Dulce Bellum Inexpertis (2025)

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.

Checkmate

When starting a chess game, João does everything he can to try to emerge victorious. During the game, strange things start to happen in your home. To try to understand what is happening, João will need to gather strength to defeat his biggest adversary: ​​himself.

Tomorrow's Shame

Realizing he won't be able to pay his mortgage, Pierre faces a heartbreaking decision: to evict Micheline, his tenant and friend, who is behind on her payments.

Carne

After a dreadful incident coupled with an ungovernable paroxysm of violence, a butcher will fall into a downward spiral that will burn to the ground whatever dignity still remained in him.

While the Unicorn Is Watching Me

On a chilly Sunday morning, a man awakens to the mischievous stare of a unicorn that seems to have come straight out of his dreams. Carried along by an early morning sensuality, his fantasies transform his lonely apartment into a garden of delights, in which this young creature can freely reap the fruits of his desires.

Ruth

The year 2000. Maya, a young Londoner, goes to the small village of her Spanish girlfriend, Ruth, who has just died in an accident. She wants to say goodbye, but the shock and anxiety of presenting herself as the “foreign girlfriend” to family and friends she doesn't know and who speak a different language, is compounded by the perplexity of discovering that nobody knows who she is.

Fili di memorie

Plot unavailable

A Summer Solstice Story

The first summer to spend together with Toru. In the hot, humid room, Yuko can think only about Toru. As she peeks into Toru's room through binoculars.... The story depicts a summer day filled with love and madness of a girl who waits for her beloved to return home.

Cold Frost & Sunshine

A lonely librarian in a rough neighborhood has a special relationship with a student on the verge of expulsion. Margherita's poetic world is confronted by reality as she tries to get through to Nehorai.

Morning as a Mayfly

After a night of heavy drinking a young man has a dream where an angel tells him the world will end if he doesn't make a sacrifice.

The American Wake

A seventeen year old girl who has lived all her life on an island off the coast of Ireland is faced with the choice to remain there or emigrate to America.

The World In Your Window

Eight-year-old Jesse lives in a twilight world of sadness and silence, squeezed into a tiny caravan with his grief stricken father. They're in limbo, existing more than living. The child intuitively understands that looking forward is harder than looking back, and that's where life happens. But they are stuck, until an accidental friendship with a V8 driving transsexual unlocks the means for Jesse to liberate his father and himself.

Herculanum

Three "meetings." Two men. A rumbling volcano.

Boy Saint

A sumptuous short film of friendship and adoration between boys, based on a poem by Peter LeBerge. Moments of joy, bonding and roughhousing on a school trip to the beach counterpoint one teen boy’s introspective sexual awakenings and questionings. Magnificent cinematography and editing create a visual feast that provides the imagery for a narrated poem by Peter Laberge alluding to early homosexual desires, but with Catholic overtones never directly expressed.

Honeymoon

Sandra is travelling with Fay, helping her take the bus out of the country. A transphobic attack leaves them both stranded in the middle of nowhere. A sensitive and vibrant response to intolerance in the form of a gritty and realistic road movie.

Pretty Boy

Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.

Into the Blue

Thirteen year old Julija and her mother flee their abusive household to find refuge on an idyllic Croatian island where Julija grew up. Emotionally scarred, Julija is desperate to reconnect with her best friend, Ana. But Ana is in love with a boy and Julija is no longer a priority.

Zero One

Jimmy Park is visiting home for the first time in years and has nothing to show for his time living overseas in Seoul. But old tensions come to a head when he confronts his homophobic sister at a family dinner.

The Last Day of School

Edgaras and Migle are in a relationship that has Migle have the upper hand financially. Because of this, when Edgaras old friend offers the opportunity to make some money by smuggling cigarettes, Edgaras is tempted. But with a wonderful girlfriend, college around the corner, and so much that can be ruined if he and Viktoras get caught, will Edgaras go through with it?

Brown With Blue

A handyman and his webcam vixen girlfriend struggle with an addiction to cope with their past mistakes.

