2018
Wednesday 24 januari
Jimmie, Jesper Ganslandt, Sweden, 4
21:00 -
Jimmie is four years old. His father assures him that he will see his mother, who has suddenly disappeared, again. Jimmie believes him; what toddler wouldn’t? Even when his nice life in Stockholm disintegrates even more, Jimmie continues to cling to the promises. To an adult’s hand, a friendly face, and his trusty cuddly toy.
Thursday 25 januari
Life and Nothing More, Antonio Esparza, USA, 3
15:30 -
Andrew's life is like that of so many black teenagers in America. Brought up by his single mother, he has little or no contact with his father, who is in jail. It’s no wonder that Andrew gets into trouble and crawls into his shell when confronted with the consequences of his deeds.
The Florida Project , Sean Baker, USA, 4
19:15 -
Halley and her 6-
La nuit a dévoré le monde, Dominique Rocher, France, 5
22:00 -
A busy party in a Paris townhouse. Sam says goodbye to his ex-
When he wakes up the next day and unlocks the door, it turns out all the party guests
have been transformed into bloodthirsty zombies. Along with the rest of the French
capital, where the last normal people are dying in the streets. Sam is relatively
safe indoors. He locks the snappy-
Friday 26 januari
Speak With Your Mouth Shut; Balaji Mohan, India, 4
09:30 -
Mohan’s knack for juggling narrative strands and various moods is already evident
in the bizarre universe of Speak with Your Mouth Shut, where a new virus called Mute
Flu causes all kinds of social borders and conventions to crumble – quietly. Which
is to say: this is a splendid piece of socially conscious comedy whose panoply includes
the power-
Pierdete entre los muertos, Ruben Gutierrez, Mexico
13:00 -
An elderly comedian is buried up to his neck in the Mexican desert. A bitter young
woman threatens to pulp his head with a nail bat; the only thing that can stall her
are his stories of a mythical threshold behind which lies the absolute truth. Is
she in his dream or he in hers? Or were they once the Bonnie-
Youth , Feng Xiaogang, China, 4
15:00 -
A coming-
La fleurière, Ruben Desiere, Belgium, 1
18:00 -
From the storeroom of a florist’s shop, Tomi, Rasto and Mizu are digging a tunnel
to get to the safe of the Belgian National Bank. This is not your slick break-
Disillusion, self-
I, Tonya, Graig Gillespie, US, 5
19:30 -
The talented American figure skater Tonya Harding hopes to win a gold medal during the 1994 Winter Olympic Games. It is however an event of a completely different order that really puts her in the spotlight. When her rival Nancy Kerrigan is attacked and injured, fingers are soon pointed at Harding and her shady friends.
Neomanilla , Mikhail Red, Phillipines, 3
22:30 – 004 in Pathe 5
Duterte's war on drugs has turned Manila into a hunting ground where extrajudicial executions take place daily. Shady criminals do the dirty work for the cops and leave the victims in the road with the accusations written on cardboard.
Saturday 27 januari
Les garçons sauvages, Bertrand Mandico, France, 4
09:30 -
The boys are unleashed. In the early 1900s, five teenagers from rich families are sent on a repressive cruise after murdering their teacher. Led by a violent captain, they arrive on a strange island with luxuriant, supernatural vegetation. As the song says, "a change is gonna come".
The Shape of Water , del Toro, USA, 4
12:30 -
Deaf-
Fuck Off 2 – Images from Finland, Jorn Donner, 3
15:45 -
Donner shows himself as an old man undergoing cardiac surgery, before attempting to depict the enormous changes since 1971, and targeting the problems of Finnish society, where like elsewhere in the West, some have become extremely wealthy while others have fallen into poverty and depression. But his humanism still outweighs the bitter sarcasm, as he makes a plea for empathy with the losers of history.
