Cómplices (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?

Poof

After a fight at the local football field, a group of four high school boys (Evan, Tyler, Matt, Israel) run into the wild, seeking escape. But when they stumble across a duffel bag filled with baggies, they don't realize that their lives will change forever. While dabbling with the baggies inside, they realize that these drugs allow them to body swap with anybody for 24 hours. When one of the friends decides to use that for his own gain, the friend group must come to blows and stop this before things get worse.

Saudade

Roommates Lorenzo, Calvin, Lee, and Adam go about their daily lives while trying to cope with a joint loss.

Two Queens and One Consort

At the deathbed of his used-to-be militant mother an older man looks back at his childhood, when he was in love with his sensual aunt Coleta.

Valley of a Thousand Hills

A young woman who comes from a conservative village must choose between living a lie to stay the perfect Zulu daughter, or risk her life for true love. Nosipho has a secret. She is a loving daughter held up as an example in her community, with a domineering father who has chosen a potential husband for her. But her soulmate and one true love is a woman.

Prince

A troubled teenager attempts to conquer the girl he's in love with, who seems out of reach. He's lured into criminal activities and becomes alienated from family and friends.

The Last Summer

Four good friends, all seventeen-year old, lose their innocence during their last summer together. Flanders 1996. Rik, Tim, Roel and Bart aimlessly wile away the summer days in a small village where nothing exciting ever happens. When Rik becomes fascinated by the mysterious Sandrine, the boy's friendship comes under increasing pressure. Their reckless behaviour lands the boys in a web of intrigue, which they have a hard time escaping from.

Exploits of a Young Don Juan

In 1914, sixteen year old Roger returned home from boarding school during vacation to find his puberty hit hard in a house filled with beautiful women. These women have previous engagements with other men who are away, and during this time, Roger impregnates them all, including his aunt and sister, then devises plans to cuckold the men.

Oliverio and the Pool

When something unexpected happens in Oliverio’s family, all he wants to do is walk away. He settles on a deckchair by the pool and decides there is no reason to move. Life swirls around him, revealing secrets and presenting new challenges. Through moments of death, excrement and basic physics, Oliverio learns that some truths cannot be ignored.

Other Girls

Other Girls tells the story of four young girls nearing graduation, all of them struggling with various issues.

14+

Alex glides his mouse tenderly over online images of Vika. He has been smitten ever since he saw her with her friends and cannot get her out of his head. Unfortunately, Vika is beyond Alex’s reach because he's not welcome in her neighborhood. Nonetheless, Alex sneaks into a disco at her school and finds up the courage to ask her to dance. Moments are intense as Alex feels infatuation for the first time.

Softie

Ten-year-old Johnny stands out from his family and his tough neighborhood in Eastern France. He's sensitive, intelligent and interested in all kinds of things way beyond his years. With curiosity, he observes the ups and downs of his young single mother's turbulent love life. Things change when a new teacher, fresh from the big city, takes over Johnny's class. Mr. Adamski believes in Johnny and wants to open a new world to him. The sophisticated young teacher also intrigues the boy.

King Jack

Growing up in a rural town filled with violent delinquents, Jack has learned to do what it takes to survive, despite having an oblivious mother and no father. After his aunt falls ill and a younger cousin comes to stay with him, the hardened 15-year-old discovers the importance of friendship, family, and looking for happiness even in the most desolate of circumstances.

Love Will Save Us

The year is 1986. Fredrik and Nina are synthesizers and live in a small village in Scania. Fredrik is passionate about his music and Nina has photography dreams. Fredrik's synth band is about to play its first gig while his parents are about to ruin everything for him. During the most important weekend in Fredrik's life, everything is put to the test.

Dead Poets Society

At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.

Rebel Without a Cause

After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate, although being the new kid in town brings its own problems. While searching for some stability, Stark forms a bond with a disturbed classmate, Plato, and falls for local girl Judy. However, Judy is the girlfriend of neighborhood tough, Buzz. When Buzz violently confronts Jim and challenges him to a drag race, the new kid's real troubles begin.

The Outsiders

When two poor Greasers, Johnny and Ponyboy, are assaulted by a vicious gang, the Socs, and Johnny kills one of the attackers, tension begins to mount between the two rival gangs, setting off a turbulent chain of events.

The Wanderers

The streets of the Bronx are owned by '60s youth gangs where the joy and pain of adolescence is lived. Philip Kaufman tells his take on the novel by Richard Price about the history of the Italian-American gang ‘The Wanderers.’

Stand by Me

After learning that a boy their age has been accidentally killed near their rural homes, four Oregon boys decide to go see the body. On the way, Gordie, Vern, Chris and Teddy encounter a mean junk man and a marsh full of leeches, as they also learn more about one another and their very different home lives. Just a lark at first, the boys' adventure evolves into a defining event in their lives.

Dirty Dancing

Expecting the usual tedium that accompanies a summer in the Catskills with her family, 17-year-old Frances 'Baby' Houseman is surprised to find herself stepping into the shoes of a professional hoofer—and unexpectedly falling in love.

