Heroine of Hell

Two women are torn between the past, with its traditions and apparent security, and the future full of uncertainty.

As a woman anxiously awaits her overdue period, she performs African-based rituals of purification. She cleans house and body, and calls on the spirits (Orishas in the Yoruba tradition), receiving much needed inspiration and assurance in a dream. The film combines beautifully intimate still and moving images of the woman’s body and home space, along with playful stop-motion sequences. —Jacqueline Stewart, UCLA Film and Television Archive

Margit and her older sister Katla flee for safety after their mother is burned to death for witchcraft. Finding shelter with Johan and his resentful young son, Jonas, the sisters help form an impromptu family unit that’s soon strained by Katla’s burgeoning sorcery.

Two musicians and a roadie take money that is owed to them from a job. One flees to Mexico, and everyone has questions.

The relationship between an embittered farm woman and her orphaned niece reaches a breaking point in this dark, psychological pastoral.

A stop-motion menagerie of birds illuminate a nun’s spiritual ecstasy and terror in this experimental animated work set to the music of Christian mystic Hildegard von Bingen.

Nietzchka Keene evokes a woman’s fractured inner world in this enigmatic portrait composed in water, mirrors, and blood.

A shocking tragedy sends Mara down a path of sin, redemption, grace, and evil. Barefoot to Jerusalem is the story of a woman struggling to face her deepest desires, her darkest fears, and ultimately, the devil.