Brooklyn Experience, Campusano, US, 3
17:30 -
Campusano's turn here was unpredictable. Who could have foreseen only ten years ago (during the time of Vil romance) that he would make a film in 360 degrees and set in New York? This perceptual experiment in a concrete territory brings together a set of characters who could be described as stereotypes of the American way of life: we have a slacker, an immigrant, a reactionary white man, a dysfunctional family. None of them becomes the protagonist; all of them get a couple of scenes in which a ubiquitous idiosyncrasy and social climate is sketched
IFFR Live: Blue My Mind , Lisa Bruhlman, Swiss, 4
20:00 -
Things are not going very well for Mia. She’s just had to move to a new town where she doesn’t know anyone at her new school. She doesn’t get on with her parents. She joins in with a group of cool chicks who spend their time shoplifting, drinking, taking drugs and partying.
But there’s more up with Mia than just ‘normal’ teenage rebellion. She drinks salt
water and consumes the fish in her mother's aquarium. On the day she gets her first
period, she also finds that other, more far-
The Cannibal Club, Parente, Brasil, 4
22:30 -
Delightfully crazy, this Brazilian satire about an elite club that secretly organises
chic dinners where the main ingredients are rampant sex and the flesh of simple souls.
When Gilda accidentally discovers that the leader has a hidden side, her and Octavio's
futures hang in the balance. Guto Parente has made a blow-
Sunday 28 January
Sultry, Meliande , Brasil, 4
10:00 -
Confronted with abuse of power and corruption, Ana tries to survive the hottest summer
ever. She protects the interests of the Vila Autódromo slum where homes are to be
destroyed to make way for even more money-
Hannah, Pallaoro, Italy, 3
12:30 -
Hannah’s world collapses in slow motion when her husband is imprisoned. Denying us and Hannah information, filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro puts us in her shoes – she refuses to face the facts. Pallaoro captures her life, precariously balanced between reality and denial, in carefully composed shots.
The filmmaker described this work as an 'existential Giallo' – a type of Italian thriller. The tension lies not in what happened, but in what this elicits in Hannah’s mind; restrained behind Rampling’s eyes. Only during her acting lessons can Hannah tentatively express what lies hidden there.
IFFR Live: Nico, 1988, Nicchiarelli, Italy, 4
15:00 -
The biopic Nico, 1988 follows Nico, AKA the German Päffgen, in the last two years
of her life, during international performances – occasionally phenomenal, sometimes
embarrassing – while she tries to build a bond with her suicidal son and openly shoots
up heroin as a pick-
Monday 29 January
Anna's War, Fedorchenko, Ukrain, 5
10:00 -
Ukraine, 1941: a Jewish girl regains consciousness under a layer of black earth.
Close-
Dragonfly Eyes, Xu Bing, China, 3
11:30 -
Chinese artist Xu Bing compiled his directorial debut from thousands of hours of footage from security cameras. With poet Zhai Yongming and screenwriter Zhang Hanyi he weaves a story involving two characters around these images. The young woman, Qing Ting (her name means ‘dragonfly’), leaves a Buddhist monastery and moves to the city. There she meets Ke Fan, and an intense friendship evolves. Will it become more than that?
Insect, Jan Swankmeijer, Chech rep., 4
13:30 -
The Dung Beetle is late, the Parasite is asleep and Mrs Larva is more interested in her knitting than the director’s instructions. It’s clear: this amateur theatre company has a long way to go before they can perform their version of The Insect Play, a famous satirical work from 1922 by the brothers Karel and Josef Čapek which features insects with decidedly human traits: greed, egocentrism, jealousy.
The misanthropic play suffered severe criticism due to its pessimistic finale, explains
Jan Švankmajer at the start of his film Insect. Under pressure, the authors adapted
the end, to Švankmajer’s chagrin. Naturally, the 83-
Island, Eastwood, UK, 3
16:45 -
If you haven’t experienced it from close by, you won’t be very familiar with the processes of death. Although there are countless fiction film scripts about life and death, there is still a taboo on a realistic approach to this subject. Eastwood spent a year among terminal patients, who gave him their trust and valuable time.
First Reformed, Paul Schrader, USA, 4
19:00 -
When Toller is approached by a pregnant woman (Amanda Seyfried) who is worried by the radicalisation of her environmental activist husband, a beautifully constructed, intense drama unfolds about a lonely soul at a dead end and his desperate attempts to do the right thing in a world full of greed and hypocrisy.
