David Herdies

An aging poet finds purpose mentoring Yurlady, a talented teen, though exposing her to the poetry scene might be unwise. His own poetic pursuits led nowhere, leaving him a stereotypical obscure writer.

The change in Giorgi’s life could not be more radical. The city, art, his regular, middle-class existence and his marriage to Ana are all behind him. Now he is alone. Giorgi goes into isolation on a small barren island in a simple hut by the sea. In an inhospitable environment, surrounded only by a handful of strangers, between chicken farming and duck hunting, he is trying to pick up the pieces of his life. But his wounds are deep, and the shadows of his happy past repeatedly catch up with him.

An episodic documentary about the sexual violence against children and the people fighting to stop it.

A group of young women from Ouagadougou study at a girl school to become auto mechanics. The classmates become their port of safety, joy and sisterhood, all while they are going through the life changing transition into becoming adults in a country boiling with political changes. In a country with youth unemployment at 52 percent, jobs are a hot issue. The young girls at a mechanics school in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou are right in the middle of a crucial point in life when their dreams, hopes and courage are confronted with opinions, fears and society’s expectations of what a woman should be. Using interesting narrative solutions, Theresa Traore Dahlberg depicts their last school years and at the same time succeeds in showing the country’s violent past and present. This is a feature-film debut and coming-of-age film with much warmth, laughs, heartbreak and depth.

Colombia, 1990’s. A single mother attempts to keep her family together after her son is drafted by the army and assigned to the front in the country’s most dangerous war zone. To do this, she embarks on a journey against time in a society ruled by men, corruption and violence.

Madre tells the story of 16-year old Andrea who leaves a poor neighbourhood in Colombian Medellin to take part in the casting for a porno movie.

World War II is around the corner, but the only thing Sally Bauer can think of is the ocean. Her dream is to swim across the English Channel.

George Oketch and his wife Esther live in Kibera, Nairobi, East Africa's largest slum. There, they struggle against structural injustices, disease, poverty, and violence, both from mobs and the police, to give their children a future. George and Esther come from different ethnic groups, and Esther's family's demands for a dowry also stand in the way of their marriage.