New work from emerging directors.
Eadweard and The Circle
Breathe Umphefumlo
(Country: South Africa, UK, Germany; Year: 2015; Director: Mark Dornford-May; Writer: Luigi Illica, Giuseppe Giacosa, Pauline Malefane, Mark Dornford-May; Stars: Noluthando Boqwana, Zamile Gantana, Sifiso Lupuzi, Pauline Malefane, Zebulon Mmusi, Mhlekazi Mosiea, Busisiwe Ngejane, Luvo Rasemeni)
A version of La Boheme, set in a South African township.
UK premiere
The Chambermaid Lynn (Das Zimmermädchen Lynn)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Ingo Haeb; Writer: Ingo Haeb; Stars: Vicky Krieps, Lena Lauzemis)
An obsessive chambermaid meetsan androgynous dominatrix.
UK premiere
The Circle
(Country: Sweden; Year: 2015; Director: Levan Akin; Writer: Levan Akin, Sara Bergmark Elfgren, Sara Bergmark Elfgren, Mats Strandberg; Stars: Josefin Asplund, Helena Engström, Miranda Frydman, Irma von Platen, Hanna Asp, Leona Axelsen, Ruth Vega Fernandez, Sebastian Hiort af Ornäs, Vincent Grahl, Johanna Granström, Sverrir Gudnason, Dick Idman, Gustav Lindh, Ann-Sofie Nurmi, Charlie Petersson)
Six teenagers discover they have acquired supernatural powers as part of an ancient prophecy to fight evil.
UK premiere
Eadweard
(Country: Canada; Year: 2015; Director: Kyle Rideout; Writer: Josh Epstein, Kyle Rideout, Josh Epstein, Kyle Rideout; Stars: Michael Eklund, Sara Canning, Christopher Heyerdahl, Charlie Carrick, Jodi Balfour, Torrance Coombs, Jonathon Young, Kett Turton, William C. Vaughan, Ian Tracey, Jordana Largy, Josh Epstein, Daniel Arnold, Gaelan Beatty, Arien Boey)
Biopic of photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge.
European premiere
The Farewell Party (Mita Tova)
(Country: Israel, Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Tal Granit, Sharon Maymon; Writer: Tal Granit, Sharon Maymon; Stars: Ze'ev Revach, Levana Finkelstein, Aliza Rosen, Ilan Dar, Raffi Tavor, Yosef Carmon, Hilla Sarjon, Assaf Ben-Shimon, Ilanit Dado, Ruth Farhi, Ruth Geller, Mia Katan, Orli Katan, Jamil Khoury, Itzik Konfino)
A group of retirees are pressured into helping an assisted suicide... and news of their actions starts to spread.
UK premiere
Love Film Festival and Melbourne
Fidelio, Alice's Odyssey (Fidelio, L'odyssée d'Alice, Fidelio: Alice's Journey)
(Country: France; Year: 2014; Director: Lucie Borleteau; Writer: Lucie Borleteau, Clara Bourreau; Stars: Ariane Labed, Melvil Poupaud, Anders Danielsen Lie, Pascal Tagnati, Jean-Louis Coulloc'h, Nathanael Maïni, Bogdan Zamfir, Corneliu Dragomirescu, Manuel Ramirez, Thomas Scimeca, Jan Priva, Luc Catania)
Alice replaces a recently deceased mechanic onboard Fidelio, an old freighter, and sets off on a voyage of self-discovery.
UK premiere
The Gulls (Chaiki)
(Country: Russia; Year: 2015; Director: Ella Manzheeva; Stars: Evgeniy Sangadzhiev)
A woman struggles with life in a loveless marriage.
UK premiere
Index Zero
(Country: UK, Italy; Year: 2014; Director: Lorenzo Sportiello; Writer: Lorenzo Sportiello, Claudio Corbucci, Francesco Cioce; Stars: Simon Merrells, Ana Ularu, Antonia Liskova, Velislav Pavlov, Mario Draganov, Meto Jovanovski, Alexandra Lopez, Hristo Mitzkov, Mya-Lecia Naylor, Anton Poriazov, Bashar Rahal, George Zlatarev)
In a future world, a couple struggle to stay together against a backdrop where some humans are considered to be no longer sustainable.
International premiere
Inferno
(Country: Slovenia, Croatia, Republic of Macedonia, Serbia; Year: 2014; Director: Vinko Moderndorfer; Writer: Vinko Moderndorfer; Stars: Jozica Avbelj, Ludvik Bagari, Silvo Bozic, Jan Bucar, Marko Bukvic, Sebastian Cavazza, Silva Cusin, Masa Derganc, Valter Dragan, Ana Facchini, Renato Jencek, Uros Kaurin, Vid Klemenc, Mirjam Korbar, Benjamin Krnetic)
A family is caught in a spiral of unhappiness.
