Festival Favourites

Festival Favourites features audience favourites that have proven their quality at international festivals.

Anywhere Anytime

Milad Tangshir

Issa is an undocumented immigrant from Senegal trying to survive in the bustling Italian city of Turin. He starts working as a food delivery courier, but his newfound stability unravels when his newly purchased bicycle is stolen during a drop-off. As he searches for it, Issa is sucked into a dramatic spiral of events.

The Brink of Dreams

Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir

In a remote village in southern Egypt, a group of girls defy tradition by forming an all-female street theater troupe. Aspiring to be actresses, dancers, and singers, they challenge their families and community with their bold performances. Shot over four years, we follow their journey from childhood to womanhood, as they navigate the most defining choices of their lives.

Happyend

Neo Sora

In a future Tokyo, where the threat of a major earthquake is ever-present, two mischievous best friends are about to graduate from high school. One night, they pull a prank on the principal, but it has serious consequences: the school installs a surveillance system to monitor everyone.

Ik zal zien

Mercedes Stalenhoef

When the lively Lot loses her sight in a fireworks accident, her world comes to an abrupt halt. All her future plans seem to crumble now that the world as she knew it has changed forever. Lot fiercely resists her newfound dependence and pushes herself to the limit to escape her painful reality.

Marching in the Dark

Kinshuk Surjan

When her husband – a rural Indian farmer who faced enormous pressures – dies by suicide, Sanjivani struggles to overcome traditional social stigmas attached to widowhood in her community. In a local support group for widows, she embarks upon a transformative journey of discovery.

Rabia

Mareike Engelhardt

Attracted by the promises of a new life, Jessica, a 19-year-old French girl, leaves for Syria to join IS. Arriving in Raqqa, she is taken into a house the future brides of fighters are trained in. She soon becomes the prisoner of Madame, the charismatic director who runs the place with an iron fist.

Red Path

Lotfi Achour

Mghila Mountain, Tunisia, November 2015. When jihadists attack two young shepherds, 13-year-old Achraf is forced to bring a gruesome message to the villagers. Traumatized and trying not to lose his mind, Achraf needs to stand strong, confronted with the helplessness of his elders, themselves abandoned by the authorities.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Mohammad Rasoulof

Iman is an investigative judge in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. As the Iranian anti-hijab protests explode, he clashes with his wife and daughters. And then his gun mysteriously disappears, making him grapple with mistrust and paranoia.

Sugarcane

Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie

A stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people. Set amidst a ground-breaking investigation into abuse and death at a Canadian Native residential school, the film empowers to break cycles of intergenerational trauma by bearing witness to long-ignored truths. Epic cinematic portrait of a community.

Writing Hawa

Najiba Noori, Rasul Noori

Forced into marriage as a child, Hawa learns to read and write at 52. With the support of her daughter, the filmmaker, she opens a small textile business. But when the Taliban return to power, Hawa’s dreams, and those of her daughter and granddaughter, are shattered as they face new struggles.