The 400 Blows

For young Parisian boy Antoine Doinel, life is one difficult situation after another. Surrounded by inconsiderate adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with his best friend, Rene, trying to plan for a better life. When one of their schemes goes awry, Antoine ends up in trouble with the law, leading to even more conflicts with unsympathetic authority figures.

Gasping for Air

When his sister disappears after leaving their home in hopes of singing stardom, Luis tracks her down and discovers the grim reality of her whereabouts.

Love is the Word

Love is the Word is a moving, romantic and funny coming-of-age drama about the magic of first love and the misery of first lost, set in 1978: the year 'Grease' hit the big screen.

Blurred Lines

Janik and Samuel are best friends and enjoy the end of high school. Their worlds are different: Janik has parents who always do everything right, while Samuel comes from a broken home. Samuel wants order, Janik wants chaos. A thoughtless moment puts the close bond between the two friends in jeopardy. As they set off on their long-planned trip to Istanbul, the boys are looking to save their friendship, enjoy their freedom and try out a new life.

The Tin Drum

Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world he sees as filled with hypocrisy and injustice, and vows on his third birthday to never grow up. Miraculously, he gets his wish. As the Nazis rise to power in Danzig, Oskar wills himself to remain a child, beating his tin drum incessantly and screaming in protest at the chaos surrounding him.

Almost Famous

In 1973, 15-year-old William Miller's unabashed love of music and aspiration to become a rock journalist lands him an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview and tour with the up-and-coming band, Stillwater.

Closely Watched Trains

At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe of frustration, eroticism, and adventure within his sleepy backwater depot.

American Graffiti

A couple of high school graduates spend one final night cruising the strip with their buddies before they go off to college.

Y Tu Mamá También

In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.

The Virgin Suicides

A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents.

Wild Reeds

As the Algerian War draws to a close, a teenager with a girlfriend starts feeling homosexual urges for two of his classmates: a country boy, and a French-Algerian intellectual.

Beyond Dreams

Mirja must find her place after serving jail time. When she gets a job as a hotel cleaner she starts living a double life. She's torn between her sick mother and her old group of friends, who have always been her real family.

Breathe

The coming of age of Bram, a young boy navigating growing up with his best friend amidst complex feelings and sexual discovery.

Crack of Dawn

The farmhouse of a rural family is declared unfit for habitation. While part of the family fights to save the space their ancestors built, the younger ones imagine where they could go.

Bright Nights

A father tries to rekindle his relationship with his son after years of absence and lack of communication. He takes him on a car ride across northern Norway, hoping it is not too late.

Youthful

On his bike, Titouan is jealous of his older brother, Quentin, who has his own motorbike. Like him, he would like to win the esteem of a motorcycle gang, participate in underground races and have a girlfriend. The sibling rivalry that opposes them will lead Titouan to live a tragic experience.

Bar Mitzvah Boy

On the eve of his Bar Mitzvah, young Elliot finds that all the grown men in his life are somewhat wanting.

Kim Novak Never Swam in Genesaret's Lake

14-year old Erik gets sent to live with his older brother, Henry, during the summer as his mother is dying in cancer. Henry starts dating Ewa, who is married to Berra. A few days after Ewa shows up battered and bruised from an altercation with Berra, he is found dead on a nearby parking lot.

The Devils

The story of the struggle of an autistic girl and her brother trying to survive without their parents.

Scent of Oranges

In love with a girl that smells of oranges while in a complicated relationship with his father, Darek is gentle, strong and devoted to his little sister and their herd of horses. Darek's world is a story about the joy and pain of growing up in the isolated yet beautiful Lusatian Mountains. Here, horses are not expensive specimens of racing stables but beings you should care for and love. Not even that is enough in life though, as Darek finds out nearing the Summer's end, closing his childhood definitely. However, just like any ending, this is a start of something new.

Little Lips

A writer returns home to his estate after service in World War I. He has developed a very bad case of depression due to a war wound concerning his genitalia. He contemplates suicide, but recovers after becoming interested in his caretaker's 12 year-old war orphan niece, who now lives in the manor.

Falena

Intrigued and inspired by an unexpected encounter with an older neighbour, Leila spends her last days in the suburbs exploring her identity through nude photography. As she faces her transition to adulthood, Leila is confronted with her changing relationship to her best friend Cassy.

The Man Who Couldn't

A young Los Angeles cinephile falls in love with a woman but has that love tested by the all-seeing eye of the Internet.

Boys on the Bridge

One day during the summer vacation before high school, Lil Fish skips the orientation and wants to hang out with his buddies. Still, to get the junior high diploma, all his friends are cleaning up the campus to remove their demerits. Only Lychee pals around with him in their fishing village, as they always do. Lil Fish thinks such kind of life will never change, but what happens that day makes him realize he and his friends have embarked on a different future.

