Win­ston-Salem, North Car­oli­na, embod­ies the con­trasts of a typ­i­cal Amer­i­can sub­ur­ban city—where wealth and pover­ty, priv­i­lege and strug­gle, mobil­i­ty and depen­dence on public trans­port create a divide that feels insur­mount­able. … read more

Lost in an unfa­mil­iar dig­i­tal realm, Samuel’s soul search­es for a way home, guided only by a mys­te­ri­ous voice from the sky. As he nav­i­gates this vir­tu­al land­scape, the film … read more

One day, I lost my mother. Slowly, I am trac­ing my steps back to her. This film is an attempt to under­stand moth­er­hood for women of West Indian descent in … read more

“You suffer as long as you breathe,” shouts a hoarse voice out­side the pic­ture, and then adds with honest irony: ”Dust is our wealth.” The voice belongs to a street … read more

At 7 o’clock in the morn­ing, the Elek­trich­ka, a wooden-class train, sets off from Tbil­isi (Geor­gia) to Bor­jo­mi, 150 km away. The wind whis­tles through the pain­less win­dows. The train … read more

In Guil­laume Apol­li­naire’s poem, two visions col­lide: the image of France learned in Mada­gas­car and the real­i­ty later expe­ri­enced in the former metrop­o­lis. For a for­eign­er, adapt­ing to French life … read more

In Songs of Slow Burn­ing Earth, film­mak­er Olha Zhurba doc­u­ments Ukraine’s slow descent into the abyss of war over two years. But what does war truly mean and what images can cap­ture its impact on people? Crowds push­ing onto over­crowd­ed trains, tank tracks lining the streets, destroyed homes?

In this film, war creeps in through your ear. You cannot pro­tect your­self from it, even in your sleep. A caller asks the night-time hot­line - she thinks she has heard rocket fire. What should she do? A pro­jec­tile rips through the air above a bread fac­to­ry. The work­ers briefly glance up at the ceil­ing, then con­tin­ue work­ing. Olha Zurba col­lects these moments almost like a diary.

Death is present. Graves are being dug, yet the camera respect­ful­ly turns away from those killed. Again and again, gun­fire sounds, sirens wail, and the explo­sions come closer. Then, sud­den­ly, the film falls almost silent. In the longest shot, the camera peers through the wind­screen of a pickup truck lead­ing a convoy of corpses. Along the road­side, people kneel in silent respect for the dead.

With a clear focus on the side of human­i­ty, the direc­tor cap­tures what this war does to people, but also what they do to resist it.

Olha Zhurba is a Ukrain­ian film direc­tor, editor and screen­writer. Songs of Slow Burn­ing Earth is her second fea­ture length doc­u­men­tary. Films: DAD’s SNEAKERS (2021), OUTSIDE (2022), SONGS OF SLOW BURNING EARTH  (2024)

Awards: RIGA IFF FEATURE FILM COMPETITION; DOC FUTURE AWARD at Verzio IDFF Hun­gary; BEST FILM at Tertio Mil­len­nio Film Fest; Spe­cial Jury Award at Rome Doc­u­men­tary FF; Best Fea­ture film at Big Sky Doc­u­men­tary FF

I grew up in Yangon. In Feb­ru­ary 2021 my dreams came to an end. My mother said: ‘Son, wake up. The mil­i­tary has taken over the coun­try’. The days got … read more

The Lebanese film­mak­er makes sev­er­al trips from Ger­many back to her home city of Beirut over the course of the three years fol­low­ing the onset of a cat­a­stroph­ic eco­nom­ic col­lapse … read more

Through the story of a single family, THE NAKBA ACROSS GENERATIONS explores the last­ing impact of the Nakba and the inher­it­ed trauma of exile. Blend­ing per­son­al nar­ra­tives, his­tor­i­cal events, and … read more

This year, we’ll be taking you and our fes­ti­val guests on two cinema hikes through Freiburg’s dis­tricts. Equipped with a pro­jec­tor, power gen­er­a­tor, mobile sound system, and laptop, we’ll be … read more