Poisonous Roses, Ahmed Saleh, Egypt, 3
Saqr (22) wants to flee from the grubby Egyptian tanners’ district where he lives and works. His sister, Taheya (28), wants to prevent this at all costs. She sabotages the blossoming romance between her brother and a medical student and also tries to thwart Saqr’s future plans as a boat refugee in Italy.
Every day she brings Saqr freshly prepared lunch, implying that without her care he shall starve. We follow her in her hijab along the open sewer in which blue wastewater flows from the district, down claustrophobic alleyways where hardly any sunlight penetrates.
Tuesday 30 January
Der Hauptmann, Robert Swentke, Germany, 4
11:00 -
Der Hauptmann powerfully evokes the total loss of moral fabric in Germany in the weeks before its final total collapse. Based on the true story of Wehrmacht corporal Willi Herold, the film starts when we see him hunted as a deserter by his fellow countrymen. Willi somehow escapes, and finds the uniform of a highly decorated Luftwaffe captain in an abandoned army vehicle. He puts it on, and soon he finds himself being listened to, deciding on matters of life and death, and mass execution, just because it means he will stay alive, and comfortable, a bit longer in this race to the bottom.
The Villainess, Jung Byunggil, South Korea, 4
13:30 -
Sookhee is forced to join a secret team of hired killers in spite of just having given birth. In flashbacks, we see how she witnessed her father being murdered; since then, she has been out for revenge. It is the action scenes that particularly stand out in this story, thanks to dizzying camerawork and very clever editing. Fights and chase sequences never seem to be interrupted. Shots zoom through open windows, make deep plunging dives and pass beneath moving motorcycles. Marvelously intense.
La estrella errante (wandering star), Gracia, Spain, 2
16:30 -
Wandering Star, the second film by the Galician Alberto Gracia, starts with a text about the punk band Los Fiambres, which made just one cult record in 1984: El lado oscuro del R & R (The Dark Side of Rock & Roll). Gracia follows Los Fiambres vocalist Rober Perdut more than thirty years later. He meets a photographer for a photo session in a bus station, is looking for drugs and loses someone named Roni (Rober’s surname does not coincidentally mean ‘disappeared, lost’). Rober sniffs coke from a Johnny Cash CD and is sailed to an island. In other scenes, we follow the photographer, who sometimes disappears mysteriously.
L' insulte, Doueirie, France, 4
19:00 -
It all starts so low-
As a result, their personal feud quickly escalates into a national commotion. Hot-
The Guilty, Gustav Möller, Denmark, 5
A police station somewhere in Denmark. Police officer Asger Holm is taking the emergency calls tonight. His shift is almost over. This isn’t his normal job. To his chagrin, he’s been sentenced to it whilst awaiting a court case. His disinterest is palpable as he routinely deals with the callers – until he is called by Iben. The young woman is panicking. She’s being kidnapped.
The thriller The Guilty joins an illustrious line of films centering around one or
more phone calls; but was any of these ever as nail-
Wednesday 31 January
Foxtrot, Maoz, Israel, 4
10:00 -
For a whole hour, the filmmaker Samuel Maoz feared his daughter was dead. That’s how long it took to get hold of her, after an attack on a bus in which she might have been sitting. That uncertain hour, twenty years ago, was the worst thing he had ever experienced – even worse than his war experiences, which he tackled in his masterful debut, Lebanon (2009).
Foxtrot takes this personal trauma as the starting point for a story about the Feldmann family. Father Michael and mother Daphna learn at the start of the film that their son Jonathan has died on military service, as a guard at a deserted border post. The facts prove to be a lot more complex.
In three stylistically different parts, Maoz tells the story from the perspective of father, son and mother. All three dance a foxtrot with fate. A dance with many variations, but ‘no matter where you go, you end up where you started’.
Have You Seen the Listers? , Martin, Australia, 3
13:00 -
He grew up on a diet of television and noodles, says Australian graffiti artist Anthony Lister. His father only did martial arts and had no time for the family. When the city of Brisbane organised a competition to spruce up the control boxes for traffic lights, Lister submitted a plan. He landed the commission, and the madcap sprayer turned into a world famous artist. 'Brizzy Banksy' was the headline in one local paper.
