The Writer Who Hated the Swedish Language (2025)

Elsewhere, Everywhere

A computer screen, images from the four corners of the world. We cross borders in one-click while another trip’s story reach us in bits, through text messages, chats, phone conversations, and an immigration office’s questionnaire. It’s the journey of Shahin, a 20-year-old Iranian boy who, fleeing his country alone, lands in Greece, then winds his way to England where he claims asylum.

The Shelter

It is winter at an emergency shelter for the homeless in Lausanne. Every night at the door of this little-known basement facility the same entry ritual takes place, resulting in confrontations which can sometimes turn violent. Those on duty at the shelter have the difficult task of “triaging the poor”: the women and children first, then the men. Although the total capacity at the shelter is 100, only 50 “chosen ones” will be admitted inside and granted a warm meal and a bed. The others know it will be a long night.

Spiegelbeeld

Tilburg artist Tommy van der Loo searches for the influence of superiority thinking, racism and colour in his life. Van der Loo is an emerging artist and his work has been purchased by Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. He also had an exhibition at the Kunsthal. He also made the memorial for the abolition of slavery in Eindhoven. He has had multiple experiences with discrimination and incorporates that into his sculptures. Identity and image formation are important to him: How do you look at others, how do others look at you. The search is the inspiration for his new sculpture.

Fernanda Young: Foge-me ao Controle

A dive into the intimate and creative universe of writer, screenwriter, and presenter Fernanda Young. The documentary takes an unconventional approach and becomes a poetic essay, using disruptive archive collages and visual and soundscapes of intimate moments. The film is also an invitation to reflect on creativity and artistic courage.

Do Útero Ao Túmulo

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Baggages

This documentary focuses on immigrant teens between the ages of 12 and 17 who share the story of their migration and their adaption to life in Canada through theatre. Young but wise, these children describe their experiences with emotion and authenticity.

Reverón

Directed by Margot Benacerraf, Reverón is a poetic and visually striking documentary that delves into the life and artistic vision of Venezuelan painter Armando Reverón. Set in the sun-drenched coastal landscape of Macuto, where the artist lived in near isolation, the film captures his eccentric lifestyle and unique creative process. Through evocative imagery and a contemplative narrative, Reverón explores his deep connection to nature, his experiments with light and texture, and his profound artistic genius. This seminal work stands as a tribute to one of Venezuela’s most influential painters and a landmark in Latin American documentary filmmaking.

SKATEPARK

No one has ever seen a skateboarder at this Loiret skatepark. At first glance, this place away from the village is deserted. But if you hang around for a long time, you enter the kingdom of adolescents, an empire without adults where relationships are made and broken with the rhythm of the seasons.

I Am Here

For Ababacar and Mbaye - two Senegalese immigrants who met and established a great friendship in Buenos Aires - the challenge goes beyond adapting to the customs and living conditions in Argentina, or dealing with the indifference and racism they suffer on a daily basis: both came to an instance of their lives in which they must define a course, and in turn accept that their identities and needs have become more complex. The decision to leave their country was driven by the urgent objective of financially supporting their families, but the stay in Buenos Aires crossed them with new people, new ways of seeing things, and even an economic situation different from that which they found at home. Their different ways of seeing things allow them to see in each other a different version of themselves.

Under Construction

Markku built a house for his family with his own bare hands like a strong man is supposed to do. He worked hard from dawn to dusk, so that his seven children would have a roof above their heads. Unfortunately, the task ended up being too hard and Markku burnt out. One day, he left his family and disappeared abroad. The filmmaker travels to his childhood home to face his father, who he never got to know properly. Together they build a steel gate in front of the unfinished house, and try to create a relationship between each other.

Raqs-e-Inquilab

The film interweaves the personal narratives of four Kashmiri artists, three of whom - Syed Mujtaba Rizvi, Hina Arif and Zeeshan Jaipuri - are children of the conflict, their impressionable adolescent years years landing right in the middle of the region's most violent period in the 90s. The fourth character, renowned painter and art teacher Masood Hussain, grew up in a time of relative peace before becoming witness to Kashmir's tragic transformation. While their individual traumas are unique, they are connected by their pursuit to process this splintered world through unfiltered artistic expression.

All of Me

"Take my love" is a documentary film about "Las Patronas", a group of women who daily cook, pack and throw food to the migrants riding the "Beast" train.

Wuthering Heights: Love, Hate and Vengeance

In 1847, British writer Emily Brontë (1818-48), perhaps the most enigmatic of the three Brontë sisters, published her novel Wuthering Heights, a dark romance set in the desolation of the moors, a unique work of early Victorian literature that stunned contemporary critics.

Ballet Boys

Ballet Boys takes you through disappointments, victories, forging of friendship, first loves, doubt, faith, growing apart from each other, finding your own way and own ambitions, all mixed with the beautiful expression of ballet.

Hello My Dear

The documentary is titled after Arkadaş Z. Özger’s poem “Hello My Dear” which had caused much controversy in the period it was first published. Considered to be in defiance of heteronormativity, the said poem includes references to the poet’s personality, his family, his relationship to the society, and his “unexpected” death, which came three years after its publication. Today, 50 years after it was written, the documentary follows these same lines in the poem utilising cinematic elements. The documentary also rediscovers the poetics; reaches out to the family, the comrades, the friendships, departing from the official historical accounts, cognizant of his experience of otherness, in pursuit of the “lost” portrait of Arkadaş Z. Özger.

