Taint (2024)

Every Revolution Is a Throw of the Dice

A tribute to Mallarmé that not only asserts the continuing relevance of his work but also confronts its literary ambiguities with political and cinematic ambiguities of its own. In outline, the film could not be more straightforward: it offers a recitation of one of Mallarmé’s most celebrated and complex poems (it was his last published work in his own lifetime, appearing in 1897, a year before his death) and proposes a cinematic equivalent for the author’s original experiment with typography and layout by assigning the words to nine different speakers, separating each speaker from the other as she or he speaks, and using slight pauses to correspond with white spaces on the original page.

Antoine and Colette

Now aged 17, Antoine Doinel works in a factory which makes records. At a music concert, he meets a girl his own age, Colette, and falls in love with her. Later, Antoine goes to extraordinary lengths to please his new girlfriend and her parents, but Colette still only regards him as a casual friend. First segment of “Love at Twenty” (1962).

Dummy

Using a faceless doll criminal reenacts a brutal crime. But surprisingly he is not the one being judged. There seems to be an odd one out in the investigative group. The film premiered in the Berlinale Short competition programme.

Filipiñana

A film about a girl drawn to a golf course.

Genius Loci

One night, Reine, a young loner, sees among the urban chaos a moving oneness that seems alive, like some sort of guide.

Union County

Cody is a recovering opiate addict in rural Ohio, 45 days clean and enlisted in a strictly enforced drug court programme by the county government. Local sober-living facilities are full, so Cody is living in his car on the outskirts of town and working at the nearby lumber mill to save money and keep busy. But his past doesn't want to forget him.

Memories of a Past

Ramón Aguirre is an old actor from the time of the Mexican Golden Cinema, whose years of fame are completely over. Locked away in his apartment in Tacubaya, afflicted by his unfortunate physical condition, as well as by the resounding change suffered in his city, Ramón only has two hobbies left, writing his memories and regrets in a small diary, mainly that of having lost the love of his life, Silvia, and spy through a small crack on his neighbor, Pedro, who is a writer who suffers from artistic block and constant phone fights with his fiancée, and with whom Ramón has developed a peculiar bond, despite of never having exchanged any word.

Pepper

Today is a big day, it's Pepper's estranged son's birthday. He disowned her 20 years ago for becoming a drag queen. A chance meeting with Charlie, an eight-year-old boy, reminds her the importance of family and doing the right thing.

Field

An elegant, abstracted expression of provincial life in which ordinary everyday details become frozen and magnified as its young protagonists find themselves implicated in a moment of sheer madness.

American Eid

Ameena, a Muslim Pakistani immigrant, wakes up on Eid to find out that she has to go to school. Homesick and heartbroken, she goes on a mission to make Eid a public-school holiday, and in the process, reconnects with her older sister, and embraces her new home, while her new home embraces her.

Dinner Is Served

A Chinese student at an elite U.S. boarding school realizes excellence is not enough when he tries out for a leadership position no international student has ever applied for.

The Little Prince(ss)

When Gabriel, a 7-year-old Chinese kid who loves ballet, becomes friends with Rob, another Chinese kid from school, Rob’s dad gets suspicious about Gabriel's feminine behavior and decides to intervene.

A Tale of the Laundry Game

A night ride, a few beers with an old friend, memories of better times. One seemingly ordinary drive reveals the dark truths of men’s past and a sinister web of strange events.

Alaska is a Drag

Leo's dreams of being an international drag superstar are hard fought working in a fish cannery in Alaska.

Typhoon

An escaped convict on his way to Texas strikes a deal with a young misfit.

Ten Minutes

A desperate man makes a call to customer service looking for an answer.

Survivor Type

A disgraced surgeon stranded on a deserted island with no food and only a handful of supplies must go to great lengths to stay alive for rescue that may never come.

Lolo

Lolo is an openly gay 11-year-old boy trying to finally convince Max, his first love, to go public with their relationship at the school party. Max also wants a relationship but Lolo might not be the one. Lolo’s best friends, Elena and Toby, help him to overcome this situation and give him the support that he needs.

Pray for Us

In a desolate supermarket, a religious woman's peaceful evening is interrupted by the sudden arrival of three punks, who are running away from the police and hiding something much more valuable than money.

Kisses to Kevin

Kevin and Sam meet for a hookup but what if they stay together a little bit longer?

Feral

A wild boy is found in the woods by a solitary hunter and brought back to civilization. Alienated by a strange new environment, the boy tries to adapt by using the same strategies that kept him safe in the forest.

Betrayed

Doug Collins has been a highly-respected analyst at the FBI for twenty-five years. He is liked and admired by all the members of his team, but they've seen changes in Doug recently: an attractive young girlfriend, working odd hours, increased frustration at work. And then there was the time he was seen texting on his Blackberry from inside the SCIF. It's all probably nothing. They know his recent divorce has been tough on him. It's not like he's a spy. But what if he is? What is the price of silence?

