Cappadocia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985, is a popular touristic site visited by millions of people each year, for its surreal moonlike landscape and undeniably rich Christian heritage. Located in the heartland of Anatolia in Turkey, this place still remains to be inhabited by its own secluded, hospitable yet conservative Muslim people, who have been experiencing radical changes and facing development-forced displacement due to the rising international development of tourism in the area. The film tells the story of three different villages and seven individuals. They comment on the daily issues and highlight the important themes and impact of tourism in their lives, that may be of interest not only for the curious anthropologists or protective conservationists, but for everyone who travels or travelled at some point from home to someone else's home ... ...

The filmmaker's father dies in a hospital in Serbia, where he got himself admitted without the knowledge of anyone in his family. Shocked both by the sudden death and by his father's strange decision to die alone, the son starts searching through the family's memorabilia to put together the bits and pieces of his father's life. It is like opening Pandora's box. At first, forgotten photos, letters and home videos take the story back to an idyllic Yugoslavia of the 1970's, when his parents met, fell in love and got married. As the journey through the family history progresses, it reveals the horrors of the recent wars and hints to the personal tragedies and misfortunes they have inflicted. With his profoundly intimate essay, Keca examines how acknowledging individual responsibility for their actions during the war is bound to affect those who have taken part in it for the rest of their lives. "What distinguished Keca from the post-World War II generation of the 1960s, the post-Vietnam generation of the 1980s, and perhaps from his own post-Soviet Union generation, is a lack of accusation. Here is a director looking for a truth he does not seem to have found before making his film. Indeed, Keca is reluctant to tear conclusions from the sometimes shocking accounts of the people he interviews. In that, his film differs from the inculpating discourse of other films exploring the past.." (East European Film Bulletin) ...

How could one imagine the GDR without having experienced it personally? Being born one year before the Fall of the Wall the director ties in with the past of her parents in her native town, Halle. Although this period belongs to the past, the life of its inhabitants is still impregnated, despite all their efforts, with the division of the post-war German society and its consequences. Contradictions emerge, one of them being between the nostalgia of a bygone era and the joy of the liberty attained after 1989. The film shows the battle of a children's theatre in danger of extinction. ...

After the Silence... deals with how the effects of dictatorship are still extremely vivid, even after the fall of dictatorship. It is a film about the abuses of the state, about fear, how silence is passed on from one generation to the next. A film about the space which, despite all that is known, is left to ghosts that make it impossible to live fully in the present. Three generations walled in silence. The legacy of denial, as nothing has been put back in its place and nothing has been said. Killing the dictator is not enough to kill the dictatorship. ...

The impetuous artistic nature and innate theatrical sensibility, combined with intelligence and a stunning voice, have made opera singer and actress Maria Cebotari into one of Europe's brightest artistic presences at the beginning of the 20th century. Conceived as a documentary and musically-structured as an opera performance, Aria can surprisingly be perceived as a fictional narrative, causing uncommon emotions and aesthetic experiences. Maria Cebotari's artistic destiny is uniquely expressed in this dramatic and purifying cinema performance. ...

Oil is our daily energy staple. Or is it a drug our society has been flying high on for over a century? And isn't it time we started getting ready to detox ? ...

We filmed in Egypt for a year since the beginning of the January 2011 revolution and followed five characters, all of whom have suffered injustice at the hands of the state since the uprising: a poor illiterate boy who was manipulated into fighting protesters in Tahrir Square; an ex-convict who speaks about how the State uses criminals to conduct its violence; a young newly married couple that was arbitrarily arrested; a twenty-year-old activist woman who was arrested by the military, tortured and forced to submit to a virginity test; a nineteen-year-old computer science student who, with his friends, is protesting for the release of his brother imprisoned for having criticized the army. Our film is about the courage to resist injustice in post-revolutionary Egypt. ...

All over Romania from the mountains to the Danube Delta there lives a unique minority which has no name and whose villages don't appear on Romania's map. Without roads up in the mountains they just use paths in the forest. Isolated, they live following their own rules, undisturbed by our society. Without medicine they live in God's hands. Without having money they eat what they are able to harvest from the fields around their homes. Without electricity, the world looks different for them, in the absence of the television, the Internet and the social media. Feeling themselves forgotten, excluded from this society, they are used to living without having needs or expectations from our world. Since 2005 we have discovered more than 80 hamlets all over Romania. Even if from the outside this seems to be a hard life for them, they are blessed. ...

