The Last Day With Melody (2024)

New Queer Visions: The Last Days of Innocence

When adulthood looms, naivety fades, and a whole new, strange world opens up. These four beguiling European stories, from acclaimed film festivals the world over, explore these years of youthful wonder with a deftness and artistry that lingers. The short films are: Ruins [Ruines] (2019); Aline (2019); Snake [Змија] (2020); The Touching [Dotýkání] (2020).

The Playground

After years of traveling, Anyas parents have decided to return from Australia to their native France, and she has to attend a public school for the first time in her life. But normal everyday school life quickly causes problems for the girl. On the first day, she gets a shot with a soccer ball on the head. When no one wants to apologize for this, a violent argument immediately ensues. So she messed it up with the locals right from the start. Anya becomes an outsider, which doesn't even really bother her. But Zoé, Nils and Jade, who are also a bit different, take care of her. A new clique is formed. But the pretty outsider would prefer to be friends with Nathan, the school director's son. But he gives her the cold shoulder because it wouldn't be cool to be interested in girls in front of his buddies. Meanwhile, the girls hatch a plan to win their place in the schoolyard. A real fight ensues between the students. Now it's girls against boys. But how far can a dispute between children go?

The Boys and the Donkey

A group of young Tibetan boys seek retribution against a donkey that harmed one of their own, only to encounter escalating complications.

Nova

In the wake of her parents' divorce, 13 year old Nova is confronted by an identical but seemingly older version of herself called The Other, forcing her to admit her childhood is over.

A Long Run (A sequel)

The sequel to 'A short walk' A short film looking through the lens of three years passed

The Colour Blue

Reece tries to find the courage to come out to his family and friends.

Growing Pains

Two childhood girl friends, Zoe and Nat, face the tumultuous changes of transitioning from middle to high school as their friendship drifts apart. Zoe, a cancer survivor, joins the crew team which exacerbates her body image & mental health struggles. Nat battles with her sexuality and the expectations of her parents.

Three

19-year-old queer Slovenian Klara spends the last hot summer night with her friends Nejla and Lars before she goes to study abroad. The film is an ode to the Ljubljana queer community, young love and that last summer before adulthood.

Toxic

Dreaming of an escape from the bleakness of their hometown, two teens form a unique bond at a local modeling school, where the promise of a better life pushes girls to violate their bodies in increasingly extreme ways.

Opening Night

A teenage boy navigates the final minutes before his first theater stage performance, which includes experiencing his first kiss. Despite his rising anxiety, he shares a romantic moment with a classmate.

Autorretrato

Dani has always felt that he is different from boys his age and that, for some reason, he had to keep it a secret. Now, at 16, he begins to understand the feelings that run through him, and with them come new fears that torment him. With the arrival of Lucas from the city, he finally finds a mirror in which to look at himself and thus gather the necessary strength to accept what he is: a gay boy in rural Spain in 1990.

In Memory

Pedro is a simple man. He goes to work, eats dinner and goes out with his wife. But, on an ordinary night, he receives a call that changes his whole perspective in life, unlocking memories that were buried a long time ago.

Happy Birthday to Us!

The story of two inseparable friends born on the same day of the same year. As they grow up, their unique, idyllic world—understood only by them—begins to crumble when one of them finds a boyfriend.

Black Metal

A black teen is determined to make it as a heavy metal artist in defiance of his father, a failed jazz musician.

Calendar Girl

Three young men go on an end of the summer trip to Hollywood, California. Their quest: to fulfill the fantasy of meeting Marilyn Monroe.

We Are

Seven friends part ways after their last day at school. Some seek their fortune in Tokyo, others remain in their hometown Maebashi. Over the course of ten years, their paths keep crossing, and while they experience losses and broken dreams, they learn about the value of friendship. Director Michihito Fujii tells a timeless coming-of-age story in this outstanding ensemble drama.

Douro: O Curta

Plot unavailable

P. P. Rider

Three high-school students tangle with indulgent yakuza and lackadaisical police as they set out in search of the class bully, who has been kidnapped.

The Friends

A delightful and moving coming-of-age story. One summer, three young boys take an increasing interest in an eccentric old man who lives alone in a house surrounded by an overgrown garden. The boys form a bond with the recluse and set about weeding and replanting the garden.

The House on Chelouche Street

A fatherless family immigrates to Israel from Egypt during the British Mandate period. The film traces the hardships the family suffers in the politically unstable country.

Halves of Three

Gheorghe, a reserved exchange student is confronted with his feelings of friendship turning into love for his best friend, Isaac. As they spend their last day together, he grapples with the fear of rejection, leading to a crucial moment of self-discovery. This poignant narrative delves into the themes of unrequited love, friendship, sexuality, and the courage to express the truth, even when it seems too hard.

Cherry Blossoms in March

In this mother-daughter story, a young woman explores her own mortality through art and poetry as her terminal illness holds her back from a normal life.

Khai

Plot unavailable

Bad Indian - the Villain Origin Story

Bad Indian – The Villain Origin Story, is a coming of age comedy-drama about Abbey, a young woman from Croydon. When Abbey lies to her strict Catholic Indian Mother about her rejection from Cambridge University her only method of escapism is to have one memorable night at the infamous Tiger Croydon’s A-Level Results Party. But what happens when the truth she's been running from violently slaps her in the face.

