Argentina, 2011 Lebanon, 2005 Brazil, 2006 Director : Rosario García-Montero Director : Gustavo Taretto Directors : Khalil Joreige, Joana Hadjithomas Director : Karim Aïnouz Producers : Garmont Films (Peru), Barry Films Producers : Rizoma Films (Argentina), Producers : Abbout Productions (Lebanon), Mille et une Produc- Producers : Videofilmes and Fado Filmes (Brazil), (Germany), Akerman Producciones (Argentina) Morena Films (Spain), Eddie Saeta (Spain), tion (France), Twenty Twenty Vision (Germany) Celluloid Dreams (France), Shotgun Pictures (Germany) German WCF partner : Barry Films Pandora Film (Germany) German WCF partner : Twenty Twenty Vision German WCF partner : Shotgun Pictures World sales : Ondamax Films (USA) German WCF partner : Pandora Film World sales : Celluloid Dreams (France) World sales : Celluloid Dreams (France) World sales : The Match Factory (Germany) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in January 2005 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in January 2005 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2009 Funding amount : 35.000 € Funding amount : 25.000 € Funding amount : 50.000 € Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2008 Funding amount : 50.000 € Synopsis 1980s Peru – a country convulsed by terrorism. Grow- Synopsis Martin is a phobic in recovery process. Little by little Synopsis A perfect 24 hours in modern-day Beirut, a day in Synopsis Young and pretty Hermila returns to her small town, her ing up in the midst of it, is Cayetana, a precocious and slightly he manages to step out of the isolation of his one-room apart- which Claudia is finally ready to come to terms with her husband’s baby son in her arms. The big city was fun, but it was too expen- twisted eight-year-old girl. Toconfront her loneliness, she creates ment and his virtual reality. He is a web designer. Mariana just disappearance 15 years earlier while her son, the narcoleptic sive. She’ll wait for her husband to come and make a better life for a vivid imagi-nary world of fallen Peruvian heroes and martyrs. broke up after a long relationship. Her head is a mess, just like the Malek, searches the chaotic streets for his own lost love, Zeina. them in the provinces. Hermila finds comfort back home with her When her mother announces that she is pregnant, Cayetana’s apartment where she takes refuge. Martin and Mariana live in the Moving between the old and the new and existing in an emo- grandmother and aunt Maria. She quickly falls into the relaxed local fragile world collapses. She solemnly de clares that the day of her same street, in opposite buildings, but they never met. They walk tional void, Claudia and Malek are dislocated and numbed by the routine of dancing and having fun with friends. brother’s birth is the day she will die. With six months to live, Cay- through the same places, but they do not notice each other. How trauma of the Lebanese Civil War in which 17.000 vanished. As Bei- etana en-gages in a darkly funny struggle to deal with this new can they meet in a city of three million people ? Urban loneliness. rut’s past is interrupted by its future, this is a perfect day to end the When she realises that her young, irresponsible husband isn’t se- reality and to remain present in the eyes of her family. Buenos Aires. Medianeras. What separates them is what brings harrowing wait, to put old ghosts to rest and to search for a new rious about joining her, lonely Hermila renews a relationship with them together. future while not forgetting the past. her old boyfriend João. But Hermila knows there’s for her here no Director’s note Growing up in Peru in the 1980s – a turbulent reason to stay. Just odd jobs washing cars or selling raffle tickets for decade punctuated by the terrorist at tacks of the Shining Path – I Director’s note Medianeras is my tree. I planted ityears ago, and World premiere Locarno International Film Festival 2005, bottles of whisky. didn’t grasp the full significance of what was going on, but I ab- I’ve been watching it grow since then. The story changes in ex- Competition sorbed the feeling of uncertainty. Cayetana, the lead character, is actly the same way as the city that serves as its scenario : Buenos Hermila takes inspiration from her friend, a prostitute and decides a mixture of innocence and wickedness and unpredictability. Aires. Some of the scenes wither away, while others bloom. The Key festivals and awards FIPRESCI Award, Federation of Film to raffle herself off for one time only. She’ll get the funds necessary tree is strong and leafy. The fruit is ripe, brilliant and tasty. Societies and the Don Quijote Award, Locarno International to leave town and the holder of the winning ticket will get “ A Night World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2011, Genera- World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2011, Panorama Film Festival 2005 ; Special Mention of the Jury and of the Bayard in Paradise ”. tion d’Or for Best Actor, Namur Francophone Fest 2005 ; Mongolfière Key festivals and awards Golden Athena Best Film Award, Athens d’Argent, Prix de la Création Musicale, Prix du Meilleur Acteur in World premiere Venice International Film Festival 2006, Orizzonti Key festivals and awards Los Angeles Film Festival 2011; Best International Film Festival 2011; Award Rail d’Oc, Rencontres Ciné- Nantes Festival des 3 Continents 2005 ; Prix d’Aide à la Distribu- Peruvian Film, Lima Film Festival 2011; Jury Prize, Gramado Film mas d’Amérique Latine de Toulouse 2011; BAFICI 2011; Karlovy Vary tion, Belfort 2005 ; Best Director Award, Muscat International Film Key festivals and awards FIPRESCI Award, Best Screenplay and Festival 2011; Best Latin American Feature, Mar del Plata Interna- International Film Festival 2011; BFI London Film Festival 2011 Festival 2006 Artistic Achievement, Thessaloniki Film Festival 2006 ; Best Film, tional Film Festival 2011; Audience and Jury award, Austin Interna- Best Director and Best Actress, Rio de Janeiro International Film tional Film Festival of the Americas 2012 Festival 2006 ; Best Actress, Grand Coral, Havana Film Festival 2006 ; FIPRESCI Award for Best Latin American Film of 2006, Mar del Plata International Film Festival 2007

80 81 EL OTRO PANDOranin THE OTHER kutusu by Ariel Rotter pandora’s box PESNI JUZHNYKH by Yesim Ustaoglu paradise MOREJ now SONG FROM THE SOUTHERN SEAS by Hany Abu-Assad by Marat Sarulu

Argentina, 2007 Turkey, 2008 Palestine, 2005 Kazakhstan, 2008 Director : Ariel Rotter Director : Yesim Ustaoglu Director : Hany Abu-Assad Director : Marat Sarulu Producers : Aire Cine and Aquafilms (Argentina), Celluloid Dreams Producers : Ustaoglu Film Yapim (Turkey), Silkroad Production Producers : Augustus Film (The Netherlands), Razor Film (Germany), Producers : Kino Company (Kazakhstan), Rohfilm (Germany), Productions (France), Selavy Filmproduktion (Germany) (France), Les Petites Lumières (France), Stromboli Pictures Lumen Films (France), Lama Films (Israel) Kinoproba (Russia), Arizona Films (France) German WCF partner : Selavy Filmproduktion (Belgium), The Match Factory (Germany) German WCF partner : Razor Film German WCF partner : Rohfilm World sales : Celluloid Dreams (France) German WCF partner : The Match Factory World sales : Celluloid Dreams (France) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in October 2005 World sales : The Match Factory (Germany) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in January 2005 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in January 2005 Funding amount : 80.000 € Funding amount : 60.000 € Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2008 Funding amount : 30.000 € Funding amount : 25.000 €

Synopsis A run of the mill, one-day business trip to the country Synopsis Three fourty something siblings in Istanbul each re- Synopsis PARADISE NOW reveals how tragic and abstruse the Synopsis Ivan is Russian and his neighbour Assan is Kazakh. They becomes another journey : Upon reaching his destination, Juan ceive a call one night : their ageing mother has disappeared from consequences of the conflict in the Middle East are. The film re- live next door to each other in a small Kazakh Village. When Ivan’s Desouza discovers that the man travelling at his side is dead. Se- her home on the western Black Sea coast of Turkey. The three volves around two young Palestinian men who have been friends wife gives birth to a “ brown ” boy, Ivan suspects that she has been cretly, almost like a game, he decides to adopt the dead man’s meet and set out to find her, momentarily setting aside their in- since childhood and are both recruited to carry out a suicide cheating on him with Assan. This conflict remains between the identity, inventing a profession for himself, finding a place to stay : dividual problems. bombing in Tel Aviv. The two men are allowed to spend what is families over the years to come. Father and son similarly agonise the possibility of not returning. In his new days off, in a state of presumably their last night alive with their families. over their alienation from one another. Meanwhile the disheart- availability, the man undertakes, without knowing it, an adventure As the siblings come together, the tensions between them ened Assan withdraws further and further. After generations of into nature, into the rediscovery of his tastes, his basic instincts, quickly become apparent, like a Pandora’s box spilling open. They However, since absolute secrecy must be maintained and they love and hatred they are all somehow related to each other, Rus- trying to grasp the idea that the life dealt out for him, and he come to realise that they are very ignorant of each other, and are can tell nobody of their mission, they cannot say goodbye prop- sians with Kazakhs, Christians with Muslims, Europeans with Asians. chose to live, is not the only one possible. forced to reflect on their own shortcomings. erly. The next morning, the men are brought to the border with at- tached to their bodies in such a way as to make them completely World premiere Eurasia Film Festival 2008 World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2007, Com- World premiere Toronto International Film Festival 2008, Visions hidden from view. petition Key festivals and awards Pusan International Film Festival Key festivals and awards Toronto International Film Festi- However, the operation does not go according to plan. Separated 2008 ; Film Festival Cottbus 2008 ; Nantes Festival des 3 Continents Key festivals and awards Silver Bear (Grand Jury Prize for Best val 2008 ; Golden Shell for Best Film, Silver Shell for Best Actress, from each other and left to their own devices, it’s up to them to 2008 ; Rotterdam International Film Festival ; Cines Del Sur Gra- Film), Silver Bear for Best Actor, Berlin International Film Festival San Sebastián International Film Festival 2008 ; Best Supporting face their destiny and stand up for their convictions … nada Film Festival 2009 ; Sarajevo Film Festival 2009 ; Best Lead Ac- 2007 ; Audience Award Fribourg International Film Festival 2007 ; Actress, Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival 2008 ; Best Actress tress, Eurasia Film Festival 2008 ; NETPAC Award, Audience Award, Best Actor, Lima Latin Americano Film Festival 2007 ; Best Actor, Award, Amiens International Film Festival 2008 ; Busan Inter World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2005, Asiaticafilmmediale Rom 2008 Baja California Film Festival 2007 ; Best Script, Gijon International national Film Festival 2008 ; International Film Festival Rotterdam Competition Film Festival 2007 ; Best Director, Best Actor, Lleida Mostra de Cin- 2009 ; Göteborg International Film Festival 2009 ; Tribeca Film ema Latinoamericano 2008 Festival 2009 Key festivals and awards Blue Angel Award, Berlin International Film Festival 2005 ; Toronto International Film Festival 2005 ; New York International Film Festival 2005 ; Nominated for an Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film 2006 ; Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film 2006

82 83 SARATAN El Premio by Ernest Abdyshaparov the priZe by Paula Markovitch romA wa la n’ touma post mortem ROME RATHER THAN YOU by Pablo Larraín by Tariq Teguia

Mexico, 2011 Chile, 2010 Algeria, 2006 Kyrgyzstan, 2005 Director : Paula Markovitch Director : Pablo Larraín Director : Tariq Teguia Director : Ernest Abdyshaparov Producers : Kung Works (Mexico), IZ Films (Mexico), Producers : Fabula (Chile), Canana (Mexico), Producers : Neffa Films (Algeria), INA (France), Producers : Kyrgyzfilm Studio (Kyrgyzstan), Coin Film and Viet Mille et une productions (France), Staron Films (Poland), NiKo Autentika Films (Germany) Flying Moon Filmproduktion (Germany) Filmproduktion (Germany) Film (Germany) German WCF partner : Autentika Films German WCF partner : Flying Moon Filmproduktion German WCF partner : Coin Film German WCF partner : NiKo Film World sales : Funny Ballons (France) World sales : Neffa Films (Algeria) World sales : mdc Int. Berlin (Germany) World sales : UMedia (France) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in January 2005 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in January 2005 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2009 Funding amount : 40.000 € Funding amount : 15.000 € Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2010 Funding amount : 50.000 € Funding amount : 50.000 € Synopsis I am seven years old. I go to school. I know I must not Synopsis Mario, 55, works in a morgue typing autopsy reports. Synopsis For more than 10 years a “ slow war ” is going on in Al- Synopsis Discontentment reigns in a Kyrgyzian village : money reveal my true identity to the other kids. I’ve been told that my In the midst of the 1973 Chilean coup, he fantasizes about his geria. A war without battlefields, but with more than 100.000 peo- is not flowing as expected, everyone is trying to arrange his own family’s safety depends on my silence. I’m forced to lie. I lie, just neighbour Nancy, a cabaret dancer, who mysteriously disappears ple killed. It is the wilderness that Zina and Kamel – two young- business, if necessary secretly, communism is still finding adher- as they told me to. I manage to make them believe my lies. I des- on September the 11th. After a violent Army raid on her fam- sters, bewildered and merry, gloomy and undisturbed – want to ents and the rustler Taschmat is at work, pursued by the village perately try to look like all the others but now my mother feels ily’s home, he hears about the arrest of her brother and father, a traverse for the last time, before leaving elsewhere. Without a police man Salamat. The villagers belief in better times is weak, sad and despises me. I am wicked and stupid and make her suffer. prominent Communist and Salvador Allende supporter. Troubled passport, and therefore without a visa, Kamel has to find a smug- as well as their belief in a fair God. Be it Allah or Jehova, they What should I say ? What should I keep to myself ? What should and madly passionate over the loss of his would-be lover, Mario gler. Along with the entertaining Zina, they walk the streets of prefer devoting themselves to terrestrial joy. When the rustler I do to earn my mother’s approval and please the others ? In a begins his frantic search for Nancy. Algiers and its suburbs looking for Bosco, the sailor who makes Taschmat is caught by the police man, the fabric of the commu- world so full of confusion and fear, who are we supposed to be ? a business out of transporting people to Europe. Bosco seems to nity is put to the test and the village administrator tries to hold World premiere Venice International Film Festival 2010, Competi- be everywhere – except for the places where Kamel looks for him. his village together. World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2011, Competi- tion tion The tragic-comical stories deal with politics and religion, tradition Key festivals and awards FIPRESCI Award 2010 ; Silver Coral for World premiere Venice International Film Festival 2006, Orizzonti and modernity, pride and honour a parable on the “ good old Key festivals and awards Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Best Film 2010, Best Actor Award, Best Actress Award, Best Script days ” and the confidence in the future. Contribution in the categories Camera and Set Design, Berlin Award, Havana International Film Festival 2010 ; Golden India Cat- Key festivals and awards Venice International Film Festival International Film Festival 2011; Best Picture, Guadalajara Inter- alina for Best Film, Cartagena International Film Festival 2011; Best 2006 ; Rotterdam International Film Festival 2007 ; FICCO Mexico World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2005, national Film Festival 2011; Best Actress, Armenian National Film Cinematography, Lima International Film Festival 2011; Jury Award, 2007 ; New Directors / New Films, MoMA 2007 ; San Francisco In- Panorama Academy Award, Yerevan International Film Festival 2011; Best Pic- Los Angeles Latino Film Festival 2011 ternational Film Festival 2007 ; Istanbul International Film Festival ture, Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival 2011; 2007 ; Beirut International Film Festival 2008 ; “ Everyday Life – Tran- Key festivals and awards Fribourg International Film Festival Best Picture, Lima Film Festival 2011; Critics Award, Best Actress, scendence or Reconciliation ” – Award, Thessaloniki International 2005 ; Eurasia International Film Festival 2005 ; Pusan International Biarritz Film Festival 2011; Best Picture, Morelia International Film Film Festival 2006 ; Special Jury Award, Fribourg Film Festival 2007 ; Film Festival 2005 ; Sao Paulo International Film Festival 2005 ; Festival 2011 Prix Janine Bazin, Prix d’Interprétation, Festival du Film Belfort 2007 L’ Étoile d’Or / The Golden Star – Grand Prix – Marrakech Interna- tional Film Festival 2005