UK premiere
It's Already Tomorrow In Hong Kong
(Country: US, Hong Kong; Year: 2015; Director: Emily Ting; Writer: Emily Ting, Emily Ting; Stars: Jamie Chung, Bryan Greenberg, Richard Ng, Sarah Lian, Lawrence S. Dickerson, Ines Laimins, Joshua Wong, Zach Hines, Linda Trinh, Jaeden Cheng, Collin Leydon, Po-Chih Leong, Dave Waheed, Harry Du Young, Emily Ting)
A Before Sunset-style romance on the streets of Hong Kong.
International premiere
Kafka's The Burrow and Kyoto Elegy
Kafka's The Burrow (Kafka's Der Bau)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Jochen Alexander Freydank; Writer: Jochen Alexander Freydank; Stars: Axel Prahl, Josef Hader, Kristina Klebe, Robert Stadlober, Roeland Wienekkerr, Devid Striesow, Fritz Roth, Erwin Leder)
Adaptation of a Kafka short story about loneliness and isolation.
UK premiere
Koza (Goat)
(Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic; Year: 2015; Director: Ivan Ostrochovsky; Stars: Peter Balaz, Zvonko Lakcevic, Jan Franek,Stanislava Bongilajova, Nikola Bongilajova, Tatiana Piussi)
A boxer comes out of retirement to help his girlfriend pay for an abortion.
UK premiere
Kyoto Elegy (Manga niku to boku)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2014; Director: Kiki Sugino; Writer: Kiki Sugino; Stars: Chisun, Takahiro Miura, Yûko Miyamoto, Nobumitsu Ohnishi, Kiki Sugino, Taiga, Yoshimi Tokui, Eri Tokunaga)
Three women have an impact on the life of a selfish would-be lawyer.
UK premiere
Len And Company
(Country: US; Year: 2015; Director: Tim Godsall; Writer: Tim Godsall, Katharine Knight; Stars: Juno Temple, Kathryn Hahn, Rhys Ifans, Keir Gilchrist, Jack Kilmer, Peter Outerbridge, Elias Toufexis, Dale Whibley, Tyler Hynes, Mark O'Brien, Jenny Raven, Jonathan Potts, Billy Morrison, Chris Young, Michael Facciolo)
An antisocial music producer has his life shaken up by the arrival of his son and a trouble pop star.
World premiere
The Lesson (Urok)
(Country: Bulgaria, Greece; Year: 2014; Director: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov ; Writer: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov; Stars: Margita Gosheva, Ivan Barnev, Ivan Savov, Stefan Denolyubov, Ivanka Bratoeva, Poli Angelova, Kiril Bakalov, Mihail Boevski, Atanas Bratoev, Georgi Bratoev, Ana Bratoeva, Nadejda Bratoeva, Boris Doychinov, Vanina Geleva, Antoaneta Guleva)
A provincial schoolteacher is faced with tough choices due to mounting debts.
UK premiere
Koza and Fidelio, Alice's Odyssey
Love Film Festival
(Country: Brazil, US, Portugal, Colombia; Year: 2014; Director: Juancho Cardona, Vinicius Coimbra, Manuela Dias, Bruno Safadi; Writer: Manuela Dias, Manuela Dias; Stars: Manolo Cardona, Ángela Vergara, Leandra Leal, Nanda Costa, Eduardo Moscovis, Natália Lage, Gustavo Machado, Ângela Leal, Álvaro Bayona)
A love affair set against the backdrop of the short film festival circuit.
European premiere
Love, Theft And Other Entanglements (Al-hob wa al-sariqa wa mashakel ukhra)
(Country: Palestine; Year: 2015; Director: Muayad Alayan; Writer: Muayad Alayan, Rami Musa Alayan; Stars: Maya Abu Alhayyat, Mustafa Abu Hanood, Valantina Abu Osqa, Mahmood Alayan, Tariq Alayan, Osama Awad, Kamel El Basha, Nabil Hamouz, Louise Heem, Alba Laipe Sira, Ramzi Maqdisi, Sami Metwasi, Hussein Nakhleh, Fida Nasser, Mohammad Othman)
A car thief finds he has militants on his tail after he steals the wrong car.
UK premiere
The Make-Up Room
(Country: Japan; Year: 2014; Director: Kei Morikawa; Writer: Kei Morikawa; Stars: Beni Itô, Nanami Kawakami, Lily Kuribayashi, Aki Morita, Takashi Naha, Kazuhiro Nakahara, Kentarô Sakai, Jin Satô, Akiyoshi Shibata, Takashi Shigematsu, Mariko Yoshimura)
Comedy about a make-up artist working on a porno film shoot.
UK premiere
Melbourne
(Country: Iran; Year: 2014; Director: Nima Javidi; Writer: Nima Javidi; Stars: Roshanak Gerami, Mani Haghighi, Negar Javaherian, Vida Javan, Elham Korda, Peyman Moaadi, Alireza Ostadi, Shirin Yazdanbakhsh)
A young couple on the verge of emigration find their lives rocked by tragedy.
UK premiere
Night Shift
(Country: Iran; Year: 2015; Director: Niki Karimi; Stars: Leila Zare, Mohammadreza Foroutan, Amir Arman, Amir Aghali)
Drama about a woman whose life starts to unravel after she begins to suspect her husband.
