Despertar (2024)

Kongomüller

After numerous military operations, Major Müller can't find a way back into civilian life. Following his urge to communicate, the Major is looking for listeners and encouragement. He doesn't find either. Instead, the repeated monological memory of his own heroic deeds determines his present – with all the consequences. This 30-minute short film is based on the statements made by the mercenary Siegfried Müller in the documentary “The Laughing Man” (Walter Heynowski and Gerhard Scheumann, DEFA studio for newsreels and documentaries, 1966), as well as records from the German colonial period in Africa. An intensive contribution to the necessary public debate about the consequences of military operations.

The Opposite of Sex

A 16-year-old girl visits her gay half-brother and ends up seducing his boyfriend, thus wreaking havoc on all of their lives.

Free Subject

Iris, a teacher in her early forties who works at a Fine Arts School, assigns to her students an exercise on a Free Subject. It is a time when social behaviours and values are being called into question. The 20-year-old students are thrilled at the idea of being free to choose their own subjects. They create an “imagination factory” that has no limits. After finding Iris’s lost cell phone, provocative Yorgos, bases his Free Subject on his fictitious recreation of his teacher’s life. Free Subject deals with the limits of individual freedom in contemporary Western societies.

Cotton Wool

A single mother suffers a devastating stroke leaving her teenage daughter and 7-year-old son to care for her, testing the family's strength to hold things together as their roles are reversed.

A Magic Mirror

A jerk husband Sandro and his young wife Giulia have moved into a new apartment. She is unpacking, and he his lounging in the bath. When his brother Walter comes over to deliver a new wall mirror. The brother makes a pass at the young wife, as he has secretly wanted to do for years.

Olivia

"Olivia" captures the awakening passions of an English adolescent sent away for a year to a small finishing school outside Paris. The innocent but watchful Olivia develops an infatuation for her headmistress Julie and through this screen of love observes the tense romance between Julie and the other head of the school Cara in its final months.

Private Photos

A sweet couple invite a third person over for the night, who brings a lustful energy to spice things up.

Poppy Field

A young Romanian gendarme, Cristi, tries to find the balance between two apparently opposing parts of his identity: that of a man working in a macho hierarchical environment and that of a closeted gay person who tries to keep his personal life a secret. While his long-distance French boyfriend, Hadi, is visiting him, Cristi is called in for an intervention at a movie theatre, where an ultra-nationalist, homophobic group has interrupted the screening of a queer film. After one of the protesters threatens to out him, Cristi spirals out of control.

Empty

A disconnected husband and wife fill the void of their marriage with addictive technology to destructive results.

Land

On a boat at night, the secret journey of a man returning home.

JONES

Jones' inner demons threaten to take over her life unless she outruns the voices in her head and the ticking of time.

2 Weeks

When 20-something-year-old Tanya begins to realize she’s asexual, the highly charged sexualized world she lives in as an actress and partner begins to fall apart and feels more and more like an unbearable nightmare.

Into the Blue

Thirteen year old Julija and her mother flee their abusive household to find refuge on an idyllic Croatian island where Julija grew up. Emotionally scarred, Julija is desperate to reconnect with her best friend, Ana. But Ana is in love with a boy and Julija is no longer a priority.

Fallen Art

Fallen Art presents the story of General A, a self-proclaimed artist. His art, however, consists of a deranged method of stop motion photography, where the individual frames of the movie are created by photographs made by Dr. Johann Friedrich, depicting the bodies of dead soldiers, pushed down by Sergeant Al from a giant springboard onto a slab of concrete.

Save Me

A sex and drug addicted young man who is forced into a Christian-run ministry in an attempt to cure him of his "gay affliction", where instead he is faced with the truth in his heart and spirit.

Fragile

Mehdi is a hopeless romantic. But he’s too uptight according to his best friend, Olive, who urges him to loosen up and have some fun with gay dating apps.

