The Hope Rooms (2016)

My Little Boy

Berlin, 1934. Many men are forced to live their hidden homosexuality. Erich, a photographer, has an appointment in his photo studio with Wolfgang, a Nazi soldier, with whom he shares a loving, tumultuous, and passionate relationship. For both of them, this should not be a problem, but appearances deceive.

Sing

Quiet 10-year-old Zsofi has just changed schools. Feeling out of place at first, she is quickly admitted to the school’s famous choir and befriends her popular classmate Liza. Soon, they have to stand up united against their choir master, who isn’t quite the friendly and inspirational teacher they first thought she was.

Haus

A displaced black queer boy finds refuge in his city's underground Kiki Ballroom scene.

It Girl

Overwhelmed by her husband’s medical bills, Sofia takes a desperate measure: she becomes an egoblogger.

Heatstroke

A reflection on this generation’s sexual and existential disorientation.

Dream Girl

Humans use technology to improve their lives, to forge connections, to create time that doesn’t exist, to replace real interactions. When we devise a second version of ourselves on social media, do we lose a piece of our true selves in the process? Do our digital connections threaten our real life relationships? What happens if the filtered characters we’ve imagined take on a life of their own?

Good Night, Morning

A working-class man returns to his city from a distant job and spends the night at a friend's house instead of going home to his wife.

Timewarp

A young woman experiences the worst panic attack of her life as the world around her seems to be going faster and faster.

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.

Black Swell

A man tries to kill himself in a motel room.

The Awakening

Bill Williams, a poor inventor with a large family, suddenly comes into great wealth through the sale of an invention. Sudden affluence turns his head, and he changes at once from the plodding mechanic of the dingy shop into an ultra-fashionable man of the town.

And Returning

Rina wants to tell her best friend, Eli, about her arranged marriage, by dating her on the last night they could be together.

Echo of the Past

José Alberto seems condemned to wander through the countryside like a lost soul since the moment of his beloved's untimely death. Until one day, nature conspires to remind him of his torturous past. It takes strength to uncover the mystery that resides within him, and perhaps, to finally break free from living chained to melancholy.

Jag vill inte dö innan du har älskat mig

Plot unavailable

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.

Wanted

Marcos, an adult who as a child lost his beloved pet, a black German shepherd dog, with whom he had a special bond. This bond leads him to search for it over time until he believes he has found it in a park with another owner.

I Remember Ashes

The surreal state of childhood perception is evoked in this 35mm portrait of a mischievous duo running amok in the Czech countryside.

The Merchant of Vinashna

Philosophical exploration of death seen through intermingling stories of a poor man wandering the city in search of food and a tea seller who is visited by a writer from an unknown city called Vinashna who tells him a strange story.

Quiet

Ali must lie and say she is her wife's sister so she can be with her in the hospital. Through Ali's memories, we see the women's relationship develop as Ali faces the truth in the present.

Electric July

In the burning heat of July, Thomas and Victor, two 14 years old teenagers, are bored to death and want to escape. Victor decides to take Thomas to an abandoned bridge. He will have to confront his fears and desires.

By this River

A young boy builds a raft to reach his mother in the land of the dead, which he believes is at the end of the river that runs alongside their property.

Like a Kiss from Jesus

A boy frolicking about on the beach meets this girl who gives him his first kiss.

Out Now

Tom, 16, lives in a small town in Bavaria and is about to admit his homosexuality to society. Being mobbed and threatened in school and after some exiting experiences he overcomes his own barriers and makes his dream come true: getting into contact with others.

The Sad House

The story of a family told through objects found in junk shops and flea markets.

I Am Yet to Make You a Love Song

Greg and Alessandro are in the bedroom, looking at one another. The feeling of guilt and nostalgia of that moment may forever mark their lives, but it's only a gateway to allow love to walk freely amongst them. They look at one another. They feel one another. They love one another. Regardless of the unrevealed pictures or the unwritten songs.

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.

Good Boy

Two high school friends, Caleb and Macon, are reunited after many years. During the tense reunion, Macon fights his tortured mind, wrestling with a dark secret that is the source of Caleb's greatest pain.