At a time when Romania is forging ties with the European Union and laying plans for rapid progress, much of the country's agriculture remains cut off from the rest of the world and oblivious to international trade. All of its energy stems from the strength of its draught animals. Botiza is one of many Romanian villages where farmers work exclusively with the help of horses, oxen and buffalo. Life there is hard for man and beast alike. Watching horses and people at work, over the course of a year, little by little reveals the inexpressible bond between them. The union envelops the entire village and the entire region in relationships depicted more by gestures and sounds than by words. Sooner or later, mechanisation and rural depopulation will erase these vestiges of bygone times, but there may be a glimmer of hope. ...

Do you know how to turn ordinary water into a billion-dollar business? In Switzerland there's a company which has developed the art to perfection: Nestlé. This company dominates the global business in bottled water. Swiss journalist Res Gehringer has investigated this money-making phenomena. Nestlé refused to cooperate, on the pretext that it was "the wrong film at the wrong time". So Gehringer went on a journey of exploration, researching the story in the USA, Nigeria and Pakistan. His journey into the world of bottled water reveals the schemes and strategies of the most powerful food and beverage company on our planet. ...

The youngest are 9 years old, the oldest 17. Holidays have to teach them discipline and willpower. Each of them has to deal with increased effort, stress, and their own weaknesses. ...

From the creator of the award winning film "Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home" (Sundance Channel, Super Channel) comes a shocking tale about the products we use to clean our homes and bodies. "Chemerical" explores the life cycle of everyday householder cleaners and hygiene products to prove that, thanks to our clean obsession, we are drowning in sea of toxicity. The film is at once humorous, as we watch the Goode family try to turn a new leaf by creating and living in a toxic free home, and informative, as director Andrew Nisker works with many experts to give audiences the tools and inspiration to live toxic free. Chemerical tackles the "toxic debate" in a truly informative and entertaining way, not only by raising awareness, but most importantly, by providing simple solutions. ...

25 years after Chernobyl we have almost forgotten the risks inherent to nuclear power. The consequences of this disaster have still not been mastered. Recent events in Japan show that we have not yet learned our lesson when it comes to this type of catastrophes. Atoms have a long life, and men have a short memory. This heretofore unseen film about Chernobyl is here to remind us. ...

The film retraces the life of an apartment building in Bucharest, an authentic witness of the social and economic consequences of a Romanian society in complete transition. It evokes the stories which have animated the lives of its inhabitants - almost all of them are owners. In this invitation to "come inside", the audience discovers the characters with their stories, their lifestyle, their own set, and also their everyday life as owners: bills to pay, pipes to repair, a mafioso administrator, noisy neighbours, solidarity networks developing. The film describes life stories very realistically, as they are lived today in Bucharest. ...

Corpus is a film-essay about the human body, about the body's representation in painting and graphics, about the body before the great passing away, the death. The stages suffered by the body becoming a corpse are emphasized using dance, music and painting, documentaries images within the world history. The bodies, or better said, the corpses, have no identity of sight, of gestures, of a smile. This film is a continuous pursuit of something different about corporality,the essence of the body becoming a corpse, the immortal soul. In other words, this movie draws the way of the soul trapped in the daily cage represented by the body. ...

The so-called Corvin Project initiated in 2003 was the largest and most awarded Central European city development project. It envisioned the full transformation of cca. 22 acres in Budapest's 8th district, which implied the demolition of all buildings in that area. Both the local government and the investor wanted to get rid of the “slums” by relocating more than one thousand families - among them many Roma people - who could not afford buying property in the old-new area. The protagonists of Corvin Variations are all local residents who have been relocated in the course of the project - and who recall, with nostalgia and criticism, the life in the old neighbourhood and community. They no longer see each other - they meet only in the reconstructed space created by the filmmakers… ...

Romania can enter the Guinness Book considering how the country lost industrial platforms built before and during the communist regime. After December 1989, Romanian authorities were quick to liquidate almost everything related to Ceausescu. In Iasi, the largest city on the eastern border of the European Union, one hundred thousand families lost their source of existence after the industry was liquidated. Secular factories were destroyed too. The documentary presents the situation of three major plants based in Romania. ...

