Hanoi, in the Japan­ese indus­tri­al zone: two young women who have left their vil­lage strug­gle to escape tem­po­rary work and short-term con­tracts. Becom­ing a real worker is a dream, which … read more

A broth­er and sister, aged eleven and eight respec­tive­ly, are sur­vivors of a deadly cyclone on the island of Min­danao in Decem­ber 2011. With extreme mod­esty, Kiri films their child­hood … read more

At a bend in the Rue de Charonne, I come across the letter car­ri­er start­ing his second daily round on foot. He wants me to accom­pa­ny him. It’s very, very … read more

In 2022, a col­lec­tive from the Sudan Film Fac­to­ry began a project to por­tray some people in Sudan’s cap­i­tal, ini­ti­at­ed by British film­mak­er Phil Cox (Native Voice Films). In the … read more

Ini­tial­ly, Gul­noza thought she knew her­self well enough and was open enough to start a film project about the rela­tion­ship between her and Denis, her boyfriend. She didn’t want to … read more

Zamira is fes­tive­ly attired, singing in a choir. A line from a love song poses the ques­tion “What is my pur­pose in life here on earth?”, becom­ing the guid­ing theme … read more

The night is still black. In the narrow beam of her torch, Quralai counts the money for the sweet corn she is about to buy from the pick­ers. At home, … read more

Can pass­ing through a forest change the fate of a 16-year-old girl overnight? The lives of Runa and her family are now divid­ed into before and after cross­ing this forest. … read more

Koka is a pretty grown-up kid who lives with his father and two dogs in a coastal vil­lage on the Bering Sea. Under his father’s edgy instruc­tions, he helps with every­thing from fish­ing to pick­ing berries and mush­rooms. Every now and then a whale is carved up on the beach and dis­trib­uted in the com­mu­ni­ty. Sharp knives are needed to cut the tough meat, but Koka mas­ters this too. Only when join­ing other boys does Koka seem more child­like, dis­play­ing a wild tem­pera­ment in fights and secret­ly smoking.

Behind the harsh every­day life in the Arctic land­scape, and beyond subtle obser­va­tions, the film reveals the inti­mate bond between father and son: while Koka dives enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly into a steam­ing pool, the father talks off-screen about the early death of his mother and a heart defect in the boy, who is about to under­go anoth­er operation.

Ali­ak­san­dr Tsym­bal­iuk was born in 1989 and raised in Pinsk, Belarus. He grad­u­at­ed from the Cin­e­matog­ra­phy Depart­ment of the Film School in Łódź. He has taken part in var­i­ous doc­u­men­tary and fea­ture film projects, also as a cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er. Films: SASHA (2018, 13 min), NIGHT IN THE TRAM (2020, 5 min), QUEENDOM (2023, Dir: Agnia Gal­dano­va – cinematographer).

The film unfolds as a poignant explo­ration of the film­mak­er’s jour­ney toward under­stand­ing and accept­ing the pro­found sense of belong­ing tied to space and time. It chron­i­cles the moth­er’s expe­ri­ence … read more