International premiere
Sand Dollars and The Make-Up Room
Our Family (Bokutachi no kazoku)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2014; Director: Yûya Ishii; Writer: Kazumasa Hayami; Stars: Mieko Harada, Sosuke Ikematsu, Kyôzô Nagatsuka, Satoshi Tsumabuki)
The illness of a family's matriarch brings financial pressures to a head.
UK premiere
Out Of Nature (Mot naturen)
(Country: Norway; Year: 2014; Director: Ole Giæver; Writer: Ole Giæver; Stars: Ole Giæver, Rebekka Nystabakk, Marte Magnusdotter Solem, Sivert Giæver Solem, Trond Peter Stamsø Munch)
Stream-of-consciousness trip with a mountain hiker.
UK premiere
Sand Dollars (Dólares de arena)
(Country: Mexico, Argentina, Dominican Republic; Year: 2014; Director: Israel Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán; Writer: Israel Cárdenas, Laura Amelia Guzmán; Stars: Geraldine Chaplin, Yanet Mojica, Ricardo Ariel Toribio)
A relationship blossoms between an older European and a young Dominican woman who makes her living 'befriending' foreigners at a beach resort.
UK premiere
The Summer Of Sangaile
(Country: Lithuania, France, Netherlands; Year: 2015; Director: Alanté Kavaïté; Writer: Alanté Kavaïté, Alanté Kavaïté; Stars: Aiste Dirziute, Julija Steponaityte)
Seventeen-year-old Sangaile is fascinated by stunt planes. She meets a girl her age at the summer aeronautical show, nearby her parents’ lakeside villa. Sangaile allows Auste to discover her most intimate secret and in the process finds in her teenage love, the only person that truly encourages her to fly.
UK premiere
Therapy For A Vampire (Der Vampir auf der Couch)
(Country: Austria, Switzerland; Year: 2014; Director: David Rühm; Writer: David Rühm; Stars: Tobias Moretti, Jeanette Hain, Cornelia Ivancan, Dominic Oley, Karl Fischer, Erni Mangold, Lars Rudolph, Anatole Taubman, Julia Jelinek, Dominic Marcus Singer, Christoph F. Krutzler, Tobias Ofenbauer, Katharina Gorgi, Verena Altenberger, Christina Simhandl)
A vampire seeks assistance from Dr Freud.
UK premiere
Inferno and Therapy For A Vampire
Through The Air (La résistance de l'air)
(Country: France; Year: 2015; Director: Fred Grivois; Writer: Thomas Bidegain, Noé Debré, Fred Grivois; Stars: Reda Kateb, Ludivine Sagnier, Tchéky Karyo, Johan Heldenbergh, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Pascal Demolon, Emmanuel Bonami, Damien Bonnard, Lahcen Elmazouzi, Jehon Gorani, Gwendolyn Gourvenec, Yvonne Gradelet, Pauline Julien, Sebastien Sisak)
A rifle shooting champ finds himself faced with an ofer his financial woes make hard to refuse.
UK premiere
Tu Dors Nicole
(Country: Canada; Year: 2014; Director: Stéphane Lafleur; Writer: Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne, Stéphane Lafleur; Stars: Marc-André Grondin, Julianne Côté, Fanny Mallette)
A young woman is enjoying the summer in her parents' house whilst they are away, but when her brother arrives with his band, events take a different turn.
UK premiere
We Are Young. We Are Strong. (Wir sind jung. Wir sind stark.)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Burhan Qurbani; Writer: Martin Behnke, Burhan Qurbani; Stars: Devid Striesow, Jonas Nay, Trang Le Hong, Joel Basman, Saskia Rosendahl, Thorsten Merten, Paul Gäbler, David Schütter, Jakob Bieber, Swantje Kohlhof, Mai Duong Kieu, Aaron Le, Larissa Fuchs, Axel Pape, Katrin Kaspar)
A group of disillusioned teenagers wander about in the restless hours leading up to an anti-immigrant riot that took place in Rostock, Germany, in August 1992. The impending incident is seen through the experiences of three individuals: a Vietnamese factory worker, a local politician, and the politician's teenage son Stefan.
UK premiere
Who Am I - No System Is Safe
(Country: Germany; Year: 2014; Director: Baran bo Odar; Writer: Jantje Friese, Baran bo Odar; Stars: Tom Schilling, Elyas M'Barek, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Antoine Monot Jr., Hannah Herzsprung, Stephan Kampwirth, Trine Dyrholm, Leopold Hornung, Katharina Matz, Leonard Carow, Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey, Matthias Neukirch, Nils Borghardt, Alexander Hauff, Antonia Putiloff)
A young hacker joins a subversive group intent on "hacking the world".
UK premiere
You're Ugly Too
(Country: Ireland; Year: 2015; Director: Mark Noonan; Writer: Mark Noonan; Stars: Aidan Gillen, George Pistereanu, Jesse Morris, Erika Sainte, Lauren Kinsella)
After her mother’s death, Stacey moves with her uncle Will to a remote region in the Irish midlands. As the two cautiously get to know each other, they have to deal with the dark shadows of the past.
UK premiere