Lars has figured out what he loves - snowboarding. This film explores his approach to surfstyle carving and what keeps him coming back after 35 years. For him, carving becomes a form of expression, feeling and freedom.
Red carpet photographer Erlend Štaub, who has also been the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival official photographer for several years, spends his days at glamorous parties, socialising and taking pictures. Then he spends his nights working on these pictures to deliver them the next morning. He is very much in demand and his talents as a photographer are also highly appreciated abroad. He has been attending the Cannes International Film Festival for fifteen years in a row. It is a hard job that requires social skills and great physical strength. Part of his success is to find out "where is the line when people start feeling great".
Varvara, a writer of detective stories, is accustomed to being in control—of her own life and that of her ten-year-old son, Ivan. But a single trip to the Fairytale Fair changes everything: together with a blacksmith named Dobrynya and his daughter Marya, they find themselves in a magical forest. Here, animals can speak, ancient magic thrives, and hidden among the trees lies a living *Teremok*—a sanctuary for characters like the Little Mouse, the Frog, Ryaba the Hen, the Wolf, the Fox, and the Seven Little Goats—which appears only in times of danger. The only way home is to find the Book of Secrets, hidden somewhere inside the *Teremok*. But they are not the only ones searching for it; the wicked sorceress Shishiga and the ancient warlock Voron are also on the hunt.
Hninn is a diligent student who wants to become a nun. In February 2021, the military seizes power in Myanmar and everything she has strived for vanishes overnight. Civil war breaks out in the country and Hnin's family must learn to live with constant fear: moving house, going into hiding, deciding who to trust and where to go at all. For six years, the camera follows them as they search for a safe place in a country torn apart. And yet, amidst all this horror, there is still room for faith, courage and even joy.
Siebe Vanhee sets out to onsight Voie Petit, a brutal 12-pitch 8a+ line at 3,500m on the Grand Capucin, completely alone - no partner, no static ropes, just lead rope-solo technique and a drone circling above. But even a solo mission as a professional climber has a crew: a manager on the phone, a sponsor waiting for footage, a director on the glacier, and Vanhee himself playing climber, cameraman and storyteller all at once, selfie-interviewing his own exhaustion pitch by pitch.
In the Sinai desert, within sight of Sharm el-Sheikh's glittering resorts, nine-year-old Bedouin boy Jarah faces a very different future. His family sends him to camel herder Mohamed to train as a jockey for Zalaga, the region's most prestigious camel race. Victory promises honour for his family and freedom for the boy.
Two Ukrainian teenagers and one Russian begin adult lives in France, where war divides and loneliness connects them.
A young mother leaves prison with her daughter, only to discover that freedom may be the hardest sentence of all.
Jolanda, a retired archivist, has spent most of his life in the closet. In the late 1970s, he stood on stage alongside his friend Mummo in Finland's first drag show, 'Happy Gays'; the performance was even broadcast on television, and Mummo became one of the first openly gay men in Finland. Then came AIDS, fear and violence. In April 1988, Mummo was murdered in his home; the police were unwilling to solve the case and the entire crime was hushed up. Now, more than thirty years later, Jolanda is opening up his own archive and inviting a new generation of drag artists to bring 'Happy Gays' back to the stage.
Kamran Baxşızadə went to fight as a volunteer in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in the autumn of 2020. In a battle that coincided with his birthday, he lost his sight. The film begins where the war news ends: a young man returns home – to a world he can no longer see – and must learn everything anew, from the space around him to the question of what to do with his life now. The camera follows him through his everyday life, which is not heroic but tests his tenacity and endurance. The film observes how hope and stubbornness build a life where it seems impossible.
Longtime riding partners Sam and Jazz take a tandem bike across some of their favourite trails in the Rockies, marking ten years since their first tandem adventure together. Part celebration, part reflection, the film explores friendship, trust, and the rare joy of moving through the world in sync.
Mariela unexpectedly reunites with her first boyfriend, Leandro, when an old book she dedicated to him decades earlier finds its way back into her hands. As a love that has lingered for over 30 years is rekindled, Leandro must make a decision.
An adaptation of one of the opening scenes from The Hobbit (Tolkien 1937) into toki pona, a constructed language from Sonja Lang (2001).
Nestled in the middle of a secluded valley and surrounded by green meadows and rivers, an imposing mass of snow and rock rises abruptly. The adventurous Lord Cliffrider hopes to be the first to achieve the summit of his longed-for mountain, but as time passes, this dream vanishes like the smoke from his pipe. This is a silent stop-motion film about the ambitions of a climber to reach the top.
COP31 Climate-Themed Short Film Competition finalist. Synopsis TBA.