Today, the official version of Romanian history is being questioned: are we truly the descendants of Rome? The historical sources we have access to, as well as paleogenetic research tell us that the Romanization process did not take place and that the thesis on the origins of the Romanian people has no scientific foundation. The Romans only conquered a small portion of Dacia and remained here for only 150 years, and the ethnic component of the Roman military and colonists was not predominantly Italic. As further proof, the research in paleogenetics conducted a few years ago in Hamburg, Germany in order to determine the origins of the Romanian people indicates, among other things, that we are not genetically related to the Italians... Therefore, both elementary logic and material proof reject the official version of our history, and the documentary film “Dacians - Unsettling Truths” brings arguments capable to demolish all that we know. ...

The film explores the legacy of the Dacian Kingdom from "past to present" through the lens of Rome's invasion and conquest between 101 and 106 AD. All material in the film is original. Specially featured are highly detailed 3D digital reconstructions of Sarmizegetusa, the fortress of Blidaru, the Roman bridge across the Danube, and Trajan's Forum and Column in Rome. Also important to the film is the work of noted artist Radu Oltean who crafted original illustrations depicting Dacian and Roman battle encounters. Created as the third in a series entitled "Romania at War," the documentary production was launched in January 2011 by Nicholas Dimancescu. In May of that year while filming above Cioclovina Cave, he tragically died in a fall from a high cliff. Inspired by his passion for exploring his Romania origins, his family and film company colleagues determined to complete his film. ...

A cemetery is not a forbidden place. However, this is not an area where most people prefer to spend their time. The only living inhabitants of a cemetery are the gravediggers. Be it winter, spring, summer or fall - the concerns of the diggers always remain the same. They dig and they bury. They seem to lack fear and sensibility. They are immune to tears and lamentations. One of the living "ghosts" at "Doina" Cemetery is Ms. Eleonora. She's been making arrangements for her funeral for ten years now, although she's only 62, healthy and sober. This preoccupation is part of her culture. The St. Lazarus Cemetery or Doina (as everyone calls it) from Chisinau, Republic of Moldova is one of the largest cemeteries in Europe, two million square meters, the place were both camps meet: Gravediggers and Ms. Eleonora - the only Big Mystery binding them - Death. ...

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The film exposes in an original way, a portrait of the ancient inhabitants of the Romanian territory, claimed in a certain way that ancestors of the Romanians, the ones called the immortals by the antiquity writers. A unique film recipe, a cinematic journey into ancient Dacia, a meeting with Zalmoxis, forgotten deity of the Getae, a series of questions, controversy and images revealed word-by-word from Latin and Greek texts of contemporary writers. An authentic portrait carved in stone by the greatest Roman empire artists... A fascinating visual journey in ancient times. ...

In this intimate documentary director Marieke Schellart reveals how she struggles with the biological clock. She would like to have children, but the right guy has not arrived yet. To give herself a bit more time she wants to extend fertility by freezing her eggs. However in the Netherlands this is not allowed. She talks frankly with her friends and parents about her plans and doubts, meeting support and resistance along the way. For Marieke a long journey has started which even takes her abroad, trying to find a solution to a problem that concerns many women today. ...

I personally want to know and let the world know what really happened in Romania during that phenomenon called „December 1989”. I believe it involved conspiracy, diversion, riot and murder, revolution and counterrevolution, repression and manipulation, a military coup and popular euphoria. Each of these one at a time and all at once. When we discuss about 1989, we cannot afford to get only the convenient things out of the event. And then I believe it was, first of all, a state crime. And that the truth about the revolution, much sought after for 22 years, actually hides a state crime. ...

