Dulce Bellum Inexpertis (2025)

The Doldrums or How to Cure Sadness

The tiricia is an illness of the soul when the heart is saddened. A story of three generations afflicted with being tiricientas: Ita, Justa and Alicia – grandmother, mother and daughter – who have at different times suffered, tolerated and allowed abuse, dragging on the disease. Alicia decides to break the cycle, eradicating it for future generations.

Pria

Caught between the traditions of his upbringing in rural Indonesia and his idealization of Western freedom, a teenager struggles with the expectations of imminent manhood.

Pedro

Pedro gets home at dawn. Before the young boy falls asleep, his lonely mother drags him to the beach.

The First Time

A young man catches the eye of another in a public park. The dance begins, the public toilets beckon. For one of them, this is one of many such encounters. For the other, it's the first time.

Distances

Eva and David have a complicated mother-son relationship. They try to reach each other but do not quite know how. One problem is the language barrier, as David is deaf and Eva is not very good at sign language. After moving back to her country of birth, Eva comes to Sweden on a short visit, where she discovers what so many parents do throughout the lives of their offspring - your children never cease to surprise you.

Tiny Death

Christian (12) and his best friend have been invited over to an older boy from school. There, he enters a mysterious world. It becomes an overwhelming experience - an essential step towards puberty.

Sarajevo Film Festival

Sarajevo in the twentieth month of its besiegement. The situation is critical, but the city chooses to organise an international film festival. Dutch filmmakers Johan van der Keuken and Frank Vellenga present Van der Keuken's documentaries Face Value and Brass Unbound there, and one of the festival organisers asks a festival visitor: "What is the significance of film in war?" In Sarajevo Film Festival Film, a reflection on film, war and daily life, fictional images are juxtaposed in a disconcerting way with the gruesome reality of the life of a festival visitor.

Valerio's Day Out

A sedated young jaguar dispassionately ruminates over his latest victims as well as the object of his affection in this mesmerizing video diary.

My Brother is a Mermaid

A short film about the experiences of a non-binary teenager, as seen through the eyes of their 7-year old brother. Set in a desolate seaside town, the film fuses social realism with fairytale, as it examines how a child's innocence and unconditional love can be a powerful and disruptive force for good.

AYOR

In 1970, during the annual Dutch national commemoration of those fallen in World War II, two men try to make a statement against gay discrimination. In the moments before and after the incident, their doubt, fear and firm belief becomes clear.

The One You Never Forget

A 14 year old boy excitedly prepares for his first dance, but when his date arrives he's faced with a split-second decision.

Hangry

Expectations run high as Alicia and John get their first child-free weekend in ages.

Kiko's Saints

Kiko, a Japanese illustrator on assignment in France, gets suddenly overwhelmed by a strange new inspiration, while she realizes she's been spying on a gay couple on the beach next to the chapel where she's working. Obsessed by such a vision, she will continue spying on those men and drawing them secretly. These drawings will slowly push her towards an encounter that will change her life and break the barriers she created around her.

On the Path

A road in the middle of nowhere. A car. A bike. Two lonely people looking for the same thing. They meet.

Sleepover

Emil and Adam are two guys in their 20's. They are close friends, and after a night at the movies, Emil is going to sleep over at Adam's. Emil has unspoken feelings for Adam - feelings that are tested when they are sleeping in the same double bed.

Ocaso

Late in the afternoon, a student and a construction worker sit on the edge of the bay and leave traces on the landscape.

The Love Within

Three college students - Ethan, Meg and Josh - share an intense friendship that turns emotionally cataclysmic when unspoken attractions come to light. The inescapable truths of the heart will either strengthen or destroy their seemingly fragile bond, but only if they can overcome the fears of trusting each other -- and themselves.

Ausência

Plot unavailable

The Last Supper

A woman prepares a delicious banquet for a dinner party.

Middle of Somewhere

After a family tragedy, a man attempts to guide his son into manhood through a series of hunting trips at the request of his overbearing and traditional father.

Gay Jesus

Once upon a time in a cheap Jerusalem hotel room, Jesus and Judas are spending their time away from Nazareth between hot, sweaty, carnal love and preparing sermons for Jesus' growing fanbase. Enter Mary Magdalene, jealousy, Satan, and the Romans, and the once-perfect love affair between Judas and Jesus becomes a hellish ring of fire, leading Judas to betray his beloved Christ and the Romans to punish everyone for trying to turn everyone gay.

The Last Romantics

Two young men share different points of view of the same sexual encounter in a public space.

Jamila

She is on the way out of the house when she sees an envelope. Jamila’s family has received a rejection of their asylum application. She acts as if she doesn’t see it, takes her younger sister to school, and meets up with her friends. But everywhere she turns she sees them – the police.

