Kinosloga. Retrosex. 2024

A minimalist crime thriller set on the nocturnal streets of contemporary Berlin, much like its protagonist: laconic, efficient, and very, very cool.

A dark but also humorous film about the corporeality of mourning, made by David Cronenberg after the death of his wife of many years. Starring Vincent Cassel as the director’s alter ego.

French documentary film maker Nicolas Philbert takes us on an unusual ship, used as a day-care centre for adults with mental disabilities. Surrounded by incredibly talented people with sparkling personalities, we can contemplate community, freedom and the importance of art in everyday life. The warm and subtle film that breaks downs the boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’ won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale.

Centring on a family faced with a gender crisis of their eight-year-old son, 20,000 Species of Bees is a study into interpersonal relationships that sheds light on the burning issues of gender and identity from a personal perspective and using metaphors from the natural world.

In 1909, in Trieste, the main port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, four bold entrepreneurs met with a young English teacher, James Joyce. He proposed that they invest in the first permanent cinema in Ireland: Kino Volta. Martin Turk’s film is not a historical documentary about the birth of cinema but a nostalgic and playful evocation of the spirit of those who were part of the story.

Belgium, 1995. The disappearance of two girls shakes the public and triggers a media storm. An idealistic but impulsive young policeman, Paul Chartier, joins a secret unit called Maldoror, tasked with monitoring a suspect previously convicted of sexual assaults. When the operation fails, Chartier, frustrated by police inefficiency and the legal system, embarks on a lone pursuit that gradually turns into an obsession…

For children aged 4 to 7.

Iconic action star Don Lee returns to take down another vicious villain and break up a cybercrime ring. It’s the fourth installment in what has turned out to be one of the most successful franchises in South Korean cinema. 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moldovan women left in droves for work in Western Europe, leaving their children to be cared for by their relatives. They sent money and other goods home, and in return, their children sent videotaped messages. These intimate recordings testify to the painful void left in the lives of children by mothers forced to leave their homeland to provide a better life for their families. 

On a mission to complete a cinematic tribute to his deceased mother, Serbian director Stefan Đorđević looks into loss and the grieving process in a struggle to come to terms with his own bereavement.

The mysterious and stunning family drama by actor and director Mathieu Amalric takes us to the inner world of a woman, wife and mother of two children, who is wandering real and imaginary memories. With Vicky Krieps in one of her best roles ever.

A budding childhood romance between Nora and Hae Sung, classmates at a primary school in Seoul, ends abruptly when Nora’s family emigrates to Canada. Many years later Nora, now a playwriting student in New York, notices that Hae Sung has been searching for her on social media… Cinematic debut by New York based playwright Celine Song.

United Nations, 1961: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department swings into action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to the Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez explores a moment when jazz, colonialism, and espionage collided.

The delicate friendship between a boy and a girl in a remote Chinese valley deepens into a dreamlike allegory that blurs the lines between reality and the enchanting world of botany.

Gabrielė Urbonaitė’s 16mm feature debut is an intimate portrayal of the lives of millennials torn between modernity’s endless possibilities and Western Europe’s constant pressure to perform.

A programme of the best animated shorts from around the world, programmed to give you a thorough insight into the latest developments and trends in auteur animation, including many award-winners from some of the leading international festivals.

An incident at a state school in Anatolia thwarts a teacher’s dream of escaping his bleak life in a remote Turkish region.

Seventy-year-old Mahin lives alone in Tehran after her husband’s death and her daughter’s departure for Europe, until an afternoon tea with friends leads her to break her solitary routine and revitalise her love life. However, as Mahin opens herself up to a new romance, what begins as an unexpected encounter quickly evolves into an unpredictable, unforgettable evening.

Resistance in this program comes in many forms: we will learn about communities organizing to create a shared garden to fight food insecurity, we’ll see some rich ass kicked, and stand against social injustice, racism, sexism and animal abuse. With a dose of laughter too, because we need that in this crazy crazy world. – Allesia Gasparella

SOME STRINGS: found image & sound, 1901–2024 “the cinema of solidarity”, Sarah Wood; Ma’loul Celebrates its Destruction, Michel Khleifi; Your Father Was Born 100 Years Old, and So Was the Nakba, Razan Al Salah; Ours Is a Country of Words, Mathijs Poppe