84 85 Sentados frente shekarchi Shirley adams al fuego THe hunter by Oliver Hermanus By the fire by Rafi Pitts by Alejandro Fernández Almendras Shilton Ha – Chok the law in these parts by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz

Chile, 2011 Iran, 2010 I srael , 2011 South Africa, 2009 Director : Alejandro Fernández Almendras Director : Rafi Pitts Director : Ra’anan Alexandrowicz Director : Oliver Hermanus Producers : El Remanso Cine (Chile), Producers : AFTAB Negaran Film Production Producers : Liran Atzmor (Israel), Producers : DV8 Films (South Africa), Centropolis Entertainment Pandora Film (Germany) Institute (Iran), Twenty Twenty Vision (Germany) Zero Fiction Film (Germany) Inc (USA), London Film School (United Kingdom), German WCF partner : Pandora Film German WCF partner : Twenty Twenty Vision German WCF partner : Zero Fiction Film Pandora Films (Germany) World sales : El Remanso Cine (Chile) World sales : The Match Factory (Germany) World sales : Ro*Co Films International (USA) German WCF partner : Pandora Films World sales : Visit Films (USA) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2010 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2007 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2007 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2009 Funding amount : 50.000 € Funding amount : 50.000 € Funding amount : 40.000 € Funding amount : 25.000 €

Synopsis Daniel and Alejandra are together since a couple years Synopsis Recently released from prison, Ali makes the most Synopsis Israel has ruled the West Bank since the 1967 war. Over Synopsis Since her son Donovan was shot at a year ago, Shirley back. They are both in their mid forties and are embarking on a of his return, amidst much talk of the upcoming elections and the years it has created a system of long-term jurisdiction by an Adams from Cape Town finds herself facing problems. Because her new adventure : to try their luck as farmers in the countryside. But promises of change. Despite working nights, he tries to spend the occupying army that is unique in the world. The men entrusted child sinks deeper and deeper into his mental and physical misery, Alejandra is affected by a serious illness that could slowly eat away most time possible with his beautiful wife and young daughter. with creating the legal framework for this occupation were the she keeps from him the shocking news about who the culprit was. their dream of a life together ; and that would put the love and To escape the stress of urban living, Ali retreats to his favourite members of Israel’s military legal corps. Responding to constantly patience of Daniel to the test. It’s not only the hardships of the pastime of hunting in the secluded forest north of town. Tragedy changing needs, these legal professionals face complex judicial Since her son Donovan was shot a year ago, Shirley Adams has illness that affect the couple ; it’s also the realization that maybe strikes and Ali’s wife Sara is accidentally killed in a police shoot-out and moral dilemmas in order to develop and uphold a system of been drowned in worries. Her days are filled with caring for her we are not as perfect and noble as we wanted to be. with demonstrators. Ali’s own search for his missing six-year-old long-term military “ rule by law ” of an occupied population, all, ac- now-handicapped son. The South African woman from Cape daughter ends in horror and pushes him over the edge. Ali ran- cording to Israel, in complete accordance with international law. Town has no job, no partner and her meagre income is needed to Director’s note The film is first and foremost a love story, but not domly shoots and kills two policemen. After a high-speed car pay for Donovan’s medical bills. When a young, committed thera- in the classic sense, since it doesn’t deal with the highs and lows, chase outside of town, Ali flees into the northern forest where he The Law in These Parts explores this unprecedented and little- pist comes into their lives, the loving mother hopes that Donovan or the beginning or the end of a relationship. It’s a love story be- is captured by two police officers. Ali is resigned to his fate and known story through face-to-face interviews with the military will improve mentally. However, she chooses to keep quiet about cause it tells the story of how a man tries in vain to fight death, and watches quietly as the arguing policemen lose their way in the legal professionals who architected this system and helped run the sudden news that a childhood friend of his was responsible how simple, everyday acts can be touched by the will to defeat woods. Situations complicate and the line between hunter and it in its formative years. for the shot that maimed him, because her son is sinking further the inevitable. hunted becomes difficult to define … and further into his physical and mental misery. World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2010, Competi- World premiere Jerusalem Film Festival 2011 World premiere San Sebastian Film Festival 2011, Zabaltegui tion World premiere Durban International Film Festival 2009 Nuevos Directores Key festivals and awards Best Documentary, Jerusalem Film Key festivals and awards Hong Kong International Film Festival Festival 2011; World Cinema Jury Prize Documentary, Sundance Key festivals and awards Best Actress, Best Editor, Dubai Inter- Key festivals and awards San Sebastian Film Festival 2011; 2010 ; Melbourne International Film Festival 2010 ; Toronto Interna- Film Festival 2012 ; Special Jury Award, Full Frame Documentary national Film Festival 2009 ; Locarno International Film Festival Valdivia Film Festival 2011; Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2011; Toronto tional Film Festival 2010 ; Viennale 2010 ; Tokyo Filmex 2010 ; Torino Film Festival 2012 ; Special Jury Prize International Feature, Hot- 2009 ; Best SA Feature Film, Best First Feature Film, Best Actress, International Film Festival 2012 ; San Francisco International Film International Film Festival 2010 docs 2012 Durban International Film Festival 2009 ; Busan International Festival 2012 ; BAFICI 2012 ; Work In Progress Award, SANFIC 2011; Film Festival 2009 ; Afrikamera 2010 ; Best Actress, Carthage Film San Francisco International Film Festival 2012 ; Munich Interna- Festival 2010 tional Film Festival 2012

86 87 STELLET LICHT Süt SILENT LIGHT Milk La sociedad deL by Carlos Reygadas by Semih Kaplanoglu semáforo sur la planche the stoplight society On the edge by Rubén Mendoza by Leïla Kilani

Colombia, 2010 Mexico, 2007 Morocco, 2011 Turkey, 2008 Director : Rubén Mendoza Director : Carlos Reygadas Director : Leïla Kilani Director : Semih Kaplanoglu Producers : Día Fragma Fábrica de Películas & Laberinto Produc- Producers : Mantarraya Producciones and NoDream Cinema Producers : Aurora Films (France), Socco Chico Producers : Kaplan Film (Turkey), Heimatfilm (Germany), ciones (Colombia), Ciné Sud Promotion (France), El Baile Films (Mexico), BAC Films International (France), Films (Morocco), Vandertastic (Germany), Arizona Film (France) (Spain), Dagstar Film (Germany) Motel Films (The Netherlands) DKB Productions (France), INA (France) German WCF partner : Heimatfilm German WCF partner : Dagstar Film German WCF partner : The Match Factory German Partner : Vandertastic World sales : The Match Factory (Germany) World sales : Ciné-Sud Promotion (France) World sales : BAC Films International (France) World sales : Fortissimo Films (The Netherlands) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2006 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2006 Funding amount : 50.000 € Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2008 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2010 Funding amount : 35.000 € Funding amount : 50.000 € Funding amount : 30.000 € Synopsis Stoplights are hell for the people forced out of the Synopsis Johan and his family are Menonites in the North of Synopsis Badia and Imane live their lives amongst the army Synopsis Recent high school graduate Yusuf is uncertain about countryside to beg in the city. One of them,Raul, a recycler alien- Mexico. Against the law of God and men, Johan falls in love with of workers. Peeling shrimps by day in a spotless shrimp fac- his future in the provincial countryside. Writing poetry is his great- ated through his desire for absolute freedom and drugs, is set on another woman. tory then turning tricks by night, the girls make extra money est passion and some of his poems are starting to be published using his cleverness to control the red traffic lights so that the street by fencing meagre goods stolen from their nocturnal “ cli- in obscure literary journals. But for the time being, he continues artists and vendors working at the lights can perform longer. This World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2007, ents ”. Beyond Tangier lies the “ Free Zone ”, a symbol for global working in his single mother’s village milk business, also with an resembles his chaotic existence which turns into an ode to anarchy, Competition world sub-contracting. It is Europe on Moroccan land : close, uncertain future. Up until now, Yusuf’s widowed mother Zehra despair and insanity. tangible, accessible only to those with a work permit. One has focused all her attention on her only son. Still a young and Key festivals and awards Winner of the Jury Prize, Cannes Inter- evening they encounter two other girls, who are slightly more beautiful woman, Zehra is having a discreet relationship with Director’s note I always insist, when introducing this film, that it national Film Festival 2007 ; Best Film, Best Director, International advantaged than them in that they work in the Free Zone the town station master. His mother’s affair and the fact that he is not political. It is not an attempt to redeem or explain the Third Critic Award, Best Photography, Lima Latin Americano Film Festival which Badia sees as a springboard into a more material world. has been named unfit for military service due to a childhood ill- World to the First. I am neither an anthropologist nor a social worker. 2007 ; Winner of the Golden Colon – Best Film, Festival de Cine Latin Strengthened by their new friendship, the girls explore every ness make Yusuf even more anxious about making the sudden I am drawn to stories through revelations ; I discovered a kind of so- Americano de Huelva 2007 ; Best Script, Film Festival Stockholm corner of this new space and make it theirs from dusk to dawn. jump toward manhood. Will young Yusuf be able to handle the cial pyramid that existed among people living on the street, that re- 2007 ; Best Foreign Film, Bergen International Film Festival 2007 ; changes in his peaceful existence ? Can he survive on poetry and produces the one familiar to us, with all its easily identifiable strata. FIPRESCI Award, Rio de Janeiro 2007 ; Winner of the Golden Hugo, World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2011, Quin- working alongside his mother in her small-time milk business ? Or I don’t feel I approached it with an apologetic or pitiful eye, espe- Chicago International Film Festival 2007 ; Best Director, Best Film, zaine des réalisateurs will he be forced to move to the big city ? cially as I began my discovery of this world. World premiere Cali Best Photography, Best Audio, Festival Internacional del Nuevo International Film Festival 2010. Cine Latinoamericano, Havana 2007 ; Nomination Academy Awards Key festivals and awards Best Film, Antalya Golden Orange World premiere Venice International Film Festival 2008, USA for the Best Foreign Language Film 2007 Festival 2011; Marrakesh Film Festival 2011; Best Actress, Special Competition Key festivals and awards Prize of the Jury, Cali Film Festival 2010 ; Jury Award, Brussels International Independent Film Festival 2011; Prize of the city of Amiens for best director, Amiens Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize, Oslo Films from the South Festival 2011; Best Ac- Key festivals and awards Venice International Film Festival 2010 ; Prize of the Jury, Huelva Film Festival 2010 ; Best Colombian tress, Best Director and Golden Tauro, Taormina International Film 2008 ; Toronto International Film Festival 2008 ; Nantes Festival des Film, Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias 2010 Festival 2011 3 Continents 2008 ; Rotterdam International Film Festival 2008 ; Göteborg International Film Festival 2008 ; Pune International Film Festival 2009

88 89 Los viajes Svet-Ake La Teta Asustada del viento LAS VIDAS POSIBLES The Light Thief The Milk of Sorrow The Wind Journeys POSSIBLE LIVES by Aktan Arym Kubat by Claudia Llosa by Ciro Guerra by Sandra Gugliotta

Kyrgyzstan, 2010 Peru, 2009 Colombia, 2009 Argentina, 2006 Director : Aktan Arym Kubat (Aktan Abdykalykov) Director : Claudia Llosa Director : Ciro Guerra Director : Sandra Gugliotta Producers : Oy Art (Kyrgyzstan), A.S.A.P. Films (France), Pallas Producers : Wanda Vision and Oberon Cinematográfica (Spain), Producers : Ciudad Lunar Producciones (Colombia), Cine-Ojo Films Producers : El Angel Films and 16M (Argentina), Film (Germany), Volya Films (The Netherlands) Vela Films (Peru) (Argentina), Razor Film (Germany), Volya Films (The Netherlands) Fieber Film (Germany) German WCF partner : Pallas Film German WCF partner : The Match Factory German WCF partner : Razor Film German WCF partner : Fieber Film World sales : The Match Factory (Germany) World sales : The Match Factory (Germany) World sales : Elle Driver (France) World sales : Primer Plano Film Group (Argentina) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2006 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2007 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2005 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2006 Funding amount : 50.000 € Funding amount : 60.000 € Funding amount : 60.000 € Funding amount : 70.000 €

