While a second line appears on 15-year-old Zoe’s pregnancy test, her stressed-out mother Gabriella and her care-dependent grandmother Elisabeth are preoccupied with their own worries. Caught in a spiral of mutual criticism, they leave no room for Zoe’s reality.
North American Premiere
Sea Skin
When a shimmering, scaly skin is washed ashore and Fiete returns to the island, Enno’s world begins to unravel. Caught between the watchful eyes of the islanders and the legend of the banished Seewief, Enno grapples with feelings he thought long buried
Les Semelles du Quartier
In the inner courtyard of a working-class neighborhood in the 1950s, a pair of old shoes dangles from an electrical wire — thrown there by mischievous children — causing great distress to Bruno, an 8-year-old boy. The residents, each with their own worries and strong personalities, try to retrieve the shoes for young Bruno, whose heartbreaking cries awaken the empathy of the entire community.
Hiding in The Bubble
Seventeen-year-old Xiaokui has spent her entire life in a small seaside town. A top student with a quiet passion for girl idol groups, she is well known throughout the neighborhood — as is her closest friend, Qiangwei, a brilliant math prodigy who recently transferred back from the city.
At seventeen, Xiaokui’s world is one without romance, without a cellphone — just geography magazines and a giant television screen. In the stillness of her routine life, an unexpected “aurora” quietly descends u
So He Grabbed the Knife
The boy takes the knife his father once gave him. Did what followed make him a “man”?
Tomoshibi
The 2011 Japan tsunami survivors. Walls stand as reminders, separating humanity from the sea. The film explores adaptation to life with these barriers, reflecting on the relationship between man and nature.