Thirst

Two friends go on a hike to the desert. In the desolate wilderness something hidden comes out in their friendship. From then on, the only way they manage to communicate is sexually and violently. While one of them wants more than the other is able to give, he expresses his frustration by making sure they get lost and have no water - anything to escape from awaiting reality.

Wish You Were There

When Vienna gets locked inside the library overnight, she finds herself stuck with Maeve, her former best friend who she hasn’t spoken to since high school. With college graduation nearing, they reflect on what they have missed out on in each other’s lives and remember why they were once so close.

Blossoms in Agony

Jacinta lives with her mother Alma, who has now brought grandmother Soledad home, to look after her, as she's had a cerebral stroke. Jacinta lives Soledad's presence as an invasion of her intimacy, and feels jealous of the attention Alma pays to her grandma, leaving Alma more and more worn-out.

Interiors

"It’s remarkably contagious thinking about how much I’m willing to belong to the ones I love," says Tennis frontwoman Alaina Moore in this beautiful short-film, 'Interiors', which features music from the band’s 'Yours Conditionally’ album, and was created in collaboration with Vinyl Me, Please.

What We Don't Tell

Jeremy, a twenty-two-year-old drifter, goes on a search for the man who abused him as a child.

Seven Years in May

One night seven years ago, Rafael came home after work and discovered that people he did not know had come looking for him. He immediately fled, without looking back. From that moment on, his life changed, as if that night had never ended. One evening, around an improvised fire near a factory, he decides to confide his journey to a stranger. Rafael’s intimate account meets the collective testimony of an entire nation oppressed by poverty, police repression and institutional corruption.

Boom and Bloom

In the Austrian Alps, father and son set out on a hike to finally climb to the top of their emotional world.

Cold Turkey

A troubled teenager tries to get rid of the most dangerous addiction of them all - cannibalism.

House of Memory

An old man lives in the solitude of his immense film library. A place that seems infinite and eternal in which each shelf contains an invaluable treasure, your memories.

Song of the Swan

A vivid dream exploration of Moira Shearer's heart and mind, just before and after she agreed to star in Powell and Pressburger's beloved cinema classic "The Red Shoes", a decision that would change her life forever. Celebrating the original film but also shining a light on the uncanny parallels between Moira Shearer and her tragic alter ego Victoria Page. Revealing a complex and defiant young woman who ultimately chose life over fame.

Despair

After a phone call ends in despair, a young woman faces a fatal decision.

Speechless

Desmond has a secret he cannot share with anyone. His grades are slipping, rumors are swirling and he feels powerless, especially when he sees his sister being hurt, too. With the support of his father and a new friend, Desmond is able to tell his story of being sexually assaulted and end the cycle of abuse. Desmond regains his power when he uses his voice.

The Neolith

On the moors of a desolate land where the silence of the wind reigns, a mysterious man challenges four bloodthirsty savages responsible for a horrible crime.

Incomplete

A short film that tells the story of a man sharing a love letter about longing for someone he has never met. It explores the sense of loneliness, and poses a question: do we need another person in life to feel complete or are we missing a connection with ourselves?

Trace

An exploration on the memories we build.

Midnight Glance

Two strangers in a sleepless town. Drawn together for a chance encounter. One night that will lead to the road of romance.

Steamed Poultry.

To try to get to know him better, a young man invites his reluctant friend to an impromptu lunch.

They Charge for the Sun

In a dystopian future where people live nocturnally to avoid the harmful rays of the sun, a young black girl unravels the lie that has kept her and her sister in the dark.

Frater

In the middle of summer, while moving out, Tom finds a family picture. At only ten years old, as the fantasy world of childhood seems to vanish before his eyes, Tom falls back into repressed memories. His recollection grows into a heartrending portrait of the family he once idealized.

Limit of Wooded Country

In Alaska, two estranged brothers find their fates entwined after a disastrous run-in with a local cop.

Pelageya

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Swain

Swain is inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Fanshawe, features a dreamlike narrative of a young man’s ritualized rejection of heterosexuality, as a mysterious woman in white gossamer pursues him through a ruined landscape.

Pounds of Matter

A kaleidoscopic perspective into one woman's experience with self-dissolution and urban alienation.