Synopsis They call him “ Svet-ake ” (“ Mr. Light ”). The electrician Synopsis Fausta suffers from “ the milk of sorrow ”, an illness Synopsis Ignacio Carrillo traveled all his life throughout the villages Synopsis Carla and Luciano are a happy couple. One day Luciano is responsible for bringing more than just light to the people transmitted through mother’s milk by women who have been and regions of northern Colombia, carrying music and traditional takes one of his usual working trips. Following a sudden intuition, around him. Like moths, everybody is drawn to his kindness : violated or mistreated during the war of terrorism in Peru. The war songs on his accordion : a legendary instrument that is said to be Clara decides to go with him at the last moment but cannot. Days those with short circuits in their electricity, and those with short has ended, but Fausta lives to remind of it because “ the illness of cursed because it once belonged to the devil. go by and Clara does not hear from her husband. She immediately circuits in their marriage, those who have taken all the power in fear ” stole her soul. Now, her mother’s sudden death forces her senses that something abnormal has happened because during the city, and those who have given up the will to live. He helps to confront her fears and the secret that is hidden inside of her : As he grew older, he married and settled with his wife in a small his trips he is constantly in contact with her. She starts looking for everyone and is everywhere. He doesn’t even shy from breaking she has inserted a potato into her vagina to serve as a protective town, leaving his nomadic life behind. When she suddenly dies, information regarding his whereabouts. Her desperation increases the law, rewinding an old and lonely pensioner’s electricity meter shield that repels disgusting intruders. he decides to make one last journey to the northern edge of the until she decides to travel to the south of Argentina to where he is so that he doesn’t owe the State, but rather the State owes him. country and return the accordion to the man who gave it to him, supposed to have travelled. The economic devastation of the country has had an enormous The milk of sorrow is the story of a search for reawakening, a his teacher and mentor. impact on the working people and yet despite the upheaval they journey from fear to freedom. A perplexing discovery awaits her : she finds Luciano – or some- have not lost the ability to love, to suffer, to share their lives with On the way, he is joined by Fermín, a young mixedraced man who one just like him – leading a different life and married to another friends, and enjoy what they have … World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2009, dreams of becoming a “ juglar ”. Together they start the journey, woman. From that moment on, Clara will develop a series of Competition discovering along the way the enormous diversity of the land strategies to get close to this man, to have him and go back to World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2010, Quin- surviving all kinds of adventures and understanding the mix of her previous life. zaine des réalisateurs Key festivals and awards Golden Bear for the Best Film and cultures that gave birth to the music they play. Key festivals and awards Locarno International Film Festival FIPRESCI Award, Berlin International Film Festival 2009 ; Best World premiere Locarno International Film Festival 2007, 2010 ; Toronto International Film Festival 2010, Sao Paolo Interna- Ibero-American picture, Guadalajara International Film Festival World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2009, Un Competition tional Film Festival 2010 ; Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2009 ; Coral Prize for Best Art Direction, Festival Internacional del certain regard 2010 ; Doha Tribeca 2010 Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano Havana, 2009 ; Nomination Acad- Key festivals and awards BAFICI 2007 ; Cannes International emy Awards USA for Best Foreign Language Film 2010 ; Istanbul Key festivals and awards Award of the City of Rome, Cannes In- Film Festival 2007 ; Festival de Cine Ibero-Americano de Huelva Film Festival 2009 ; Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2009 ; ternational Film Festival 2009 ; Best film, Best director, Bogotá Film 2007 ; C.I.C.A.E. Award – Special Mention, Locarno International Busan International Film Festival 2009 ; Dubai International Film Festival 2009 ; Toronto International Film Festival 2009 ; London Film Festival 2007 ; Best Actress, Festival Latinoamericano de Festival 2009 International Film Festival 2009 ; San Sebastian International Film Ceará 2008 Festival 2009

90 91 Projects in production wcf europe Zion Ve’ Achiv ZION AND HIS BROTHER by Eran Merav

Israel, 2009 Director : Eran Merav Producers : Norma Productions (Israel), MK2 (France), Tradewind Pictures (Germany) German WCF partner : Tradewind Pictures World sales : MK2 (France) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in June 2005 Funding amount : 40.000 €

Synopsis The close relationship of 14-year-old Zion and his older brother reaches a critical point after they cause a horrible accident. Against the hum-drum backdrop of a dreary suburb in the Israeli port city of Haifa, the two brothers are challenged by tough questions of morality and loyalty, jealousy and coming-of-age.

World premiere Sundance International Film Festival 2009, Competition

Key festivals and awards Sundance International Film Festival 2009 ; Best Screenplay, Gent International Film Festival 2009

92 93 LA BELLE ET LA MEUTE BEAUTY AND THE DOGS by Kaouther Ben Hania

CANDELARIA by Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza

Synopsis Mariam just wants to enjoy her night, Synopsis It’s the ‘90s and the world is changing dra- sing-song accent, she invited me to buy her some when a tragic event occurs. Despite the trauma, the matically. Cuba is drowning in hunger, cigars and rum. banana cake. She ordered two slices, I paid US$20 pretty Tunisian student is determined to go to the In this grim environment, the lives of couple Cande- and she laughed. She laughed so hard that I didn’t police. But what can be done when your perpetra- laria (64), and Victor Hugo (63), who stay together out know what to say. In that moment this beautiful tor is your only hope for justice? of inertia, take a surprising turn. One day Candelaria story was born. finds a hi8 video camera at the hotel where she works. Director’s note The hardest part of rape is to speak Through its lens, Candelaria and Victor Hugo see, ca- out against the perpetrator in the hope of being ress, and love each other once more. But this unex- heard. pected happiness is only the bittersweet beginning Paradoxically, nobody will listen, they will accuse you: of the end. CANDELARIA: a tragicomedy that moves you’re not a victim, you are as guilty as the assailants. to the rhythm of the Cuban son. What also interests me is the “second rape”, resulting COLOMBIA, CUBA, GERMANY from all the proceedings, from the violence of institu- TUNISIA, FRANCE Director´s note Three years ago, I travelled to Ha- tions. vana. Director : Jhonny Hendry Hinestroza Director : Kaouther Ben Hania Producers : Antorcha Films (Colombia), Razor Film- Producers : Cinetelefilm (Tunisia), Tanit Films (France), In a neighbourhood street in central Havana, I ran produktion (Germany), Dag Hoel Filmprod (Norway), The film is made up of 10 long takes, grouped by unafilm (Germany) into an almost 90-year-old woman called Cande- Producciones de la 5ta avenida (Cuba) place. It’s a formal constraint, but the film needs it European WCF partner: Tanit Films (France) laria. She came out of nowhere to tell me one of European WCF partner : Razor Films (Germany) – as the plan-séquence has the advantage of fully im- World sales : Jour2fete, France those stories that inspire and invite you to keep on World sales : Beta Films (Germany) mersing the audience in real time, which is purpose- Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2016 living despite the hardest adversity. Candelaria had Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2016 fully unbearable. Funding amount : 20.000 € dark eyes and burnt skin, and a hoarse voice. In a Funding amount : 50.000 €

94 95 Cuadros en la oscuridad Paintings in the Dark by Paula Markovitch

Daoud’s Winter by Koutaiba Al-Janabi

Synopsis Marcos is a 65-year-old outcast painter, Many friends and family members were assassinated. Synopsis Daoud, a young man from Baghdad, is people, their internal conflicts, the fear, the paranoia who had to hide himself away during Argentina’s last Perhaps the military dictatorship not only killed peo- drafted in the war against Iran. He is assigned a grue- and grief that this situation has caused those trying military dictatorship. Marcos dies unknown but his ple, but also wiped out dreams, creativity, hope … some task: sorting the new arrivals of dead bodies to carry on with their lives in the country. legacy is not lost. A young thief and a greengrocer and organising transport to their final resting place – discover in his paintings a treasure that gives their lives Perhaps my parents were used to loneliness and an- either the family home for the “martyrs” or a burning a new meaning. onymity. Nevertheless, even in isolation, they kept mass grave for the “traitors”. painting. Remembering my parents makes me think Amongst the dishonoured corpses, a man – Ali – is still Director´s note This story is inspired by the lives about the curious and unbreakable nature of the ar- breathing. When Daoud finds the farewell letter Ali of my mother and father, Genoveva Edelstein and tistic impulse. It seems that no matter the period nor wrote to his beloved daughter, he decides to save the Armando Markovitch, who lived and painted in the the place, human beings have never stopped feel- man from this hell and to reunite him with his fam- midst of absolute political and economic margin- ing the urge to create. ily. He deserts the army and embarks on a dangerous alisation. They never exhibited their work during journey to bring his new friend home. their lifetimes. Why ? The widespread economic Iraq, Netherlands crisis made it an almost impossible task. My father ARGENTINA, GERMANY Director : Koutaiba Al-Janabi worked in a petrol station for almost twenty years Director´s note Our society has suffered many Producers : OAK Motion Pictures (Netherlands), Alcatraz and my mother gave art classes to children in the Director : Paula Markovitch wars, and no Iraqi family was left unharmed by the Film (France), Kaiho Republic (Finland), Orjouane Pro- deprived neighbourhood we lived in. Producers : Niko Films (Germany) EZ Films (Mexico) effects of war. It has destroyed families and society. ductions (Lebanon), Baghdad Dreams (Iraq) European WCF partner : Niko Films (Germany) The effect is still visible in the Middle East. I would European WCF partner : OAK Motion Film (Netherlands) Furthermore, as with most artists and intellectuals Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2015 like to make a film that shows the consequences Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2016 in the country, my parents were forced into hiding. Funding amount : 45.000 € of these meaningless wars. The effects on ordinary Funding amount : 55.000

96 97 Production Support Finished Films WCF Europe

LOS PERROS by Marcela Said

Synopsis Mariana, a Chilean upper-class woman, is This is what separates the colonel, former execu- trapped in the role her father and husband have cre- tioner, from Juan the saviour: he embodies both ated for her. She finds solace in the company of Juan, crime and redemption, desire and repulsion, pain a riding instructor and a former colonel with a shady and ecstasy. By choosing to stay with the colonel past. against the will of her father and her husband, Mari- ana stirs up the mud of a past that taints even her Director´s note LOS PERROS was born from the own family. time I met Juan Morales Salgado, a former colonel turned riding instructor at an equestrian club near Santiago. We bonded over our love of horses. But Juan Morales also turned out to be the head of a detention centre in which hundreds of people disap- CHILE, FRANCE peared. He was eventually prosecuted in July 2011. Director : Marcela Said Producers : Cinema Defacto (France), Jirafa Films LOS PERROS is the story of Mariana, a woman suf- (Chile), Rei Cine (Argentina), Terratreme Films (Portu- focating in the Chilean upper class society she was gal), Augenschein Filmproduktion (Germany) European brought up in, and surrounded by ferocious men: WCF partner: Cinema Defacto (France) her husband, her father, the colonel and the police World sales : tbc detective. I consider the line separating good from Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2016 evil to be finer than one might think. Funding amount : 50.000 €

98 99 jesus by Fernando Guzzoni

A cidade onde envelheÇo Where i grow old by Marilia Rocha

Synopsis Francisca, a young Portuguese woman liv- about the unexpected nature of the encounters and Synopsis Jesús (18 ) is in search of his identity. He World premiere: Toronto International Film Festival ing in Brazil, welcomes Teresa, an old friend she’d lost how the subsequent consequences reverberate in dances with a Korean pop group and likes hanging 2016, Discovery contact with, into her home. While Teresa is discover- their lives’ fates. out in public parks with his friends. He doesn’t go ing the place where she intends to settle in, Francisca to school or have a job. Since his mother’s death Key festivals and awards: San Sebastián Interna- decides to go back to Lisbon. The film follows each World Premiere Rotterdam International Film Fes- he lives with his father, Hector (53), in an apartment tional Film Festival 2016, Thessaloniki International woman’s adventures in the city and the deep bond tival 2016, Competition where the TV masks their inability to communicate. Film Festival 2016, Hamburg Film Festival 2016, To- of friendship that grows between them, forcing them One night, Jesús opens up to his father and con- rino Film Festival 2016 to deal with conflicting desires : a will to leave for an Key festivals and awards San Sebastian Interna- fesses his involvement in an irreversible event. This unknown country and a relentless longing for home. tional Film Festival 2016, Munich International Film shared knowledge forces them to join forces for the Festival 2016, Chicago International Film Festival first time. Hector tries to protect and help his son, Director´s note This film was born when I met 2016, Odessa International Film Festival 2016 but keeping the secret begins to eat away at him. Francisca, who at the time was striving for a new One day he decides to go and pick Jesús up, but not CHILE, GERMANY 2016 life in the city of Belo Horizonte. Early on I felt at- BRAZIL, PORTUGAL, 2016 quite with the intention of taking him back home … tracted to the forces that clashed in her Portuguese Director : Fernando Guzzoni Director : Marilia Rocha Producers : JBA Production (France), Rampante Films heart, and realised that those who experience this Producers : Anavilhana (Brazil), Terratreme (Portugal), (Chile), Unafilm (Germany), Graal (Greece), Burning dilemma will never be comfortable in either their Teia Filmes (Brazil) Blue (Colombia) homeland, or somewhere else. European WCF partner : Terratreme (Portugal) European WCF Partner : Unafilm (Germany) World sales : FiGa Films (USA) World Sales: Premium Films (France)