Sodom's Cat

"Sodom's Cat" follows Sun, a young man adrift at a sex party, struggling to feel present as those around him lose themselves in pleasure.

nothing, except everything.

A graduating high schooler navigates a world of seemingly inevitable chaos by finding order in the number 7.

The Captain

A hungover plane captain wakes up to discover he's done a very bad thing.

Wake Up

A woman is forced to rediscover her humanity in an increasingly digital world.

Destricted

A compilation of erotic films intended to illuminate the points where art meets sexuality.

Prora

In this deserted former Nazi holiday camp and communist military complex, teenagers Jan and Matthieu embark on an adventure that could change everything. Whilst exploring their surroundings they confront their identities and ultimately put their friendship at risk.

Goldman v Silverman

Rod Goldman and Al Silverman are street performers who work the tourist scene of Times Square. Goldman gets no respect and Silverman is the first one to make sure of that.

The Bereaved

After the death of his father, Paul (18) meets Dresen (60), who also suffered a loss. The two of them spend the night together. But their suppressed mourning turns into aggression. The situation is about to escalate.

Greetings from Florida!

Suzanne and Henry are a retired couple of snowbirds, who now with nothing more to do in life spend their nights smoking and drinking profusely. During the first hurricane of the season they attempt to brave the storm, ignoring the violent weather and bearing each other's company.

Nightshade

Tarik helps his father Elias transport illegal immigrants into the Netherlands. When an accident occurs, Tarik gains the acknowledgment from his father he has yearned for, but at a high price - the loss of his own innocence.

Debris

After a disastrous event on his construction site, Armando acts quickly to save his crew, but instead stumbles upon an unspeakable truth.

Headbutt

Headbutt portrays the desire of Tobias (15) to restore the old relationship he had with his brother Lucas (18). While they used to do everything together, Lucas now has no interest in his younger brother anymore. When Tobias fantasizes that Lucas will commit suicide, Tobias has no other option than to restore the relationship with his isolated brother.

White Spirit

Avoiding uncomfortable pauses in a conversation is an art. Creating such moments in a conversation is a job, more precisely, this is White's job. In this whimsical musical short, dance along with White, a man who interferes in conversations at appropriate - or quite inconvenient - moments.

Siemiany

Andrzej and Michal are two young teenagers who come together every summer in Siemiany, a small tourist village on the countryside. Their friendship has grown into years of great memories. However the boredom of the countryside and the feeling of unity amongst the boys take their friendship to a new level of sexually loaded intimacy.

Victim or Hero

"Victim or Hero" is a short film about the battle between fate and willpower. Do we accept the role of the world’s victim, or take control as the hero of our own story?

Stationary Bike

Adaptation of Stephen King's story "Stationary Bike". After the tragic death of his wife, Boris loses all meaning in life, and his only desire is to be with his beloved again. Her old stationary bike becomes a bridge that connects his world with the path to his wife.

Katshinau

In New France before the British Conquest, Marie, an indigenous slave, serves the local surgeon. Her daily life of household chores is bleak and alienating. The encounter with a young girl she presumes to be her child will give her motivation to undertake radical actions.

Mirrors

Julian is a melancholic teenager on holiday at the family cottage. His holiday gets a twist when a mysterious neighbor confuses him. A summertime coming-of-age drama.

Tsuyako

In postwar Japan, Tsuyako, a factory worker and mother, must decide between duty and love, her family and her freedom.

Foreign Uncle

Sining brings his American boyfriend, Patrick, back to China when he goes to visit his family. Everyone's attitude towards Patrick changes once Sining inadvertently comes out, except for his 7-year-old nephew’s, Naonao.

Thus Began Antoine's Down-Going

Antoine - a grieving loner - spends his days in a cafe on Place Clichy watching people. Every day, he sees a woman he calls Albertine get out of the subway and go to the movies. Today, he takes it upon himself to talk to her. Thus began Antoine's down-going.

00-Baby Boom Child

On their way home by bike through a deserted industrial area, a mother and her son starts to talk about what happened when our dream of eternal economic growth collided with the peak, and following decline in global oil production. In a sad but quite plausible picture of the near future, our children make us accountable for today's irresponsible way of living.

Dawn

On an evening commute, Tye detects racism from another passenger's glance. In revenge, he decides to follow and confront the man. Tye's preconceived notion of race and sexuality are tested when he discovered that his younger brother is gay, and the victim is in fact his younger brother's lover.

Guiltless

Twenty-one-year-old Juan gets some terrible news from his doctor: he has aggressive lung cancer. His whole life turns upside down as the disease evolves.