Christiaan Hesen (2024)

Mara: The Seal Wife

During a moonlit night, Sine vanishes after childbirth, leaving her husband Magnus devastated. A haunting exploration of Sine's past, unearths the traumatic events that connected her to the selkie realm - a world of mythical creatures who transform from seals into humans by shedding their skins. This poignant journey delves into the profound ties between folklore and the human experience.

The Horse Whisperer

The mother of a severely traumatized daughter enlists the aid of a unique horse trainer to help the girl's equally injured horse.

Dersu Uzala

A military explorer meets and befriends a Goldi man in Russia’s unmapped forests. A deep and abiding bond evolves between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the glacial Siberian woods.

The Mosquito Coast

Allie Fox, an American inventor exhausted by the perceived danger and degradation of modern society, decides to escape with his wife and children to Belize. In the jungle, he tries with mad determination to create a utopian community with disastrous results.

The European Dream

A metaphorical love story about the dream of peace, freedom and solidarity in Europe, with the reality of right-wing politics and terror trying to destroy it.

The Albino's Trees

A poignant moral dilemma unfolding against lush mountainous landscapes, The Albino’s Trees follows Yuku (Ryohei Matsuoka), an animal control hunter who takes on a lucrative job to kill a rare white deer considered to be a god of the forest by a nearby village. Though Yuku initially steps up to the task in order to support his mother’s medical bills, his will begins to falter as he gets to know the villagers and the reasons behind their difficult choice to live as outsiders.

Soul

A group of friends, Manao, Fah, Dao and Krit, enter into the ancient Thai style home inherited by Dech, the purpose is to rebuild the home with the help of their talents. Manao adores reading horror novels. One night, she was requested by her friends to tell the tales she had read from her novels. After she said the fourth story about a young woman was raped to death by 3 young men and buried under the "Takien tree". A series of strange incidents happens and those are exactly the same as the incident occurring in the fourth tales. Who'll be the ones to escape the hands of this vengeful ghost?

Towelhead

A young Arab-American girl struggles with her sexual obsession, a bigoted Army reservist, and her strict father during the Gulf War.

Slope

Living in a village full of slopes can drive you mad. Those who have climbed them in the old-fashioned way are fully aware of that. What they don’t know is that their souls might have stuck around.

Then I Was Lost

A feature-length road trip drama, set on the iconic London canals. We are narrated an unlikely story mixing reality with hints of British folklore. Vincent (Alex Scrivens) is a lone mechanic boater on the canals who’s grieving from the death of his wife. Nursing his wounds with alcohol. One morning he stumbles back to his boat only to find a girl, Samantha (Olivia Griffiths). She’s going up the canal to find her mum, so they travel together, slowly finding a common purpose.

Tide

On the shores of a desolate beach in Cuba, the tide cycle begins, a shark hunter, from the ritual of fishing, experiences the strongest symptoms of his condition and nature.

Jikirag

A pagan village, founded on the bones of both innocent and foul, is deeply rooted within the heart of an ancient Eden. When a balance of flesh and soil decays, the last surviving village elder battles madness and the macabre to save her people from not only themselves, but the monstrous judgement that burrows up from below.

A Wild Heart

Mathan is 17 and struggles with his sexuality and his feelings for his friend François. Over a two summer period, with his friends François and Virginie, he tries to discover his desires, face homophobia and overcome the fear of not being accepted as he truly is.

Juju Stories

Juju Stories tackles juju in contemporary Lagos through three stories. In Love Potion, by Omonua, an unmarried woman agrees to use juju to find herself an ideal mate. In Yam, by Makama, consequences arise when a street urchin picks up seemingly random money from the roadside. In Suffer the Witch, by Obasi, love and friendship turns into obsession, when a young college woman attracts her crush's interest.

The Wechuge That Came To Us

An audiovisual poem. Cryptic whispers speak of a mysterious being, known only to forgotten folklore, that has travelled across distant lands to haunt citizens of a neon-drenched city.

Deliverance

Two monks on a mission choose very different paths

Common Law Cabin

After stealing a fortune in unclaimed jewelry, ex-detective Barney Rickert arrives at a run-down dude ranch in Arizona to hide out. When the owner, Dewey Hoople, refuses to sell the land to Rickert, he proceeds to win over the female inhabitants by seducing them one by one which leads to one refusing his advances and a dangerous game played out in which Rickert ruthlessly sets out to get what he wants.

III

By a hot summer day on the lakeshore, three siblings face death for the first time through their contact with nature.

Le mari ne compte pas

Plot unavailable

tick, tick... BOOM!

