Accattone Films

Over the course of eight years, the film draws an intimate portrait of Jean Ciesielski, a teenager growing up in Antwerp. Moving through a succession of schools and educational tracks, Jean searches for a place within a system that has defined him from a young age. At twelve years old, he speaks about his situation with a striking maturity and clarity. As he gets older, Jean feels an increasing urgency for change. Unable to obtain a regular secondary school diploma within his current track, he decides to change schools once more. His journey reveals how strongly the language and expectations of education have shaped the way he sees himself and his place in society.

In Berlin, a diverse coalition of activists joins forces to speak out against the violence in Gaza and the German government’s support for it. Faced with arrests, possible deportations, and strict restrictions on protests, the activists seek ways to continue their struggle. In this climate, they start rehearsing a stage adaptation of a 1970s queer book entitled The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions. This hybrid and experimental film shifts between rehearsals of the play and the everyday reality of activism. Passages from the play—about power structures, exclusion, and solidarity—are interwoven with their ongoing protests and their sometimes sympathetic, sometimes confrontational conversations with the press. Juxtaposed, the intensity of protest and the creative freedom of theater sharpen the focus on what it means to be an activist—and the toll it takes on those involved.

After graduation, Billie and Lucas are faced with big decisions: move in together as a couple or rather share a flat with friends? Full of affection for each other and curiosity about what’s to come, they feel their way forward, together and individually.

Under the tutelage of commander Walter Van Dyck, young recruits of the Belgian Armed Forces receive their basic military training. By means of role-play, an image of their future as professional soldiers steadily appears. Echo meticulously documents this intentional metamorphosis, in which subjects are instructed in a new way of looking, listening and thinking.

A poetic essay film on the colonial gaze and the magic lantern. This early type of image projector was used in Belgian colonial propaganda, showcasing the good works of the Church, State and industry. Lantern projections were an effective way of selling the colonial project to a somewhat reluctant Belgian public.

In the back room of a flower shop, Tomi, Rasto and Mižu are digging a tunnel in order to break into the safe of the National Bank. After heavy rainfall, the underground maze gets submerged by water and they are forced to stop working.

Mitten follows the final weeks of rehearsal of Mitten wir im Leben sind, the performance by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, her company Rosas and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, based on the six cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach. The film offers an intimate glance into De Keersmaeker’s meticulous methodology, in which a choreographic universe is built up through a careful study of musical composition. This intense creative process of continuously reshaping and honing, characterised by De Keersmaeker’s inexhaustible longing for precision and detail, is reflected in the filmmakers’ patient look at the work of the choreographer, the musician and dancers.

Jimi, a young man living in the Brussels' neighbourhood Cité Modèle, tries to pass on a parcel to a local woman that was delivered to his apartment by mistake. When Jimi can't locate her, finding her becomes an obsession.