Tarek and his friends have their Saturday evening all planned out: PlayStation, junk food, and a few joints to go with it. When he pops by the park to buy some weed, a policeman who's been eyeing him from inside his car approaches him. The man has a mysterious air about him. He's gentle yet menacing and somewhat conspiring. Rather than taking him to the precinct, the cop takes Tarek on an adventurous night of brawls, chases, and escapes.
L'Homme le plus heureux du monde – Teona STRUGAR MITEVSKA – approved for all audiences – 17:40 (Republic of Macedonia)
Official Competition
Asja, a 40-year-old single woman, lives in Sarajevo. In order to meet new people, she ends up spending her Saturday in a speed dating event. She’s matched with Zoran, a 43-year-old banker. However, Zoran is not looking for love but forgiveness.
Un petit frère – Léonor SERRAILLE – 20:01 (France)
Official Competition
In the late 1980s, Rose moves from the Ivory Coast to the Paris suburbs with her two young sons, Ernest and Jean. Spanning 20 years from their arrival in France to the present day, the film is the moving chronicle of the construction and deconstruction of a family.
Pink Moon – Floor VAN DER MEULEN – 22:10 (Netherlands)
Official Competition
When completely out of the blue Iris (29) is told by her father Jan (74) that he has had enough of life and wants to die, she is forced to face the total absurdity of the situation. As his unsettling deadline approaches, Iris decides to ignore her brother’s watertight action plan. She strong-arms her father into answering the one question that matters to her: why? Without ever getting a satisfactory answer, she eventually tries to find herself a way to deal with her father’s very last wish.
J'ai des rêves électriques – Valentina MAUREL – 15:47 (Belgium)
Hauteur
Eva is a strong-willed, restless 16-year-old girl who lives with her mother, her sister and their cat, but desperately wants to move in with her father. Clinging onto him as he goes through a second adolescence, she balances between the sensitivity of teenage life and the ruthlessness of the adult world.
Christmas 1877, Sissi celebrates her 40th birthday. As First Lady of Austria, she is not allowed to express herself and must remain forever the beautiful young empress. Stifled by convention, hungry for knowledge and life, Elisabeth increasingly rebels against this image.
Skin Deep – Alex SCHAAD – forbidden under 16 – 12:33 (Germany)
Official Competition
At first glance, Leyla and Tristan seem like a happy young couple. But when they travel to a mysterious, remote island, a game of identities begins, which changes everything.
Interdit aux chiens et aux Italiens – Alain UGHETTO – 17:15 (France)
Youth screenings
Early 20th century, Ughettera, Northern Italy. Life in the region had become very difficult and the Ughettos dreamed of a better life abroad. Legend has it that Luigi Ughetto crossed the Alps and started a new life in France, thus changing his beloved family’s destiny forever.
Sergeant Major Eismayer is known and feared as the toughest training officer in the Austrian Armed Forces, ruthless with recruits and unwavering in his discipline, order and macho toughness. But when he starts to fall in love with Falak, a new recruit who unashamedly embraces his homosexuality, Eismayer‘s closeted existence is shaken to the core. Will he choose to protect his badass tough guy image over all else, or can he follow his heart and his true desire? Inspired by a true story.
Les Huit Montagnes – Charlotte VANDERMEERSCH – Felix VAN GROENINGEN – approved for all audiences – 22:32 (Italy)
Focus
Pietro, a city boy, befriends Bruno, the last child living in a forgotten village in the Aosta Valley. While Bruno remains faithful to his mountain, Pietro travels the world. On this journey, they experience love and loss, their origins and destinies, but above all, a life-and-death friendship.
Vera – Tizza COVI – Rainer FRIMMEL – 13:00 (Austria)
Official Competition
Vera lives in the shadow of her famous father. Tired of her superficial life and relationships, she drifts through Roman high society. When she injures a child in a traffic accident in the suburbs, she forms an intense relationship with an eight- year-old boy and his father. But soon she must realise that also in this world she is only an instrument for others.
Addi, a boy raised by a clairvoyant mother, decides to adopt a bullied misfit into his gang of outsiders. The boys explore aggression and violence but also learn about loyalty and love. As their behaviour escalates towards life–threatening situations, Addi begins to experience a series of visions.
Le Marchand de sable – Steve ACHIEPO – 19:21 (France) Filmmaker in Attendance
Summit
En présence du réalisateur Steve Achiepo et des interprètes Moussa Mansaly et Ophélie Bau
Djo is a delivery driver in the city of Cergy. As the crisis erupts in Côte d’Ivoire, he finds himself having to clandestinely house members of his family. The prospect of offering a better life to his daughter is gradually tipping him into a spiral where he will lose control.
Normale – Olivier BABINET – approved for all audiences – 21:47 (France) Filmmaker in Attendance
Summit
En présence du réalisateur Olivier Babinet, des scénaristes Juliette Sales et Fabien Suarez et de la productrice Barbara Letellier
Lucie is 15 years old and has a vivid imagination. She lives alone with William, her father, who, underneath his retarded teenage looks, is fighting multiple sclerosis. Between school, a small job and the burden of daily life, Lucie manages as best she can, and escapes into the writing of a whimsical autobiographical novel, which navigates between dream and reality... The announcement of the visit of a social worker will upset this precarious balance. Lucie and her father will have to redouble their inventiveness to give the illusion of a normal life.
Saules aveugles, femme endormie – Pierre FÖLDES – 13:00 (France) Filmmaker in Attendance
Official CompetitionSummit
En présence du réalisateur Pierre Földes et du producteur Tom Dercourt
A giant talkative frog, a lost cat, and a tsunami help a bank employee, his wife and a schizophrenic accountant to save Tokyo from an earthquake and find a meaning to their lives.
Ramona has just moved to Madrid with her boyfriend Nico, and wants to start from scratch: she wants to be an actress. The day before her first audition she meets Bruno, with whom she has an instant and strong connection. The next day she discovers that Bruno is the director she was supposed to meet!
France, the 1920s. In a hotel by the sea, a magic show distracts the idle guests. Marta, a young woman unhappy with her jealous husband, agrees to take part in a disappearing act and uses the opportunity to disappear once and for all.
Summertime in a small village in southeastern Spain. A storm threatens to cause the river crossing it to overflow again. Throughout the village, an old popular belief is repeated like a litany, claiming that some women are predestined to disappear with each new flood, because they were born with «the water inside».
Local teenagers try to survive the weariness of a summer in the village, smoking cigarettes, dancing and drinking. In this electric atmosphere that precedes the storm, Ana, who dreams of fleeing this village that stinks of death, and José will live a story of summer love.
Empire of Light – Sam MENDES – 21:19 (United Kingdom)
SummitPlaytime
Hilary is a cinema manager struggling with her mental health, and Stephen is a new employee longing to escape the provincial town where he faces daily adversity. Together they find a sense of belonging and experience the healing power of music, cinema, and community.
Polaris – Ainara VERA – approved for all audiences – 13:06 (France)
Summit
Hayat, an expert sailor in the Arctic, navigates far from humans and her family’s past in France. But when her little sister Leila gives birth to a baby girl Inaya, their worlds are turned upside down; we witness their journey, guided by the polar star, to overcome the family’s fate.
Habib, la grande aventure – Benoît MARIAGE – approved for all audiences – 16:57 (Belgium)
Summit
Habib is an actor from Brussels whose parents come from Morocco. Torn in his aspirations to satisfy the demands of the different milieus that define him, will he be able to preserve his integrity?
