Raízes (2024)

Viktoria

Dreaming of the West, Boryana is determined not to have a child in communist Bulgaria. Nonetheless, her daughter Viktoria enters the world in 1979, curiously missing a belly button, and is declared the country’s Baby of the Decade. Pampered by her mother state until the age of nine, Viktoria’s decade of notoriety comes crashing down with the rest of European communism. But can political collapse and the hardship of new times finally bring Viktoria and her reluctant mother closer together

Small Change

Various experiences of childhood are seen in several sequences that take place in the small town of Thiers, France. Vignettes include a boy's awakening interest in girls, couples double-dating at the movies, brothers giving their friend a haircut, a boy dealing with an abusive home life, a baby and a cat sitting by an open window, a child telling a dirty joke, and a boy who develops a crush on his friend's mother.

Mirror

A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.

Peter Pan Syndrome

A reflection about growing up

Chasing the Wind

A man reflects on his past through visions of a mysterious figure guiding him through different phases of his life.

July

One hot summer afternoon, two boys try to earn the cash for a movie in this beautiful evocation of the landscape of childhood.

Like Stars on Earth

Ishaan Awasthi is an eight-year-old whose world is filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate. Colours, fish, dogs, and kites don't seem important to the adults, who are much more interested in things like homework, marks, and neatness. Ishaan cannot seem to get anything right in class; he is then sent to boarding school, where his life changes forever.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Dito Montiel, a successful author, receives a call from his long-suffering mother, asking him to return home and visit his ailing father. Dito recalls his childhood growing up in a violent neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., with friends Antonio, Giuseppe, Nerf and Mike.

The Tree of Life

The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

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.

Ángel

Ángel, a small 5-year-old, watches as her mother takes care of her grandmother who is sick with terminal cancer. As the relationships around him start to deteriorate, Ángel tries to help her grandmother…

Alice and the Sunflowers

It was summer on the shores of Lake Geneva. Alice was on vacation at the campsite with her mother, she was bored. One day by chance, she met Zack in the middle of the sunflower fields. Today the summer is over. Before dying, the faded sunflowers tell us the story of this invisible love.

Boy A

Freed after a lengthy term in a juvenile detention center, convicted child killer Jack Burridge finds work as a deliveryman and begins dating co-worker Michelle. While out on the road one day, Jack notices a distressed child, and, after reuniting the girl with her family, becomes a local celebrity. But when a local newspaper unearths his past, Jack must cope with the anger of citizens who fear for the safety of their children.

Goodbye to Our Kindergarten

One day, five kindergarten children suddenly disappear from a kindergarten in Tokyo, sending their teachers and parents into a panic. The five of them are connecting on trains and headed to an unfamiliar place for some purpose. Before their journey, they had made a promise to each other “not to cry no matter what happens”

Blindfolded

Two 9-year-old boys, Jontti and Länki, grow up in a Finnish seaside town in the 1960s. Länki's biggest dream is to run away on a ship to the sea where his father is rumoured to have died. Jontti too must discover that his father is not what he appears to be. When his dad moves away with another woman, Jontti is determined to win him back.

The Left Hand

Young Maxime’s mother starts worrying about him when his 2nd grade teacher declares him “abnormal”. After a distressing visit to the hospital, she decides to confront the teacher, only to see the whole situation in a new light when the most trivial misunderstanding occurs. A short movie about gender, especially when it's projected on others.

THE ROOTS OF THE LEGS

Short Documentary about political conflicts faced by a rooted generation of football players in North Madras.

Kes

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence—until tragedy strikes.

Bila Esok Ibu Tiada

It tells the story of a family with four children consisting of 1 boy and 3 girls. The four children are very dependent on their parents, especially their mother. Until one day, these four siblings had to accept the fate of their mother's passing.

The Lulus

August 1914. While the German army is gaining ground in the North of France, four boys aged 10 to 15, LUcien, LUcas, LUigi and LUdwig are left behind during the evacuation of their orphanage. Without the protection of Abbé Turpin and the schoolteacher Leutellier, the Lulus are now stranded on their own behind the enemy front line. Soon joined by LUce, a pretty young girl separated from her parents, they decide to reach the neutral country of Switzerland by all means possible... they embark on an adventure for which nothing and no one has prepared them!

Christmas by Your Friends

Mads' father’s company is too small for a proper Christmas tree party, so Mads decides to arrange his own for himself and his best friend. But arranging such a party is easier said than done. It involves theft, intrigue and deception. Can Mads overcome the difficulties, or will there be no Christmas tree party?

The Red Balloon

A young boy discovers a stray balloon, which seems to have a mind of its own, on the streets of Paris. The two become inseparable, yet the world’s harsh realities finally interfere.

The Night

Luisa and her sister Estela will play hide and seek during a particular night. They both have suffered an important loss in their family, the mourning and grief will be present inside their house all night long.