Nasty Old People

Member of a neo-Nazi gang, her day job is to take care of four crazy old people that all are just waiting to die. Her life becomes a journey into a burlesque fairytale, where the rules of the game are created by Mette herself. Mette is indifferent about her way of life, until she one night assaults a man, kicking him senseless. Waking up the day after, she realizes that something is wrong.

Over the Edge

A group of bored teenagers rebel against authority in the community of New Granada.

Dribbles

A talented high school artist who's never played organized sports attempts to win a state championship basketball jacket and prove himself to his runaway father.

Choque

A young girl struggles with her cultural identity.

A Bright Sun

Mila, an eleven-year-old girl, faces her last days of life before the end of the world. At the same time, she struggles to understand what this means and to keep her family together by holding a party for the final moment.

Mariana Mariana

The story runs in the 1940s Mexico City. A schoolboy (Carlos) falls in love with his best friend's mother (Mariana). Carlos is impressed because this family is not like the ordinary mexican families of the time, because they have many expensive American things, although they are not rich. The drama begins when Carlos gets out of school to go to declare his love to Mariana, and is discovered by his teachers.

White Squall

In 1960, a hardy group of prep school students boards an old-fashioned sailing ship. With Capt. Christopher Sheldon at the helm, the oceangoing voyage is intended to teach the boys fortitude and discipline. But the youthful crew are about to get some unexpected instruction in survival when they get caught in the clutches of a white squall storm.

Mean Girls

Cady Heron is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George.

Contestant #4

A young boy frequently visits an old man who lives alone, keeping him always in good company. One night, he chances upon the old man watching a dated clip of himself as a cross-dressing boy. This sparks within the young boy an interest to find out more about the old man's past. What he ultimately discovers aids both him and the old man towards a richer understanding of how the weight of life and identity should be carried.

Jelgava '94

Film takes us deep inside the world of Latvian teenagers in 90s: combining the intimate diary of a teenager Jānis trying to find himself by joining a subculture, as well as a skillful, detailed and almost documentary-like depiction of the beginnings of the second independence of Latvia. “Jelgava ’94” is a portrait of a generation in the 1990s who are searching for their own identity and are fans of alternative culture. This is a touching story about us as youngsters, when everybody is against the whole world and tries not to become “one of them”. But can one keep the promise? The story is based on the best seller by Jānis Joņevs set in the 1994 in the Latvian city of Jelgava.

Places of Worship

Steph, a sixteen year old altar server, dutifully puts away the collection money after mass. But when a fellow altar server tries to pocket some of the money, Steph attempts to stop her. What starts as an innocent attempt to prevent thievery looks an awful lot like something else to the priest who interrupts them...Suddenly Steph is followed by symbols of the Virgin Mary, a warning around her sexual desires. Steph must navigate the intimidation of her fellow altar server, a crush on her movie theater coworker, and her own feelings around the comfort of her queer identity.

When The Sky Was Blue

One Sunday between meals and chores with her family, ten-year-old Leah experiences small but striking moments of longing and loss. A series of reimagined memories, the film offers a meditative and wistful glance into the intersectional identities of being Chinese-Australian.

Wonder Boys

Grady is a 50-ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years—not since he wrote his award winning 'Great American Novel' 7 years ago. This weekend proves even worse than he could imagine as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy author.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

In the early 1900s, Miranda attends a girls boarding school in Australia. One Valentine's Day, the school's typically strict headmistress treats the girls to a picnic field trip to an unusual but scenic volcanic formation called Hanging Rock. Despite rules against it, Miranda and several other girls venture off. It's not until the end of the day that the faculty realizes the girls and one of the teachers have disappeared mysteriously.

Thirteen

When average 13-year-old Tracy befriends Evie, the most popular girl in school, Tracy's world is turned upside down as Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs and cash. But it isn't long before Tracy's new world and attitude finally takes a toll on her, her family, and old friends.

Water Lilies

Set during a sultry summer in a French suburb, Marie is desperate to join the local pool's synchronized swimming team, but is her interest solely for the sake of sport or for a chance to get close to Floriane, the bad girl of the team? Sciamma, and the two leads, capture the uncertainty of teenage sexuality with a sympathetic eye in this delicate drama of the angst of coming-of-age.

Lys

Teenage girl Lys is discovered inside the reactor of the newly build TERRA Power Plant and finds she is developing special powers that connect her to the energy of all living things.

Mulberryhood

It’s the summer of 2004. Three boys play ball in a parking lot. Two brothers interfere with the game. One ball.

All the Lonely People

Spanning seven short stories - each taking place in a different city around the globe, “All the Lonely People” showcases a slice of life from various strangers while they try to face their regular, everyday problems. From New Zealand to New York city, the assortment of strangers deal with modern day anxieties that slowly spiral out of control.

Boy on the Bridge

In a seemingly idyllic Cypriot village, twelve-year-old Socrates finds himself in the centre of a murder investigation that exposes a dark family secret and changes his life forever.