How does the soul feel, what does the body feel? What fits, what is stuck, what is and what needs to be is revealed at the dining table, in the hammam or in a therapy session.
Wild living, stories about growing up, the state of body and soul, and everyday madness are this year’s defining themes. Established schools from countries with a tradition of animation present themselves in their usual strong way, while brilliant newcomers broaden the spectrum in terms of geography and content. This results in fascinating insights into the politics and society of a wide range of cultures. Visual trips ranging from sensitive and humorous to satirically sharp round off the programme.
She knew this day would come and the choice she’d have to make. But as it finally comes, Maya cannot wrap her head around it. A mole – it’s so small, so insignificant, just a mark… How can it be so hard to part from it? Can Maya ever feel whole again when a bit of her is taken away?
A peculiar assemblage of individuals convene to discuss their mutual trauma. They have descended from the heavens and their celestial bodies have been fragmented. While some endeavour to move forward, a young, unkempt girl named Rose attends these gatherings to pilfer shards of other stars in a quest to reconstruct her own and ascend once more to the sky.
Deutschlandpremiere
Muscle Man, the world’s cleanest superhero, embarks on a thrilling battle against a giant robot determined to reduce the city to rubble. However, his obsession with order could lead to his downfall.
Deutschlandpremiere
After stepping sock first into a puddle under her fridge, Jeanie realises that her freezer is completely frozen over. While hacking at the ice, she discovers a single shrimp that transforms into an embryo. She gets scared as the items in her fridge also gradually come to life until the freezer bursts open, transporting Jeanie into her subconscious where she finally faces her fear of pregnancy.
Deutschlandpremiere
This is the story of a young woman, Lola, a Franco-Moroccan mestizo, who’s sharing a memory with us. When she was twelve, she had the disconcerting experience of a place and a practice that she had fantasized about for a long time, the traditional Moroccan hammam.
Deutschlandpremiere
In the deep countryside of Latvia, relatives and neighbors, near and distant, come together to celebrate the last important ritual of human life. A series of events and details reveal a picture where two different eras overlap.
Deutschlandpremiere
While his mother is out shopping, Alexis looks inside her chest of drawers.
Santiago, Chile, 1980s – Camila and Paula are seven years old, neighbours and best friends. Outside their own four walls, the everyday lives of children and adults are determined by Pinochet’s military dictatorship – its strict discipline, curfews, harassment and protests. After a peaceful demonstration, the best friends go their separate ways.
Weltpremiere; ; Photosensitivity Warning
An archival animated documentary film that is based on real voice messages. A group of young women sends a countless number of voice messages to one busy friend. While they complain to her about anything you can imagine, she tries to figure out how to be there for all of them.
In a world of her own, a young sound engineer spends all her time recording the sounds of the city. That is, until she encounters a man and succeeds in picking up the frequencies of his inner melody.
Photosensitivity Warning
A poodle is trying to cook herself a meal when a friend calls her on the phone and wants to chat. Poodle wants to chat too, but the phoneline is too short to reach all the way to the kitchen counter. Our hero wishes she could split herself in two so she could cook and chat at the same time – and, in the end, she does exactly that.
Deutschlandpremiere
Ninho, a young trans man, meets his family for dinner not long after coming out to them. They get progressively more hostile and anxiety inducing, as they dismiss Ninho’s choices and he starts to spiral. As he tells his friends about the evening, they try to get him out of this dark mindset.
Staying in bed all day long; trying to figure out what to do and doing nothing at all in the end. That’s how a day in the life of a person with depression may look like.
In the pool changing room, Anthony realizes he has forgotten to bring his bathing trunks. Swimming class is about to begin, and he needs to find a solution.
A young girl carries her sister, who doesn’t have legs, up a seemingly endless flight of stairs to the top of a tower. There lies a place called Eden where people go to disappear. But maybe there is hope for them…
A grandmother is unable to cry over the death of her husband. She shares her struggle with her family members and receives the strangest advice from them.
Deutschlandpremiere