To Kill The Lonely Dragon

A burnout theatre student finds himself in a fantasy realm materialized by the nighttime stories his mother used to tell him every night as a child.

Kabuliwala

When Arjun, a 8-year-old-boy, expresses his desire to switch from daily car rides with his grandfather, Mr. Chaturvedi, to taking the school bus with his friends, Mr. Chaturvedi goes through an internal crisis leaving him feeling unwanted and lonely.

Morris from America

A heartwarming and crowd-pleasing coming-of-age comedy with a unique spin, Morris from America centers on Morris Gentry, a 13-year-old who has just relocated with his single father, Curtis. to Heidelberg, Germany. Morris, who fancies himself the next Notorious B.I.G., is a complete fish-out-of-water—a budding hip-hop star in an EDM world. To complicate matters further, Morris quickly falls hard for his cool, rebellious, 15-year-old classmate Katrin. Morris sets out against all odds to take the hip-hop world by storm and win the girl of his dreams.

The Favourite Game

As a kid, Leo thought he possessed, like a magician, the secret power to make things happen. As a young man, he certainly knows how to make things happen with women. But as his best friend Krantz would say to him, "Why do you always ask questions you already know answers to?" Leo believes firmly in what he invents from one day to the next. Images, impressions, stories fill his head. That's just how he is: life, for Leo, is just a game. Behind this childlike attitude, hides the very essence of his own life's quest.

The Empty Hours

Stuck managing his uncle's deserted motel on Veracruz's lonely coast, 17-year-old Sebastian finds solace in unexpected company. Miranda, a beautiful yet seemingly forlorn guest, whiles away the hours waiting for her perpetually late lover. As conversations between them blossom into a connection neither anticipated, a forbidden spark ignites. Will they succumb to the fiery temptation of a fleeting passion, or will they cage their desires for a life dictated by circumstance?

High School Girl

A shy schoolboy's life changes when his uninhibited female cousin stays at his home for the summer.

The Lives We Lead

Two sisters and their male counterparts struggle with the negative influences of their youths over a 50-year period.

Welcome Home

This is the story of two childhood friends - Lucas (a 16-year-old high-schooler) and Bert (a mechanic’s apprentice) - who flee the suffocating fish bowl that their killjoy families’ lives have become. Lucas, still quite immature, finds a “big brother” in Bert, a guide who is going to take him straight to the brink of catastrophe. But very quickly, boredom resurfaces and the freewheeling sense of being on an adventure evades them. Should they return to the fold, or keep moving on? Their drifting logic compels them to blindly forge ahead.

Balloon

In the brutal battlefield of junior high, Sam has always tried to stay below radar — but all that changes when he discovers he has super powers.

Dust

The short drama film Dòst tells the tough coming of age process of best friends Alko and Björn in a small rural village community. Between agricultural weekend work and partying, dealing with other adolescent boys and girls, one kiss can make a big difference. The urge to fit in, to uphold image, and peer pressure makes the boys both having to make choices that will affect their friendship.

In Your Dreams!

Only a few girls practice the art of parkour – running and somersaulting over rooftops, free-climbing up rusted scaffolding and leaping from one wall to the next. Laura takes it all in her stride. Though as she wildly races through the streets of Prague, her thoughts are running wild too. She has a crush on Luky, but he doesn‘t show much interest in her. Laura‘s parents live apart, and her mother is desperately looking for someone new. Jealousy, misunderstandings with her best friend – Laura‘s life is full of confusion. Sometimes, when she can‘t take it anymore, fantasy worlds evolve. When hope and fear push through the cracks of reality, it gets harder to keep her life in balance.

French Postcards

French Postcards rings both comic and true. The believable, fresh-faced characters are young naives from American colleges spending their French-English dictionaries, they compulsively seek out hundreds of monuments, romanticize the nomadic artist's life, and look for grown-up love. The French tutor them well, as befits their reputation. Jean Rochefort is the harassed headmaster with a hankering for affairs, and Marie-France Pisier is his very sexy wife. Watch for a newcomer named Debra Winger, and another-Mandy Patinkin.

Historia de un Verano

Plot unavailable

Sleeves

While dealing with the worst trauma of her life, Caroline ditches school for the first time to search for her place in the world.

Paradise Is Burning

In a working-class area of Sweden, sisters Laura (16), Mira (12) and Steffi (7), get by on their own, left to their own devices by an absent mother. With summer on the way and no parents around, life is wild and carefree, vivacious and anarchic. But when social services call a meeting, Laura has to find someone to impersonate their mom, or the girls will be taken into foster care and separated. Laura keeps the threat a secret, so as not to worry her younger sisters. But as the moment of truth draws closer, new tensions arise, forcing the three sisters to negotiate the fine line between the euphoria of total freedom and the harsh realities of growing up.

Palm Trees and Power Lines

A disconnected teenage girl enters a relationship with a man twice her age. She sees him as the solution to all her problems, but his intentions are not what they seem.

Flamboyants

The trajectory of flamboyant bodies that expose themselves in their social networks, whether artistic or not, and use these spaces freely.