The unique element of this biopic is that Lister always had a camera with him, so viewers get to see the high and low points first hand. He married his first great love, had children, moved to New York and became even more famous. The tragedy is that he developed the same obsession for work that once drove his father out of the house. Then came drugs and divorce and he didn’t see his three children anymore.
Guarda in alto, Risuleo, Italy, 2
15:00 -
The young baker, Teco, looks exhausted. But then, during a cigarette break on the rooftop, he sees something curious that irresistibly attracts his attention. A strange seagull falls from the sky a few houses away. Teco climbs over the fence and sets out to investigate. "Tell the boss I’m ill," he calls to his surprised colleagues.
That’s the start of his escape from the straitjacket of everyday reality, an amazing voice of discovery filled with strange encounters. The labyrinth on the roofs of Rome turns out to shelter a shadow world with surrealist elements. Following in the footsteps of Alice, Teco finds a secret wonderland which could have been conceived with the pleasure and uninhibited imagination of a child.
Mrs. Fang, Wang Bing, Hong Kong, 3
17:30 -
Fang Xiuying is 67 jaar oud als ze op haar sterfbed ligt in een klein dorpje in het zuiden van China, omringd door familie, vrienden en buren. Terwijl de omstanders met elkaar bespreken of ze nou wakker is of slaapt, waar ze begraven moet worden en wanneer ze haar laatste adem zal uitblazen, staart ze met opgesperde mond en ogen naar een ondefinieerbare plek op de muur. Steeds verder zinkt ze weg. "Als een boot in de rivier", becommentarieert een van de omstanders.
Wang Bing, die vijftien jaar geleden furore maakte met het baanbrekende epos Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, richt zijn camera in deze korte, intieme documentaire opvallend vaak op de eindeloze blik van mevrouw Fang. Waar denkt ze aan? Aan haar twee kinderen misschien, of heeft de Alzheimer, die zich negen jaar eerder openbaarde, elke herinnering aan hen vernietigd? Een contemplatieve, ontroerende en haast meditatieve film, die in Locarno bekroond werd met de Gouden Luipaard.
Hanagatami, Obayashi Nobuhiko, 4
19:45 -
In mogelijk zijn laatste film, na een carrière van bijna zestig jaar, heeft de beroemde cultregisseur van Hausu (1977) Obayashi Nobuhiko nog niets van zijn jeugdige stijl en charmante uitbundigheid verloren in dit historische drama dat speelt aan de vooravond van de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Snelle zoombewegingen, snelvuurmontage en weelderige kleuren creëren een wilde rit door een hectische historische periode die men in Japan doorgaans liever vergeet.
Tienerjongen Sakakiyama Toshiko keert terug uit, nota bene, Amsterdam naar het kustplaatsje
Karatsu in de prefectuur Saga. Hij logeert bij zijn tante en sluit zich aan bij een
groepje buurtjongens en -
Thursday 1 February
Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Paul Mc Guigan, UK 11:00 -
Weer een prachtrol voor Annette Bening (20th Century Women, slotfilm IFFR 2017),
die in deze stijlvolle film een 55-
Dit op ware gebeurtenissen gebaseerde verhaal plaatst de blik op vrouwen in een nieuw licht. Zelfs de meest vrijgevochten actrice, die zich destijds al verzette tegen de objectiverende blik van de oude studiobazen, vraagt uiteindelijk aan haar jonge minnaar "how do I look?". Met sprankelende rollen voor Vanessa Redgrave en Julie Waters, en een veelzeggend fragment waarin de echte Grahame haar Oscar in ontvangst neemt.
Rabot, Christina van der Kerckhove, 4
All the pitfalls and injustices of life pass by in this kaleidoscopic documentary about the inhabitants of a derelict tenement in Ghent months before it is demolished. Static shots from different standpoints jump in an apparently random way from one inhabitant to another. The camera observes them with intimate attention, but also keeps its distance. Some people leave the decaying pile of bricks with melancholy, others are eager to close this chapter and hope for better times. They are filmed going about their daily activities, eating or watching TV. It could hardly be any more banal, yet the aptly chosen images evoke a wealth of thoughts and emotions, thanks to their context and meticulous composition.