Arthur, Rachid, Stanislas si Clyd traiesc in cele 4 colturi ale Atlanticului. Desi au doar 10 ani, ei incearca sa salveze mediul in care traiesc. Fac o ancheta de teren si se confrunta cu probleme ecologice majore legate de tara lor. Realitatea lasa apoi loc fictiunii, cand fiecare devine actor intr-o poveste inedita. Toti sunt uniti de aceeasi grija majora: salvarea bunul lor cel mai de pret - APA. Fiecare dintre cele 4 episoade ale serialului ESPERANTO, COPIII APEI prezinta un copil care se confrunta cu o problema legata de apa, in Bretania, in Senegal, in Maroc si in Guadelupa: Artur si algele verzi; Stanislas si padurea de mangrove; Rachid si seceta; Clyd si coralii. In fiecare etapa a periplului nostru, intalnim, asadar, cate un copil care il interpreteaza pe Esperanto (tanarul si cutezatorul razboinic pe care Zeita Akvon il trimite in tinuturi indepartate pentru a ajuta popoarele lumii sa-si salveze apele aflate in pericol). Cine este copilul? Cum este viata lui? La ce viseaza el? Cum isi imagineaza lumea? Atatea intrebari care-si vor gasi raspunsul vizionand documentarul ESPERANTO, COPIII APEI. Mesajul filmului este acesta: fiecare dintre copii poate fi un Esperanto, un erou care salveaza Terra, planeta albastra. Documentarul este prezentat in premiera in Romania, fiind lansat in Franta in 22 martie anul acesta, de ziua mondiala a apei. ESPERANTO, COPIII APEI. Clyd si coralii - Guadelupa / 26' Problema: disparitia coralilor Amenintate de deversarile reziduale in ocean, constatam o degradare rapida a ecosistemelor coraliene. Adevarate schelete de ecosisteme remarcabile, recifele coraliene sunt locul de dezvoltare a numeroase specii de pesti si sunt cele care protejeaza litoralul de cicloane. In Guadelupa, copiii descopera si pun in scena povestea «Vraja semintei albe » si pericolul in care se afla poporul lui Pedro si Koro. ...

Do you remember when was the last time you talked to your parents? What did you talk about? Did you go a step beyond the weather forecast and daily politics? Can a conversation about buried family secrets help you eat without cramps in your stomach? Can a failed birthday cake help you embrace the past? A birthday celebration brings together an ordinary four-member family five years after their last gathering. They start questioning what made them turn away from each other. Through the ritual of family meals, the film unveils how important it is to feel accepted by our loved ones. ...

In Cape Town, South Africa, one of the world's most violent and unequal societies, a young white film student sets out with his cameraman, leaving the comfort of his protected neighbourhood. He wants to make a gangster film, with real gangsters. After a lengthy search for a suitably “cinematic” character, he finds the perfect gang and settles into their everyday rhythm. The reality soon catches up and the claustrophobic gangster life doesn’t exactly fit to the expectations. 20 year after the first democratic election, South Africa remains a deeply divided society, one in which dialogue and understanding seem impossible, out of reach. Gangster Project is a film between fiction and reality, where real truths are revealed and fiction stops being fiction, and when it stops mattering. ...

In the labyrinth of water that makes up Romania's Danube Delta lies Europe's largest wetland, a lost paradise and home to a vast diversity of plants and animals. The most recent arrivals are the horses, that over 20 years ago were released to roam free. Their struggle and difficulties are followed through the eyes of Ivan, a village boy, who has developed a powerful bond with the animals. Ironically, as the horses roam wider in search of food and shelter they begin to damage the local protected forests. A controversy has erupted between environmentalists and local authorities who now want the horses to be exterminated. ...

Maria Kuhlberg's uncles, Aldo and Carmine, have never got along since they were children. At their mother's funeral, Carmine tried to kill Aldo in a fight, but Vito - Maria's grandfather and the uncles' father - intervened. Since that day the uncles have not spoken, but Maria wants them to meet and start talking. The film recreates the family's journey from poverty in southern Italy in the '40s, to the new homeland Sweden, where several obstacles await. Maria Kuhlberg examines if her family, despite its violent social heritage, can become reconciled. ...

The Socialist Republic of Romania, the '80s. Ceausescu's "heaven" was a country without hope, without food, a place where, in order to build the "new man", the future of the people was sacrificed. The almighty "Securitate", Ceausescu's secret service, was keeping an eye on everything and everybody. Romania was a closed country, a large prison from where nobody could escape... Yet... Some courageous and extraordinary brave people tried to do that! Some of them made it, some of them not, sometimes paying with their own life! By boat, swimming or running, people tried to leave behind the communist "heaven" and find their happiness in the western countries. Two stories about courage and sacrifice, about traitors and cheaters, about the absolute madness of a totalitarian regime, and most of all, about the need of freedom! ...

