Talking with Rivers
Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Iran. 2023. 50 min

Talking with Rivers is a conversation between Iran and Afghanistan, two neighbouring countries that used to be one land. The two countries are now sharing their stories after they parted from each other, from the era of Soviet invasion to the civil war and the Taliban era, up to and including the rise and fall of America and the return of the Taliban.

MOHSEN MAKHMALBAF

Mohsen Makhmalbaf is an Iranian director, writer, producer. He is known as one of the most influential filmmakers and founders of the new wave of Iranian cinema in the world today.

During his career, Makhmalbaf has made numerous critically-acclaimed films including Salam Cinema (Cannes 1995), Time of love (Cannes 1995) Gabbeh (Cannes 1996), A Moment of Innocence (Locarno1996), The Silence (Venice 1998), Tales of Kish (Cannes 1999), Testing democracy (Venice 1999), Kandahar (Cannes 2001), Scream of the Ants (Montreal 2007), The President (Venice 2014) and The Night of Zayandeh-Rood (Venice 2017) …

He is the recipient of more than 60 international awards from some of the most prestigious film festivals across the world.

His film Kandahar has been chosen as one of the top 100 best movies of history of cinema by Times Magazine. And his film A Moment of Innocence has been selected as one of the top ten best films of the ’90s amongst the director of world international film festivals.

As a writer-director, Makhmalbaf has also published more than 30 books, many of which have been translated and published in many languages.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

During the past 40 years, I have directed and produced ten feature and documentary films about Afghanistan. I have launched and completed dozens of cultural and educational projects in Afghanistan and for that matter, for years I lived in various times in different cities around Afghanistan, closely witnessing the contemporary history of Afghanistan and the lives of the people. In all these years I have felt that the world has forgotten Afghanistan and unaware of the sufferings of the Afghan people and those who intended to help but failed, had no concrete knowledge and notion of Afghan society. This film is an attempt to explain the complexities of this situation in a plain and intelligible language.

POSTER

CONTACT

http://www.makhmalbaf.com

Borzaya
Simon Schneckenburger
Germany. 2021. 19 min

In the Ukrainian Carpathians, large Western companies threaten to destroy the existence of the forestry owned by Sylwia’s family. In order to make some urgently needed money, Sylwia agrees to help to smuggle refugees across the nearby external EU border.

SIMON SCHNECKENBURGER

Born 1990 in Freiburg. He studied media and production at Offenburg and graduated with his BA in 2017. His graduation film STARS AT DAY won the German Young Talent Film Award. Currently Simon is studying directing/fiction film at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.

POSTER

CONTACT

festivals@filmakademie.de

One Free Murder
Ares Ceylan
Germany. 2021. 16 min

You can’t choose your parents. But do you really need both? On their daughter Mia’s 18th birthday the clumsy parents Christian and Simone discover a serious death threat. Apparently, their rebellious daughter is planning to send one of them to the afterlife, thanks to a freshly acquired license to legally commit murder. Now, of course, parental empathy is called for. Or even better – tactics!

ARES CEYLAN

Ares Ceylan (*1989), born and raised in Basel, studied Communication Sciences and Film Studies at the University of Zurich. After graduating 2011 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences he worked for five years as a director and editor for short films, commercials and image films at Filmgerberei GmbH. From 2016 to 2023 he studied directing/feature film at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.

POSTER

CONTACT

festivals@filmakademie.de

Waiting for Kalki
Nimay Goswami
India, UK. 2022. 14 min

Waiting for Kalki is a story about a day in the life of Vishnu, a daily wage leather tannery worker, stuck in the monotonous loop of poverty. He is waiting to welcome a mysterious guest to his home, who is believed to have the ability to transform human lives.

NIMAY GOSWAMI

Nimay Goswami is a Filmmaker from India. He made several independent films after his undergrad in Journalism and found solace in Writing and Directing. Telling stories through this beautiful medium gave him the means to explore his inner journey and experiences as an artist and he moved to London to develop on them. He loves music and has experience in Film Editing and sound. He is a recent graduate at London film School with an MA in Filmmaking. Observing people around him, inspires him to explore the depths and extent of their behaviour and sensibilities in various contemporary situations. This became the subject of his craft as a filmmaker and helped him develop his own style over the years.
Through experimentations and innovations, he has tried to evolve an idiom which plays with the philosophical and mythological elements. This is reflected through the life of a normal human being in the contemporary society.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

Coming from a religious background, the spirituality and philosophy of Hindu mythology always intrigued me. I wondered how it would be to view this from a realistic perspective – through the eyes of a common man stuck in the monotonous loop of poverty, and struggling in the modern world.

When everything else fails, the only hope that remains for him is to rely on the supernatural. The film Waiting For Kalki challenges the mythological idea of the supernatural as a saviour, or last resort in one’s life. It also explores the feeling of stillness that comes with the waiting, through the use of static shots and wide frames.

POSTER

CONTACT

nimay.goswami@lfs.org.uk

Neighbouring Sounds
Ali Kivanc Guldurur
Turkey, UK. 2022. 18 min

Bilal and Aylin, a young married couple, overhear a domestic battery in their neighborhood late at night. Despite his initial disregard for the situation, Bilal works up a curiosity which paves the way for an unwanted exposure.

ALI KIVANC GULDURUR

Ali Kıvanç Güldürür was born in Izmir, Turkey in 1991. After completing his studies at Bilkent University’s Department of American Culture and Literature in Ankara, he enrolled at the London Film School to study filmmaking where he has worked on numerous projects as a writer, director, editor and sound recordist. Neighbouring Sounds is his graduation film from the London Film School.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

I value stories and the kind of filmmaking that reflect upon behaviours, reflexes and anxieties of the times that they’re being made in. The story of “Neighbouring Sounds” derives from the actuality of everyday life in contemporary Turkey where violence is rampant, its perpetrators untouchable and our sense of security is nothing but a mere illusion.
It is a reflection on human behaviour; how it takes form within a reality that grinds even the slightest tenacity to ‘do the right thing’. It exhibits the ways in which the ‘outside’ creeps into the ‘private’, although both notions seem separable at first glance.

POSTER

CONTACT

alikivanch@gmail.com