Current Films

The Prayas Children’s Home for Boys: a mono­lith­ic build­ing, out­ward­ly not unlike a prison, locat­ed in one of New Delhi’s poorer neigh­bor­hoods. The insti­tu­tion pro­vides shel­ter to 350 boys. Some … read more

Kenrap is eight years old. He is a Bud­dhist monk and lives in the Phuk­thal monastery on the peaks of the Himalayan moun­tains of Zan­skar. Kenrap chose his life away … read more

The young Tunisian, Bahta (Lotfi Abdel­li), has dreams of becom­ing a famous break-dancer. But break­danc­ing is frowned upon in Tunisia, and the police fre­quent­ly harass the dancers. He has no edu­ca­tion, no job, and is con­stant­ly stressed out about his rela­tion­ship with his girl­friend. Any chance he might have had of flee­ing to Europe was dashed by the Iraq war. A group of ter­ror­ists appear and attempt to con­vince Bahta to join their fight – at this point, a second nar­ra­tive level is revealed. Lead actor Lotfi Abdel­li steps out from behind the char­ac­ter of Bahta and accus­es his direc­tor of manip­u­la­tion, claim­ing he signed up to play a dancer, not a ter­ror­ist. In three “making of” sequences, inter­cut with the plot devel­op­ment, the actor stops to dis­cuss the film’s theses with its direc­tor. The set­ting of his story is exposed as a set, the action as a film plot – fic­tion and real­i­ty blur together.

Why are so many youths attract­ed to the idea of killing and dying? -In an inter­view with Laris­sa Bender, Nouri Bouzid describes how many Arab youths are “lost” spir­i­tu­al­ly and “des­per­ate in eco­nom­ic terms.“ Accord­ing to the direc­tor, these con­di­tions lay the foun­da­tion for Islam­ic fun­da­men­tal­ism, which is well posi­tioned to take advan­tage of their inner frus­tra­tion with rigid social struc­tures and their open anger towards the West’s arro­gant poli­cies in the region. “The film makes clear where the respon­si­bil­i­ty lies. I believe we are all respon­si­ble: The police, the lack of free­dom, family struc­tures, the fail­ure of our edu­ca­tion­al system – we all con­tribute to the sit­u­a­tion of these youths and the Islamists simply come along and ‘pluck’ them from the tree.“

Lotfi Abdel­li recent­ly earned the best actor award at FESPACO, the pan-African fes­ti­val of film and tele­vi­sion in Oua­gadougou, Burk­i­na Faso. MAKING OF -KAMIKAZE won best film at the Carthage Film Fes­ti­val in Tunisia.

“Qian­men” is a pop­u­lar neigh­bour­hood in the very heart of Bei­jing, just south of the Tianan­men Square. In the per­spec­tive of the 2008 Olympic Games, the city decid­ed that the … read more

“So why don’t you find your­self a hus­band then?“ asks Sonbol’s mother. The daugh­ter responds with silence. Sonbol Fatemi is 35 years old. She is single. She has her own … read more

This bril­liant observed doc­u­men­tary, by renowned ethno­graph­ic film­mak­er Judith Mac­Dougall, explores the dig­i­tal rev­o­lu­tion in China, where pho­tog­ra­phy is known as the ” art of regret”. In the rapid­ly chang­ing … read more

For­mer­ly known as Mogador, Essaouira was the first sar­dine fish­ing port in the world. Today the fish have left its waters. Thou­sands of small Moroc­can fish­er­men from Essaouira, Safi, and … read more

An elder­ly woman / a fan; a young man / a book; a lady / a neck­lace… Twelve people and sev­er­al objects filmed along Vali Asr, Teheran’s longest and oldest … read more

The film por­trays a group of extra­or­di­nary women who choose boxing as a way of get­ting ahead in an African cap­i­tal caught in the tur­moil of its first demo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tions. … read more