What each character is and what she could be. The Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2015 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2015 intersection between their lives reveals something Funding amount : 30.000 € Funding amount : 40.000 €

100 101 Oscuro Animal Oscuro Animal by Felipe Guerrero

pendular by Julia Murat

See also WCF Europe Distribution Support

Synopsis Oscuro Animal tells the story of three Key festivals and awards Best Ibero-American Synopsis An old abandoned factory with a large knowing anything about each other’s past. But, as women forced to flee their homes in a war-torn Feature, Director, Cinematography and Female industrial warehouse. An orange strip, glued to the the narrative advances, their pasts rise to the sur- region of Colombia. Each woman’s journey, marked Ensemble Cast , Guadalajara International Film Fes- floor, splits the area in half. On the right, a sculpture face, giving them no other choice but to face them. by terror, takes her on a trek from the depths of the tival 2016; FIPRESCI Prize - T-Mobile New Horizons atelier ; on the left, a dance studio. The factory also PENDULAR is based on those things which are de- jungle to the outskirts of Bogotá, where each must International Film Festival 2016; Spanish Coopera- includes a small living area for the two resident art- liberately not said. gather the strength needed to start a new life. tion Award, San Sebastián International Film Festival ists. The division of this space is the driving force be- 2016; Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2016 hind PENDULAR’s narrative. World premiere: Berlin International Film Festival Director’s note My film focusses on people who 2017, Panorama have suffered war trauma and are forced to flee and Initially, the two characters get along fine : He, a leave their homes to start a new life somewhere else. sculptor, She, a contemporary dancer. But then, little Key festivals and awards: Berlin International Film I want to demonstrate the inner strength of these COLOMBIA, ARGENTINA, by little, He begins to encroach into Her area with Festival 2017 individuals, who go through an intense and pain- GREECE, 2016 his sculptures. One day, he notices a steel cable con- ful survival process. The film shows how the three nected to one of the warehouse girders that leads BRAZIL, FRANCE, 2017 characters build an inner space where they find the Director : Felipe Guerrero out through the door of their space into the street. Producers : Mutokino (Colombia), Gema Films Director : Julia Murat strength to push forward. (Argentina), Viking Films (Netherlands), Outside, she sees the cable stretching over to a Producers: Bubbles Project (Brazil), Still Moving Sutor Kolonko (Germany), Boo Productions (Greece) nearby lamp post, and then to another and another, (France), Syndrome Fims (Brazil) World Premiere Rotterdam International Film Fes- European WCF partner : Boo Productions (Greece) seeming to trace a path through the city. Mean- European WCF Partner : Still Moving (France) tival 2016, Hivos Tiger Award Competition World sales : Ramonda Ink (France) while, an urge to have a child begins to grow in Him. World sales : Still Moving (France) Funded in the WCF Jury Meeting in July 2015 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2015 Funding amount: 30.000 € The characters of the film love each other without Funding amount : 20.000 €

102 103 Rabih Tramontane by Vatche Boulghourjian

INXEBA The Wound by John Trengove

Synopsis Rabih, a young blind man, lives in a small World premiere: Cannes International Film Festival Synopsis Xolani, a lonely young factory worker, Key festivals and awards: Sundance International village in Lebanon. His life unravels when he applies 2016, La Semaine de la Critique travels with a community of men to the rural moun- Film Festival 2017, Berlin International Film Festival for a passport and discovers that his identification tains to initiate a group of Xhosa boys in a manhood 2017 card is a forgery. Traveling across rural Lebanon in Key festivals and awards: Rail d’Or Audience rite-of-passage. Here he rekindles a closeted love af- search of a record of his own birth, he meets peo- Award, Cannes International Film Festival 2016; Spe- fair with his volatile childhood friend Vija, a married ple on the far fringes of society who tell their own cial Mention, Pula Film Festival 2016; Best Film, Bra- man from a nearby settlement. When Kwanda, a de- stories, open further questions and give him minor tislava International Film Festival 2016; Karlovy Vary fiant teenage initiate from the city, discovers Xolani’s clues about his identity. He encounters a nation in- International Film Festival 2016; München Filmfest secret and urges him to abandon the life he knows, capable of telling his, or its own, history. 2016 Xolani must confront his true nature and make a ter- SOUTH AFRICA, GERMANY rible decision. 2017 Director’s note The crisis that unfolds in Tramon- tane reflects the reality of Lebanon itself. Plagued by Director’s note The story of THE WOUND occurs Director : John Trengove a history that pitted against neighbour, family and on the fringes of society in the male-only world of Producers : Urucu Media (South Africa), Cooltake sibling, nobody is willing to face the truth. Even histo- LEBANON, FRANCE, 2016 the Xhosa circumcision initiation into manhood. It is a Pictures (South Africa), Riva Filmproduktion (Germany), Oak Motion Pictures (Netherlands), Sampek ry textbooks are censored in Lebanon, with passages, Director : Vatche Boulghourjian sensitive and devastating portrait of love, repression Productions (France), Deuxieme Ligne Films (France), pages, and whole chapters deleted. Rabih represents Producers : Rebus Film Production (Lebanon) and the dark heart of masculinity. Edition Salzgeber (Germany) a generation of Lebanese, born during or after the European WCF partner : Le Bureau Films (France) European WCF partner : Riva Filmproductioni (Germany) World Sales: The Bureau Sales (France) World Sales: Pyramide International (France) Lebanese Civil War (1975 – 1990 ) that has either a ske- World premiere: Sundance International Film Festi- wed view or no sense of the recent history that has Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2015 val 2017 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2016 shaped the land where they live and that continues Funding amount : 40.000 € Funding amount : 30 000 € to define every moment of their lives.

104 105 Projects in production wcf AFRIcA

106 107 I AM NOT A WITCH Rafiki by Rungano Nyoni Jambula Tree by Wanuri Kahiu

Synopsis I AM NOT A WITCH revolves around a to research witch camps. I stayed in a witch camp Synopsis Auma and Ziki live very different lives nine-year-old girl, Shula, who is accused of witch- in Kpatinga – with 75 older women living there. I in the Highrise Estate in Nairobi. Auma works in craft. Shula is the first child to be taken to a travelling spoke to a woman who had been accused of witch- her father’s shop and awaits the start of nursing witch camp, where she is tethered to a spool with craft. She had been accused by another woman school, while Ziki passes the days hanging out with a ribbon. She is told that should she cut the ribbon who had simply dropped a bucket of water on her her wealthy friends and making up dance routines. and attempt to escape, she will be cursed and trans- way back from the well and blamed her for it… It’s Their paths cross when their fathers run against formed into a goat. Over time Shula begins to long sort of funny and tragic at the same time. each other for seats in the County Assembly, and for freedom. Forced to decide whether to accept the girls’ unlikely friendship is put to the test as elec- her fate as a witch, Shula ignites a rebellion within tion tactics get nasty. the camp. Director’s note Kenya, South Africa Director’s note The subject and intention of my RAFIKI is a love story about the purity of friendship film evolved after spending a particularly dry sum- Zambia that chooses character, spirit, tenderness and an ex- Director : Wanuri Kahiu mer in Zambia where there were several news traordinary connection above all else. It forces me to Producers : Big World Cinema (South Africa); MPM Film Director : Rungano Nyoni (France); Rinkel Film (Netherlands); Awali Entertainment reports of women being accused of witchcraft Producers : Clandestine Films (France), Soda Pictures, ask what I would choose; love or safety?one of the Ltd (Kenya); Razor Film Produktion (Germany); Abbout – including my neighbour. And so the idea grew (UK) same sex in East Africa. Choosing to make this film Productions (Lebanon) from there. I deliberately wanted to have a more German WCF partner : unafilm (Germany) means that I must be ready to defend love, in all its German WCF partner: Razor Film Produktion absurd tone in the film – mainly because the more World sales : tbc glory and failure, and to protect the unconditional World sales : tbc I researched the material, the more bizarre and al- Funded in the WCF Jury Meeting inJuly 2017 love that exists “just because”, despite age, sex, race, Funded in the WCF Jury Meeting in July 2015 most comical it became. I went to North Ghana Funding amount: 50,000 € and creed. Funding amount: 38.000 €

108 109 LA MISÉRICORDE DE LA JUNGLE THE NUMBER THE MERCY OF THE JUNGLE by Khalo Matabane by Joel Karekezi

Synopsis At the outbreak of the Second Congo Synopsis After a young protégé’s murder confirms The father-son story is one close to my heart. I grew War, Sergeant Xavier is sent into the vicious depths a prison gang leader’s growing misgivings about up without a father and I met him only once. When of the Congolese River Basin to hunt down those his life on the inside, he joins a reform-minded war- we met, there was no connection and we had noth- who perpetrated genocide in his native Rwanda den’s efforts to improve the prison, eyeing it as a ing to talk about. We were like strangers. I could not four years previously. When he and a young private path to early release. forgive him until I was older. are accidentally left behind in the jungle, their bid for retribution turns into a struggle for pure survival. Gaining fulfillment and self-worth, he becomes a With only each other to count on, they embark on valued partner in the new changes before explosive an odyssey across the most violent forest on earth, gang resistance forces a deadly choice between the facing the depths of their own war-torn souls and gangster he is and the changing man he knows he the spiritual consequences of saving and taking now is… lives. SOUTH AFRICA Rwanda Director’s note 28S is a prison film inspired by Director’s note THE MERCY OF THE JUNGLE is a the true story of Magadien Wentzel, a high-ranking Director : Khalo Matabane Director :Joel Karekezi Producers : Born Free Media (South Africa), Video road movie that deals with wars in Congo through Producers : Neon Rouge Production (Belgium), Perfect member of the notorious 28s prison gang who turn Vision Entertainment (South Africa), Gebruer Beetz the eyes of two lost soldiers, by showcasing their Shot Films (Germany), Tact Production (France) young inmates either into soldiers or wives. This is a Filmproduktion (Germany) struggle, weakness and hope. German WCF partner: Perfect Shot Films (Germany) world that is far removed from my everyday reality. German WCF partner: Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion World Sales: Urban Distribution International, (France) World Sales: Video Vision Entrainment (South Africa)

Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in November 2016 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in July 2016 Funding amount : 38.000 € Funding amount : 30.000 €

110 111 Distribution Support 2004 – 2017

112 113 El Abrazo El Abrazo Ajami Al-khoroug Partido de la serpiente by Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti lel-nahar LOST EMBRACE Embrace of the Serpent Coming Forth by Day by Daniel Burman by Ciro Guerra by Hala Lotfy

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Argentina, 2004 colombia, 2015 Israel / Palestine, 2009 Egypt, 2012 Director : Daniel Burman Director : Ciro Guerra Director : Yaron Shani, Scandar Copti Director : Hala Lotfy Producer : BD Cine (Argentina) Producers : Ciudad Lunar (Colombia), Producers : Inosan Ltd. (Israel), Producers : Hassala Films (Egypt) German distributor : Kinowelt Buffalo Films (Argentinia) Twenty Twenty Vision (Germany) German distributor : Arsenal – Institut World sales : Bavaria Film German distributor : MFA + Film- German distributor : für Film und Videokunst e.V. International (Germany) Distribution e.K. Neue Visionen Filmverleih World sales : Hassala Films (Egypt) Theatrical release in Germany : World sales : Films Boutique World sales : The Match Factory Theatrical release in Germany : August 3, 2005 (Germany) (Germany) November 14, 2013 Theatrical release in Germany : Theatrical release in Germany : Funded in January 2005 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting March 10, 2016 May 22, 2010 Funding amount : 15.000 € in August 2013 Funded in December 2015 Funded in November 2009 Funding amount : 4.358 € Funding amount : 7.000 € Funding amount : 10.000 €

Synopsis Ariel’s world is a small, rather run-down shopping cen- Synopsis Karamakate, a powerful Amazonian shaman and lone Synopsis Jaffa’s Ajami neighbourhood is a melting pot of cultures Synopsis Single and in her mid-thirties, Soad lives with her tre in downtown Buenos Aires. Ariel’s mother runs a women’s lin- survivor of his people, dwells deep in the jungle in voluntary isola- and conflicting views among Jews, Muslims and Christians. Back mother, a nurse, and her father – who is mostly unaware of the gerie shop and his brother is in the import – export business. His tion. Decades of solitude have turned him into a chullachaqui – an and forth in time, and through the eyes of various characters, we world after a stroke. While bright sunlight and the sounds of the is a cosy little world – albeit one without much of a future. Ariel’s empty shell of a human, devoid of memories and emotion. His witness how impossible the situation really is … Sensitive 13-years city can be made out from behind the half-closed shutters, every- grandparents came to Argentina from Poland to escape the Holo- hollow life is shaken by the arrival of Evan, an American ethno- old Nasri and his older brother Omar live in fear when their entire thing in the apartment exudes the smell of old age, sickness and caust ; but Ariel wants more than a Polish passport. What worries botanist in search of the yakruna, a powerful and sacred plant, ca- family is in danger after their uncle foolishly wounds a prominent stagnation. Soad has resigned herself to caring for her father and him is why his father left the family to go and fight for Israel shortly pable of teaching those who take it how to dream. Together they clan member. Naive young Palestinian refugee Malek works illegal- putting her own life on hold, but her longing is palpably directed after Ariel was born. And why did he never come back ? Moreover, embark on a journey into the heart of the Amazon during which ly in Israel to help financing the surgery that will save his mother’s towards the outside world. When she leaves the flat and wanders why does his father’s absence appear to be of little or no interest past, present and future become intertwined, and Karamakate life. Affluent Palestinian Binj dreams of a bright future with his Jew- through Cairo alone, it becomes clear just how far she has already to his mother and his brothers ? And then, one day, his father sud- slowly begins to regain his lost memories. ish girlfriend. Jewish policeman Dando and his family undergo a distanced herself from her own needs. And yet at the end of the denly appears before him. At long last, father can enfold son in a frustrating search for his missing younger brother, a soldier … The night a new day begins, which may still bring change. long-overdue embrace. And what’s more, Ariel finally gets to hear World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2015 tragic fragility of human existence is experienced in the enclosed the whole story … community of Ajami. World premiere Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2012, Best Director from Key festivals and awards C.I.C.A.E. Award, Cannes International the Arab World and FIPRESCI Award, New Horizons World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2004, Film Festival 2015 ; Elcine Prize, Lima Latin American Film Festival World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2009, Competition 2015 ; Best Film, Mar del Plata International Film Festival 2015 ; Mun Quinzaine des réalisateurs Key festivals and awards Seattle International Film Festival ich Film Festival 2015 ; Golden Duke, Odessa International Film Fes- 2013 ; Berlin International Film Festival 2013 ; Golden Lion, Arab Key festivals and awards Best Actor and Jury Grand Prix, Berlin In- tival 2015 Key festivals and awards Camera d’Or Special Distinction, Cannes In- Film Festival of Oran 2012 ; Bronze Tanit, Carthage Film Festival, ternational Film Festival 2004 ; Best Camera Award Anonimul Interna- ternational Film Festival 2009 ; Sutherland Award, The Times BFI London 2012 ; Best Director from the Arab World and FIPRESCI Award, Abu tional Film Festival 2005 ; Best Film, Bangkok World Film Festival 2004 International Film Festival 2009 ; Best Feature Film Award (Golden Alex- Dhabi Film Festival 2012 ander), Best Screenplay Award, Fischer Public Choice Award, Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2009 ; Nomination Academy Awards USA for Best Foreign Language Film of the year 2010