Visions of Europe

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

Gauguin: A Dangerous Life

Gauguin’s vivid artworks sell for millions. He was an inspired and committed multi-media artist who worked with the Impressionists and had a tempestuous relationship with Vincent van Gogh. But he was also a competitive and rapacious man who left his wife to bring up five children and used his colonial privilege to travel to Polynesia, where in his 40s he took ‘wives’ between 13 and 15 years old, creating images of them and their world that promoted a fantasy paradise of an unspoilt Eden in the Pacific. Later, he challenged the colonial authorities and the Catholic Church in defence of the indigenous people, dying in the Marquesas Islands in 1903, sick, impoverished and alone.

The Painter and the Thief

When two of artist Barbora Kysilkova’s most valuable paintings are stolen from a gallery at Frogner in Oslo, the police are able to find the thief after a few days, but the paintings are nowhere to be found. Barbora goes to the trial in hopes of finding clues, but instead she ends up asking the thief if she can paint a portrait of him. This will be the start of a very unusual friendship. Over three years, the cinematic documentary follows the incredible story of the artist looking for her stolen paintings, while at the same time turning the thief into art.

Bomb It

Through interviews and guerilla footage of graffiti writers in action on five continents, the documentary tells the story of graffiti from its origins in prehistoric cave paintings thru its notorious explosion in New York City during the 70’s and 80’s, then follows the flames as they paint the globe.

Going Varsity in Mariachi

A year in the life of an underdog competitive high school mariachi band in the Texas borderlands.

Konrad Mägi

A documentary made for Konrad Mägi exhibition "The Light of the North" in Torino, Musei Reali (2019-2020), about Mägi's life and his legacy.

Peach

How are biographies charted? How is identity constructed? Can we relive our past, reinvent it, rearrange or recycle it? Can we really know who we are if we ignore where do we come from?

Speeding, of Course

70-year-old Timo makes the most of his short ride to work. Speeding up on a bicycle ends up in a ditch, but the adrenaline rush leaves a feeling of pleasure.

The Night

An installation film that consists of a six-hour-long monologue performed by Edith Clever, who reads texts by Syberberg and many different authors, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich von Kleist, Plato, Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eduard Mörike, Richard Wagner, William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, and Chief Seattle.

Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough

One of the most controversial writers of our times, join Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh as he undergoes a remarkable trip to find new meaning in his work, life and legacy.

Kelet

Kelet is a twentysomething black trans woman, whose greatest dream is to be on the cover of Vogue magazine. For the Finnish-born and Manchester-raised Kelet, such models as Naomi Campbell and Iman served as role models giving her strength – and during the darkest times, kept her alive. After coming out, then 19-year-old Kelet was cut off from her family and she moved back to Finland on her own.

Morkovcha [Korean Carrot Salad]

This film tells a story of ethnic Koreans from Russia and the post-Soviet territories making their new home in New York City. The history of the diaspora is told through conversations with Lidiya Kan’s mother, personal stories, fragmented memories, and her family photo archive. An important character of the film is Morkovcha, the Korean carrot salad, an invention of the Russian Korean diaspora; its essence is symbolic of their mixed identity.

A Dangerous Boy

Sigurdur Thordarson, known as Siggi, becomes a hacker at 12, exposing Icelandic bank corruption at 14. Branded the "teenage whistleblower," he joins WikiLeaks in 2010, mentored by Julian Assange. Siggi leaks globally, but clashes with Assange, prompting him to spy for the FBI at 18. This tale weaves paranoia, hacking, and friendship, portraying Siggi's turbulent journey from trust to betrayal, revealing a heart-wrenching coming-of-age narrative.

In Search of Dracula

Mark Gatiss explores and celebrates Dracula, an icon of popular culture, asking just why we keep coming back to the count.

Ashes and Snow

Ashes and Snow, a film by Gregory Colbert, uses both still and movie cameras to explore extraordinary interactions between humans and animals. The 60-minute feature is a poetic narrative rather than a documentary. It aims to lift the natural and artificial barriers between humans and other species, dissolving the distance that exists between them.

I'm in Love with Pippa Bacca

Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, better known as Pippa Bacca, was a 34 years old Italian artist. She crossed 11 countries involved in wars, hitchhiking with another Milanese artist, Silvia Moro, both wearing a wedding dress. This was a performance for peace, trust and hoping to prove that if you rely on others, you’ll receive good things only. After travelling many roads, the two artists decided to split for a while in Istanbul, planning to meet again in Byblos. Pippa left then, alone, and nobody heard from her again.

Soup Cans and Superstars: How Pop Art Changed the World

Alastair Sooke champions pop art as one of the most important art forms of the twentieth century, peeling back pop's frothy, ironic surface to reveal an art style full of subversive wit and radical ideas. In charting its story, Alastair brings a fresh eye to the work of pop art superstars Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and tracks down pop's pioneers, from American artists like James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg and Ed Ruscha to British godfathers Peter Blake and Allen Jones. Alastair also explores how pop's fascination with celebrity, advertising and the mass media was part of a global art movement, and he travels to China to discover how a new generation of artists are reinventing pop art's satirical, political edge for the 21st century.