Synopsis

A spare, stripped-down parable shot on an iPhone, Kontinental ‘25 takes to the streets of Cluj, Romania, to survey the precarious state of contemporary morality. After receiving eviction orders from his shelter in an abandoned cellar, a man commits suicide. Orsolya, the city official responsible for carrying out the eviction, is plagued with guilt over his death. Seeking reassurance, she spends the next several days traversing the Transylvanian city, discussing the incident with an array of characters—-from bike messengers to friends and priests—in hopes of finding absolution.

Inspired by Roberto Rossellini’s Europa ‘51, the darkly comic social drama is both incisively observed and impeccably performed, offering a portrait of a city and society at a crossroads. Director Radu Jude (2023’s Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World), whose taboo-breaking Dracula is also screening at the Festival, infuses his script with ironic detail and wholly human characters to craft an astonishing exploration of personal responsibility in the face of societal crisis.

Synopsis

Budapest, 1957. In the aftermath of a quelled uprising against the ruling Communist party, a young Jewish boy named Andor and his mother are struggling to make ends meet. Both work at a local general store, living in fear of the regime’s violent reprisals against friends and coworkers involved in the failed revolution. When a menacing, brutish man appears in town, claiming to be Andor’s father, the boy is plunged into personal crisis as he’s forced to come to grips with a new and unwelcome family history.

Director László Nemes (Son of Saul) sets this tender, heartbreaking coming-of-age tale amid a violent historical backdrop, balancing the intimate and internal against the grand sweep of history. The struggles of Andor and his family mirror the tumultuous reckoning of the post-WWII world, as Orphan bears witness to the tyrannies of the period through the eyes of a child.

Screening in 35mm.

Synopsis

When the love of Dora’s life marries a different woman, she turns bitter heartache into sweet confections, opening a bakery that features pastries named for famous Hollywood break-ups. When the shop is threatened with closure, she’s offered a lifeline: a competition with a cash prize for family-run businesses. She has the business, now all she needs is the family.

Synopsis

Headstrong teen mother Maja has lost custody of her toddler. Abandoned as a child herself, she’s determined to avoid her mother’s mistakes and earn back the right to care for her child. When a social program offers small business loans, she jumps at the chance for redemption. Anchored by a raw, natural performance, this moving coming-of-age tale is a testament to the power of second chances.

Synopsis

Tamás is heartbroken. After his girlfriend dumps him in Paris, he faces an inglorious return to hometown Budapest. As he begrudgingly attempts to get his life back on track, his wanderings across the city of his youth and time spent in his childhood home send him on a self-reflective trip down memory lane into his tortuous past. Dreamy surrealism couples with wry wit in this unexpected romantic comedy that ponders the nature of lost love.