Naître à Bethléem

Der lange Weg ans Licht

Edeltraut Hertel - a midwife caught between two worlds. She has been working as a midwife in a small village near Chemnitz for almost 20 years, supporting expectant mothers before, during and after the birth of their offspring. However, working as a midwife brings with it social problems such as a decline in birth rates and migration from the provinces. Competition for babies between birthing centers has become fierce, particularly in financial terms. Obstetrics in Tanzania, Africa, Edeltraud's second place of work, is completely different. Here, the midwife not only delivers babies, she also trains successors, carries out educational and development work and struggles with the country's cultural and social problems.

(M)Other

Being mother is the most natural thing in the world. Or so it seems. Yet the demands on women with children have rarely been as overloaded and contradictory as they are in today’s Western world. Promises of happiness are often followed by disadvantages, excessive demands and feelings of guilt. The mother has become an artificially glorified ideal, which nevertheless is often legitimized by the „nature of the woman“. We live in a time when three people could claim to be the same child’s mother: egg donors give their genes to beget children, surrogate mothers deliver babies which they give away immediately after birth, and men raise children by themselves – without a woman at their side. Hence the question arises: What makes a human being a real mother?

DayDream

A short doco following the mundane flow of Melburnians as they go about their day, recounting their most recent dream.

Vers d'autres chemins

Milana, Sephora, and Mario are between seventeen and twenty-six years old. They grew up in modest, stigmatized rural Manouche families. Unlike their parents, they have degrees and work as employees. They have dreams to fulfill.

Cow

A close-up portrait of the daily lives of a pair of cows: told by way of some narrative-free, intimate POV photography, with plenty of close shot images, we follow the daily routine of these animals as they live what can only be described as mundane, boring lives - all with an ultimate purpose within the human food chain.

SOME COLORS

Intercepted

A journey through Ukraine that reveals the banality of evil behind the Russian invasion with the shocking juxtaposition of two realities: the Ukrainians who have been suffering and resisting the war violence, and the Russian military, and civilians, who have been perpetrating it.

K-Classics Generation

The film traces the career of some of the winners of this new generation nicknamed the "K-Classics Generation", including the 2 recent winners of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the soprano Hwang Sumi and the violinist Lim Jiyoung. In Korea, where it all began, and in Germany where most of them have settled.

Le Dilemme d'Hippocrate

Miracle

This student film by the award-winning Helena Třeštíková bears many of the hallmarks of her later work. Made as a graduation piece when she was at the FAMU Film and TV Academy in Prague, we see the director developing the distinctive observational style of filmmaking that she has used so effectively throughout her career. Over the course of several months, she follows a young pregnant woman as she becomes slowly acquainted with the joys and responsibilities of motherhood.

A Bit of a Stranger

Svitlana, a Russian-speaking Ukrainian, examines the colonised part of her consciousness and tries to find answers to the question of how Soviet totalitarianism and Russification influenced the relationships within her family.

Hale County This Morning, This Evening

Composed of intimate and unencumbered moments of people in a community, this film is constructed in a form that allows the viewer an emotive impression of the Historic South - trumpeting the beauty of life and consequences of the social construction of race, while simultaneously a testament to dreaming.

Piaf intime

La mamie patineuse du lac Baïkal

De l'ISS à la Lune : le monde de Thomas Pesquet

From space, 400 kilometers above our heads, one man has won the hearts of the French: Thomas Pesquet. Traveling to the stars is an almost impossible dream, but for Thomas Pesquet it is a reality that he recounts in detail in an exclusive interview. You will discover the magic of living in space, the wonder of our planet, but also the reality of everyday life in zero gravity: how they sleep, how they wash, what happens to their bodies. Why do they have to exercise for two hours a day? How do they communicate with their families? With Thomas Pesquet and the help of specialists, scientists, doctors, instructors, directors, and computer-generated images, you will discover what goes on behind the scenes of a mission and understand how the International Space Station works.

De Peito Aberto

The cats, the sea, and everything in between.

In 2022, when the economic crisis in her native country was at its peak, she decided to visit her family there. She turned her short trip into a collage-like diary in which she reflects on her relationship with her homeland, which is in a state of protracted decay. The film is composed of spontaneous snapshots capturing the author's stay, interspersed with inserted captions serving as personal, often poetically formulated comments and observations. As a result, the film does not hide its strongly subjective perspective, but at the same time builds on it to make an important statement that shows the transformation of Lebanese society in everyday details such as the appearance of the city itself or in the intimate sphere of the author's family life.

Waiting Time

Under the shade of a Magnolia tree, a group of pregnant women gathers weekly. Among them is Teresa, an experienced midwife who listens to them attentively. Sitting in a circle, the women reflect on the impending birth of their children and their own emerging roles as mothers.

Homs - Syrie, la vie d’après

After twelve years in exile, Syrian journalist and filmmaker Daham Alasaad returns to Homs, devastated by the war in Syria. Once the city of his childhood, it is now a relic of an authoritarian regime, where different communities (Sunnis, Christians, Alawites) are trying to rebuild their lives together after terrible years of division and destruction. Thanks to Daham Alasaad's close relationship with the city's inhabitants, the director highlights some very moving characters, torn between grief, fear, the need for justice, and the desire for peace and reconciliation. By opening up naturally to the camera, they allow viewers to experience what Syrians of all backgrounds are going through today. "Homs-Syria, Life After" is a personal and political investigation into the ability of this symbolic city to rebuild hope on the ruins of a Syria ravaged by more than fifteen years of war and facing an uncertain future.

Pacha's Notebook

Pacha works as a midwife in a war zone in Colombia. The intimate portrait of her life and profession, is the jump off point for a larger portrayal of life lived despite insurmountable obstacles in a world ravaged by war.