The Home Song Stories

Tom, now in his 40s, begins to write the memoirs of his 1960s childhood, as the little boy whose mother Rose was a glamorous Shanghai nightclub singer. When Rose meets Aussie sailor Bill, they are quickly married, and she packs up Tom and his older sister May to head for Melbourne. The marriage just as quickly breaks up and Rose moves with the kids to Sydney. After a succession of male friends and little success, in 1971 Rose moves back to Melbourne, in an uncomfortable arrangement living again with Bill – and his mother. With Bill called away to sea, Rose takes up with young Chinese cook Joe, but despair and conflicts over May's relationship with Joe tear the family further apart. Little Tom is deeply hurt, but May's ongoing conflict with her mother takes a respite when Rose tells her daughter about her traumatic teenage years.

The Fabelmans

Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.

The Slingshot

Stockholm in the 1920s. Young Roland lives with his socialist father, Jewish mother and a boxing brother. His mother sells condoms illegally, and from them, Roland makes slingshots which he sells. His rebellious ways has gotten him the special attention of his school teacher, who always makes sure that Roland is punished. Roland also tries to make extra money by repairing bicycles, a successful business that in the end lands him in hot water.

Paperhouse

A young girl lost in the loneliness and boredom of reality finds solace in an ill boy, whom she can visit in a surreal dream world that she drew in her school composition book.

Dreamcatcher

Four boyhood pals perform a heroic act and are changed by the powers they gain in return. Years later, on a hunting trip in the Maine woods, they're overtaken by a vicious blizzard that harbors an ominous presence. Challenged to stop an alien force, the friends must first prevent the slaughter of innocent civilians by a military vigilante ... and then overcome a threat to the bond that unites the four of them.

Boy

The life of a boy.

Where Burning Cold Lies

Based on a real testimony, "Where the cold burns" takes us back in time through an atmospheric journey towards the feelings of a woman. Aurora arrives at her childhood home in the midst of an accumulation of fog and intense cold. Uneasy, she visits this place to reunite with her dead father. But the past overwhelms her, those uncomfortable events of her childhood are relived, which has been marked by the love and abuse of her father.

Una tarde en la vida de dos niños kelpers

Plot unavailable

The Childhood of a Leader

The chilling story of a young American boy living in France in 1918 whose father is working for the US government on the creation of the Treaty of Versailles. What he witnesses helps to mold his beliefs – and we witness the birth of a terrifying ego.

Hearts in Atlantis

A widowed mother and her son change when a mysterious stranger enters their lives.

Finding Friends

This kid has to move to a farm in his summer vacation and don't get to go to Norway Cup as he had planned for. Out on the country there is bad cellphone reception, cow smell and inbreed farmers as far as the eye can see. The family Volvo get stolen and the foreigners in the small town automatically gets blamed. From there is a chase to discover what truly happened...

Toto the Hero

80-year-old Thomas recounts his childhood and middle age through a series of flashbacks and dream sequences. Thomas believes he’s been taken away from a better life at birth; following a hospital fire, he vividly recalls being swapped with another new-born, and subsequently grows up in a poorer neighbouring household.

Even If It Rains

As he sits on a present situation where his childhood's expiration date gives way to an uncertain adolescence, Agustín decides to create a small freedom spot far from his daily routine.

Time Regained

In early 1920s France, an author, lying on his deathbed, looks at various photographs and is flooded with memories of the people and events that have shaped his life.

My Friend Henry

When 12-year-old Elsi Björkman and her mother Paula return from a week's holiday abroad, Elsi immediately notices that someone has been in her room. She tells her mother about it, but she does not believe her. At the local supermarket Elsi meets Henry, who seems to spend his time returning shopping trolleys. Elsi does not know anything about the boy, who has an irritating habit of appearing from out of nowhere, only to disappear again, as if into thin air. Nevertheless, the children become friends.

The Visitor

A young boy lives with his mother on a farm surrounded by deep forest in the remote wilds of the Finnish countryside. From time to time, the boy visits his father - a man of great violence - in prison. Locked in the stable is an unruly horse, the boy´s only other companion. Their simple life is disrupted when a stranger appears, with a note from the father and a bullet in his side. Reluctantly, mother and son offer the stranger refuge.

To the Sea

Before leaving for Rome with his mother, five year old Natan is taken by his father, Jorge, on an epic journey to the pristine Chinchorro reef off the coast of Mexico. As they fish, swim, and sail the turquoise waters of the open sea, Natan discovers the beauty of his Mayan heritage and learns to live in harmony with life above and below the surface, as the bond between father and son grows stronger before their inevitable farewell.

Olote

Julia is a child living in a Mexican town trapped in the war against drug trafficking. After waiting for days for his father’s return she meets Miria, a hitman boy.

A Girl Returned

A 13 years old girl is forced to go living with another family for reasons unknown.

Love Likes Coincidences

Year 1977, a September morning in Ankara... Yilmaz tries to rush his pregnant wife Neriman to the hospital and he crushes into Omer's car. This accident causes Omer's pregnant wife Inci, who was in the back seat, to have a pre-term labor. The babies are born on the same day. They see each other for the first time... This accident is the threshold of the coincidences that bring Ozgur and Deniz together.