A beggar in a praying position raises a lot of extreme emotions: guilt, rage, sympathy, frustration. The majority of people just walk by, but there is always someone who wants to help. In the film, director Hanna Maylett follows the confrontation between Romani beggars and well-meaning Finnish helpers and has to question her ideas about helping over and over again. Helping Mihaela is a film about the challenges of giving a hand and the meeting of two different worlds. ...

Ani and Sanda are two girls from Maramures who grew up with their grandparents. Their parents are working in Spain, like so many other Romanians. When they left, their common project looked promising: with the money earned in Spain they would build a house in which the whole family would be happy. After more than 10 years, things haven't turned out as planned, and the big house is far from being finished. Laura Capatana-Juller accompanied Ani and Sanda for three years, following with a tender and talented eye the struggles of these two girls turned into teenagers while their parents were away. A film on a global issue seen through ...

Serialul de success HOW IT'S MADE la ASTRA FILM JUNIOR 2012 Cum se fabrica este un serial de televiziune de 130 de episoade a cate 24 de minute. Fiecare episode cuprinde: 4 parti a cate 4 minute si 30 de secunde cand descoperim cum sunt fabricate diferite produse din viata de zi cu zi, cum ar fi: scobitorile, compact discurile, cerealele, fibrele optice, chipsurile, avioanele, etc. Fiecare parte este sustinuta de un comentariu care informeaza privitorul despre fabricarea produselor. Acest comentariu este insotit de o coloana sonora originala, compusa special pentru "Cum se fabrica." Cum se fabrica este difuzat in peste 180 de tari din intreaga lume. ASTRA FILM in colaborare cu PRODUCTIONS MAJ prezinta: CUM SE FABRICA/ HOW IT'S MADE Episodul 77 Incalzitoarele de apa Airbagurile Drajeurile Curatatoarele de gheata pentru patinoare Productions MAJ 2006 ...

Two days in the lives of autistic teenager Jerome, his coach Kevin and Jerome's mother Anita. Up close and without any comment, the film shows how Jerome loves to provoke and test everyone's patience and resilience. His coach at the day care centre is doing his utmost to adapt to Jerome's behaviour. But, with all his wit and charm, Jerome remains unpredictable. ...

The Liudians are a small population living in Karelia. During the time of the Soviet Union their identity was erased, but their language and myths are still alive. ...

They gave the smugglers all their money and risked their lives on their journey across borders: three women from a small town in the Republic of Moldova, living now in Austria as cleaning women. On top of their hard job they live a life in illegality without documents, far away from their children and family for years. A film about the price of the dream of a better life. ...

The underground wanderings of a not-so-young Brazilian student who, without knowing what to look for in life, goes to the Paris subway to meet those he values most... the strangers. For two years, always with a camera on him, he observed and interacted with all kinds of subway “inhabitants”: passengers, bill posters, homeless persons, musicians, subway conductor, frequently conversing about life expectations. The result is a film that reveals this eclectic underground world from an unusual, irreverent and personal point of view. ...

Miles Apart is an observational documentary, intimately looking at the clash of different generations and cultures in a rapidly changing China. Twelve years ago, Laomao and his wife Meizi left their two children in the countryside to build a business 600 miles away, in Beijing. When they are joined by their daughter Ying Ying, it becomes immediately obvious that she doesn't share her parents' work ethic. Meizi's frustration is raw as she pushes her daughter towards employment. At the same time, her son Lei Lei won't apply himself to his studies. The separation of Chinese families by migration is a story shared by a quarter of rural parents, most of whom can relate to the frustrations of working hard for seemingly ungrateful children. ...

The story of a little Orthodox Jewish hotel in London through the eyes of Iris, the receptionist. Being a complete outsider - a young atheist from Tel-Aviv, Iris was surprised by the intimacy and openness that have developed between her and the guests, religious Jews from different sects and backgrounds. Being a documentary filmmaking's student, she decided to document the interesting dialogues between secular and religious Jews into a personal, quirky documentary, which opens a window to the fascinating Jewish culture. ...

True love is possible. This is what the Romanian sociology professor Nicolae Dumitru preaches to his students. But how can we reach it? The professor has developed his own theory, based on scientific research and on his predictions for the future. However, in his private life, things went often in a different direction and his theory was not always useful. Every failure in his marriages affected also the size of his apartment that got smaller and smaller with each divorce. When he finally encounters true love, his theory seems to come true… until life takes its own course again. ...

