Films

Waltz with Bashir

Israel, France, Germany, United States, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, 2008, Colour, 90 min, Hebrew, Arabic, German, English Director: Ari Folman Screenplay: Ari Folman

One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari Folman about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by twenty-six vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early 1980s. Folman is surprised that he can’t remember a thing about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Folman delves deeper and deeper in to the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images.

Where Is Anne Frank?

Belgium, Luxembourg, Israel, Netherlands, France, 2021, Colour, 99 min, English Director: Ari Folman Screenplay: Ari Folman

WHERE IS ANNE FRANK begins with a miracle: Kitty, the imaginary friend to whom Anne Frank wrote in her famous diary, comes to life in present-day Amsterdam. Unaware that seventy-five years have gone by, Kitty is convinced that if she is alive, then Anne must be alive too. WHERE IS ANNE FRANK tells the story of Kitty’s quest across contemporary Europe to find her beloved friend. Armed with the precious diary and with help from her friend Peter, who runs a secret shelter for undocumented refugees, Kitty follows Anne’s traces, from the Annex to her tragic end in the Holocaust. Disoriented by our broken world, and the injustices that child refugees endure, Kitty wants to fulfill Anne’s cause. Through her honesty, she presents a message of hope and generosity addressed to future generations.

Along the Way

Netherlands, 2022, Colour, 80 min, Farsi Director: Mijke De Jong Screenplay: Jolein Laarman, Jan Eilander, Mijke De Jong

The border of Iran and Turkey. Dozens of people with backpacks, babies, children. Suddenly shots are heard. Bright lights search the environment. Two girls run into the darkness, calling for their families. Zahra and Fatima, identical twins, are separated from their sisters and their mother during their flight to Europe. They wind up back in Iran, while their mother and sisters are driven into Turkey. Nineteen years old, all alone, they don’t know who to trust, where their family is, or what to do next. Here begins a journey that they seem to have no control over.

The New Greatness Case

Finland, Croatia, Norway, 2022, Colour, 92 min, Russian Director: Anna Shishova Screenplay: Anna Shishova

Anya was an ordinary teenager who dreamed of making life in Russia better. In March 2018, she was arrested and incarcerated on charges of forming an extremist group with the aim of violently overthrowing the government. During three following years, her mother Julia desperately struggles to prove her daughter’s innocence. Fighting for justice and learning the real state of affairs step-by-step, Julia has been transformed from an apolitical citizen into a passionate human rights activist.

What’s This Country Called Now?

United States, 2018, Colour, 37 min, Bosnian Director: Joseph Pierson Screenplay: Joseph Pierson, Aida Čerkez Robinson

WHAT’S THIS COUNTRY CALLED NOW? is based on the experiences of Aida Čerkez, a Bosnian woman who worked as a reporter throughout the Siege of Sarajevo. In 1994, on the eightieth anniversary of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Aida had the idea of finding a witness to that seminal event in world history. She found Ismet, now ninety years old, who was ten years old on that fateful day in 1914. He witnessed the shot that triggered the First World War and continued to live in Sarajevo through the years of conflict that followed. Aida interviews Ismet and in the process shares her own perspective on life during wartime.

B4

Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2020, Colour, 13 min, Bosnian Director: Alen Šimić Screenplay: Alen Šimić

At the unveiling of a memory plaque where his parents were killed, a director meets the man who saved his life on that very night twenty-six years ago.

Cutting

Serbia, 2022, Colour, 23 min, Bosnian, Serbian, English Director: Davor Marinković Screenplay: Davor Marinković

CUTTING represents two generations of refugees who are still trying to create a new identity after the break-up of Yugoslavia. Mirjana and Borislav spent most of their lives in a collective centre in Serbia. Now, they take a journey into the past to embrace the future and make roots and a new home.

On 11 August, 1999, most of Europe was engrossed by a total solar eclipse, which briefly enveloped Earth in darkness. While the world at large celebrated, most of Serbia’s population, fearful of the lunar shadow, barricaded themselves in their homes and nuclear bunkers. Using this event as a metaphor for a nation’s unclean conscience about the consequences of its political choices, in this essay documentary director Nataša Urban confronts her country’s wartime and criminal past, and the evil that is still on the loose today.

The Eclipse

Norway, 2022, Colour, 110 min, Serbian, Romanian Director: Nataša Urban Screenplay: Nataša Urban

Eleven Days in May

United Kingdom, Palestine, 2022, Colour, 85 min, Arabic, English Director: Michael Winterbottom, Mohammed Sawwaf Screenplay: Michael Winterbottom, Mohammed Sawwaf

Over the course of eleven days in May 2021, more than sixty children were killed in Gaza. They should never be forgotten. Narrated by Kate Winslet, with music by Max Richter, this film is a diary of those days. Through archives and personal testimony, the film tells the story of each child as an individual with many of the same hopes, dreams, and ambitions of children everywhere.

6th Bus

Croatia, 2022, Colour, 103 min, Croatian, English Director: Eduard Galić Screenplay: Dominik Galić

During the battle of Vukovar, a young American is trying to locate a man from her past, but he is never to be found. It is a search of identity and truth at a place where truth is selective, elusive, and even feared. A quest for faith, connection, and redemption simmers beneath the search.