Receipt
Anuraag Pati
India. 2022. 90 min

Soma has been married to Sunanda a couple of years back. Sunanda has to stay near Palamo in Bihar due to work. Hence Soma stays in Bihar now and has a family there, getting all the luxuries that are required. Even today, she waits every moment for a letter from her beloved, Bedey Da. She is still waiting for the answers to her letters. That wait comes to an end when Bedey Da arrives at her bungalow. The two are meeting again after one year. They go back to the days before Soma’s marriage. In the absence of Sunanda, the moments of spending time together all day long become the ultimate achievement of their lives.

ANURAAG PATI

After completing his school and college, Anuraag Pati moved to Kolkata to pursue his dream. He worked as a Chief Assistant Director to Sumit Das in”Janbaaz”, Anindya Bikash Dutta in “Kiriti o Kalobromor” and “Nilachole Kiriti”, Arun Roy in “Hiralal” amonogst others. He directed his first short film “The Divine Sex” in 2016 which won Phoenix Film Awards in Melbourne. This was followed by “Dure Kothao”, “The Surprise Gift” and a small tribute to Satyajit Ray “Apu Kajaler Goppo” in 2018 in quick succession. “Apu Kajaler Goppo” won 17 National and International Awards.

FILMOGRAPHY

• The devine sex ( 2016 )
• Apu kajaler goppo ( 2018 )
• Chorabali ( 2020 )

POSTER

CONTACT

anuraagfilm07@gmail.com

Silence Again
Mohammad Kamal Alavi
Iran. 2022. 12 min

A young woman lives on a hill far from the city. Alone and in silence. She farms and takes her produce to the city on an old motorbike. On the way back, a scarecrow catches her eye. The woman returns home but can not get out of the scarecrow’s mind. She gets up in the middle of the night and walks in the dark. The next morning, the scarecrow is at the woman’s house. The woman is no longer alone. She changes the look of the scarecrow and gives it a feminine look. The woman’s relationship with the scarecrow gradually deepens. One day the woman returns home. When she opens the door, a scarecrow falls on her face and injures her. The woman throws the scarecrow out of the house and sheds tears alone and broken. The next morning the farmland, roads and houses are empty and silent. In the middle of a paddy field, a woman stands in a scarecrow shirt and hat with her arms outstretched. Still and motionless, like a scarecrow.

MOHAMMAD KAMAL ALAVI

Mohammad kamal Alavi is an Iranian film director, actor and production manager. He is born on Oct 20, 1983 in Tehran , Iran and graduated in advanced direction from School of art and architecture , Tehran center.
He has directed four short movies : Nim/half – The Puncture – The Single Horn – Silence Again.

He has been in many films as production manager, like Farnoosh Samadi’s movies and they have been in many festivals like Cannes, Locarno, Venice.

DIRECTOR,S NOTE

When we are alone there is nothing to hide, it is our true self that lives, walks and falls in love. Due to the geography in which I live, I consider being a woman to be a constant challenge for women, and telling their stories is one of my main concerns in making films. Depicting a lonely woman, far from everyone and close to her, with an unconventional love story doubled my motivation for making the text. Also, the concise and minimal narrative method, without dialogue and atmosphere, made it possible for me to rely on the essence of cinema, the image, in decoupage, and to objectify my mental images. And in the end we are all alone.

POSTER

CONTACT

firstscreen.filmdist@gmail.com

The Secret of Cassandre
Lionel Arazi
France. 2021. 12 min

Cassandre, a 6-year-old girl, is hospitalized because she is “different”. From her bedroom to the lingerie, through the corridors, she walks between her imagination and reality …
With poetry and visual metaphor, this short film addresses the way we look at difference … How the five fingers of the hand question the relativity of the concept of normality: and if in this world having five fingers is an abnormality?
Should we accept the differences or erase them? What weight do the views of others have on our decisions and actions? These are the main issues of the film that Cassandre and her parents must answer.

LIONEL ARAZI

Director of 6 short films and documentaries, he won a dozen awards and almost 105 festival selections for “Le secret de Cassandre” produced by the G.R.E.C.
He has also worked on a hundred fictions and documentaries, assisting many directors: Jean Rouch, Jean-Pierre Limousin, Julie Bertuccelli, Chris Marker, Chantal Akermann, Pedro Costa, etc.

