16th free zone film festival
FILM PROGRAM
THE REASON I JUMP
The Reason I Jump opens a window into the world of people with autism and their experience of reality.
MY FAVORITE WAR
Childhood in Latvia during the Cold War is presented in the form of an animated documentary since it is the best way to show the political fairy tale of that time.
EPICENTRO
In Epicentro Cuba, a country where nothing will be the same again, becomes a metaphor for all the countries and nations that have ever been a mere toy in the hands of great powers.
WELCOME TO CHECHNYA
A dramatic testimony to the struggle of a group of LGBTQ+ activists trying to protect, save and provide a new life and new identity to the people in Chechnya
NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
Left pregnant and unable to terminate her pregnancy, young Autumn embarks on a journey that will take her closer to herself.
DNA
A family album and the death of her beloved grandfather set Neige on an obsessive search for her Algerian roots.
SCHLINGENSIEF - A VOICE THAT SHOOK THE SILENCE
A dynamic, charming and engaging documentary about Christoph Schlingensief, a German director and socially engaged artist.
YALDA THE NIGHT OF FORGIVENESS
A guest appearance in an Iranian reality TV show can prove to be life saving for 22-year old Maryam, by freeing her from the death penalty.
REGIONAL SELECTION | BALKAN HORIZONS
IN PRAISE OF LOVE
This documentary film by Tamara Drakulić, with its poetic frames, celebrates love through local, and yet universal, myths and anecdotes of a dying village.
CARTURAN
As his end draws near, a 60 year old man spends his last days trying to fix the most important aspects of his life.
DIGGER
The pressure of industrial tycoons turns father and son into enemies under the same roof, with nature being the only witness.
SUNDAYS
After discovering an old video journal, the director turns her camera towards her father, a Greek priest in the USA, and shares with us his deepest thoughts and doubts.
ONCE UPON A YOUTH
A documentary ode to one youth for which it cannot be said with certainty if it ever truly happened. A true portrait of the lost generation of Croatian youth that grew up at the end of the 90’s.
ACASA MY HOME
The forced eviction from a shack outside of the city for a family of eleven doesn’t mean that the civilization is one step closer.
TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM
An exciting cinematic depiction in which the famous novelist and her contemporaries talk about an extraordinary life and work that has the power to change the world.
THE EUPHORIA OF BEING
In this touching documentary, 94 year old Eva Fahidi and 60 years younger dancer Emese Cuhorka tell a story, accompanied with dance, about the past that lasts forever.
BODY OF TRUTH
A visually fascinating and very emotional journey through the lives of some of the most prominent contemporary female artists.
GLORY TO THE QUEEN
During the Cold War four female chess players from Georgia bring revolution in women’s chess all over the globe and become Soviet icons of women’s emancipation.
UNDINE
Is the search for true love just a myth? Maybe that is the reason why the main character is named Undine, just like water nymphs, mythological creatures.
EU ZONE OF CHANGE
THE REALM
Manuel Lopez – Vidal is the favorite politician in his region. And he has it all. But, as it so often happens, reaching a peak means at the same time slowly starting to fall.
THIS IS OUR LAND
The recruitment of the working class people by the French right wing is shown through the lives of people in a small village in the north part of the country.
LITTLE GIRL
What does the everyday life of a girl born in a boy’s body look like? Does her childhood resemble those of other children?
GAGARINE
What happens to the shattered dreams and just how much youth can dream? You will find out in these 97 minutes that contain the whole universe.
MIDNIGHT TRAVELER
The film begins with an Afghan family’s request for refugee protection being denied and follows their journey on the Balkan smuggling route.
THE MOLE AGENT
The charismatic Sergio embarks on an unusual spy mission and discovers the truth. But not the one he was hired for
GREEN ZONE
WOOD
Who is profiting from illegal logging? Why are we cruel to nature?
BUT BEAUTIFUL
What should a good and successful life look like? Is an alternative way of life possible? This film seeks answers to these questions.
THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREES
The fate of mankind and its survival on Earth is closely tied to the health of large forests. The time to take care of them is right now.
ZONE WITHOUT BORDERS
THE JUMP
In the Cold War years of the 1970s, an American patrol boat meets a Soviet ship off the East coast of the United States for talks about fishing rights in the Atlantic.
SWEAT
Sweat recounts three days in the life of fitness motivator Sylwia Zając, whose presence on social media has made her a celebrity.
MRS. F.
In the fishing village of Makoko, the largest slum on water in Nigeria, Mrs F. wants to unite women and perform the play called Hear Word; a women empowerment project about gender inequality based on true stories to get women out of their oppressed position.
JELGAVA '94
It is year 1994. Spring. In Jelgava – a small town in Latvia. Janis (14) – behaves well at school, shows interest in all subjects, and studies well.
