BALDR Film

Jazz and decolonization are intertwined in a powerful narrative that recounts one of the tensest episodes of the Cold War. In 1960, the UN became the stage for a political earthquake as the struggle for independence in the Congo put the world on high alert. The newly independent nation faced its first coup d'état, orchestrated by Western forces and Belgium, which were reluctant to relinquish control over their resource-rich former colony. The US tried to divert attention by sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to the African continent. In 1961, Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba was brutally assassinated, silencing a key voice in the fight against colonialism; his death was facilitated by Belgian and CIA operatives. Musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach took action, denouncing imperialism and structural racism. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev intensified his criticism of the US, highlighting the racial barriers that characterized American society.

In Mumbai, Nurse Prabha's routine is troubled when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.

Aboard a cruise ship out at sea, a young sailor discovers a door mysteriously leading to an apartment in Montevideo. Meanwhile, a group of Asian farmers find an abandoned shed in the valley, attributing it supernatural powers.

Full of expectation, a 16 year old girl secretly travels from the city to a deserted, wintry island to visit her first great love. He is an elderly bartender at a beach tent, engaged, big, tough and strong. With his huge hands around her head and shoulders, she seems even younger than she is. But she feels loved and mature. But a morning of disenchantment awaits her.

In his short stories, Israeli writer Etgar Keret mixes fantasy and reality. His own life story also comes across as a modern fairy tale. In this hybrid documentary, the filmmakers investigate why storytelling is essential for Keret's survival.

1907. Afonso, a doctor, arrives at Principe Island to cure servants from a cocoa plantation “infected” with Banzo, nostalgia of the slaves, who are dying from starvation and suicide. The group is confined to the forest, where Afonso decides to heal them by trying to understand what is affecting their soul. Will he manage to save them?

Gaspar, a luthier, wants to make a violin from the wood of a tree so rare that it may or may not exist anymore.

Silvia is an introspective young girl who is not interested in the daily routine between family and school. Everything abruptly changes when Artur arrives unexpectedly in her class, after being banned from several other schools. Silvia is amazed by the vitality of the boy, who actually suffers from a serious illness – hemophilia. The two immerse themselves in an intense and brief coexistence, interrupted by an accident in which Artur’s bleeds to death. Silvia gets sick and sees her life turn into a strange nightmare. The mourning gradually becomes an obsession, and obsession becomes a goal – Silvia will do anything to bring him back to life.

A historical and personal story, based on the director's own experience, family, friends and acquaintances. We follow them and depict different situations throughout their lives - the sad, the vile, the emotional and the comical. A universal story of a family that has arisen from a simultaneously beautiful and tragic cultural encounter; as is the case in hundreds of thousands of families around Europe and the rest of the Western World.

Amid the aftermath of Mozambique’s civil war, I visit my grandmother, confronting fading memories and blurred lines between truth and fiction. A former rebel’s presence in the village echoes the relentless ghosts of war, mirroring the tensions of my generation.

After his mother passes away, Rein moves to a small village in the Alps to be immersed in nature, meditate and work as a snowboard teacher. His quiet bubble bursts when his extroverted father Gijs comes to visit. But it isn’t long before Rein has had enough.

At the far end of Europe, on the southern border of Spain, lies Almería. It is a huge province completely covered with white plastic, harbouring Europe’s largest vegetable garden. It is the place where our tomatoes come from, even in winter. But under all the plastic, strange things happen… Today, the vegetable garden inevitably moves to Morocco. Spanish farmers dive well under their prices to keep in the race. 120.000 migrants work in slave-like conditions on the plantations.

Promising young gymnast Timo and his disabled father Ward share a big dream, to win Olympic gold. But when Timo meets physiotherapist Irene, these new and intense feelings conflict with Timo's dedication to his father and the Olympic 'mission'.

Three youngsters take a road trip to Seville that will change their lives forever.

On the border of Turkey and Iran, 19-year-old twin sisters Zahra and Fatimah from Afghanistan lose their family. To survive in a hostile world of smugglers and drug dealers, they face choices and dilemmas that severely test their symbiotic relationship and conscience.

When Alexander suddenly leaves on a road trip to France, Lukas decides to join him as he’s been trailing his charismatic brother for his entire life. But during this journey he discovers that he finally has to go his own way, not knowing this decision would be so all-encompassing.

Three members of an extended Afghan family start their lives over in Iran as refugees, unaware they face a decades-long struggle ahead to be "at home".

With the Cold War about to break out in Afghanistan, young, lifelong friends Suraya and Sima must question their life choices and moral principles when they get involved in opposite sides of the conflict.

The story of Liam, a neglected teenager who lives in a family where alcohol, violence and sex play the main role. He grows up to be a confused youngster which ends in a very aggressive act to break with his past.

As a group of refugees tries to enter Europe illegally by boat, a storm suddenly appears and all hell breaks loose when an old man falls overboard. His perception shifts into another dimension: a dark, hallucinatory place. Driven by a mysterious power and desperately in search of his loved ones, his soul passes by the everyday reality of many castaway refugees at the border of the alleged paradise, Europe. The old man's spirit observes people on the street being chased away like dogs, follows an illegal worker and a drug-addicted mother and slips inside crowded refugee shelters. Wandering through this limbo, the old man questions the meaning of his existence.