The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful, Yang Ya Che, Taiwan, 3
15:00 -
Liegen, bedriegen, het sluiten van onderhandse deals en het paaien van de Taiwanese
elite: het zijn enkele van de talenten van matriarch Tang Yue-
Een weelderige mix van soap en thriller waarin vrouwen de dienst uitmaken, de decors en kostuums van grote schoonheid zijn en twee eigenaardige muzikale vertellers uitkomst bieden zodra het lastig wordt om alle intriges en schandalen te volgen.
Tiempo compartido, Sebastian Hofmann, Mexico, 3
18:45 -
Even lekker bijkomen, denken vakantiegangers Pedro en Eva. All-
Typisch Sebastián Hofmann: al snel verschijnen er meer scheurtjes in het paradijs. Want helaas blijkt het luxeappartement van Pedro en Eva dubbel geboekt. Eva besluit dat er niks anders op zit dan hun kamers te delen met de uitbundige roodverbrande familie die ineens voor de deur staat. Maar Pedro gaat verhaal halen en raakt steeds verder verstrikt in de onnavolgbare retoriek van de blijmoedige staf. Op zijn oorlogspad ontmoet hij de gefrustreerde Andres. Hun gezamenlijke paranoia gericht tegen de klauwen van het sinistere conglomeraat neemt zorgwekkende vormen aan.
Charlie en Hannah gaan uit, Bert Scholiers, Belgie, 3
21:45 -
De Belgische regisseur-
Het levert een reeks verbijsterende gebeurtenissen op, waarop de laconieke twintigers
reageren met geamuseerde verbazing (of ze nou in een vooroorlogs bordeel belanden
of worden opgeblazen met een atoombom), terwijl ze slenterend doorbabbelen over écht
belangrijke zaken: het omgaan met exen en relaties. Als een trippende Woody Allen
of Noah Baumbach speelt Scholiers ook met de vorm, met inventieve beeldgrapjes, kleur
en zwart-
Friday 2 februari
Bewaren, Digna Sinke, 5
Keeping things is one way of life. A house full of things: from spare buttons, lace handkerchiefs and albums filled with cigar bands to – in the case of director and producer Digna Sinke (After the Tone, IFFR 2014) – folders filled with correspondence and film scripts. Unbridled, youthful bravura, everything stored away, yet tangibly present. Is this how to remember – and so how to live?
A laptop and, oh yes, a passport. The digital nomad needs no more earthly possessions. Because work – and hence life! – can be anywhere: preferably with your feet in the surf on Bali. Photograph your dearest memories and enjoy the moment. Because is life not mainly looking forward?
Fango, Campusano, Argentina, 3
13:30 -
Het tegenshot van de dromerige, op Parijs lijkende stad Buenos Aires toont de arme
achterstandswijken rond deze stad, waar ruim tien miljoen mensen wonen. Deze onveilige
voorsteden vormen de achtergrond voor een western vermomd als sociaal drama, waarin
twee onvergetelijke personages op tragische wijze naar een laatste krachtmeting gedreven
worden. Alles wat plaatsvindt voordat Nadia, een soort bendeleidster, en El Brujo,
een wegkwijnende heavy-
Madame Hyde, Serge Bezon, France, 4
15:30 -
Madame Hyde is de tweede film van Isabelle Huppert met regisseur Serge Bozon na het
komische moordmysterie Tip Top (2012). Opnieuw een demonstratie van haar talenten
die verder gaat dan het koele film d’auteur-
Boven alles negeert de film de originele Victoriaanse horror en heeft hij een unieke
toon, met ironische, koddige en spitsvondige momenten en zelfs hele natuurkundelessen.
Madame Hyde heeft ook een diepere laag, want de vreemde humor verbergt scherpe kritiek
op een zinloos schoolsysteem dat met name de niet-
Surprise Film 2018, 2
19:00 -
LBJ on Lyndson Johnson
No Date, No Signature, Jalilvand, Iran, 3
22:00 -
In the tried and tested tradition of Iranian arthouse cinema (think of the work of
Abbas Kiarostami and Asghar Farhadi), director and co-
A usually strict coroner finds the body of an acquaintance in the mortuary. His colleague has already determined the cause of death, but he has another possible explanation. However, to reveal the truth would mean becoming personally involved in the case. Moreover, it could have unjust consequences for those involved.