Chinese Checkers

His Oriental predator is at first clothed in black, her 'victim' in white; slowly the costumes change, the victim acquiring a veil of mourning, until finally - as if to underline the ambiguity and interchangeability of their respective roles - the colours are reversed altogether. Still more interesting is the way in which, as the game becomes more ambiguous, Dwoskin adds fresh layers of make-up to his characters' faces, until they become almost caricature masks of their original selves.

Personal Best

Young sprinter Chris Cahill is having difficulty reaching her potential as an athlete, until she meets established track star Tory Skinner. As Tory and her coach help Chris with her training, the two women form friendship that evolves into a romantic relationship. Their intimacy, however, becomes complicated when Chris' improvement causes them to be competitors for the Olympic team.

Franco Sex Doll

A man "unboxes" a vintage doll that bears a likeness to television and film star James Franco. As the man plays with the doll, it spouts soundbites from Mr. Franco's past; the man becomes obsessed.

The Roof

After being sent to stay with his grandfather, a Cheyenne teen uncovers a connection to his family and community in a way he never thought possible.

Días de voda

Sonia, the daughter of a prominent publisher, is about to fulfill her lifelong dream of marrying Rosendo, a promising writer with homosexual tendencies, who pines for his fiancee far less than he does for the brand new literary award launched by his future father-in-law. The wedding shindig will bring its share of unexpected surprises. This is a film is part of the DOGME 95 Movement, described as follows: 'the goal of the Dogme collective is to purify film-making by refusing expensive and spectacular special effects, post-production modifications and other gimmicks. The emphasis on purity forces the filmmakers to focus on the actual story and on the actors' performances. Given these restrictions the story and the action of DIAS DE BODA ('WEDDING DAYS') seem much more immediate and the lapses in fluidity of the story can be forgiven - to a point.

Freak Show

The story of teenager Billy Bloom who, despite attending an ultra conservative high school, makes the decision to run for homecoming queen.

End of September

The father is a complete stranger and the mother an alcoholic unable to raise a child. For this reason, Christian is forced to fill the role of parent for his younger brother Giulio. He wants to make sure Giulio goes to school every morning. Unfortunately, he also has to go to work at the same time. Thus the ordinary becomes extraordinary for the two brothers.

Stay

Being young and in love. a short story about Miscommunication. we follow Charlie and Molly from 18 to 21 years of age, after a long time apart Molly is back from University and bumps into Charlie. they spend the night reconnecting with each other.

The Gesture and The Word

A lonely postman (Gilbert) secretly recreates postcards for a woman (Aurore) on his postal route when her boyfriend's homemade postcards stop arriving from his travels around the world. With the help of his friend Mr. Rostalle, (Paul Dooley) a blind widower and retired literary professor/poet, Gilbert (James Michael Tyler) learns to open himself up to the prospect of love, and in the process of trying to bring someone else happiness, discovers it for himself.

The Last Dragon

Video poem based on The Last Dragon by Radu Stanca.

Casa de Carne

On a night out with friends, Eric tries a new restaurant that takes the dining experience full circle.

Punch

Jim is preparing for his first professional fight but begins to rethink his life's trajectory and his sexuality after tangling with Whetu, a gay Maori boy who spends his days in an old shack down by the beach.

Lost Angel

When a young Dutch tourist gets stranded at the start of his US vacation, he finds help from an unlikely stranger.

Three Kilometres to the End of the World

Adi a gay teenager is spending the summer in his home village in the Danube Delta. One night he is brutally attacked on the street, the next day his world is turned upside-down. His parents no longer look at him as they did, and the seeming tranquility of the village starts to crack.

Swipe

A young boy addicted to iFatwa, an app that crowdsources religious death sentences, spends his days swiping on the lives of strangers.

Kinship

Rabah is forced to take over custody of his son Cédrick. The boy has been mute since losing his mother. Despite the financial strain caused by his immigrant status and undeterred by his fraught relationship with his son, Rabah will manage to rebuild Cédrick’s trust so they can be a family again.

Mädchen in Uniform

A sensitive girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers.

