Marc Lizier

Gaspar, a luthier, wants to make a violin from the wood of a tree so rare that it may or may not exist anymore.

Gaspar, a luthier, wants to make a violin from the wood of a tree so rare that it may or may not exist anymore.

Just before Anne is moving from Amsterdam to live with her great love Sara in Montreal, her publisher criticizes the manuscript for her first novel. What exactly is the story she's trying to tell? Does she even have something to say at all? Anne is forced to search for what she wants in life, because it is not only the main character in her novel who seems to be a little lost.

A young couple employed by a pet crematorium finds fulfilment in respectfully removing cadavers. Their love blossoms in an environment where the boundaries between human and animal are fading. When they hit a stray dog, their relationship starts to derail.

From a Kafkaesque office for social media in Germany and on to Sudan, and to conversations with an Iranian Ayatollah, an Indian film censor and critical journalists in China. The Norwegian Håvard Fossum has travelled the world to understand what censorship is, and how censors work, both in theory and in practice.

From a Kafkaesque office for social media in Germany and on to Sudan, and to conversations with an Iranian Ayatollah, an Indian film censor and critical journalists in China. The Norwegian Håvard Fossum has travelled the world to understand what censorship is, and how censors work, both in theory and in practice.

On All Saints’ Day, the Spanish pay tribute to their dead: a day of reverence and remembrance. Nevertheless, beneath the serene surface lie unhealed grief, thundering silence and ever-burning political conflicts. In the southern Spanish village of Frigiliana, time has not healed the wounds from the Franco era. Even now the murder of a villager in 1952 divides the community.

The parents are at their wits’ end, so a temporary supervision order is the last hope for a group of teenagers in Punks. Now, on a remote farm in France, they’re going to have to get their lives back on track, with the help of a counselor. If they want any chance of a happy life, they need to engage in some frank and painful conversations. Mitchel has to find a way to get along with his father, but maybe too much has already happened since his mother died. Jahlano is already at the next stage: he’s no longer allowed to live with his mother, and needs to get over the disappointment. Mike, meanwhile, is struggling with his image as a boy who’s “got a screw loose.” Filmed in constant close-up by director Maasja Ooms, the teenagers try to tame their demons with music and therapy, but problems from the past keep resurfacing. In this intimate and sincere portrait, these troubled kids show us their most vulnerable sides.

There could hardly be a more telling contrast between the analog and digital eras than the beautifully blurry memories captured in a Polaroid picture and the thousands of pin-sharp photos on an iPhone. In this ambitious visual essay, Willem Baptist explores the visionary genius of Edwin H. Land, the inventor of the Polaroid camera. Even today, all sorts of people are keeping his instant dream alive. Former Polaroid employee Stephen Herchen moved from the United States to Europe to work in a laboratory developing the 2.0 version of Polaroid. Christopher Bonanos, the author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid, tells us, "When I heard Polaroid would stop making film, it felt like a close friend had died." Artist Stefanie Schneider, who is working with the last of her stock of Polaroid film, is using the blurring that occurs with expired film as an additional aesthetic layer in her photographic work.

In How to Meet a Mermaid, the sea becomes a haven for mankind, locked in its struggle with its 'indifferent universe'. Lex, Rebecca, and Miguel each have their own reasons to lay their lives in the hands of the capricious waters. The question remains, however, whether they will find what they so anxiously seek underneath the surface of the waters.

How do you deal with the fact that someone close to heart has suddenly disappeared without a trace? Can you go on living whilst waiting for his return?

Loosely inspired by the director’s own memory of a girl’s disappearance from her village, the film follows Arlene, a young factory worker living alone in a rural Irish community.

A 12-year-old boy who is yet to feel the first trembles of love. He is shy when a girl calls him for a bike ride and then at the beach it becomes clear that he is a bit embarrassed of his body, as he struggles behind a towel to change into his swimming suit.

Tobias used to be a successful cellist. Following heart failure in 1997, his life took a dramatic turn. He was pronounced clinically dead and brought back to life with jolts of electricity. He was in a coma for several weeks and, when he woke up, he turned out to be physically and mentally handicapped. In this way, at the age of 39, Tobias found himself in a wheelchair and was no longer able to talk as a result of his brain damage. From that moment on, playing the cello was a thing of the past.