114 115 Bamako Bombón – El Perro Caramel Carne de perro by Abderrahmane Sissako BOMBoN THE DOG by Nadine Labaki Dog Flesh by Carlos Sorín by Fernando Guzzoni

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Mali, 2006 Argentina, 2004 Lebanon, 2007 Chile, 2012 Director : Abderrahmane Sissako Director : Carlos Sorín Director : Nadine Labaki Director : Fernando Guzzoni Producers : Mali Images (Mali), Producers : Romikin, Guacamole Producers : Anne-Dominique Producers : Ceneca Producciones Chinguitty Films (France), Films, OK Films (Argentina), Toussaint (France) (Chile), JBA Production (France), Archipel 33 (France) Wanda Visión (Spain) German distributor : Alamode Film Hanfgarn & Ufer Filmproduktion German distributor : Kairos Filmverleih German distributor : Alamode Film World sales : Roissy Films (France) (Germany) World sales : Les Films du Losange World sales : Bavaria Film Theatrical release in Germany : German Distributor : déjà-vu film (France) International (Germany) April 3, 2008 World sales : FiGa Films (USA) Theatrical release in Germany : Theatrical release in Germany : Funded in January 2008 Theatrical release in Germany : February 1, 2007 August 4, 2005 Funding amount : 12.000 € April 3, 2014 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting Funded in the WCF Jury meeting Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in October 2006 in June 2005 in October 2013 Funding amount : 8.000 € Funding amount : 7.500 € Funding amount : 5.000 €

Synopsis In a poor neighbourhood in Bamako, Mali’s capital city, Synopsis Juan is unemployed and has to live with his daughter, Synopsis A beauty salon in Beirut is the setting for the sensual Synopsis Alejandro is at a very difficult point in his life. He is a lone- Mele, a stunningly beautiful bar singer, and her unemployed hus- even though he is not actually welcome there. He keeps his head romantic comedy CARAMEL. The salon is a lively and colourful mi- some and unpredictable man who carries the enormous weight band Chaka have a marriage that is on the rocks. Around them, above water as best he can by selling knives which he makes him- crocosmos in which women meet to talk about what’s most impor- of his past as a torturer during the Pinochet regime. When his taxi others are not able to make ends meet. In the courtyard of their self. He has lost all hope that his life will ever get any better. But tant to them : how they look, the newest beauty treatments and, of breaks down, the laboriously maintained rhythm of his life is com- house, a trial court has been set up while everyday life goes on. then suddenly, when he becomes the owner of a valuable dog – a course, men. Layale, the owner of the shop, works there with three pletely disrupted. On his quest for a new identity, Alejandro gets lost Dogo Argentino – everything seems to change … colleagues. Outside of work, their everyday lives are ruled by their between the ghosts of the past and his obsessive attempts to deal African civil society spokesmen have taken proceedings against complicated love lives : Layale loves Rabih, but Rabih’s married. Nis- with the present. He starts to unravel, his view of reality is increasingly the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other in- World premiere San Sebastián International Film Festival 2004 rine wants to get married, but how can she keep her future husband distorted and he is eaten alive by his own past. He desperately tries to stitutions that have been responsible for bringing most African from finding out that she’s no longer a virgin ? Rima is attracted to reinterpret his life and find a new direction for his existence. Follow- countries to financial ruin. So Sissako gathers lawyers, judges and Key festivals and awards San Sebastián International Film Festi- women and Jamal doesn’t want to accept that she’s growing old. ing an emotional and physical breakdown, he flees into the commu- witnesses to put globalisation itself on trial. val 2004 ; Toronto International Film Festival 2004 ; FIPRESCI Award, And then there is Rose, the tailor from next door, who sacrificed her nity of a strange evangelical sect which fulfils his need for closeness San Sebastián International Film Festival 2004 life to take care of her elderly sister and unexpectedly falls in love for and hierarchical order. However, a person like Alejandro will always World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2006, the very first time … remain a risk to society – unpredictable like a dormant volcano. Competition World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2007, Quinzaine World premiere San Sebastian International Film Festival 2012, New Key festivals and awards Toronto International Film Festival des réalisateurs Directors 2006 ; New York International Film Festival 2006 ; San Sebastián International Film Festival 2006 ; Pusan International Film Festival Key festivals and awards Sebastian Award, Youth Award, TCM Key festivals and awards New Director’s Award, San Sebastian 2006 ; Munich International Film Festival 2006 ; Viennale 2006 ; Audience Award, San Sebastián International Film Festival 2008 ; International Film Festival 2012 ; Movie City Award, Valdivia Interna- Grand Prix du Public, Les Rencontres International Paris Cinéma FIPRESCI Award Stockholm Film Festival 2007 ; Black Pearl Award for tional Film Festival 2012 ; Coral Prize for the best Opera Prima, Havana 2006 ; Jury Prize, Carthago Film Festival 2006 ; Jury Prize, Lumières Best Actress and the Ensemble Cast, Middle East International Film International Film Festival 2012 ; Rotterdam International Film Festival d’Afrique, Film Festival Besançon 2006 Festival 2007 ; Nomination Academy Award USA for the Best Foreign 2013 ; Göteborg International Film Festival 2013 Language Film 2008

116 117 Daratt Días de Santiago DOL Ee’adat Khalk by Haroun Mahamat-Saleh by Josué Méndez by Hiner Saleem RECYCLE by Mahmoud al-Massad

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Chad, 2006 Peru, 2004 Kurdistan Regional Jordan, 2007 Director : Haroun Mahamat-Saleh Director : Josué Méndez Government (Iraq), Director : Mahmoud al-Massad Producers : Chinquitty Films (France), Producers : Chullachaki 2007 Producers : iSee (Jordan, The Nether- Goi-Goi Productions (Chad) Producciones (Peru) lands), mec film (Germany), German distributor : German distributor : W-film Director : Hiner Saleem Jo Film (Jordan) Kairos Filmverleih World sales : Mil Colores Media Producers : Hiner Saleem Production German distributor : mec film World sales : Pyramide International and Cachoeira Films (Germany) (Iraqi Kurdistan Region), World sales : Wide Management (France) Theatrical release in Germany : Mîtosfilm (Germany) (France) Theatrical release in Germany : December 8, 2005 German distributor : Mîtosfilm Theatrical release in Germany : March, 2008 World sales : Mîtosfilm October 2, 2008 Funded in January 2005 Theatrical release in Germany : Funded in January 2008 Funding amount : 15.000 € April 26, 2007 Funded in June 2008 Funding amount : 8.000 € Funding amount : 10.000 € Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in October 2006 Funding amount : 8.000 €

Synopsis Chad 2006 : The government has granted amnesty to all Synopsis Santiago Roman, a rugged, 23-year-old soldier of the Synopsis In Iraqi-Kurdistan the Kurds are celebrating their au- Synopsis What makes a terrorist ? In Zarqa, Jordan’s second war criminals. Atim, 16 years old, is given a revolver by his grand-fa- Peruvian Navy, returns home to Lima after years of fighting in the tonomy. In contrast, there are still repressions in the Turkish and largest city with a population of nearly one million, it is a much- ther so that he may kill the man who killed his father. Atim leaves his jungle. Combatweary and searching for hope, Santiago is a member Iranian part of Kurdistan and violent clashes between the Kurdish debated question. Zarqa’s political Islamists are a powerful force village for N’djamena, seeking a man he does not know. He quickly of a lost Peruvian generation – his spirit scared by futile wars with and Turkish military occur regularly. Balliova, a small Turkish-Kurd- in this industrial center, and Zarqa was the birthplace of Abu Musa locates him : former war criminal Nassara is now married and is the Ecuador and constant fighting against terrorists and drug traffickers. ish village near the Iranian and Iraqi frontier, in the year 2005 : the al Zarqawi, a brutal Al Qaeda leader in Mesopotamia before be- owner of a small bakery. With the firm intention of killing him, Atim He quickly finds his native Lima an unwelcoming place – his army Turkish army is trying to keep the conflict torn area under strict ing killed by American forces in 2005. Inspired by his reporting on gets closer to Nassara under the guise of looking for work and is buddies have taken to bank robbing, the decadent club scene of- control. When this fails, the military harasses the village popula- al Zarqawi and Al Quaeda for international news agencies, film- hired as an apprentice baker. Intrigued by Atim’s attitude towards fers only noise and lights ; prospective employers won’t hire him, his tion. In spite of the constant presence of violence, Azad and his maker al Massad returned to Zarqa, where he grew up, to make him, Nassara takes him under his wing and teaches him the secrets applications for credit are refused. But worst of all, Santiago learns fiancée are dreaming about their future wedding. During the RECYCLE. In a deceptively calm manner, the film slowly unravels of making bread. Over the weeks, a strange relationship evolves that his friends, family and his young, professional wife have be- ceremony, Kurdish songs are performed to great dismay of the the hidden agents of terrorism : poverty, humiliation, lack of op- between the two. Despite his disgust, Atim seems to recognize in come decadent or distant – and that they are, each in another way, Turkish commandant who demands them to sing in the Turkish portunity and religious doctrine define the daily rhythms of a Nassara the father figure he always needed, while Nassara sees the unable to understand him. As his troubles converge in the film’s language. It all results in a fight where the groom Azad shoots at man and his family, all against the backdrop of an era when jihad teenager as a potential son and even suggests adoption. Neverthe- riveting climax, DIAS DE SANTIAGO asks the question of escape for the commandant, and thus must escape from his village. that spans the globe. RECYCLE suggests that evil acts can emerge less, Atim cannot forget his reason for coming. A violent confronta- a discharged soldier, who returns home full of hope, but finds only from the most ordinary of circumstances. tion seems inevitable. disappointment and inner turmoil. World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2007, Forum World premiere Dubai International Film Festival 2007, Muhr World premiere Venice International Film Festival 2006, World premiere Rotterdam International Film Festival 2004 Key festivals and awards Berlin International Film Festival 2007 ; Awards, Official Competition for Documentaries Competition São Paulo Internacional Film Festival 2007 ; Durban International Key festivals and awards FIPRESCI Award and Grand Prix, Fri- Film Festival 2007 ; Brisbane International Film Festival 2007 ; Mel- Key festivals and awards Muhr Awards, Dubai International Key festivals and awards Venice International Film Festival 2006 ; bourg International Film Festival 2004 ; Best Actor, BAFICI 2004 ; Best bourne International Film Festival 2007 ; The Montreal World Film Film Festival 2007 ; Cinema in Motion Award, San Sebastian In- Viennale 2006 ; Rotterdam International Film Festival 2007 ; Grand Actor and Critics Award, Lima Latin American Film Festival 2004 ; Festival 2007 ; Seattle International Film Festival 2007 ternational Film Festival 2007 ; World Cinema Cinematography Special Jury Prize, Unesco Award ; Braunschweig International Film Transilvania Trophy, Transilvania International Film Festival 2004 Award, Documentary, Sundance International Film Festival 2008 Festival 2007

118 119 FidaÏ gigante Huacho Los insólitos by Damien Ounouri by Adrián Biniez by Alejandro Fernández Almendras peces gato AMAZING CATFISH by Claudia Sainte-Luce

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Algeria, 2012 Uruguay, 2009 Chile, 2009 MEXICO, 2013 Director : Adrián Biniez Director : Claudia Sainte-Luce Director : Damien Ounouri Director : Alejandro Fernández Producers : Jaqueca Films (Mexico), Producers : Kafard Films (France), Producers : Control Z Films (Uruguay), Almendras Rizoma Films (Argentina), Pandora Canibal Networks (Mexico), Xstream Pictures (China), mec film Producers : Jirafa Films (Chile), Good Lap Production (France) Filmproduktion (Germany) (Germany), Cirta Films (Algeria), Charivari Films (France), German distributor : Linked Productions (Kuwait) German distributor : Pandora Film (Germany) Neue Visionen Filmverleih Arsenal Filmverleih GmbH German Distributor : mec film German distributor : Kairos Filmverleih World sales : World sales : Kafard (France) World sales : The Match Factory World sales : Films Distribution (Germany) Pyramide SA (France) Theatrical release in Germany : (France) Theatrical release in Germany : May 1, 2013 Theatrical release in Germany : Theatrical release in Germany : October 1, 2009 October 10, 2014 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting July 21, 2011 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting Funded in May 2014 in April 2013 Funded in January 2011 Funding amount : 5.000 € Funding amount : 4.300 € in July 2009 Funding amount : 5.000 € Funding amount : 10.000 €