My Summer of Love

In the Yorkshire countryside, working-class tomboy Mona meets the exotic, pampered Tamsin. To seal their friendship, Mona introduces Tamsin to her born-again Christian brother and helps her spy on her adulterous father. Bound together by their secrets, the two girls see their friendship deepen and enter into dangerous waters.

Made on the Rooftop

Ha-neul, who is unemployed, moves to his best friend Bong-sik's house after breaking up with his lover. Together, they face the woes of love and relationships.

Milk

The true story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man ever elected to public office. In San Francisco in the late 1970s, Harvey Milk becomes an activist for gay rights and inspires others to join him in his fight for equal rights that should be available to all Americans.

We're Both Grooms

About the wedding day of Seto Ryosuke, an elementary school teacher, and Aikawa Mizuki, a lemon farmer. Right before the ceremony, Mizuki finds out that his partner didn't tell his parents, relatives, and friends that he is marrying a man. This discovery starts a series of events the two have to face, like a furious outburst of Ryosuke's father, a big fight between heads of the two families, as well as an appearance of Mizuki's ex-boyfriend.

The Visit

Hagar comes to visit her father who lives in a nursing home in Jerusalem. Unable to deal with his condition she looks at him and turns away, but a series of incidents forces her to spend the day in the building. First a mishap which makes her change her clothes, then an old woman stuck with her wheelchair in the hallway and then the head nurse that thinks Hagar is a Russian caretaker. She gets swallowed up in the work and slowly becomes part of the staff. The short visit turns into a journey between the narrow corridors of society.

Are We Ok?

Temmuz is an openly gay sculptor living at a flat with his dog in Istanbul. He lives a bohemian lifestyle and has a happy go lucky, carefree, eccentric (such as believing in good luck charms) character, frequently distracting him from his work as a children's book illustrator, and eventually leading him to be abandoned by his boyfriend via e-mail. He is given solace and affection by her wealthy mother, who is fully supportive of him, and best friend and co-worker, Beste. In the meantime, he keeps seeing a young man in his dreams, who repeatedly calls him for help and rescue. One day he runs into this guy while getting on the bus, who is accompanied by his mother, and helps them get into their home as the young man was born without limbs. From then on, two lives would collide into each other, starting a brotherhood full of discoveries and mutual help.

Artemide's Knee

Jean-Marie Straub's first film after the death of Danièlle Huillet is a love poem to her. Le Genou d'Artémide is based on Cesare Pavese's "Dialogues of Leuco", which had already been adapted by Straub et Huillet as Ces Rencontres Avec Eux (2006).

Five Ways to Get Rid of a Hickey

Being caught at school giving each other a hickey, Manu (14) and Toña (15) begin a journey of desire, guilt and goodbyes.

Withered in a Blooming Season

Brotherly love goes too far when Feng gets his twin sister pregnant while both of them are still in high school, creating a problem that's bigger than both of them. Convincing his gay friend Le Le to take the blame seems like the best option.

Mouth of Life

The film tells the story Hung, who was loved by his family as a child and lived in the protective arms of his parents. But the more the boy grew up, the more people slandered him about his gender. Pressure from family, and arguments from neighbors and people, the boy decided to run away to fulfill his "dream" of being himself, finding the light on the lottery stage. On stage, Hung becomes a charming and beautiful actress. People call her Hong Hoa, not Hung. She fulfilled her dream: to sing, to be praised, to be admired. But somewhere, deep inside her, there is still a smoldering wound called "family" - an emptiness that can never be filled.

The Circle

A young teacher in Zurich in the 1950s falls in love with a transvestite star but is torn between his bourgeois existence and his commitment to homosexuality. He joins a gay organization that is eventually seen as the pioneer of gay emancipation in Europe.

Tenderness

It's the first time Adrien is entering a homosexual sauna. In the space of one night, he discovers this microcosm where the comic aspect of the individual tragedies encounters the passing of time and where hope mingles with melancholy.

Actos impuros

Oscar works in a public bath, where he murders several people.