Current Films

Elephant´s Dream

Netherlands 2014 | 74 Min. | OmeU

After a lengthy and dev­as­tat­ing civil war in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of Congo (DRC), the cap­i­tal city of Kin­shasa is rebuild­ing. Through the eyes of three civic work­ers strug­gling to recon­struct the foun­da­tion of the city’s public ser­vices, we wit­ness a tale of nation­al transformation—at a snail’s pace. Driven by des­per­ate ambi­tion, postal worker Hen­ri­ette faces a system defined by stag­na­tion, even as she rises through its ranks. With ram­shackle equip­ment, a fire­fight­er is forced to watch as every­thing he helped build burns to the ground. Mean­while, opti­mistic rail­way worker Simon stands guard over an unused rail station—unsure of what he is pro­tect­ing. Their sto­ries allow direc­tor Kristof Bilsen to offer a rare look at the DRC, filled with poetry and absur­di­ty that is brim­ming with com­pas­sion­ate insight. Elephant’s Dream is a modern mas­ter­piece that is not to be missed. - Eli Hor­watt, Hotdocs

 

The film is a lesson in resilience, devo­tion. An ode to the invin­ci­ble obsti­na­cy, full of poetry reflect­ing the after-effects of Mubutism – show­ing how in a dis­as­trous­ly gov­erned, yet orga­nized chaos, one’s mental hygiene man­ages to pre­vail.” (Baloji)

Flowers of freedom

Mirjam Leuze
Germany 2014 | 96 Min. | OmeU
Every day huge trucks thun­der through the Kyrgyz vil­lage of Barskoon. They are car­ry­ing a deadly freight: cyanide, which is used to extract gold at the nearby Kumtor mine. In … read more

Ice Poison
(Bing Du)

Fan Sheng-Siang, Midi Z
Myanmar, Taiwan 2014 | 95 Min. | OmeU
Faced with dimin­ish­ing returns on his har­vest, a poor young farmer in Myan­mar pawns his cow for a moped and seeks alter­na­tive income as a taxi driver. Among his first … read more

Iranian

Jakob Gross, Mehran Tamadon
France, Switzerland | OmeU
It took Mehran Tamadon two years to con­vince four Shia cler­ics to take part in an unusu­al dia­logue. The film­mak­er, who lives in Paris, used his family’s idyl­lic coun­try house … read more

Photo Wallahs

David MacDougall
Australia, England | OmeU
Renowned ethno­graph­ic film­mak­ers David and Judith Mac­Dougall explore the many mean­ings of pho­tog­ra­phy in this pro­found and pen­e­trat­ing doc­u­men­tary. The film focus­es on the pho­tog­ra­phers of Mus­soorie, a hill sta­tion … read more

Scent of revolution

Viola Shafik
Egypt | OmU
Four people recount­ing their expe­ri­ences in Egypt: The owner of the largest col­lec­tion of photo neg­a­tives in the coun­try, a Coptic polit­i­cal activist, an elder­ly social­ist writer, and a younger … read more

Tales

Farid Mostafavi, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad
Iran | OmeU
TALES depicts a coura­geous and honest image of today’s Iran­ian soci­ety and its recent issues, cov­er­ing sub­jects like stu­dents’ and work­ers’ move­ments as well as many others. The char­ac­ters, which … read more

The laundry room

Floriane Devigne, Frédéric Florey
France, Switzerland | OmU
In a Lau­sanne hous­ing block with 80 ten­ants who have multi-lin­gual names that the mail­man will never be able to remem­ber, the renters from many dif­fer­ent nations share four wash­ing … read more

Under the palace wall

David MacDougall
Australia, India | OmeU
From the 16th cen­tu­ry the Indian vil­lage of Del­wara in south­ern Rajasthan was ruled as a prin­ci­pal­i­ty of the king­dom of Mewar. Its palace, which over­looks the vil­lage, is now … read more