Bye Bye Tiberias
Lina Soualem
France, Palestine. 2023. 82 min

In her early twenties, Hiam Abbas has left her native Palestinian village to follow her dream of becoming an actress in Europe, leaving behind her mother, grandmother, and seven sisters . Thirty years later, her filmmaker daughter Lina returns with her to the village and questions for the first time her mother’s bold choices , her chosen exile and the way the women in their family influenced both their lives.
Set between past and present , Bye Bye Tiberias pieces together images of today, family footage from the nineties and historical archives to portray four generations of daring Palestinian women who keep their story and legacy alive through the st rength of their bonds, despite exile , dispossession, and heartbreak.

A Boy Called Piano
Nina Nawalowalo
New Zealand. 2023. 60 min

A Boy Called Piano – The Story of Fa’amoana John Luafutu tells the remarkable story of Fa’amoana’s time as a state ward in the 1960’s and the intergenerational impacts of these experiences. Growing from the long term collaboration with Fa’amoana Luafutu and the Luafutu Aiga, the film blends dramatised sequences alongside powerful interviews and beautiful aerial and underwater photography – translating Nina Nawalowalo’s celebrated visual storytelling to the screen for the first time. The Conch has been honoured to walk alongside Fa’amoana and the Luafutu Aiga as they courageously bring their untold story into the light, with the kaupapa of connecting directly with survivors – and illuminating the survivor experience in wider society.

“I began in innocence, new born, a blank page. The story was written, the story of thousands of children, has to be heard. Our History must be faced. May the truth set us free.” Fa’amoana John Luafutu

Postcards from the Verge
Natalia Koniarz
Poland. 2023. 40 min

A young Polish couple embark on a long bike ride through the Andes. The dangers of this undertaking become apparent as lightning strikes around them, the cold takes its toll and their muscles begin to seize up. They try to cross the border into Bolivia in the back of a truck, while a soldier has his gun at the ready.

Despite the growing tensions between them, the journey also proves to be a way to get to know themselves better. The young man spends a lot of time on the phone with his parents, who are getting a divorce, and he sadly realizes that home is no longer home. As he gradually breaks free from the ties to his parents, he strengthens his bond with his girlfriend.

Under these extreme conditions, the couple film breathtaking shots of the endlessly deserted mountain landscape, creating a visually stunning story about growing up and cementing a relationship in the midst of a crisis.

The List
Hana Makhmalbaf
Iran. 2023. 65 min

In the course of a few days, with the final withdrawal of the international forces from Kabul, the lives of millions of Afghan people suddenly changes for the worse.
Overnight, with the return of the Taliban to power, many artists and filmmakers in the country find themselves at risk of being executed. In an attempt to escape to safety, like many others, they rush to the international airport to board the last few leaving planes.

All of Our Heartbeats are Connected through Exploding Stars
Jennifer Rainsford
Sweden. 2022. 77 min

On March 11, 2011 the largest earthquake in modern history hit Japan and then, thirty minutes later, dark tsunami waves roared in over the coast of North-Eastern Japan dragging cars, homes and lives out into the sea.
In the film we meet Yasu who has done over 100 dives in search of his lost wife. Sachiko keeps writing letters to her husband that was taken by the wave. Satoko is a young woman who struggles with overcoming her trauma from the disaster. On the other side of the ocean, in the Hawaiian island of Kaho’olawe, a group of volunteers are gathering to clean the beach from Japanese tsunami debris floating in from the Ocean.

To Kill a Tiger
Nisha Pahuja
Canada. 2022. 125 min

On the night of a family wedding in a village in India, Ranjit’s 13-year-old daughter is dragged into the woods and gang raped by three men. Ranjit takes on the fight of his life when he demands the accused be brought to justice. With tremendous access to all facets of the story, To Kill a Tiger charts the emotional journey of an ordinary man thrown into extraordinary circumstances—a father whose love for his daughter forces a social reckoning that will reverberate for years to come.

Under the Sky of Damascus
Heba Khaled, Talal Derki, Ali Wajeeh
Denmark. 2023. 88 min

A tight-knit group of young Syrian women embark upon on a radical project: producing a play that lays bare the culture of misogyny and sexual abuse that has blighted the lives of females in their country for generations. Farah, Eliana, Inana, Souhir and Grace want to blow the whistle on women’s oppression, though they know their production will make it even harder for them to get work. Collaborating with exiled Syrian filmmakers Heba Khaled (making her feature debut) and Talal Derki (the Oscar-nominated OF FATHERS AND SONS)—and Ali Wajeeh on the ground in Damascus—the women fan out through the war-weary city to gather individual stories that will form the basis of their play. They record testimonies from across the socio-economic spectrum, from actresses to factory workers to stay-at-home mothers. What emerges are variations of the same harrowing tale: stories of abuse, blackmail and even imprisonment at hands of husbands, brothers, fathers, employers and powerful officials who wield unchecked patriarchal power to keep them trapped without access to justice.