POSTER

CONTACT

arazi.lionel@free.fr

A Dead Sea
Nahd Bashier
Israel. 2022. 12 min

Kamel, a Palestinian man in his 50s, suffers from autism and travels with his paralyzed sister to the Dead Sea to receive medical treatment in seawater in the hope that it will help him treat psoriasis that has spread through his body. At the beach, he finds himself in an unpleasant situation. A little girl stole his rubber ball and Kamel tried to return it, the crowd gathers and he has a hard time explaining himself, especially since he does not understand Hebrew and the Jew does not understand Arabic. The masses suspect that this is a terrorist who kidnaps a girl and in the end a tragedy that seems to stem from a true story that took place in Jerusalem.

NAHD BASHIER

Present: Chairman of the Arab Culture Committee
CEO of N.B Oreem Production
CEO of Collage Association
Until 2021: CEO and Owner of Wow Surprise
2013 – 2018: Member of the High Public Committee of the Ministry of Culture and the Arts.
2006 – 2011: Artistic Director of the Kafron Theater.
2014: Member of the Fringe Theater Committee in the Ministry of Culture.

• Bachelor’s degree, B.A. specialization in acting and directing in the Department of Theater at the University of Haifa.
• Theatre Teaching at the University of Haifa.
• Group Facilitators Course for Resolving National Conflicts – (Children of Peace).
• Master’s degree. M.A studies in film culture, University of Haifa.
• Marketing and digital marketing – HackerU.
• 2021 – Master’s degree student in Law Studies – The Academic Center for Law and Business.

POSTER

CONTACT

nahdtop@gmail.com

Crescent Night
Gurvinder Singh
India. 2022. 109 min

Modan returns home after spending some years of the prime of his life in prison for a murder committed to avenge his father’s humiliation over land disputes. Acrimony with his brothers who have prospered in his absence, forces Modan to rebuild his life with his mother by shifting to the dilapidated ancestral home and by bringing home a wife who’s already a mother to an infant. Inspite of Modan’s honest attempts to forget the insults of the past, suppressed anger manifests itself in renewed violence.

GURVINDER SINGH

Gurvinder Singh is an Indian film director. He is best known for his Punjabi language films Anhe Ghore Da Daan, and Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction) which premiered at Venice and Cannes Film Festival respectively.  Gurvinder is an alumnus of the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune from where he studied film-making and graduated in 2001. He travelled extensively through Punjab between 2002 and 2006, living and traveling with folk itinerants, documenting folk ballads and oral narratives. It led to his first documentary ‘Pala’.  He continued to make short experimental works and documenting arts/artists for the next few years. In 2005 he was invited by avant-garde Indian filmmaker Mani Kaul to be his teaching assistant for a master-class at FTII,  which led to a close association with the filmmaker who became his mentor. He translated and published a book of conversations of Udayan Vajpeyi with Mani Kaul, titled ‘Uncloven Space’.  His latest film is ‘Infiltrator’ starring Veer Rajwant Singh which is a 15-minute short story in an international omnibus called ‘In the same garden’.

DIRECTOR,S NOTE

Crescent Night is about a sadness on the verge of implosion that engulfs a silent agrarian land. Here is an unwritten violence, simmering under the surface, in which the margins are pushed afar into a breakdown of basic human relations. It is a violence that scripts the alienation of the being from its own selfhood. It is also about the last ditch resistance of the oppressed. Cinematically, for me, its the culmination of a journey that started with ‘Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan’, the tropes pared down to the bare essential, interiorised and a self-reflective form.

POSTER

CONTACT

gurvindarsingh@gmail.com

Yanagawa
Lu Zhang
China. 2021. 112 min

Yanagawa is a film about two very different brothers who travel from Beijing to Yanagawa, Japan. They meet a girl who they both were in love with in their youth. One day she had disappeared without goodbyes. Wistful undertone is given by the fact that the film starts with one of the brothers getting diagnosed with cancer. The young man wishes to depart without leaving much behind, but without knowing it, he leaves so much in other people’s hearts. The story takes a look at the individuals’ memories and helps to make sense of the seemingly small events that sometimes play a decisive role in the course of a life. Zhang Lu precisely directs this organic and vital film, which takes the viewer to drift on the Yanagawa Canal in the light of a full moon peeking between the clouds.

