In search of understanding and healing, filmmaker Bassam Mortada explores his father’s arrest, imprisonment and torture in 1989, re-constructing and reconsidering the experience that traumatized and divided his family.

What is the function of art in a country that is constantly on the verge of collapse? In Haiti, a poverty-stricken country ravaged by social unrest and natural disasters, a theater festival is bravely hanging on in the capital Port-au-Prince.

A warm and attentive film capturing the lives of fishermen on an island in the US facing the threat of rising sea levels. The close-knit community, rooted in faith, navigates an uncertain future with the church at the center of their lives.

A young Chinese filmmaker wants to confess something to her grandmother that has been weighing on her for years. She offers linguistic and cinematic codes to help decipher the secrets in this enigmatic and personal short student film.

Summer, 1989. The Tiananmen protests have just been crushed and the Eastern Bloc is showing cracks. These tensions are palpable at the World Youth Festival in North Korea. In unique footage, it looks like a socialist dance on the edge of a volcano.

As Edhi and Alice deal with the realities of gender reassignment, they face rejection and misunderstanding in South Korean society. An elegant portrait of two women in transition, with a distinct role for the film crew.

Palestinian theatre maker Jamal Hindawi, who lives in Lebanon, goes in search of a lost prop. His quest produces a compelling picture of damaged life in south Beirut.

A portrait of Polish mountaineer Wanda Rutkiewicz, who conquered eight Himalayan peaks before an apparently fatal fall in 1992—but is she in fact still alive, living in a Tibetan monastery? The search becomes a tribute to an inspirational sportsperson.

A tragicomic portrait of an older woman managing a commuter elevator in a Tbilisi apartment complex. This unique transportation system is an antiquated legacy of bygone Soviet times, screeching and creaking amid a modern Georgian society.

Vicky Du goes in search of the story behind the silence of her parents, whose families fled Communist China, and who ended up in the US via Taiwan. Through family interviews, photos and videos, she reveals intergenerational trauma.

In a photo studio in Pakistan, portraits of clients are pasted onto stock photos. Photojournalist and director Danial Shah shows how these studios sell a lie, but at the same time reveal the dreams and ambitions of their clients.

Based on numerous testimonies, this compelling and moving montage of richly varied archive material from the interbellum brings the neshoma, the soul, of Jewish Amsterdam to life.

Endless folding, cleaning, tidying up: behind the scenes at a hotel in the Italian Dolomites, the staff do everything they can to prevent complaints. We see no tourists in this film, only the people who do the dirty work.

Filmmaker Raha Faridi reflects on her forced migration to Berlin. In an experimental stream of consciousness, social media images of the ‘Woman Life Freedom’ movement in Iran are superimposed on phone videos of her life in Berlin.

An old shepherd and a young nature lover live in the Ariège region, in the French Pyrenees, where the brown bear has been reintroduced. The nuisance caused by the protected animal leads to fierce confrontations between its supporters and opponents.

A poetic and at times tragicomic look at life in a remote, run-down Bulgarian village viewed from the perspective of animals. The film explores superstition, traditions in decline, and the interdependence of humans and animals.

An engaging portrait of the retired architect Ertil, who passionately designs fictional building projects. He looks back on his life and the developments in his city of Istanbul, while fighting against the announced demolition of his own house.

A family of Italian cowboys are doing everything they can to make their cattle ranch climate-proof, animal-friendly and ecologically responsible. But regulations, shareholders and especially the encroaching wolves don’t make it easy for them.

The Bunong, indigenous inhabitants of Cambodia, are trying to maintain their traditional way of life. But their efforts are being thwarted by deforestation, land grabbing and the construction of a dam. An account of depopulation in slow motion.

The universe of the famous Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal translated into a visual sound poem. Sounds of nature, instruments made from trash, teacups, horses’ hooves, the hubbub of the market: everything is music.

Argentine sisters Julia and Claudia studied architecture until Claudia fled to Sweden in 1977 during the dictatorship. Their letters, read aloud and accompanied by everyday cityscapes, follow their two increasingly divergent lives.

Sergio, Ubaldo, Yolexquis and Winston belong to different generations of the Cuban gay community. In this student film, they reflect on a time during the Cuban Revolution when homosexuals were sent by train to concentration camps.

From Brussels to Beirut, but then through a changed world. Memories, disagreements, a reunion. Filmmaker Angie Obeid invites her father Mansour to repeat the road trip he made 42 years ago.