THE INFIDEL
A young Bosnian, raised in a radical islamist commune, is trying to rebuild his life after being accused of taking a part of a terrorist attack.
CAUGHT IN THE NET
Three actresses, three children’s rooms, 10 days and 2,458 sexual predators. An experiment that shines an urgent light on the taboo subject of the abuse of children on the internet.
AALTO
Aalto is an enchanting documentary film journey into the life and work of one of the greatest modern architects Alvar Aalto.
IF ONLY DREAMS CAME TRUE
Sandra Jurak was a secretary in the sports section and a personal assistant to a well-known celebrity. In a remarkable chain of coincidences, she is left without both jobs and needs to go back home to her mother’s tiny flat, to the old neighbourhood she’d left 30 years ago.
14+ SELECTION
SUNE THE BEST MAN
In his new adventure Sune realizes that his grandfather’s wedding falls on the same weekend as school trip on which he is going with Sophie, his long-term crush.
ROCCA CHANGES THE WORLD
The adventure begins when Rocca lands a plane in which the entire crew has suffered from food poisoning and subsequently flees from the scene so that her identity is not revealed.
WILDLAND
After her mother’s death, Ida moves in with her aunt and cousins. After the initial harmony, she realizes that the family clan is involved in criminal affairs.
THE FUTURE IS HERE
ADET
A black shadow that does not leave women, but also does not visit men. Here is how people mourn in Prizren.
BETWEEN THE LINES
Higher Education in Kosovo* struggles to develop, as its academic ecosystem is relentlessly plagued by instances of blatant plagiarism.
DEVOLUCION
An empty soul is pictured through the eyes of Loris and the outside world.
FOR THE SAKE OF
Like many other women in Kosovo*, she’s a victim of abuse, who has been staying in the same household with her abuser for decades.
IN RAINBOWS
In Rainbows is a short documentary that focuses on drag queens living in Kosovo* and the struggle against intolerance set in a capital city.
MELANCHOLIA
A visual comparison between life’s most important age groups, where they’re given to think the world is a place to cultivate their dreams.
NOSOTROS
Deforestation, air and water pollution, global warming, climate change, and non social responsibility in only one word: NOSOTROS.
THE BRIGHT SIDE
A portrait of an amazing personality, filled with surprises, who will leave us speechless.
YAAS QUEEN!
A wild night and the day after in a life of an extraordinary drag queen.
BARILI
An old, once magnificent, building, and a very active city female choir in it.
OUTSIDE
Uroš is a high school student from a poor family from Pancevo who is at a crossroads – on the one hand, he is dealing drugs, and on the other, he is a warm young man who loves his girlfriend, listens to classical music, plays guitar, watches movies…
YOUR OTHER NAME
Documentary Your Other Name is a unique letter to reality, art, love and time.
EVERYTHING IS STILL HERE, BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME AS IT USED TO BE
Two friends are remembering their childhood.
THE TEST OF MATURITY
Author’s mother and her peers celebrate their high school prom night with a 20 year delay, due to the war in Sarajevo in the early 1990s.
SUPER MARIO
Mario, Filip’s friend from school, breaks all stereotypes of people with disabilities.
IN FOCUS: PIETRO MARCELLO
MARTIN EDEN
The film adaptation of the famous novel by Jack London shows a young poor sailor and his aspirations to become a writer.
THE MOUTH OF THE WOLF
Enzo returns to Genoa after a lengthy absence. He crosses the city in search of places he remembers from before but they have been inexorably changed by passing time.
THE SILENCE OF PELESJAN
The Silence of Pelesjan wishes to portray a memory: one of the work of Armenian filmmaker Artavazd Peleshyan.
KINOKAUCH PRESENTS
MUSTANG
A contemporary drama that explores the opposites of religion and secularism, tradition and modernism, through the story of five teenage girls living in a remote village in northern Turkey.
RAMS
Although they share a country and a way of life, brothers Gumi and Kidi have not spoken a word for four decades. When a dangerous infection attacks Kidi’s sheep, the entire valley is in danger.
SON OF SAUL
The Oscar-winning drama is the story of two days in the life of Saul Ausländer, a Hungarian detainee who works as a member of a special team that removes the bodies of murdered detainees in one of the Auschwitz crematoria.
DEMOCRACY
Democracy offers an insight into a hidden world of political struggle for new data protection legislation in the European Union.
FREE TO RUN
Running is one of the most common physical activities of men and women around the world nowdays, and film Free to Run reveals an incredible and little-known five-decade-old story about the disputed right to run and the growing movement of runners.
PASOLINI
One day, one life. On the night of 2 November 1975, the great Italian writer and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered in Rome.