LU ZHANG

Korean-Chinese filmmaker ZHANG Lu started out as a novelist before turning to filmmaking. Renowned for his artful portrayals of idyllic scenes, Zhang has received awards from the Cannes, Locarno and Berlin film festivals over the last two decades. Yanagawa is his thirteenth film and his first feature film directed in China.

He does not need too much introduction among filmlovers. His films have gained success in different international film festivals such as 2007’s “Desert Dream,” 2010’s “Dooman River” and last year’s “Fukuoka” at Berlin; 2001’s “Grain in Ear” at Cannes; and “Gyeongju” at Locarno. His film A Quiet Dream had it’s international premiere at Tallinn. He has a long history as a writer and his films are imbued with poetry of life.

PRESS KIT

POSTER

CONTACT

liu.qianmeng@hishow.net

On The Second Floor
Marco Araujo
Spain. 2022. 19 min

Aurora is an elderly woman who lives alone in a small apartment in Madrid. She lives a simple, monotonous life, so any change in her routine is something eventful. Since her husband passed away, and most of her friends, her only visitor is a small bird that comes to her window every morning. She feels alone and neglected as she looks melancholically at all the things surrounding her… constantly reminding her of her past.

MARCO ARAUJO

Marco Araujo Dolado, born in Madrid, began his interest in cinema at a young age and directed his first short films when he was 11 and 12 years old. His first serious short film, made alone in 2018 at the age of 13, is called “Cooking”. In the spring of 2019, he shoots his second short film “The Piano Room”. Already in 2020 and 2021 his two main short films are selected at various festivals, along with his third short, “No Abras esa Naranja”. It is in the summer of 2021 when he manages to make the short film in which he has been working for a year and a half and which stars the actress María Galiana.

POSTER

CONTACT

marco.clod.ad@gmail.com

Reconstruction of Occupation
Jan Sikl
Czech Republic. 2021. 100 min

Documentary filmmaker Jan Šikl has spent many years seeking out and collecting private film archives. Faded footage of family lives, celluloid echoes of celebrations and everyday moments. Through his work, Šikl came across several hours of footage showing the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. These unique images long remained unseen – until August 21, 2021, when historical memory awakened from a long slumber. Reconstruction of Occupation is a cinematic adventure of a truly archeological nature in which anonymous faces are transformed into living witnesses of the days that sent Czechoslovakia into two more decades of bondage.

JAN SIKL

Born in 1957, Prague. Graduated from FAMU in 1982. From 1984 to 1990 he was employed as a director at Krátký film Praha. In 1991 he founded his own production company, Pragafilm. He is a collector of amateur family archives that he works with also in his films, especially in his documentary series Private Century (2004-2007) that was awarded in Czech republic and abroad (Best Czech documentary at Jihlava IDFF, Pavel Koutecký’s award, Trilobit award, Elsa TV award and others).

Selected filmography:
Private Century – TV series:
The King of Velichovky (2002, TV doc. film)
A Stroke of Butterfly Wings (2005, TV doc. film)
A Low-Level Flight (2006, doc.)
See You in Denver (2006, TV doc. film)
Small Russian Clouds of Smoke (2007, TV doc. film)
Reconstruction of the Occupation (2021, doc.)

POSTER

CONTACT

tabery.alice@gmail.com

Tree Full of Parrots
Jayaraj
India. 2021. 90 min

Tree Full of Parrots is about an elderly person who has lost his sense of hearing and memory. Narayanan who is visually challenged and is the main teacher at the Dharmashala Model Blind school plays the leading role. He hails from Kannur Mayyil Cherupazhassi. The elderly man forgets his way home once he reaches the city. Finally, it is a fisherman’s son who helps him find his way back home. Master Adityan plays the part of the fisherman’s son.

