The Wonder Way
The Wonder Way is an exploration in search of extraordinary territories, terrestrial or celestial paradises, intriguing and uncharted. A journey out of time, seeking encounters with those who imagine other worlds within this world. From Randlett King Lawrence’s phantasmagoria to Charles Ross’s astral sculpture Star Axis, through Jugnet+Clairet’s enigmatic maps, Noah Purifoy’s Desert Museum, Jean Wisniewski’s Garden of Eden or Didier Queloz’s first exoplanet, The Wonder Way takes us to the most striking universes and draws a new cartography of the world in a great breath of freedom and magic.
"considers the creative process as a place of resistance, a tangible and very real counter-space to our present world" - Visions du Reel, Special Jury Award in the National Competition
Behind Closed Doors
In 1968, Brazil’s military government passed a law that ushered in the most violent period of the dictatorship. The meeting was recorded, but remained secret for decades. The documentary combines these audio tracks with propaganda films of the time. The documentary combines the audio tracks of a Brazil’s military government pivotal meeting during the dictatorship with propaganda films of the time.
"A chilling glimpse into the fragility of democracy,...The banality of evil is on full display as the film remixes history, dissecting propaganda in order to indict a criminal dictatorship with its own rhetoric. In an era witnessing the resurgence of authoritarianism, it offers a cautionary tale beyond Brazil’s local politics in 1968." - True/False
A Picture to Remember
Originally from Donetsk - an industrial city in eastern Ukraine – the family was uprooted in 2014 when the Russian war against Ukraine first commenced. By 2022, the same enemy once again began knocking on the door of their new home -which was now in Kyiv- and once again destroyed everything that the family had worked so hard to rebuild. Thrown into the limbo of exile, the director (she is also the narrator of the film) dives into a kaleidoscope of memories and chronicles both her personal and collective familial search for something to hold on to amid these turbulent times.
"courageously personal essayistic...The impact of war on three generations of women, blending personal stories, family archives, and historical parallels." - Modern Times Review
We Will Not Fade Away
Donbas, 2019. The prospect of a new Russian invasion hangs in the air, while the sound of gunfire resulting from the old one can still be heard in the distance. In this seemingly bleak wartime setting, five teenagers start to seriously think about their future. Their energy, enthusiasm, and hope allow them to fully live out their last golden hours of childhood despite the circumstances. The members of this imaginative band of dreamers paint, take photographs, or fantasise about acting careers or becoming the next Elon Musk. They rebel, ride on the waves of adventure, walk into minefields and sunbathe by a local lake. They dream of escaping not only from the war, but also – like teenagers all over the world – from the boredom of a small town. Then, unexpectedly, an opportunity arises to embark on a long journey all the way to Nepal. Will their dream of conquering the world come true?
"With its sensitive, unobtrusively perceptive gaze, the film paints a moving portrait of a generation of young people surrounded by darkness, who are nonetheless – or perhaps all the more – able to recognise and celebrate the fragile beauty of life." - Berlinale
Archive of the Future
At the Natural History Museum in Vienna, everything that is found on earth, in outer space, and that humans can get their hands on, is collected, archived, and studied in the name of evolutionary research. Archive of the Future captures the aesthetic appeal of the natural-history collection and its working process, illuminating the mammoth project of knowledge preservation and production hidden behind the building’s imperial façade.
"Joerg Burger’s meticulous and mesmerising study of the Vienna Museum of Natural History is itself a work of natural history" - Guardian