Between Lands

Straight Stories, Part 1

Somewhere between documentary and fiction, this is an essay on questions of territory and human displacements made during an excursion from southern Spain to northern Morocco. Travelling on the Mediterranean rim, we hear immigrants tell their stories.

Viacrucis Migrante

A documentary film about men, women, and children fleeing northward from the existential threats in their home countries of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. They embark on a perilous journey with an uncertain outcome. Shortly after crossing the southern Mexican border, they find shelter with people who want to help them survive the ordeal of the at least 1,700-kilometer journey to the US.

Wir sind schon da!

Five women, members of the Sans Papiers, talk about the history and reasons for founding the organisation, as well as their most important demands, like getting permits of residence for refugee women so they don't depend on their husbands' status.

The Taste of Secrets

My mother always refused to speak about her childhood during the Cambodian genocide. Upset by her silence, my brother and I decide to follow Antoine, a grandson of Armenian genocide survivors, photographing the ghosts of his ancestors in the Middle East.

The Deported

The Deported follows four long term residents of the United States, each with an Order of Deportation over their head, and their families as they have to make critical decisions that will either keep their family together and separate them. Their choices are: 1. to self-deport. 2. To take sanctuary in a church. 3. To fight back legally. 4. To fall into denial and do nothing.

HARRAGA – Those Who Burn Their Lives

Imad, Nourdine, Walid and Hamza are a group of young Moroccan boys living in a cave under the lighthouse in the Spanish exclave Melilla. They wait for their chance to cross the sea, spending their time with drugs, video calls with their mothers, and filming themselves for YouTube while breaking into the harbor.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Him

What would your family reminiscences about dad sound like if he had been an early supporter of Hitler’s, a leader of the notorious SA and the Third Reich’s minister in charge of Slovakia, including its Final Solution? Executed as a war criminal in 1947, Hanns Ludin left behind a grieving widow and six young children, the youngest of whom became a filmmaker. It's a fascinating, maddening, sometimes even humorous look at what the director calls "a typical German story." (Film Forum)

Refuge

John is a Haitian migrant who fled his country due to political instability and death threats. After a long journey, he managed to be recognized as a refugee in Mexico, allowing him to start a new chapter in a new land. However, for John, this story is far from over as his wife and baby remain stranded in Chile. Every day, John takes steps towards family reunification, longing to embrace those who are his true refuge.

The Wildebeest Migration: Nature's Greatest Journey

Every year, on the steppes of the Serengeti, the most spectacular migration of animals on our planet: Around two million wildebeest, Burchell's zebra and Thomson's gazelles begin their tour of nearly 2,000 miles across the almost treeless savannah. For the first time, a documentary captures stunning footage in the midst of this demanding journey. The documentary starts at the beginning of the year, when more than two million animals gather in the shadow of the volcanoes on the southern edge of the Serengeti in order to birth their offspring. In just two weeks, the animal herd's population has increased by one third, and after only two days, the calves can already run as fast as the adults The young wildebeest in this phase of their life are the most vulnerable to attacks by lions, cheetahs, leopards or hyenas. The film then follows the survivors of these attacks through the next three months on their incredible journey, a trip so long that 200,000 wildebeest will not reach the end.

Amazing Journeys

By land, by air, and by sea, viewers can now experience the struggle that millions of creatures endure in the name of migration as wildlife photographers show just how deeply survival instincts have become ingrained into to the animals of planet Earth. From the monarch butterflies that swarm the highlands of Mexico to the birds who navigate by the stars and the millions of red crabs who make the perilous land journey across Christmas Island, this release offers a look at animal instinct in it's purest form.

Así Pasó

A Place of Absence

This poetic film follows director Marialuisa's journey with Anita and Leticia, Central American women traveling with the Caravan of Mothers of Missing Migrants.

Forastero

Porta d’Europa

A migrant boat has been stranded in the Mediterranean Sea for 30 hours. As authorities ignore calls for help, the Sea-Watch Crew, an NGO, launches an urgent search.

Memories to Choke On, Drinks to Wash Them Down

This anthology film, whose Chinese title begins with a romantic name for human excrement, premiered internationally at Rotterdam and won Best Screenplay from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. A variety of Hong Kong people wrestle with nostalgia when facing an uncertain future. Their stories give way to a documentary featuring a young barista turned political candidate.

Death of the Serpent God

This film begins, so to speak, where ‘Vol spécial’ left off. The reality of migration bears its teeth: Following a scuffle, 20-year-old Koumba from France is sent back to the place where she was raised – Senegal. She returns to the lost village of her ancestors hysterical, argumentative and unproductively rebellious. Now the mother of a toddler, she continues to come to terms with the two cultures; the outcome is unforeseeable, as is the outcome of this cinematic long-term observation. The risk of its failure due to its protagonist is palpable. But Koumba’s fascinating metamorphosis is also obvious, her body and character have taken on a more harmonious nature. All hope is not lost.

Kuban Cossacks. And Already Two Hundred Years...

A documentary about the history of Ukrainian Cossacks in the Kuban.

Homebound

Through first person narration, Tari reveals personal stories related to her decision to work in Taiwan, her strained family relationships, the risks involved in working abroad and the traps she has fallen into.

Escape from the World's Most Dangerous Place

Successful model Samira Hashi makes an emotional return to Somalia, one of the most dangerous places in the world and the place she was born. Civil war broke out in 1991, 10 days after Samira's birth, but two years later her family managed to flee the country and she grew up in the UK.Now, as Samira and the war both turn 21, she's going back for the first time to visit the people and places she left behind. The contrast with her safe and glamorous life in London could not be starker as she experiences firsthand the war's effect on a generation of young people growing up in conflict.

Je vais tuer Hitler

One day, in Savigny, an 18-year-old boy left his house in the middle of the war, saying: "I'm leaving, I'm going to kill Hitler." His name was Joseph, he was Jewish, he was my great-uncle. He disappeared during the night of the Occupation, and his existence became a family secret. He disappeared from history, the small as well as the big: he is not on any deportation list, and the only archive where he appears is a family photo of him as a child. It disappeared like a stone at the bottom of the water, instead of going up in smoke in the sky of Poland. What did he become? And why didn't anyone mention his name anymore?