All he knows is that his house is near a tree that had a lot of parrots. The film revolves around the search and the events surrounding it. Jayaraj’s wife Sabitha also plays an important role in the film. Another highlight of the film is that they have used the famous poem by Vayalar Rama Varma and LPR Varma.

JAYARAJ

Jayarajan Rajasekharan Nair, professionally credited as Jayaraj, is an Indian filmmaker, who predominantly works in Malayalam film industry. He is the founder of the Birds Club International and is actively involved in philanthropic work. Jayaraj is a recipient of the Crystal Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Golden Peacock award at the IFFI , the Golden Crow Pheasant award at the IFFK , the FIPRESCI Award from the International Federation of Film Critics, the Don Quijote Award from the International Federation of Film Societies, The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) award and a special mention award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. He is also a 7 time recipient of the National Film Award and several Kerala State Film Awards. His notable films include, Desadanam (1996), Kaliyattam (1997), Karunam (2000), Shantham (2001), Daivanamathil (2005), Vellapokkathil (2007), Ottaal (2015), Veeram (2017) and Bhayanakam (2018).

POSTER

INTERVIEW

CONTACT

jayarajfilms@yahoo.com

Oliver Black
Tawfik Baba
Morocco. 2020. 93 min

VENDREDI, a young black African boy walks alone in the desert, and meets WHITE MAN. Both they go into a journey into nowhere. Vendredi wants to make Circus in Morocco. White Man wants to assist to his grand daughter’s wedding. During their travel, their relationship goes higher and very deep. Vendredi gives the whole innocence and bravery he has, and saves White Man from a mine and pulls him for long distance till an army stops them.
Vendredi becomes a soldier after White sells him as a simple object. Finally Vendredi becomes a new terrorist with ISIS. He becomes Oliver Black.

TAWFIK BABA

Tawfik Baba is a filmmaker based in Ouarzazate city, in Morocco. He studied French literatures at the university; then studied Directing and screenwriting skills at the French School of Arts and Medias STUDIO M in Casablanca. He also studied Spanish Language and Accountancy. Since teenager he loved writing, and tried to write whatever as poems, short stories and philosophical essays. As living in Ouarzazate, He worked in a lot of film shootings as Kingdom of heaven, Rules of engagement, Cleopatra, Babel… etc, in many different departments. In 2013, he got the fund of the Moroccan Cinematographic center as a screenwriter in a short “Ten dollars”, then he got the same fund in 2014 for another screenplay of short “ The ring”. He wrote and directed his first short Epitaph in 2013, and then four others will follow: Winter time, Sand man, Routine, Clowns, and a feature pilot The lake House. In 2017, he wrote and directed his first indie Feature: Oliver Black released in 2020 .

DIRECTOR,S NOTE

When you just go through some lonely streets and see some foreign guys from Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast or Burkina Faso…begging and asking strangers for a piece of bread or some money to feed themselves or their kids… When you just walk and fade into your own warmth and touch your cold heart and feel it sad. Thus you know: A new age of slavery is raised. A slavery chosen by their own free will. They dream to cross the boarders and cross the sea to reach Europe and make a beautiful tomorrow, but they stuck here. And little by little, their dreams fade away and they give up, and leave only a profound hidden tear in their beautiful eyes. In the other side, I see us, like that lizard, which witnessed those sad gloomy stories and can’t talk, like Mama Africa, can’t talk… This is how Oliver Black invades my thoughts as a writer, then as a Director.

I just tried to tell a story where I am silent. To tell a story of a journey where childhood is taken from its innocence, and where dreams can be bigger than a whole nothingness in no man’s land. Once in 1963, someone said “I have a dream!” and made it an endless hope for all the humans… But now, it becomes Friday, a used and a slaved everlasting character.
I tried to tell others, that something is happening. We’re losing our humanity, we’re losing our dignity and we just pretend we’re Ok, and we’re not. I wanted to tell that we need to stop being machines waiting to be manipulated by other machines of economy, money, war, terrorism and politics… As much as I know I am just a little single lonely voice with a very bad ugly tune to sing a freedom song.

PRESS KIT

POSTER

CONTACT

dry2rain@yahoo.fr