FESTIVAL PROGRAM FOR 15 APRIL

90-year-old poet Jana Beranova fled communist Czechoslovakia when she was only a teenager. Her mother could not adapt to their new country, The Netherlands, and jumped from their six-storey appartment to her death. That loss is present in most of Jana's work. She now lives in a cosily crammed upstairs apartment in Rotterdam. It’s her ‘safe nest,’ as she herself calls it, from where she creates her own world with words.
25-year-old freerunner Abdallah Marega moved between Paris and Mali multiple times as a young child. Every time he had to struggle to make a place for himself in a world that didn't feel like home. He now lives in Paris and is enlisted in the French military. He spends almost all of his off-duty hours outside, soaring across roofs, gliding off of handrails and rolling over bridges. It’s a way of life.
A poet in Rotterdam and a freerunner in Paris. One lives primarily at home, in her own head - the other outside, in motion. There is a 65 year age-gap between them and yet they share a strong connection: both of them know what it’s like to be uprooted, and they channel this feeling into art. One with the body, the other with words.
Flightfall weaves Abdallah and Jana’s life stories together through the media of poetry and parkour. The film shows the ultimate consequences of being uprooted, but also how one can regain control and, by trial and error - falling and getting back up again - land safely on firm ground.

During World War II, a French family faces harsh consequences for harboring retreating British soldiers after their failed ambush of a German convoy.

In the stark isolation of the mountains, two enemy soldiers, lost and far from their respective units, find themselves in a tense face-to-face encounter.
Although neither truly wishes to harm the other, they are prisoners of a conditioning that inexorably pushes them to fear one another and to consider the elimination of the other as a necessity.
In this silent duel, one of the soldiers, wiser and more thoughtful, desperately attempts to defuse the explosive situation. However, his opponent, more impulsive and guided by a whirlwind of emotions, threatens to tip this precarious moment into tragedy...

The documentary "Cassino then and now" describes the four battles of Cassino (World War II, Jan-May 1944, Italy) through the narratives of five different soldiers (American, New Zealander, German, French and Polish) and one italian refìugee. Each different story, told by an original language voice over, is based on an accurate historical documentation about real soldiers who died during that battle and show rare stock footage of those specific acts of war. In the film are shown some views of the Cassino area, of the Abbey and of the Gustav Line front, as they appear today compared to the same place photographed during the World War II.
The documentary have seven narrative sections which will illustrate the most salient stages of the four battles for Cassino: the attempt to crossing on the Rapido River by American soldiers; the allied aerial bombardment of the abbey of Montecassino; the Allied air bombardment of Cassino; the failed attack attempt to Montecassino by the New Zealander tankers; the strong defense of Cassino by the German Paratroopers; the breakthrough of the Gustav Line by the French; the assault on Hill 593 and the conquest of the Abbey by the Polish troops.

CIVILIZATION OF EQUALITY is a short, stop-motion animated musical reflecting true equality's beauty. A plethora of well-known and much-loved species join the animal chorus from their respective habitats worldwide. As their individual calls and melodies gradually converge, they harmonize acapella style to deliver a breath-taking song that reminds us that we must live in peace and harmony regardless of who we are or how we look.

As an 8-time Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion in Romania, Gheorghe Ignat was poised for Olympic gold. But poor life choices interfered with his promise.

The day Russia invaded Ukraine, Gheorghe responded immediately with humanitarian aid for his Ukrainian neighbors.

As the war continues and Ukrainian children have started disappearing from orphanages around the country, the threat of the Russian filtration system is imminent. Gheorghe Ignat and his team of volunteers have been contacted by the United Nations to assist in bringing children out of Ukraine ahead of the Russian forces. However, tensions rise as people from Gheorghe's past interfere with his rescue efforts and he wonders if his past mistakes have finally caught up with him.

The documentary about the Ukrainian military photographers Kostiantyn and Vlada Liberov. the project Culture vs war.

"Look Again" is a documentary which considers the causes and consequences of the collapse of Lebanon.
By revealing the daily reality of the newly impoverished and considering how this cam about, "Look Again" shows who has lost and what they have lost in a country which few consider as poor; this invites its viewers to as "who won?"
"Look again" is a sequel to "Look above", a documentary which examined the impact of refugees on Lebanon as their host; and a teaser for a series in development which looks at the "new poverty", globally.