Fish Out of Water

Fish Out of Water manages to unfurl its light-hearted tale of young man and the sea, without a word of dialogue. Avoiding the morning traffic jams, our man (Nick Dunbar) finds peace by rowing each day to work in the city. But when a seductive blonde unexpectedly enters the picture, he finds his morning boat ride heading in unexpected directions. Directed by Lala Rolls (Land of My Ancestors), Fish Out of Water was invited to play in the 2005 NZ Film Festival, plus another 10 overseas fests. Victoria Kelly composes the brass and banjo-inflected soundtrack.

Live

The film is inspired by the real events – the story of Kati Andreevoj and Daria Chultsova – the two journalists from TV Belsat, an independent station broadcasting from Poland and their arrest by the Belarusian police in Minsk.

Pillow Chocolate

For trans man Jamie, a one-night stand is more than just sex, it's a question of self-worth.

Audrey

Audrey learns how to communicate with her dying mother who is in a hospice. It is Audrey’s last chance to prove to her mother that love supersedes identity issues. This is also her ultimate attempt to tell her mother what she has always been: her daughter.

Chasin'

Two men connect more than just sexually, when a Scruff hook-up has them meeting in a park in the middle of a hot summer's night.

The Short Film

A day in the life of a trans actress, as she juggles her home life, her depressed brother and an amateur and somewhat trans-phobic short film shoot.

By the End of the Night

Javier and Andrés get involved in a crime; together they'll face the doubts that will take them into making a decision that will change their lives forever.

The Jealous Sea

The boyfriend of a handsome photographer tries to deal with his jealousy after finding nude photos he took of a gorgeous model.

Imagen y semejanza

Román is a frustrated architect who seeks refuge in a parallel world that he has built from his studio, where he receives the appreciation and recognition that he believes he deserves.

Blue-Eyed Blonde

A Canadian mother travels to Florida with her 4 year-old daughter to take part in a mini-miss contest. Getting ready to compete becomes a cat-and-mouse game for the duo... but no one knows for sure who the cat is!

The Euthanizer

A black comedy about a man struggling to make a living by helping people kill themselves.

I Will Always Love You Conny

It’s minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees F) and 20 y/o Conny walks around like a restless criminal with his hoodie up in a small forgotten village in northern Sweden. He's not welcome anywhere and the whole village seems to hate him. Yesterday he panicked and drove away from his girlfriend’s delivery of their baby - but now he has repented and wants to come back. But what will it take for her to forgive him?

Ioana

Young Romanian Adrian works as a hustler in Zurich's underground in order to get his sister Ioana out of Romania and to Zurich, where they can both have a better future.

Laurita

Laura and her mother are spending their vacation on the seashore, in Sao Paulo, at a middle-class beach house. Laura's adolescent body is changing but not in harmony with her coming of age. She's less bothered by that than the situation the two of them find themselves in.

Paris Ficelle

Plot unavailable

The Quiet

In the midst of a deadly outbreak, a man returns home in search of family.

Suspendu

At dawn, in a great classical dance conservatory, a boy falls while rehearsing some movements. Something breaks in his foot, causing sharp pain. But it's exams day and the boy refuses to quit: he tries to face his dance partner and classmates, convincing himself his body has no limits.

The First Murder

Based on the novel "Šta bi učinio Zobec?" (What Would Zobec Do?) by Svetozar Vlajković. It's a short movie about a young man who is afraid of being turned down by a girl.

Monstrus Circus

Plot unavailable

Las plantas también mueren

Inside a room full of plants, a woman finds shelter from the outside world. Submerged in delirium, Alba experiences her withering.

Sipping

Santiago and Jared , two teenagers of opposite personality spend an afternoon together looking for ways to overcome their differences. After an act that begins as a game their senses will find the space to coincide.

Eddie

Deep underground, a lone scientist mans a discarded research facility struggling to deal with extreme boredom, a desperate voiceless companion and a mystery he'd really rather not have to solve.