Everyone holds a secret. The secret of the future. Phnom Penh Lullaby is an intimate story of a man looking for love and acceptance. Ilan Schickman left Israel dreaming of a new life. He now lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with his Khmer girlfriend Saran and daughters Marie, 2 years old, and Jasmine, 6 months, trying to make ends meet as a street fortune-teller. ...

Poisoned reveals the secret of food based on a very simple philosophy: food is a form of energy, and energy is known to be a form of information. This leads to the conclusion that food is, in fact, codified information. Andrei Sota has built the movie on the unique vision of Mr. Menci, a well-known Romanian Ph.D. nutritionist. Mr. Menci's theory has been known for thousands of years: the human body is designed by nature to decode the information from food and to turn it into the necessary substances to stay healthy. In the last hundred years, man has made incredible modifications to the food he eats, in order to increase production and profit. These modifications in the structure, growth, storage and distribution mean that there is no natural information in our food, but information that our body doesn't recognize and has trouble decoding it. Poisoned remains impartial and delivers a clear and concise message to all people who try to change their way of life. ...

Filmmaker Kimberly Reed dives headfirst into an unflinching portrait of her family that is absolutely engrossing. Returning home to a small town for her high school reunion, Reed hopes for reconciliation with her long-estranged adopted brother. But along the way Prodigal Sons uncovers stunning revelations, including a blood relationship with Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, sibling rivalries and unforeseeable twists of plot and gender. Reed's rare access delicately reveals not only the family's private moments but also an epic scope. Questions of identity, trauma and love are effortlessly explored as subjects freely open up their lives to the camera. Raw, emotional and provocative, Prodigal Sons offers a moving examination of one family's struggle to come to terms with its past and present. It's sure to open both your mind and your heart. ...

Rosia Montana has been thrown into a state of disarray ever since the arrival of a Romanian gold mining corporation with powerful Canadian shareholders. The corporation is planning on razing a large portion of the town and its surroundings to the ground in order to gain access to the rock there, which happens to hold the largest gold deposits in Europe. The mining process will involve the use of highly toxic cyanide to extract the gold from the rock - arguably a necessary risk to spur economic development in the area, but potentially fatal for the local environment and the beautiful landscape. More than 2000 people are poised to lose their homes. Many of them have chosen resettlement in big cities, but a small group of inhabitants are battling against the Company and defending their homes with all they have. A long-standing fight of the people in a deeply divided village where the division between the opponents and supporters of the mining project splits families down the middle. ...

The white Arctic plains are an eminent example of nature's untouched beauty: an endless nothing in which only few know how to survive. Yet a silent assassin is destroying the Inuit community in Greenland. Chemical residues from all over the world accumulate here invisibly, poisoning the inhabitants. By ocean currents and attached to snow, pesticides like DDT are carried northbound, causing illness and premature death. In Silent Snow, a group of experienced Inuit starts out on a dangerous dog-sledge expedition through their barren land. Interwoven with the polar expedition, the film follows a young Greenlandic woman on her journey around the world to find the local causes of the contamination that is quietly poisoning her people. Her journey takes her to three different continents, where she is confronted with conflicting interests when it comes to short-term gains and healthy solutions for agriculture, industries and health care. ...

Wild eider ducks come back year after year to the same nesting grounds, areas where they know they are safe from predators. In Dýrafjör?ur, a remote fjord in north-west Iceland, a group of gentlemen dedicate more than two months a year taking care of these ducks. In return they get to keep the valuable eiderdown that the ducks provide for their nests. The duck's main predator is the arctic fox that comes down from the hills and into the fields during the bright arctic nights. The eider farmersare ready to fight the sly fox with old jeeps, guns, home-made poetry, and cakes. Skolliales is the story of eider farmers and neighbours, Valdimar and Zófonías, and their friends. Between the men, the ducks, and the arctic fox there lies a special connection. A relationship that goes beyond love and hatred, a relationship that is based on understanding, respect, and friendship . ...

A quiet, essay-like journey into the expansive world of the winter sport industry. What happens behind the lifts, the snow cannons and the heated outdoor pools? What happens beyond the tracks in summer and winter? This is a calm observational piece that raises questions without making evaluations. Instead of finger wagging, the film leaves it up to us to contemplate the natural mountain resources that we have appropriated and our responsibility towards them. Impressive, with bold images, silent and inquiring. ...