Synopsis During the Algerian revolution, my great-uncle joined Synopsis Jara, who is 35, is a shy and lonely man who works as Synopsis On a long and eventful day, four members of a south- Synopsis 22-year-old Claudia lives alone in Guadalajara. One night, his sister in France and integrated a secret FLN armed group. Set- supermarket security guard. It’s his job to keep an eye on the se- ern Chilean peasant family ( Pedro and his wife Olga, their daugh- she ends up in the emergency room with signs of appendicitis. tling of scores, attempted murder, hiding, imprisonment and curity cameras installed throughout the building. He works the ter Marta and their grandson Rodrigo ) struggle to adapt to the There she meets Martha, lying on the bed next to her. In spite of finally expulsion in 1962, his personal journey tells the story of graveyard shift when the store is like a ghost town. This gives him changing world in which they live in ; a world where a gameboy her illness, 46-year-old Martha has 4 children and an endless lust countless ex-fighters for Algerian independence, and echoes the plenty of time to pursue his favourite pastimes : watching videos, or a new dress can be as precious as a litre of milk or a glass of for life. Moved by the lonely young woman, Martha invites Claudia current effervescence of the Arab World. Today, at the age of sev- doing crossword puzzles or listening to music. And so his life con- wine ; where the boundaries between tradition and modernity to come and live with her when she leaves the hospital. At first, enty, El Hadi reveals this dark part of his life. tinues – until one day Julia enters his field of vision. She works at the are quickly disappearing. Claudia is bewildered by the somewhat chaotic organisation of the supermarket as a cleaner. Jara immediately feels a strong attraction household, but soon she finds her place in the tribe. And while Mar- World premiere Toronto International Film Festival 2012, Official towards her. At first he spends hour after hour watching her work. Director’s note With a mix of candor, empathy and simplicity, tha grows weaker, Claudia’s bond with each member of the family Selection But, before long, he begins to follow her after work. His whole life HUACHO depicts a day in the life of four members of a peasant gets stronger day by day. gradually begins to revolve around Julia’s daily routine. One day ru- family who live on the outskirts of the city of Chillán, in the south Key festivals and awards Best Film, Buenos Aires LAIFF 2012 ; mours begin to spread among the staff that the company intends of Chile, dealing with the many transformations of the life of the World premiere Locarno International Film Festival 2013, Special Mention, Doha Tribeca Film Festival 2012 ; Vienna Inter- to lay off some of the workers. Some people are indeed made re- peasantry at the turn of the century. Cineasti del Presente national Film Festival 2012 ; Opening Film, MoMA New York 2012 ; dundant – one of them is Julia. Jara now has a difficult decision to Best Documentary, Journées Cinématographiques d’Alger 2012 ; make. Should he drop his obsession ? Or should he admit his feel- World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2009, Key festivals and awards Junior Jury Award, Locarno Interna- Arab Film Festival of Oran 2012 ings to Julia ? Quinzaine des réalisateurs tional Film Festival 2013 ; Ariel Awards Mexico 2014, Silver Ariel ; Best Film, Baja International Film Festival 2013 ; Special Jury Award, World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2009, Key festivals and awards Munich International Film Festival 2009 ; Gijón International Film Festival 2013 ; Grand Coral-Second Prize, Competition Jerusalem International Film Festival 2009 ; Toronto International Havana Film Festival 2013 ; Best Ibero-American Film, Mar del Plata Film Festival 2009 International Film Festival 2013 Key festivals and awards BAFICI 2009 ; Karlovy Vary Film Festi- val 2009 ; Sarajevo International Film Festival 2009 ; Silver Bear and Great Jury Award, Berlin International Film Festival 2009

120 121 Jodaeiye Nader Kebun Binatang Kick Off Kirkuk La LeÓn az Simi POstcards from the Zoo by Shawkat Amin Korki by Santiago Otheguy by Edwin nader and simin – a separation by Asghar Farhadi

I r an , 2011 Indonesia, 2012 Kurdistan Regional Argentina, 2007 Director : Asghar Farhadi Director : Edwin Government (Iraq), Director : Santiago Otheguy Producer : Asghar Farhadi (Iran) Producers : Babitutafilm (Indonesia), 2009 Producers : Polar Films (Argentina), German distributor : Alamode Film Pallas Film (Germany) Onyx Films (France), Big World World sales : Memento Films German distributor partner : Director : Shawkat Amin Korki (France), Morocha Films (Argentina) International Neue Visionen Filmverleih Producers : Shawkat Amin Korki, German distributor : Salzgeber & Co. Theatrical Release in Germany : World sales : The Match Factory Narin Film, NHK Medien GmbH July 14, 2011 (Germany) German distributor : Mîtosfilm World sales : MK2 (France) World sales : Shawkat Amin Korki Funded in the WCF Jury meeting Theatrical release in Germany January Theatrical release in Germany : Theatrical release in Germany : in June 2011 17, 2013 November 15, 2007 February 10, 2011 Funding amount : 7.500 € Funded in May 2012 Funded in February 2007 Funding amount : 12.000 € Funded in May 2010 Funding amount : 5.000 € Funding amount : 8.000 €

Synopsis Simin wants to leave Iran with her husband Nader and Synopsis Abandoned in a zoo by her father when she was a lit- Synopsis Kirkuk, Iraq after the downfall of the Saddam Hussein Synopsis The Paraná Delta : surrounded by a labyrinth of wa- daughter Termeh. She has already made all the necessary arrange- tle girl, Lana grew up surrounded by animals, gates and the sounds Regime : About 300 Kurdish, Arabic and Turkish Refugees have terways that meander through the lush wilderness, Álvaro lives a ments. Nader, however, is having second thoughts. He is worried of a subdued wilderness. Raised by animal trainers, the zoo is the taken possession of a big open air soccer stadium, hoping to re- simple, lonely life harvesting reeds and going fishing. In this re- leaving behind his father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. For only world she knows. She learns to appreciate the graceful steps turn to their destroyed homes as soon as the bombings outside mote area of Argentina lost in time, Álvaro’s homosexuality and this reason he decides to call off the trip together. As a result of of the hippo, the elegance of the giraffe, the dignity of an elephant have stopped. They all try to establish a normal life in the stadium, his love for books aggravates his isolation. The only link between Nader’s decision, Simin decides to sue for divorce at the fam- flipping its ears. One day, a handsome young man enters her world, ignoring the conflicts and the warlike situations in the city around this boundless territory and the city is the “ León ” water-taxi. Its ily court. When her request is rejected, however she refuses to live a charismatic cowboy who knows some magical tricks. Lana falls them. Asu lives here with his mother and his younger brother, captain, El Turu, is a violent and intolerant man. He feels threat- with Nader, moving instead into her parent’s home. Nader finds it in love. She becomes the magician’s assistant and at his side, she who lost a leg from a landmine. Together with his friend Sako, ened by Álvaro’s difference and is set on harassing him. But El difficult to cope with the new situation. And so he hires a young leaves the zoo for the very first time. But one day, during one of his Asu wants to organise a soccer championship for the Kurdish and Turu’s scorn masks an inner turmoil … woman named Razieh to look after his father, who is pregnant performances, the magician disappears. Lana is then sold to work Arabic refugee children. By this means, he hopes to cheer up his and has accepted the job without the husband’s knowledge. One in an erotic massage parlour. In her heart she sadly longs for the brother and win the love of a beautiful girl named Hilin. World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2007, Panorama day, Nader arrives home to find that not only has his father been magician and the animals that used to make her world one full of left alone, he has also been tied to a cable ! When Razieh returns, meaning. Between the remembrance of things past and the desire World premiere Busan International Film Festival 2009 Key festivals and awards Special Jury Mention, TEDDY 21 Queer a blazing row ensues, the tragic consequences of which not to find her own path, Lana has to make up her mind. Film Award, Berlin International Film Festival ; Sydney International only shatter Nader’s life, but also the image his daughter Termeh Key festivals and awards New Currents Award Fipresci Price, Film Festival 2007 ; Paris Cinéma 2007 ; Silver Colón for Best Cin- has of her father. World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2012, Busan International Film Festival 2009 ; Special Mentions, Dubai ematography, Huelva Latin American Film Festival 2007 ; Best Competition International Film Festival 2009 Feature Film, Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2008 World premiere Fajr Film Festival Iran, 2011 Key festivals & awards Asian and Arab Competition Award, Key festivals and awards Golden Bear, Berlin International Film Cinefan – Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema 2012 ; Hong Kong Inter- Festival 2011; Best Film, Sydney International Film Festival 2011; national Film Festival 2012 ; Tribeca 2012 ; Edward Yang New Talent Golden Globe Award for the Best Foreign Language Film 2012, Award ; Asian Film Awards 2012 Academy Award for Best Foreign film 2012 ; César Award 2012

122 123 LEONERA Loong Boonmee Madeinusa MOOLAaDé LION’S DEN raleuk chat by Claudia Llosa by Ousmane Sembène by Pablo Trapero uncle boonmee by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

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Argentina, 2008 Thailand, 2010 Peru, 2006 Senegal, 2004 Director : Pablo Trapero Director : Apichatpong Weerasethakul Director : Claudia Llosa Director : Ousmane Sembène Producer : Matanza Cine (Argentina) Producers : Kick the Machine Films Producer : Wanda Visión (Spain) Producers : Filmi Domireew (Senegal), German distributor : MFA + Film- (Thailand), Illumination Films (UK), German distributor : Kairos Filmverleih Ciné-Sud (France) Distribution e.K. The Match Factory (Germany) World sales : The Match Factory German distributor : Neue Visionen World sales : Finecut Co., Ltd. (Korea) German distributor : (Germany) Filmverleih Theatrical release in Germany : Movienet Film GmbH Theatrical release in Germany : World sales : Wide Management June 4, 2009 World sales : The Match Factory November 9, 2006 (France) Funded in December 2008 Theatrical release in Germany : Funded in August 2006 Theatrical release in Germany : September 30, 2010 May 11, 2006 Funding amount : 10.000 € Funding amount : 10.000 € Funded in the WCF Jury meeting Funded in February 2006 in July 2010 Funding amount : 15.000 € Funding amount : 10.000 €

Synopsis Beautiful college student Julia happens to live with Synopsis Suffering from kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has cho- Synopsis The film is set in Manayacuna, a remote village hid- Synopsis The film is a parable about the tradition of genital her cousin in her house and is in love with him. He later brings his sen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the den in the rugged, windblown, mountainously scenic Peruvian mutilation of young girls in Africa as well as the courageous male lover to live with, and Julia inevitably falls in the complicated countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to hinterland. The village has developed a distorted, idiosyncratic battle of young women against the current use of this ritual. threesome relationship. Confused and tormented by their con- care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form of Catholicism over the years and decades : though there is Four girls who refuse to subject themselves to the practice nections, Julia kills her cousin and his boyfriend, and after a while form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks an ornate church, there is no priest. There are also no telephones, seek protection with a strong-willed woman who had pro- turns herself in. She’s sentenced to several years in prison, but she through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave – the and the only link with the outside is a talkative van-driver known tected her own daughter from genital mutilation. When other finds out she’s pregnant. She fails to have abortion many times birthplace of his first life … as “ the mute ” who pays regular visits. On one of such visits he inhabitants of the village and their relatives want to force her and in the end gives birth to a son. At first, Julia treats the baby brings a curious traveller from Lima : a photographer named Sal- to hand over the girls, she invokes the timehonoured practice with little love, but gradually, the son means everything to her. Director’s note A few years ago I visited a temple near my home vador arrives in this world of poverty and opulent religious rituals. of “ Moolaadé ”, which offers inviolable shelter and refuge. and a monk there gave me a little book called “ A Man who Can Hitching from Lima to his job at a mine, Salvador is stopped by Even when the marriage of her own daughter is endangered World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2008, Recall his Past Lives. ” In it, the monk wrote about Boonmee, who a flooded-out road. Dumped in the small village, populated en- by her courageous conduct, she sticks to her position. Competition could recall his multiple lives in the cities of the northeast. The book tirely by Peruvians of Incan descent, outsider Salvador is immedi- is an inspiration for this film and ani nstallation, which, like my other ately jailed by the drunken townsman, because of “ Tiempo Santo ”, World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2004, Un Key festivals and awards Karlovy Vary International Film Festi- films, focuses on memory. During this time when rapid annihilation until Cayo, the mayor agrees to give him lodging in his barn. certain regard val 2008 ; Toronto International Film Festival 2008 ; Helsinki Inter- processes of everything from species to cultures have become national Film Festival 2008 ; Best Actress, Best Cinematography, commonplace, it is important to simply remember. World premiere Rotterdam International Film Festival 2006 Key festivals and awards Toronto International Film Festival Best Screenplay, Elcine First Prize ( Best Film ), Lima Latin American 2004 ; Telluride Film Festival 2004 ; Rotterdam International Film Festival 2008 ; Best Art Direction, Special Jury Prize, Havana World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2010, Key festivals and awards Rotterdam International Film Festival Film Festival 2005 ; Pusan International Film Festival 2004 ; International Film Festival 2008 Competition 2006 ; Sundance International Film Festival 2006 ; Mar del Plata BAFICI 2005 ; Chicago International Film Festival 2004 ; Hong International Film Festival 2006 ; Roberto Tato Miller Award, Best Kong International Film Festival 2005 ; Prix Un certain regard, Key festivals and awards Palme d’Or, Cannes International Film Latin American Film Feature 2006 ; Toulouse Latin America Film Cannes International Film Festival 2004 ; Jury Award, Los Ange- Festival 2010 ; Best Foreign Language Film at the Toronto Film Crit- Festival 2006 les Pan African Film Festival 2005 ; Best Foreign Language Film, ics Association Awards, Toronto International Film Festival 2010 ; National Society of Film Critics, USA 2005 Best Cinematography Award, Dubai International Film Festival 2010

