Lotte Salomons

In 2020, a rooster escapes in Békéscsaba, Hungary. For four years, the locals care for him as a beloved symbol of hope and unity – until his sudden, mysterious death shatters the community, replacing harmony with suspicion and division.

BELLUM is a film about how war trauma still grips the lives of three generations today. In a hiding room created for this film, we see a Jewish family breaking the silence by finally starting a conversation about suppressing and passing on war trauma. We examine how trauma is passed on from parent to child. Are later generations able to break free from a traumatic experience that they have not experienced themselves?

The animated film Longing deals with a parent-child relationship torn apart by grief. After Chris’ mother vanishes without trace, he and his father Toon miss her intensely. While Chris weeps and seeks consolation from Toon, Toon is unable to show his vulnerability. As Toon literally swallows his tears and they start to fill up his body like a reservoir, he becomes alienated from his young son.

In a recreated bedroom, Roaa, Zainab and Noe Noe, three refugee girls living in the Netherlands, draw and describe their self-invented fantasy monster, Cappi Don Liii. Reflecting on the monster and themselves, they talk about happy and less joyful memories, about growing up in an asylum seekers center – and the power of their friendship and fantasy.