In 2006, Milan and Tomas electrified a school campus and a hospital in a detached Zambian village. After four years, they return for the last time to find out about their system's failures, repair it and hand it over at last. The film follows them through chaotic days as well as pitch black nights and provides a fresh insight into the pitfalls of humanitarian development projects. Short circuits of all sorts, blending and dissolving of different worlds, rituals of gratitude and concepts of solutions. With no attempts to declare or evaluate anything, Solar Eclipse becomes a situation probe examining various forms of light and darkness. Will the two Czech linkboys succeed in lighting up the Zambian bushland? ...

This is the story of one night in the lives of five people in Israel. They meet once a week over the airwaves on a national radio show called "Someone to Hum With". They call themselves a family, the "Hummers" family. When speaking with the broadcaster, they open their hearts, then choose a song and hum. No words necessary, just a compassionate melody. We meet them one after the other, deeper and deeper into the night. Seeing them build together a bubble of solidarity to their lonesome night. This is the story of one night in the lives of five people in Israel. They meet once a week over the airwaves on a national radio show called Someone to Hum With. They call themselves a family, the "Hummers" family. When speaking with the broadcaster, they open their hearts, then choose a song and hum. No words necessary, just a compassionate melody. We meet them one after the other, deeper and deeper into the night. Seeing them build together a bubble of solidarity to their lonesome night. ...

A film about industrial slaughterhouses but it's humans we are dealing with here. A voice off screen describes the injuries, nightmares, physical and mental suffering and the inevitability of death after retirement. A film about the obsession with productivity and its attempts to transform humans into machines. ...

The road through Strem? ends in the mountains. But in 1989, villagers were eagerly awaiting army tanks, terrorists and glory. Today, although partly forgotten, partly imagined, the past is crystal clear. ...

Hanna was adopted by an Israeli couple, at a time that was a dark age for Romania and many children were taken out of the country without any legal papers. She has been living for the past years in Israeli boarding schools. Now, nearing 18, after another fierce argument with her adoptive parents, she is determined to discover the truth about her real roots and is embarking on a significant journey to find her mother in Romania. This is a human drama about a lonely girl who longs for a hug from the woman who gave birth to her. Hanna's story is the story of many girls and boys who were adopted from abroad, who cannot find their peace because of the uncertainty of their past and the concealment of documentation. The black hole in the souls of these children motivates our protagonist to embark on this intriguing journey, whose results will change the course of her life. ...

The German women's national chess team goes to the Chess Olympiad. The goal: Top Ten. The team consists of very different individuals: while Elisabeth, former chess prodigy and Germany's only female pro, has played for the national team many times, Melanie and Sarah take part in such an important tournament for the first time. Due to the high pressure, tensions arise in the group, and eventually the situation goes from bad to worse. A documentary about winning and losing in a sport in which players fight with the sharpest weapon: the mind. ...

A circumcised girl is like a stone... The Kuria people in Kenya and Tanzania are still practicing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a ritual. It is painful and even dangerous. The older generation and peer pressure uphold the legacy of the ancestors... but the effect of generational practice has created a mixed feeling among the youth of the 21st century. So what can human right activists do? ...

At the bottom of Fagaras Mountains, the first sociological film in the world was made, supervised by the founder of the sociological school in Bucharest, Dimitrie Gusti, in 1929. This would be the first sociologic documentary in the history of the cinema where a community of gypsies is presented. Eight decades after, sociologists came back to Dragus in order to account a history of coexistence. Through the film, they talk about the dramatic changes, about the stunning transitions, about a fascinating and forbidden world, the world of the Other. The film is an adventure story of a ball that has crossed time and history, is the adventure of meeting of worlds that attract and repel, is about a way to be normal in a world that was not always so. It is the story of the Gypsy Ball. ...

The Japanese Quince Tree is a haiku-like documentary about loneliness, cats with nine lives, death and quinces. ...