Cocoon

China, 1997. An unhappy marriage, a love affair and a child who holds all the secrets.

Open

When his father passes away, Vijay is forced to return home after a 10-year estrangement and open up to his mother about his sexuality.

Fragments of Us

As Louis prepares to move house; he relives memories of a past relationship, figuring out what went wrong and hopefully finding the key to moving on for good.

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.

Three

Tom, a young architect from Tel Aviv, accepts his partner Nimrod's offer of a threesome with Or. The meeting with Or changes the couple's relationship.

Thrive

A hook-up between two young men - they make a connection, but it quickly becomes apparent they're looking for different things.

Twice

Diego is 17 and is full of life, yet fragile. His best friend Antonio knows and indulges his weaknesses, but he would also like to see him strong and masculine. One night they meet Maria, a breezy natural beauty. To show that he is a 'real man', Diego, is ready to do anything, even to force himself to do things he would never have wanted to do.

Dogshift

Two strangers meet whilst both working a shift at a dodgy restaurant in Melbourne's CBD.

Chook Shed

Emerson Hayes is a 60-year-old sculptor who lives in a caravan and works from an old shed in the back corner of her daughter’s coastal egg farm. When she is informed that her most acclaimed and last remaining work on public display is being replaced, she seeks a new home for it with family friend Lena, who curates a prestigious contemporary gallery. Lena, however, demands that Em present a fresh new work if she is to be considered for exhibition. As Em struggles to break out of her artistic rut, she is forced to reckon not only with her place in the art world, but with her entire identity.

Ballet Shoes

Two dancers are forced to confront their feelings for each other on the eve of a ballet competition.

Mine

The non-donor father in a gay relationship struggles to come to terms with being the father to a child which is not biologically his.

Arrival

Ten girls are waiting for arrival of the train. We find out from the conductor that it is delayed indefinitely. We spy on the girls from the outside and they figure it out. While they are telling their stories, sharing their problems and concerns, we are all waiting for the train. Will the train arrive? Where are they going and what are they really waiting for?

Two Birds in a Cage

When the pressure of a homophobic town and family weighs too heavily on the shoulders of a young gay man, he must confide in his best friend and true love.

Queen of Hearts: A Twin Peaks Fan Film

"Queen of Hearts: A Twin Peaks Fan Film, is both a prequel, starting with FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Nico Abiera) meeting his mentor Windom Earle (Paul Griffith Springer) and Earle's wife (and Cooper's eventual lover) Caroline (Charlotte Roi) and the fallout surrounding those relationships, as well as a sequel, following Annie Blackburn (Madison Bates) after her escape from the Black Lodge on a new mysterious and dangerous adventure."

Killer Friends

Four friends go on a camping trip that one won't be coming back from alive...

Femme

The Ysbreeker family -- mother Jolien, father Frank, daughter Roos and son Teun -- are enjoying their annual holiday on a camping site in France. Teun is at the beginning of his puberty and can't quite control his hormones. Roos, a teen girl in the middle of her puberty, is more interested in her first camping love than in her own family. Teun notices that his sister is becoming a woman, in all different ways. How does he react? Does it have any influence on the brother-sister relationship?

Roller Coaster

A boys first weekend with the father after the divorce of his parents. Together with his friends, he makes a plan to turn that weekend into a horror trip, to punish his father. But then everything changes

Re \ Entry

'What happened? Where am I?' The man who wakes up alone in the woods has many questions. Is he dead and in the hereafter? The voice of God soberly answers his questions: Yep, that’s right. Traffic accident. But it’s not that bad, because everyone eventually dies. All the man’s questions, also about the meaning of life, are answered. In an equally entertaining and stimulating dialogue in English, the film evokes a comprehensive image of the universe and man’s place in it.

Heartsaver

A young woman is late for an important job interview when she notices a woman falling ill just as the train drives into the station.

Communication

An Orthodox Jewish student unexpectedly inherits the estate of his estranged mentor, and discovers a painful truth about their final days together.

Frontera

During the last moments of a romantic involvement with an older man, Martina finds herself deeply overwhelmed by disappointment and confusion, left alone to question who she really is.

Give Up the Ghost

While doing their homework on a winter afternoon, schoolmates Charlie and Matt share a kiss. But Matt snaps and storms off. Later at a catechism lesson, Matt accuses Charlie of it not being consensual and an argument erupts.

One Hundred and One

“If you jerk off a 100 times, you die.” This threat rings through the ears of our main character. One day he has to choose between imminent hell and the impetuousness of adolescence.

Melanie

Melanie is obsessed with the life of her possible donor father. Is she looking for a future or a past with him?