124 125 Norte, hangganan O Homem que Copiava Octubre Pandoranin Kutusu ICasaysayan THE MAN WHO COPIED by Daniel und Diego Vega Pandora’s box NORTE, the end of history by Jorge Furtado by Yesim Ustaoglu by Lav Diaz

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PhilippinES, 2013 Brazil, 2003 Peru, 2010 Turkey, 2008 Director : Jorge Furtado Director : Daniel and Diego Vega Director : Yesim Ustaoglu Director : Lav Diaz Producers : Globo Filmes and Casa Producers : Maretazo Cine (Peru) Producers : Ustaoglu Film Yapim Producers : Wacky O Productions de Cinema de Porto Alegre (Brazil) German distributor : (Turkey), Silkroad Pro-duction (France), (Philippines), Moira Lang (Philippines) German distributor : Neue Visionen Film Verleih Les Petites Lumières (France), German distributor : Grandfilm Kool Filmdistribution World sales : UMedia Distribution Stromboli Pictures (Belgium), World sales : M-appeal (Germany) World sales : Casa de Cinema de (France) The Match Factory (Germany) Theatrical Release in Germany : Porto Alegre Theatrical release in Germany : German distributor : Kairos Filmverleih December 25, 2014 Theatrical release in Germany : October 10, 2010 World sales : The Match Factory Funded in the WCF Jury meeting September 1, 2005 Funded in August 2010 Theatrical release in Germany : in November 2014 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting Funding amount : 7.000 € November 26, 2009 Funding amount : 7.000 € in October 2005 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting Funding amount : 7.500 € in July 2009 Funding amount : 8.000 €

Synopsis A man is wrongly jailed for murder while the real killer Synopsis André works in a copy shop, whiling away his time Synopsis Clemente, an extremely quiet pawnbroker, is Sofia´s Synopsis Three fourty something siblings in Istanbul each re- roams free. The murderer is an intellectual frustrated with his coun- chatting with his colleague Marines, and drawing comics after hope to avoid solitude. Being his neighbour and a single woman, ceive a call one night : their ageing mother has disappeared from try’s never-ending cycle of betrayal and apathy. The convict is a work. He is secretly in love with his neighbour Sylvia, but is too she spends her days as an October worshipper of the Lord of the her home on the western Black Sea coast of Turkey. The three simple man whose life in prison becomes more tolerable when shy to approach her. As he begins to counterfeit money, he meets Miracles. One day, Clemente is left with a newborn baby. While meet and set out to find her, momentarily setting aside their in- something mysterious and strange starts happening to him. Marines’ boyfriend Cardoso. To escape their drab lives, the four he looks for the baby´s mother, a prostitute, Sofia joyfully starts dividual problems. As the siblings come together, the tensions young people prepare to commit a bank robbery … taking care of this baby in Clemente´s house. Clemente will thus between them quickly become apparent, like a Pandora’s box World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2013, Un cer- discover emotional attachments he never had. spilling open. They come to realise that they are very ignorant of tain regard World premiere Hamburg Film Festival 2003 ; Locarno Inter each other, and are forced to reflect on their own shortcomings. national Film Festival 2013, Cineasti del Presente World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2010, Key festivals and awards Cannes International Film Festival 2013, Uncertain regard World premiere Toronto International Film Festival 2008, Visions Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival 2013, Cinema- Key festivals and awards Hamburg Film Festival 2003 ; Best Di- nila Inter. Film Festival 2013. rector, Best Editing, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sup- Key festivals and awards Cannes International Film Festival Key festivals and awards Toronto International Film Festival porting Actress, Cinema Brazil Grand Prize 2004 ; Best Film, São Paulo 2010 ; Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2010 ; Odessa Film 2008 ; Golden Shell for Best Film, Silver Shell for Best Actress, San Association of Art Critics Awards 2004 ; Elcine Second Prize, Lima Festival 2010 ; SANFIC 2010 ; Toronto International Film Festival Sebastian Film Festival 2008 ; Best Supporting Actress, Antalya Latin American Film Festival 2004 ; Silver Crow Pheasant, Kerala 2010 ; San Sebastian International Film Festival 2010 ; Beirut Inter- Golden Orange Film Festival 2008 ; Best Actress Award, Amiens International Film Festival 2003 ; Best Actor, Havana International national Film Festival 2010 ; Jury Prize, Odessa Film Festival 2010 ; Film Festival 2008 Film Festival 2003 Special Jury Prize, Motovun Film Festival 2010 ; Best Film, Pacific Meridien Vladivostok International Film Festival 2010

126 127 Pelo Malo Semaan Bil Day’ia shekarchi sonBAHAR Bad Hair the one man village THe hunter AUTUMn by Mariana Rondón by Simon El-Habre by Rafi Pitts by Özcan Alper

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VENEZUELA, 2013 Lebanon, 2008 Iran, 2010 Turkey, 2008 Director : Mariana Rondón Director : Simon El Habre Director : Rafi Pitts Director : Özcan Alper Producers : Sudaca Films (Venezuela), Producers : Beirut DC (Lebanon), Producers : AFTAB Negaran Film Producers : Kuzey Film (Turkey), Imagen Latina (Peru), Hanfgarn & Ufer mec film (Germany) Production Institute (Iran), Filmfabrik (Germany) Filmproduktion (Germany) German distributor : mec film Twenty Twenty Vision (Germany) German distributor : Filmfabrik World sales : FiGa Films (USA) World sales : mec film German distributor : Neue Visionen World sales : Media Luna New Films German distributor : Theatrical release in Germany : Filmverleih (Germany) ImFilm Agentur Verleih September 10, 2009 World sales : The Match Factory Theatrical release in Germany : Theatrical release in Germany : Funded in the WCF Jury meeting (Germany) March 4, 2010 Spring 2016 in July 2009 Theatrical release in Germany : Funded in the WCF Jury meeting Funded in the WCF Jury meeting Funding amount : 7.500 € April 8, 2010 in July 2009 in November 2015 Funded in January 2010 Funding amount : 7.500 € Funding amount : 30.000 € Funding amount : 10.000 €

Synopsis Junior is nine years old and has stubbornly curly hair, Synopsis Semaan is leading a quiet life on his farm in the small Synopsis Recently released from prison, Ali makes the most of his Synopsis Ten years after being sentenced to jail as a 22-year-old or – as he keeps being told – “ bad hair ”. He wants to have it straight- village of Ain al-Halazoun in the Lebanese mountains. The hamlet return, amidst much talk of the upcoming elections and promises university student, Yusuf returns to his village in the eastern Black ened for his yearbook picture, like a fashionable pop singer with was completely emptied and destroyed in combats during the civil of change. Despite working nights, he tries to spend the most time Sea region. Welcomed only by his elderly mother, the only person long, ironed hair. This puts him at odds with his mother Marta. The war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990. Today, many years after possible with his beautiful wife and young daughter. To escape the he sees regularly is his childhood friend Mikail. Going with Mikail more Junior tries to look beautiful and make his mother love him, an official reconciliation, its inhabitants, who are all from one family, stress of urban living, Ali retreats to his favourite pastime of hunting to a tavern, Yusuf meets Eka, a beautiful Georgian hooker. Neither the more she rejects him. He finds himself cornered, facing a pain- regularly go back to the village to cultivate their plots of land or visit in the secluded forest north of town. Tragedy strikes and Ali’s wife timing nor circumstances are right for these two people from differ- ful decision. their houses and always leave before sunset. In his comforting and Sara is accidentally killed in a police shoot-out with demonstrators. ent worlds to be together. For all that, love becomes a final desper- humorous film Simon El Habre observes the life in his quasi ghost After a long and frustrating experience at the police station, Ali’s ate attempt to grasp life and elude loneliness. With the 1990s as a I want to talk about intolerance in a social context that is riddled village and tries to reflect on the collective and individual memory own search for his missing six-year-old daughter ends in horror and backdrop, the film at once documents and criticizes a slice of recent with dogmas which don’t embrace otherness, where public affairs in a country that seems to live in a collective amnesia and is vulner- pushes him over the edge. Ali randomly shoots and kills two police- history, exposing the irony, ruthlessness and reality of the period. extend to the private life. able to a new civil war. men. After a high-speed car chase outside of town, Ali flees into the northern forest where he is captured by two police officers. Ali is Director’s note The most important reason for making this film World premiere Toronto International Film Festival 2013 World premiere Dubai International Film Festival 2008 resigned to his fate and watches quietly as the arguing policemen was my identification with the main character. In Turkey my gen- lose their way in the woods. Situations complicate and the line be- eration started university in the 1990s, and experienced the same Key Festivals and awards Golden Seashell, San Sebastián Film Key festivals and awards Special Jury Prize Documentary, Muhr tween hunter and hunted becomes difficult to define … things as Yusuf. Festival 2013 ; Bronze Alexander and FIPRESCI Award, Thessaloniki Awards, Dubai International Film Festival 2008 ; Berlin International Film Festival 2013 ; Best Director and Best Script, Mar del Plata In- Film Festival 2009 ; Best International Feature, Hot Docs Canadian World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2010, Competi- World premiere Locarno International Film Festival 2008, Com- ternational Film Festival 2013 ; Around the World in 14 Films Berlin International Documentary Festival 2009 ; Edinburgh International tion petition 2014 ; Best Actress, Torino Film Festival 2014 ; Best Director, Niña del Film Festival 2009 ; Golden Apricot Film Festival Yerevan 2009 ; FID Mar International Film Festival 2014 Marseille 2009 ; Special Mention, One World Festival Prague 2008 ; Key festivals and awards Hong Kong International Film Festival Key festivals and awards Rotterdam International Film Festival Best feature length documentary, Silber Hawk, Arab Film Festival 2010 ; Melbourne International Film Festival 2010 ; Toronto Interna- 2008 ; Art & Essai CICAE Prize, Locarno International Film Festival Rotterdam 2008 ; tional Film Festival 2010 ; Viennale 2010 2008 ; Best Film & Special Jury Award, Adana Film Festival 2008

128 129 Svet-Ake La Teta un homme El Viento The Light Thief Asustada qui crie THE WIND by Aktan Arym Kubat The Milk of Sorrow a screaming man by Eduardo Mignogna by Claudia Llosa by Haroun Mahamat-Saleh

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Kyrgyzstan, 2010 Peru, 2009 Chad, 2010 Argentina, 2005 Director : Aktan Arym Kubat Director : Claudia Llosa Director : Haroun Mahamat-Saleh Director : Eduardo Mignogna (Aktan Abdykalykov) Producers : Wanda Vision and Oberon Producer : Pili Films (France) Producers : Retratos Producciones Producers : Oy Art (Kyrgyzstan), A.S.A.P. Cinematográfica (Spain), Vela Films German distributor : Cine Global and Film Suez (Argentina), Tesela Pro- Films (France), Pallas Film (Germany), (Peru), The Match Factory (Germany) World sales : Pyramide (France) ducciones Cinematográficas (Spain) Volya Films (The Netherlands) German distributor : Neue Visionen Theatrical release in Germany : German distributor : Arsenal German distributor : Filmverleih April 7, 2011 Filmverleih Neue Visionen Filmverleih World sales : The Match Factory Funded in January 2011 World sales : Sogepac (Spain) World sales : The Match Factory Theatrical release in Germany : Funding amount : 5.000 € Theatrical release in Germany : (Germany) November 5, 2009 October 12, 2006 Theatrical release in Germany : Funded in the WCF Jury meeting Funded in August 2006 April 14, 2011 in November 2006 Funding amount : 10.000 € Funded in March 2011 Funding amount : 10.000 € Funding amount : 5.000 €

Synopsis They call him “ Svet-ake ” ( “ Mr. Light ” ). The electrician Synopsis Fausta suffers from “ the milk of sorrow ”, an illness Synopsis Present-day Chad. Adam, sixty something, a former Synopsis Pain, guilt and the search for happiness are the main is responsible for bringing more than just light to the people transmitted through mother’s milk by women who have been swimming champion, is pool attendant at a smart N´Djamena premises of Frank’s ( Federico Luppi ) story – a cattle raiser who has around him. Like moths, everybody is drawn to his kindness : violated or mistreated during the war of terrorism in Peru. The war hotel. When the hotel gets taken over by new Chinese owners, never left his small town in Patagonia. The death of his daughter those with short circuits in their electricity, and those with short has ended, but Fausta lives to remind of it because “ the illness of he is forced to give up his job to his son Abdel. Terribly resentful, sends him to Buenos Aires and back into touch with his grand- circuits in their marriage, those who have taken all the power in fear ” stole her soul. Now, her mother’s sudden death forces her he feels socially humiliated. The country is in the throes of a civil daughter Alina (Antonella Costa). Frank comes bearing not only the city, and those who have given up the will to live. He helps to confront her fears and the secret that is hidden inside of her : war. Rebel forces are attacking the government. The authorities the news of Alina’s mother’s death, but also his own forgotten everyone and is everywhere. He doesn’t even shy from breaking she has inserted a potato into her vagina to serve as a protective demand that the population contribute to the “ war effort ”, giving memories and a secret he swore not to reveal that will have pro- the law, rewinding an old and lonely pensioner’s electricity meter shield that repels disgusting intruders. The milk of sorrow is the money or volunteers old enough to fight off the assailants. The found affects on Alina’s life. so that he doesn’t owe the State, but rather the State owes him. story of a search for reawakening, a journey from fear to freedom. District Chief constantly harasses Adam for his contribution. But The economic devastation of the country has had an enormous Adam is penniless ; he only has his son … World premiere Argentina, August 2005 impact on the working people and yet despite the upheaval they World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2009, Competi- have not lost the ability to love, to suffer, to share their lives with tion World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2010, Com- Key festivals and awards Palm Springs International Film Fes- friends, and enjoy what they have … petition tival 2006 ; Transilvania International Film Festival Romania 2006 ; Key festivals and awards Golden Bear for the Best Film, Berlin Espoo Film Festival Finland 2006 ; Film by the Sea Film Festival World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2010, Quin- International Film Festival 2009 ; Best Ibero-American Picture, Key festivals and awards Karlovy Vary International Film Fes- Netherlands 2006 ; Raindance Film Festival UK 2006 zaine des réalisateurs Guadalajara International Film Festival 2009 ; Best Film Award, Best tival 2010 ; La Rochelle International Film Festival 2010 ; Durban Director Award, Best Actress Award, Best Film Award of the Film International Film Festival 2010 ; Toronto International Film Fes- Key festivals and awards Cannes International Film Festival Students Jury, Festival de Cinema de Gramado 2009 ; Nomination tival 2010 ; Helsinki International Film Festival 2010 ; Warsaw Film 2010 ; Locarno International Film Festival 2010 ; Toronto Interna- Academy Awards USA for Best Foreign Language Film 2010 Festival 2010 ; São Paulo International Film Festival 2010 ; Dubai In- tional Film Festival 2010 ; Sao Paolo In-ternational Film Festival ternational Film Festival 2010 ; Sun-dance Film Festival ; Jury Prize, 2010 ; Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2010 ; Doha Tribeca Cannes International Film Festival 2010 2010 ; Amiens International Film Festival 2010