In Barcelona, the remains of the old city enters the Mediterranean like a wedge between the urban beach and the new harbour, resisting in its own way the attacks of real estate development. The sailor-spirited streets of La Barceloneta lie beneath the shadow cast by apartments where you can still see clothes hanging in the balconies and recognize new neighbours because they "don't know how to hang it properly". The defending neighbours of La Barceloneta tell their life stories and prepare the annual festivity in their street, which depends less of the City's bureaucracy than of the good will of those who live there. These retired women can still make you smile, plus they know every nook of the neighbourhood. This film makes the difficult seem easy: capturing the essence of something that is vanishing, between the memories of sailor legends and the premonition of an advancing modernity. ...

Fifty years ago the Romanian village Alun used to be a very animated, flourishing place. Its existence was closely linked to the marble quarry in its vicinity where people used to extract marble for various uses, including for paving the road and building their houses. Today everything looks deserted, and yet the beauty of the place is haunting. The Marble Village is a portrait of a village seen through the eyes of four characters. Maria, her son Gheorghe, Ovidiu, a shepherd and Elisabeta, a widow, tell us the story of the place, in their own words. They are the last inhabitants of Alun, who did not leave their traditional way of life. After people abandon the countryside and move to the big cities what remains behind?... This short film is an attempt to capture the memories of a vanishing village. ...

Why did maidens braid yellow bedstraw wreaths on Midsummer Day? What does “trampling a clay oven” mean? How intricate can a loom be? An atypical film about the life in the old time village and about a fabulous museum worth a detour. ...

Kara-Ool is the Supreme Shaman of the Tuva Republic. He leads the Bear Spirit Centre in Kyzyl where some ten shamans work regularly. Looking towards the future, he counts on an international development of shamanism and a worldly ecological awareness. Between healings and purifications of all sorts, he tells us about his projects and his vision of the world. ...

The Street Musician is the story of Peter, a Roma migrant accordion player from Romania, which spends most of the time of the year singing in the streets of Göttingen, Germany. He has lived in Göttingen for almost 20 years now and he is a well-known character of the city as he is singing in the main market but also at private parties. Despite his relatively safe living and success as a street musician, Peter holds inside a deeper burden. Home sickness never abandons the nostalgic soul of an artist. ...

The history of the Roma population living on Romanian territory spreads over centuries. The earliest testimonies of their presence here date from the distant centuries of the Middle Ages. The period after Romania's unification marked the beginning of a modernization process and social, cultural and political emancipation for the Roma people. Back then nothing foretold the tragedy the Roma would suffer after the beginning of the Second World War. The documentary The Truth about the Holocaust gives voice to the last survivors of the deportation campaign of the Roma to Transnistria. ...

72 years have passed as deer herder Vukvukai has been living in the depths of Chukotka. He is an old man full of energy and wisdom, the Real Man of Tundra whose life cannot be seen apart from the deer. His people take care of a huge herd of over 14,000 deer. Their life is a non-stop struggle for survival and well-being in the harshest weather conditions of Chaun-Chukotka. They deeply believe in the strength of tradition and thus succeed in their struggle. The ancient culture of Nomadic Chukchi takes care of them, so they preserve and follow it. As far as it is now, their realm remains stable. This is the Truth of Vukvukai. ...

Three young men are released from prison. Three destinies that become one. This is the story of Alex, a streetwise convict trying to deal with his own contradictions in straight time. Being guilty or not depends on the circumstances and the borders that each destiny may cross. Turn Off the Lights is a matter of survival in the grey shaded areas of morality. ...

Animals seem to have disappeared from the city together with our relationship with them, except for that modern phenomenon: pets. A closer look shows, however, that they are still there, calling into question the traditional boundaries between city and countryside, culture and nature. People and institutions keep coexisting with them in different and surprising ways, often unnoticed. The attitude towards them is also very diverse and the increasingly technological environment of the city leaves these frontiers more unstable. ...

Visiting Room follows the stories of some prisoners found in different penitentiaries across the country, who have found their life partner during their sentence time. The one is either a person from outside, or as them, a person who is serving time in prison. Our intention was to talk to the people found in the special situation of being deprived of freedom, to whom love becomes a substitute for freedom and represents maybe their only hope for a better future. ...

The documentary pictures significant creative instants of the famous director Silviu Purcarete while staging William Shakespeare's Tempest. His work with the actors, his theatrical directions and the emulation of the whole acting corpus of The Marin Sorescu National Theatre from Craiova become, through this film, not only an outstanding document for the history of contemporary theater, but also a filmic evidence of a great creative talent and an imagination of singular essence. ...