Saturday 3 February
The Fortress, Donghyuk, South Korea, 4
10:00 -
Voor westerlingen is de 17e-
De minister van Binnenlandse Zaken benadrukt dat het de plicht van de koning is zijn onderdanen te beschermen, ongeacht de vernedering. De minister van Riten stelt dat ze moeten vechten voor het hogere doel tot de dood erop volgt. De koning staat voor een moeilijke beslissing. Als je weet dat je verslagen zult worden, wat is dan de beste manier om te verliezen?
The Heart, Metelius, Sweden, 3
14:00 -
Fotograaf Mika en muziekproducent Tesfay vinden in elkaar hun eerste grote liefde. Met hun beider talenten, haar blonde bos haar en zijn zwarte dreads vormen ze een prachtig stel dat helemaal past in het hedendaagse Zweden. Na een periode van versieren, feesten, seks en elkaar verkennen, besluiten ze samen te gaan wonen. Voor de buitenwereld oogt het hippe koppel als het ideale plaatje, maar achter die mooie filters loopt het spaak tussen de lakens. Hoe kaart je gevoelens van schaamte en ingewikkelde innerlijke conflicten aan bij de ander?
Sollers Point, Matt Porterfield, US, 3
16:00 -
De 24-
Dit sociaal-
Sweet Country, Thornton, Australia, 5
18:00 -
Witte Australiërs en Aboriginals onder één dak: even lijkt het te kunnen in het begin
van Sweet Country. Sam en zijn vrouw Lizzie wonen en werken anno 1929 bij een vriendelijke
boer, maar worden op goed vertrouwen uitgeleend aan een ex-
Dat mag misschien klinken als de opzet van een beklemmende achtervolgingsthriller,
maar regisseur en cameraman Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah) maakt er iets heel
anders van. Een verstilde, fraai geschoten western, waarin personages hun eigen persoonlijke
geschiedenis krijgen dankzij geluidloze beeldflarden die kort voor-
The Death of Stalin,Armando Iannucci, France-
21:00 -
Wat te doen? Nadat Josef Stalin in maart 1953 bewusteloos wordt aangetroffen in zijn datsja, reageert de resterende top van de Communistische Partij als verlamd. Niemand durft er een dokter bij te halen, wat ook lastig zou zijn, want Stalin heeft al zijn dokters laten verbannen. In het machtsvacuüm dat ontstaat, probeert iedereen vooral zijn eigen hachje te redden. Het gekonkel en de machtsspelletjes in het Kremlin zijn koren op de molen van Armando Iannucci, de Schotse maestro van de politieke satire (The Thick of It, Veep). Met een topcast van Engelstalige acteurs toont hij de cynische, door en door verrotte strijd om de macht, die al gauw vooral tussen Lavrenti Beria, de gevreesde voormalige baas van de veiligheidsdiensten, en de gewiekste Nikita Chroesjtsjov blijkt te gaan. Iannucci's inktzwarte komedie is uitermate geestig, maar laat niet na om ook de gruwelen van Stalins schrikbewind te tonen. Parallellen met de hedendaagse internationale politiek liggen voor het oprapen.
Triton |
Study time |
Erasmus work |
Economic affairs |
Foreign Affairs |
Finance / Euro |
EU enlargement |
Global health |
WHO |
Verspilling |
Palliative care |
Comparing LTC |
Ageing |
Support |
Innovation |
Covid-19 |
NY marathon |
Balkan Blues |
Paris Texas |
Camping with lions |
Barcelona - Villareal |
Kazachstan |
Zweden |
Belfast |
euro |
Bedelen om rust |
bedelen h1 |
bedelen h2 |
bedelen h3 |
bedelen h4 |
bedelen h5 |
bedelen h6 |
bedelen h7 |
bedelen h8 |
bedelen h9 |
bedelen h10 |
bedelen h11 |
bedelen h12 |
bedelen naschrift |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
Freathening |
Cosmology |
faces |
summaries |