SECTION: Spectrum

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Unusual times call for unusual films – with atmospheric density, melancholic proximity, hard-hitting humour and analytical astuteness, the films in this year’s Spectrum section get up close and personal with the spirit of the times. Engage with town and country, old and young, men and women, war and peace, emotion and discourse. They think before they speak and then quickly get to the point: full of dark humour, ranging from the experimental and contemplative to the adventurous and historically aware, they are always on an equal footing with both subject matter and their audience alike.

78 DAYS

78 DANA

Emilija Gašić
RS / 2024 / 85 min

Serbia, 1999: The lives of three sisters are shaken when their homeland is hit by air raids. After their father is drafted to the army, they record their everyday lives in a video diary - between games of chess, power outages, air raid sirens, ...

A SHAMAN’S TALE

Beata Bubenets, Mikhail Bashkirov
CZ/FR/US / 2024 / 74 min

In 2019 Alexander Gabyshev resolved to walk from Yakutsk to Moscow in order to exorcise the devil from Vladimir Putin. The self-proclaimed shaman had received the order to undertake the journey and the exorcism rite itself from God with the aim of ...

KULEJ. ALL THAT GLITTERS ISN'T GOLD

KULEJ. DWIE STRONY MEDALU

Xawery Żuławski
PL / 2024 / 148 min

After his Olympic victory in 1964, boxer Jerzy Kulej considers himself to be unbeatable in every sense of the word. Subsequently, it is not only his coach and the state authorities that lose control over him but also his wife; she no longer wants to ...

AN ORDINARY LIFE

UNE VIE ORDINAIRE

Alexander Kuznetsov
FR/CH / 2024 / 93 min

A long-term observation: Katya and Yuliya have spent years of their lives in a Siberian orphanage and, later, in a psychiatric hospital. They are released into a society that is becoming increasingly militaristic, and ultimately initiates a war of ...

HYMN OF THE PLAGUE

GIMN CHUME

Alexander Epikhov, Dimitri Gorbaty and Philipp Ivanov
DE / 2024 / 12 min

An orchestra rehearsal. At first everything is almost normal. Then there is noise, the studio begins to shake, our world collapses. Things that were previously unimaginable are happening around us. And now we know: it wasn’t unforeseeable, ...

ANOTHER GERMAN TANK STORY

Jannis Alexander Kiefer
DE / 2024 / 96 min

In this Brandenburg village miracles happened in the days of the composer Telemann, those days are long gone however .And yet there is reason for hope: Hollywood is shooting a film here about – what else? - the Second World War as matters take an ...

ADOLF, SITZ!

Zoran Solomun
DE / 2024 / 12 min

German Shepherd Adolf is sent to a shelter by court order. He always raises his right paw when he hears the command 'Heil Hitler!' and is to be re-educated. Adolf proves resistant to conditioning however; A farcical comedy on right-wing ...

WHEN WE RETURN

KOGDA MI VERNEMSY

Vladimir Nepevny
IL / 2023 / 84 min

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian-Jewish film-maker Vladimir Nepevny, who grew up in Odesa, communicates with his family via Skype. His son talks about a holy war against Russia's enemies. His parents manage to escape from Odesa to ...

ÁRNI

Dorka Vermes
HU / 2023 / 103 min

Lost Place on tour: a travelling circus somewhere in the countryside. Àrni is the only one who is not part of the family. His daily routine begins with feeding the exotic animals and ends with getting drunk after the show. He is an outsider - both ...

BUTTERFLIES

PERHOSET

Jenni Toivoniemi
FI / 2024 / 98 min

A touching comedy about the uneasy relationship between a careerist daughter and her loser father. Siiri, a minister's assistant, arrives with her boss in the small town of Seinäjoki and meets her father Petri, a former local music star who has now ...

ETERNITY PACKAGE

PAKET VECHNOST

Magdelena Ilieva
BG/IT / 2024 / 85 min

A dark comedy about the plight of an undertaker in a corrupt provincial town. Bobka is a classic loser. His brawny competitor humiliates him, his mother has recently passed away – and now he is working on a lucrative deal with an ageing diva from ...

FLOW

Gints Zilbalodis
BE/FR/LV / 2024 / 85 min

A matter of life and death: in a new world from which people have already departed due to a self-inflicted climate catastrophe, a cat and other animals are surprised by a flash flood. A fascinating, action-packed animated film that mixes dystopian ...

IT'S NOT MY FILM

TO NIE MÓJ FILM

Maria Zbąska
PL / 2024 / 99 min

Wanda and Janek's relationship is stuck in a rut. Do they still have a future? In search of fresh impulse they set off - 400 km along the Baltic coast in winter by sledge. A psychological kammerspiel at once bittersweet and poetic, a road movie ...

KILL THE CHILDREN FIRST

UBIJ GI PRVO DECATA

Dimitar Orovcanec
MK / 2024 / 106 min

A teenage gangster ballad: By chance, ballerina Matea discovers the secrets of human traffickers through a cell phone video. Local dignitaries are also involved in the scheme. Matea, her boyfriend Martin and his dim-witted friend George find ...

PELIKAN BLUE

KÉK PELIKAN

László Csáki
HU / 2023 / 80 min

Imagine; you are finally allowed to travel and yet you have no money. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in Hungary, three young people forge tickets for their dream trip. Initially for themselves, then for others, until they find they can’t stop! ...

STORIES FROM THE CELLAR

Tetiana Khodakivska
UA/US / 2024 / 81 min

Five Ukrainian children out of the many who have experienced absolute horror during the Russian war of aggression, lost parents, experienced destruction and the need to flee. The documentary allows them to have their say whilst documenting their ...

TASTY

Eglė Vertelytė
LT / 2024 / 104 min

Two canteen cooks take part in a cooking competition on TV and dream of the main prize: a Michelin-starred restaurant. On the way to the final the two friends fall out however. In a mixture of feel-good comedy and friendship drama, the two ...

THE MISSILE

NEUIGKEITEN AUS LAPPLAND

Miia Tervo
FI/EE / 2024 / 114 min

In 1984, single mother and inexperienced reporter Niina lands in the same Lapland region as a Soviet missile that has crashed. In the midst of the resulting international media hype, Finnish military experts and indifferent locals, she tries to ...

THE NEW YEAR THAT NEVER CAME

ANUL NOU CARE N-A FOS

Bogdan Mureșanu
RO/RS / 2024 / 138 min

Bucharest, December 1989. Emotional chaos on the eve of the Romanian revolution. In a series of humorous episodes, the fates of six people intertwine as the Ceaușescu dictatorship collapses, though no one yet suspects the gravity of the ...

WATERDROP

PIKË UJI

Robert Budina
AL/XK/MK/IT / 2024 / 92 min

Aida's career as a city planner is based on a web of corruption and mutual dependencies. When her son is accused of a serious crime, her life falls apart at the seams. Who is and who is not covering up for whom now? #feature #drama #political

WISHBONE

Penny Panayotopoulou
GR/FR/DE/CY / 2024 / 123 min

A decent person under pressure: 25-year-old Costas has recently started working as a security guard in a state hospital. The staff there are astonished that he does not share their cynical views of staff shortages, bureaucracy and patient deaths. He ...

ZINEMA

Kornii Hrytsiuk
UA/LU / 2024 / 80 min

Films can pave the way and provide justification for wars, reinforce prejudice and create images of fictitious enemies. With a compilation of excerpts from recent Russian genre films and TV series, Hritsyuks demonstrates how the media landscape has ...