On the brink of turning 30, a promising theater composer navigates love, friendship and the pressure to create something great before time runs out.

La Flambée

Plot unavailable

Life Must Go On

When cancer-stricken alcoholic actor discovers he's only got 3 months to live, he decides to change his life and reconcile with his estranged daughter.

The Last Trapper

Norman is not just an admirer of nature, he's a part of it. He survives the harshness of the climate and the wildlife by coexisting with it. With his wife Nebraska, they live almost entirely off the land, making money by selling their furs.

Snow Flower

A terminally ill girl, who dreams of going to Finland to see the northern lights, falls in love

Kanchana Sita

The film interprets a story from the Uttara Kanda of the epic poem Ramayana, where Rama sends his wife, Sita, to the jungle to satisfy his subjects. Sita is never actually seen in the film, but her virtual presence is compellingly evoked in the moods of the forest and the elements. The film retells the epic from a womens' liberationist perspective, and is about the tragedy of power and the sacrifices that adherence to dharma demands, including abandoning a chaste wife.

A Story of the Forest: Mavka

Mavka, a water nymph, loves Lukash, a country youth. Their brief happiness ends when Lukash is forced to marry the shrewish Kilina. The Spirit of the Forest turns Lukash into a wolf as punishment for his infidelity. The strength of Mavka's love breaks the spell, but Kilina curses the nymph, transforming her into a weeping willow. This beautiful and tragic story is based on a play written in 1912 by Lesya Ukrainka, a Ukrainian poet, writer and political, civil and female activist, and includes mythological characters taken from Ukrainian folklore.

Andula vyhrála

Plot unavailable

Hanezu

Woodwork artist Takumi moves to the small village Asuka in Nara Prefecture. He remodels old homes and lives a peaceful existence with nature. Takumi then meets Kayoko, a woman who went to the same school as Takumi. Kayoko is fascinated with the color crimson. She dyes scarves with the color of hanezu. Kayoko lives with boyfriend Tetsuya, who works as an editor of a PR magazine. They live together. Soon, Kayoko falls in love with Takumi.

Dark Tales of Japan

Dark Tales of Japan is a collection of five short horror films that are directed by five notable Japanese film directors, which are told by a mysterious old lady in kimono on a late-night bus traveling on a long isolated mountain road.

The Killer Reserved Nine Seats

A rich man gathers together friends and relatives at the abandoned theatre he owns, but the party isn't fun for long since apparently one of them is a murderer.

Child of Kamiari Month

A year after losing her mother, a young girl learns that she must journey across Japan to the annual gathering of gods in the sacred land of Izumo.

Ile Alatau

A story of four childhood friends who mysteriously disappeared while camping in the rural mountains of Trans Ili Alatau. The following events were recorded on Sultan's videocamera, who was making his student thesis project on a local plant called the Asafoetida.

The Holy Mountain

Professional dancer Diotima finds herself the apex of a love triangle when she is pursued by two mountain climbers, Vigo and his older friend.

Secrets of a Soul

Secrets of a Soul: Margarethe, Creator of bizarre sculptures! Night club dancer? Mad woman? Victim of an occult conspiracy?! Dark menaces steal her soul and organs. Though dead they keep her alive...

A Budding Heart

Mathan, 19, arrives in Paris with Jacques, a famous gay writer in his 50s. Then arises the sexy Olivier, flamboyant thirty, friend of Jacques. How will Mathan get out of the clutches of this "old" couple? Desires, doubts, seduction and jealousy, the ingredients of a tender and insolent comedy on the shock of generations and the question of the couple over time.

Changeling

Fear and superstition take hold of a young family during a time of great hunger in 1879 Ireland.

Ramante Edanthottam

Ram Menon is a nature lover who runs a resort in the middle of the forest to cater to people who wants to get away from their busy lives. Malini is an urban housewife who's having issues with her husband Elvis. She visits the resort for peace of mind and instantly falls in love with the place and eventually the owner.

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

Tender caresses and enveloping embraces are portals into the life of Mack, a Black woman in Mississippi. Winding through the anticipation, love, and heartbreak she experiences from childhood to adulthood, the expressionist journey is an ode to connection — with loved ones and with place.

Macbeth, One After the Last Scene

A theater actor who is taking a part as Macbeth finds himself lost in the role.

Perfect Darkness

Gus and his pregnant girlfriend Anna are on holiday. During their nightly walk to a spot near the water, Anna makes a confession. Can the couple, amidst the wildness of nature and under a full moon, overcome the conflict? Will they reach their idyllic spot?

Jerry

Three young hikers in the woods settle down by a campfire to relax and have a good time, but someone is watching them.