In the night of August 24 to 25, 1944, the fate of the City of Lights is in the hands of Wermacht general Dietrich von Cholitz, Governor of the Greater Paris. Acting on Hitler’s orders, he is ready to blow up the entire city in order to delay the inevitable: the advance of the Allied troops to German soil and the end of WWII. Despite the million-and-a-half human casualties and the destruction of an invaluable cultural heritage, the Nazi general shows no sign of hesitation: the orders are to be carried out. Paris seems lost, until Raoul Nordling, the Consul of Sweden, shows up uninvited in von Cholitz’s hotel room. A career diplomat, he takes it upon himself to save a metropolis, and a human conscience as well.
Two couples, four different perspectives, the same obsession: the gambits and the wins, the strengths and the weaknesses of the French left wing movement. Chris Bailey and Judith Lazard, Paul Adler and Albertine Langlois, that is the the political analist and the historian, the journalist and the actress, all fight and make up according to the moves of their party of choice. When one of the leaders of the Socialist Party unknowingly becomes part of a love triangle, the already complicated relationships between the four become even more complicated. How far are they ready to go in order to defend their convictions?
From hero of the anti-Communist resistance, over night, Zygmunt turns in the enemy of the people. More than 30 years after being imprisoned for his activities as a Solidarność leader, he is accused of collaboration with the secret police. Paweł refuses to accept that his father may have betrayed his cause, but gradually, he has to accept the mistakes of the past, and also the unknown realities behind post-Communist Poland. The paradox is that, in this story about compromise, no one is guilty. Best Actor award for Borys Szyc at the 2011 Montréal World Film Festival.
During the First World War, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German POW camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are sent to a seemingly impenetrable fortress which seems impossible to escape from. Jean Renoir’s film is widely considered a masterpiece of world cinema.
Alsemberg, Belgium, December 1975. Sarah, 8 years old, lives in a Catholic foyer. One day, her biological father, whom she has never met, comes to take her for a weekend in Paris. But it is in Morocco that Sarah wakes up, in a little town lost in the middle of the Atlas. Very soon, her father leaves, abandoning her without any explanation. She then slips into the life of a little Moroccan girl where the only schooling she is offered is that of knitting. Nine years later, we find Sarah, 17 years old, a teenager like all the others... At least, almost. We are in 1984, in the middle of a hunger revolt (The Revolt of ‘Aw-bach’). Sarah’s father has never sent the money he had said he would, and for the family where she is staying, each mouth to feed accounts for more and more. Sarah will have to find a way to earn her board. But then, there is also her wish of leaving, to going back to the Belgium of her childhood, the school, the books and a life that Sarah imagines free… The first feature written and directed by Kadija Leclere was selected in over 35 international film festivals.
The year is 1979. Because Jérome is in love with Carole, his cousin, because she wants to support the cause of the Jews in the Soviet Union, but especially because both of them are aged 20, the two embark on an adventure behind the Iron Curtain. In Odessa, they act as tourists during the day, and meet Jews who want to emigrate from USSR and are harassed by the Soviet authorities during the night. All changes when Viktor asks Jérome for a favor, and the latter has to choose between law and morals.
In 1960, Soviet Armenian film director Serghei Paradjanov’s never ending feast of a life is twice changed: he is to become the father of a boy and of a movie. A hit in Europe, SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS receives a cold welcome in the USSR. He leaves Ukraine for Armenia, where his bohemian lifestyle is unchanged and where he shoots SAYAT NOVA. Little does he know his every step is closely watched by the KGB. Arrested on suspicion of sodomy, Paradjanov spends five long years in prison, where he finds salvation in art. Upon his release, he returns to Georgia, where he directs THE LEGEND OF SURAM FORTRESS, a new frowned upon title back at home, a new masterpiece of world cinema. PARADJANOV was Ukraine’s official proposal for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2014 Academy Awards.
Only miles away from the shore, away from the prying eyes of the hordes of tourists that invade the French Riviera every year, a new landform can be admired, one that has yet to be included in the local maps: the garbage mountain. Filmmaker Martin Esposito sets camp near Villeneuve Loubet, to witness what could well be an ecological disaster. This is how he learns that no real recycling efforts are being made, with one of the main polluters being the Cannes International Film Festival.
In 1960’s Patagonia, a German doctor and an Argentinian family’s paths intersect. A guest in Eva (Natalia Oreiro) and Enzo’s (Diego Peretti) hotel, the stranger quickly becomes fascinated by Lilith (Florencia Bado), the couple’s little girl. Aged 12, she looks more like a 9 year old child, which makes the perfection obsessed doctor take it upon himself to help the girl mature at all costs. His charisma, and also his money-upfront politic, ease her parents’ acceptance of him. In the end, they realize Lilith was the subject of a genetic experiment, and the German doctor was no other than one of the most ruthless criminals in history.
