The Pawnshop
Jola and Wiesiek, a couple of extraordinary entrepreneurs, run the biggest pawnshop in south Poland. However, it's best days are behind it, and with the closure of nearby mines and growing unemployment in the city, the inhabitants of "Polish Detroit" pawn increasingly absurd and useless objects. Neither Wiesiek's crazy marketing ideas nor Jola's tender heart can help the failing business. She supports her clients not only with a kind word but also with hot soup or a warm blanket. Although the pawnshop makes a loss, it becomes an important centre of life for the local community. Soon, however, it finds itself on the brink of bankruptcy, and Jola and Wiesiek's relationship is put to the test. With disaster looming, the owners make one last attempt to save the business they love.
"tragic, heartwarming...Visually appealing static shots capture the protagonists in this deprived neighborhood at their most vulnerable, surrounded by every imaginable kind of treasure and trash." - IDFA
Sing, Freetown
Emmy winning filmmaker from Sierra Leone, Sorious Samura, has grown tired telling negative stories about Africa. He embarks on a journey with his best friend, Sierra Leone’s most famous playwright, Charlie Haffner, to create an epic work of national theatre – a play to reclaim their country from negative media narratives and the damaging legacy of colonial rule. It doesn’t go as planned.
"Astonishing...This is a hugely special, rewarding documentary whose ending manages to encompass both victory and loss." - Guardian
Ardenza
Suddenly, a woman needs to write about her youth. In a curt way, far away from moral, Ardenza is the testimony of sexual liberation and political commitment, during the 90’s in Italy. The young woman moves, bangs, suffers and comes. Her story is made of meetings, short and heady moments. She tells her glowing path through desire and bodies. This movie is full of sensual energy coming from a moment of her life that still resists and quivers.
"A film of otherworldly and astonishing beauty...unexpected and moving, with riveting sensitivity and sensuality." - Visions du Reel
The Investigator
Vladimír Dzuro is the first Czech criminal investigator to have worked for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. In the 1990’s he collected evidence against war criminals and hunted perpetrators of ethnic cleansing. We join Vladimír Dzuro on his metaphorical and physical journey across the former Yugoslavia to the places where his investigations took place. He recalls his two biggest cases- the Ovčara massacre related to Vukovar's mayor Slavko Dokmanović in Croatia, and the ethnic cleansing committed by the warlord Zeljko Ražnatović Arkan in Sanski Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Survivors of these cases give testimony and bring the often-painful past into the present moment.
"rich, cinematic imagery...adds power and depth to the story" - Variety
Portrait of My Father
My father was found dead at the beach with psychotropic medication among his things. Despite suicide being a possibility, my mother -a psychiatrist- deemed performing an autopsy unnecessary. I was eight years old.
Thirty years later, equipped with a box filled with his belongings, I begin piecing his life together. I discover a one-of-a-kind musician and a music therapist of disabled teenagers, but nothing is certain in my quest, which is always shrouded in the fog of mental illness, overmedication, and my mother’s questioning every one of my findings.
"What are the pieces that make up a life? This thorny question lies at the heart of Juan Ignacio Fernández Hoppe’s riveting, emotional documentary, whose structure resembles a detective story." - Guardian