130 131 Workers WWW – WHAT Distribution by José Luis Valle A WONDERFUL WORLD Support by Faouzi Bensaïdi wcf europe

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Mexico, 2013 Morocco, 2006 Director : José Luis Valle Director : Faouzi Bensaïdi Producers : Zensky Cine (Mexico), Producers : Gloria Films (France), IMCINE-FOPROCINE (Mexico), CUEC Agora Films (Switzerland), Heimatfilm (Mexico), Autentika Films (Germany) (Germany), Soread-2M (Morocco) German Distributor : Bildkraft German distributor : Kairos World sales : MPM Film (France) Filmverleih Theatrical release in Germany : World sales : Films du Losange December 12, 2013 (France) Funded in the WCF Jury meeting Theatrical release in Germany : in October 2013 December 13, 2007 Funding amount : 5.000 € Funded in May 2007 Funding amount : 7.500 €

Synopsis After a whole life of work at Tijuana, Rafael and Lidia are Synopsis Living in Casablanca, Kamel, a merciless hired killer, victims of injustice against their rights and dignity : Rafael learns receives his orders by internet. After his hits, he usually calls the that due to a paperwork mistake, he will not be entitled to his re- prostitute Souad to make love, except this time police woman tirement pension. As for Lidia, she finds out that her employer’s Kenza answers the phone. Kamel soon finds himself falling in love will leave the entire heirloom to the dog. Alone and silently, they´ll with her voice. Meanwhile Hicham, a young amateur hacker look- begin a battle : Rafael against a company, Lidia against a dog. ing for a passage to Europe, accidentally infiltrates Kamel’s orders. In the unique atmosphere of a both archaic and modern city, this World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2013, Pano- is a story of pursuit. Pursuit of real freedom and of strong emotions. rama World premiere Venice International Film Festival 2006 Key festivals and awards Golden Colon, Huelva Latin American Film Festival 2013 ; Mezcal Award, Guadalajara International Film Key festivals and awards Venice International Film Festival Festival 2013 ; Grand Prix, Split Film Festival 2013 ; LA Film Fest 2013 2006 ; Filmfest Hamburg 2007

132 133 Rak ti Khon Kaen Inhebbek Hedi Oscuro Animal Cemetery of Splendour HEDI Oscuro Animal by Apichatpong Weerasethakul by Mohamed Ben Attia by Felipe Guerrero

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Thailand, 2015 Tunisia, 2016 Colombia, 2015 Director : Apichatpong Weerasethakul Director : Mohamed Ben Attia Director : Felipe Guerrero Producers : Illuminations Films (UK), Producers : Nomadis Images (Tunisia) Producers : Mutokino (Colombia), Kick the Machine Films (Thailand), Les Films du Fleuve (Belgium) Gema Films (Argentina), Viking The Match Factory (Germany), Theatrical releases in : Spain, Februar Films (Netherlands), Sutor Kolonko among others 17, 2017; Colombia, April 20, 2017; (Germany) Theatrical releases in : Hungary, Mexico, Februar 10, 2017 Theatrical releases: Denmark, December 10, 2015, Portugal, December 25, 2016 ; Argentina, March 10, 2016, Brazil Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in October 1, 2016 ; Colombia, November 2016 September 29, 2016 Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in Funding amount : 27.000 € World sales : Ramonda Ink (France) July 2015 Funding amount : 30.000 € Funded in the WCF Jury meeting in August 2016 Funding amount : 27.000 €

Synopsis In a small town in Thailand, a troop of soldiers have Synopsis Hedi is a simple young man. He isn’t very talkative and Synopsis Oscuro Animal tells the story of three women forced to contracted a strange case of sleepingsickness. Jenjira, a middle- doesn’t expect much from the life that is planned out for him. He flee their homes in a war-torn region of Colombia. Each woman’s aged Thai lady, volunteers to tend to them in a makeshift hospital allows his authoritarian and overwhelming mother to arrange journey, marked by terror, takes her on a trek from the depths of set up at the school. She takes special interest in Itt, one of the his marriage to Khedija. He allows his boss to send him on a trip the jungle to the outskirts of Bogotá, where each must gather the affected soldiers. Throughout her rounds, she also befriends a to Mahdia during the week of his wedding celebrations, and he strength needed to start a new life. clairvoyant girl named Keng. Although Itt is only awake for a few allows Ahmed his brother to dictate how he should behave. But hours a day, he manages to make Jenjira’s heart flutter. She takes on his trip to Madhia, things take a turn for the unexpected. He World Premiere Rotterdam International Film Festival 2016, Hi- him to the lake where, like in a dream, a large unidentified crea- meets Rim who works as an activity leader in a hotel. Intrigued by vos Tiger Award Competition ture has washed ashore. Itt falls asleep at the park pavilion. There, her indifference and frivolity, Hedi gets involved in a passionate Jenjira encounters Keng, who offers to speak Itt’s thoughts. She relationship. Will Hedi have the courage to escape his inner and Key festivals and awards Best Ibero-American Feature, Director, leads Jenjira through a labyrinthian cemetery of kings that exists outer prisons? Cinematography and Female Ensemble Cast , Guadalajara Inter- in another dimension. An ostensibly personal story broadens into a panorama of a so- national Film Festival 2016; FIPRESCI Prize - T-Mobile New Horizons ciety in upheaval, an allegory for breaking away from traditions. International Film Festival 2016; Spanish Cooperation Award, San World premiere Cannes International Film Festival 2015, Quin- And a film about the happiness and pain of freedom. Sebastián International Film Festival; Karlovy Vary International zaine des réalisateurs Film Festival World premiere Berlin International Film Festival 2016, Competi- Key festivals and awards Cannes International Film Festival tion WCF supported distributors: Ost for Paradis (denmark), Mutokino 2015 ; London Film Festival 2015, Lighthouse Award, Poncevo Film (Colombia) and Obra Cine (Argentina) Festival 2015 Key festivals and awards Best First Feature Film Award and Silver Bear for Best Actor - Berlin International Film Festival 2016 ; WCF supported distributors : Cirko Films (Hungary), Midas Filmes Golden Athena for Best Film - Athens International Film Festival, (Portugal) and Zeta Filmes (Brazil) Domaine Clarence Dillon Grand Jury Prize, Erasmus Jury Prize, Bor- deaux International Film Festival

WCF supported distributors : Golem Distribución (Spain), Cine Colombia (Colombia), ND Mantarraya (Mexico) 134 135 WCF INFO

136 137 World Cinema Fund The goal is to promote high-quality filmmaking in Applications may be submitted by European All WCF submissions, including projects from Sub- regions with a weak infrastructure for film, while production companies participating in the Saharan countries, will automatically also be con- Founded in 2004, the WCF was initiated by the Ger- fostering cultural diversity in German cinemas as MEDIA sub-programme and production compa sidered for WCF Africa and will be eligible for both man Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin well as supporting collaboration between German nies from the WCF Europe eligible regions (WCF re- funding opportunities. International Film Festival. It quickly established it- producers and partners in WCF regions and coun- gions and countries plus Belarus and Moldavia and self as one of the leading institutions in the field of tries. All WCF films completed to date have screened Ukraine), that can document that they are already Deadlines for submissions to WCF and WCF Africa are international film funding for artistic and innovative at cinemas and / or in the programmes of renowned collaborating on their current project with a Euro- also the same. productions. In 2005, the Goethe-Institute came on festivals. Many have also won prizes, proof of the pean partner. board as cooperation partner and the German Fed- worldwide success of the initiative. WCF Africa guidelines follow the WCF guidelines. eral Foreign Office stepped in to help cover adminis- WCF Europe will also offer financial support to the trative costs. As of 2014, the German Federal Foreign The World Cinema Fund provides support in the distribution of films from the WCF Europe eligible Applicants should use the same application form for Office has increased its commitment and so became fields of production and distribution. regions and countries, if they are released by three submissions for both WCF production funding and a main partner. distributors (at least one must be from Europe, and WCF Africa. The World Cinema Fund has an annual budget of at least one must be from a WCF Europe eligible re- The WCF concentrates on backing the production 300.000 € at its disposal. There are two submission gion / country). In 2017, WCF Africa will have a budget of 140,000 eu- and distribution of films from Africa, Latin America deadlines each year. ros at its disposal, provided by the German Federal and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Central and The current deadlines, more detailed guidelines Foreign Office. Southeast Asia, as well as Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Special programme World Cinema Fund Europe and submission forms can be downloaded from Lanka. The German co-producers are the recipients www.berlinale-worldcinemafund.de of the funds, but without exception, WCF funds have Thanks to the support of the Creative Europe – MEDIA to be spent in WCF funding regions and countries to Programme of the European Union, the World Cin- Special funding programm: WCF Africa help the realization of films which otherwise could ema Fund is expanding its portfolio and launching not be produced, i.e feature films and creative fea- a special programme for its 10th anniversary, titled Despite challenges, Africa cinema does exist. But ture-length documentaries. WCF Europe. more support is needed to optimise film production and promote film culture in the Sub-Saharan region. From 2015 to 2017, WCF Europe will supplement the existing programme of the World Cinema Fund and In 2016 the World Cinema Fund (WCF), in cooperation back further co-productions between European co- with the German Federal Foreign Office, launched producers, and directors and producers from WCF a special funding programme for projects from this regions and countries. region.

138 139 Projects from Turkey and Georgia can only be considered if they are submitted by an European WCF WCF EUROPE company participating in the MEDIA sub-programme in co-production with another country from the WCF Europe eligible regions / countries which is not part of MEDIA and / or Eurimages. Production Funding Which kind of films can be submitted ? Feature lenght films from the WCF eligible regions and countries, (fiction films and creative feature documentaries) Feature lenght films from the WCF Europe eligible regions and countries, (fiction films and creative feature documentaries) Where must the film / director come from ? WCF regions and countries : Africa, Latin and Central America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central and Southeast Asia WCF Europe regions and countries : plus Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka same as WCF regions and countries (see left column) plus Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine Who can submit a film for production funding ? Production companies from the WCF regions and countries AND / OR production companies from Germany Production Companies from European countries participating in the MEDIA sub-programme in cooperation with a production company from the WCF Europe eligible regions and countries. Who is the administrative WCF contract partner ? German (co-) producer / partner European co-producer Is a prove of coproduction necessary at the time of submitting ? No. At the time of applying you don't need to have a German partner on board. In case the Jury recommends your project for funding, Yes. At the time of applying you have to prove a cooperation between a company from a WCF Europe eligible country and a company from a however you will need one European MEDIA country participating in the MEDIA sub-programme In what stage does the film have to be at the time of submitting ? The WCF supports the production of the film (in some cases also the post- production), but not the development. For films that receive a funding recommendation in 2017, the film and the accounting and reporting must be finished by the end of 2018. Script (or rough cut) must be ready, some financing should already be in place, and the shooting should start not later than 9 months after the submission deadline Total budget of production / max. funding amount 200.000- 1,400.000 € / for production support 80.000 € and 40.000 € for post-production support 200.000- 1,400.000 € / for production support 60.000 € and 40.000 € for post-production support Where must the money be spent ? In the WCF regions and countries (German partner can deduct a maximum of 7,5 % of the funding amount for handling fees) In the WCF Europe regions and countries (European partner can deduct a maximum of 7,5 % of the funding amount for handling fees)

Is necessary a consultation with the WCF before submission ? No, but it’s recommended Yes Distribution Funding

Who can apply for distribution funding ? German distributors who want to release a film from the WCF eligible regions and countries in Germany A group of at least 3 distributors (world sales can also be involved) with at least one from a European country participating in the Media sub- programme and at least one from a WCF Europe eligible region / country eligible who want to release a film from the WCF Europe eligible regions and countries in their territories Who is the administrative WCF contract partner ? German distributor European Distributor (main applicant) or European world sales agent What is the maximum funding amount for distribution ? 10.000 € 30.000 € for all (at least) 3 distributors involved (max. 15.000 € per distribution territory) For Production and Distribution Funding

- The total production share from countries participating in the MEDIA sub-programme must amount to a minimum of 20 % for documentaries and 25 % for fiction feature and animation films. Under no circumstance can their share exceed 70 %. The co-production’s share rule is a requirement for both, production and distribution submissions. 140 141