Graveyard of Horses
Xiaoxuan Jiang
China, USA. 2022. 17 min
A frigid winter on the Mongolian steppe, an untimely snowstorm aggravated the lives of a pregnant herder and her 8-year-old daughter: the missing flock of sheep, the unborn child, the absent husband, traces of wolves…… everything led the mother and daughter to places they’ve never been.
Continue reading Graveyard of Horses (Xiaoxuan Jiang) ChinaBaby Ant
Derya Uygurlar
Turkey. 2023. 15 min
Tomorrow is an important day, Ayser will pay a visit to her husband in prison. But before then, she has to finish suing clothes to pay the lawyer, settle a dispute with her sister Emine and convince her daughter Deniz that children are not allowed in prison.
Continue reading Baby Ant (Derya Uygurlar) TurkeyFog
Natalia Gugueva
Russia. 2023. 88 min
Camera operator Nastya goes to inaccessible weather station with meteorologist Andrei in order to investigate the disappearance of a couple of meteorologists. Subsequently she understands that Andrei was involved in the disappearance of this couple. But Andrei also suddenly discovers Nastya’s connection with the missing people.
Continue reading Fog (Natalia Gugueva) Russia. Official SectionMascarada
Ana María Ferri
Spain. 2023. 15 min
1885: A brutal murder in the vineyards of Bodegas Vega puts an end to the history of love between two young people. 1915: Thirty years later, the mysterious aristocrat Ferran appears in the village on Carnival night. There he meets Don Carlo, a powerful landowner whom he invites to taste his new batch of Grand Cru, vintage 1885.
Continue reading Mascarada (Ana María Ferri) SpainThousand Rupees Biriani
Nasrina Khan
India. 2023. 15 min
Thousand Rupees Biriani is about the pain of a mother which she is going through after the rape of her kid. The film revolves around a Muslim farmer family based in an Indian Village. The family includes Yasmin-the mother, her husband Habib and their 3 children Matin, Amina and Sakina.
The film begins with Yasmin, who is making arrangements for cooking Biriani after waking up in the morning. The cooking costs her a thousand rupees.
After finishing the cooking, Yasmin sends the first serving of the biriani to their neighbour, Abbas.
The narrative of the film slowly unwraps the reason for Yasmin’s strange behavioural pattern post-rape of Sakina, the youngest kid of the family.
ZAINAB ENTEZAR
I am Zainab Entezar, a graduate of journalism، I’m master in public managment . My main activities have been in the field of writing and cinema, which has resulted in a story book and writing several screenplays and directing in cinema.
I wrote and directed short film , “The Mosque for rent”, “The House”, “Lack” and “Bicycle” and also acted in this film.
I write two novels(A man ware gentle like dad.), (Yusra.)
Typesetter
Nasim Forough
Iran. 2023. 17 min
Technology expansion caused the old typewriter loses his traditional job. Now he is unemployed, he has no choice but to change in order to continue living in this modern world. And it makes his problems worse.
Continue reading Typesetter (Nasim Forough) IranUnder 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.
Continue reading Under the Sky of Damascus (Heba Khaled, Talal Derki, Ali Wajeeh) DenmarkAnd Still I Sing
Fazila Amiri
Canada, Afghanistan. 2022. 89 min
Afghanistan’s controversial pop star and activist Aryana Sayeed mentors hopeful contestants on the hit singing TV series Afghan Star.
For 13 straight seasons, the show has featured only male winners. In 2019, this was about to change. Female singers Zahra Elham and Sadiqa Madadgar are on the verge of success as their hopes and dreams of becoming national singers begin to turn into reality.
Their lives are turned upside down when the Taliban return to power, reversing twenty years of progress for women’s rights. Amidst the fear caused by the fall of the Afghan government, each woman must make a harrowing escape from Kabul into exile while the US fully evacuates.
And I Still Sing is the first feature film by award-winning Afghan Canadian writer and director, Fazila Amiri. Amiri is an alumni of the 2021 Cannes Docs, 2020 Hot Docs Accelerator Lab and 2019 RIDM Talent Lab.
Continue reading And Still I Sing (Fazila Amiri) Canada, AfghanistanLeber
Shervineh Didaneh
Iran. 2023. 20 min
Yaghma is afflicted by Leber (Leber is a Hereditary optical disease that all children inherit from the mother) and is getting more blurred day by day and she is on the verge of absolute blindness. She hides her disease from her husband because she believes in miracle and her hopes for getting better, but When immigrating to Germany, she realized that she will soon lose her sight and she spent her remaining days in doubt about telling or not telling the truth to her love.
Continue reading Leber (Shervineh Didaneh) Iran
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