Synopsis

In this incisive and whimsical personal essay film about movies, memory, and the places of one’s past, acclaimed Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau, Neighboring Sounds) explores the changing domestic and urban spaces of his native coastal town of Recife. Split into three sections, the film opens with his family apartment — the site of his early filmmaking endeavors. It then observes the glorious movie houses of Mendonça’s formative years, culminating with a meditation on the transfiguration of theaters into churches and new sites of community.

Through the film’s playful mix of wry narration, amateur (and actual) movies, and archival footage, Mendonça imparts a range of engaging personal musings, from the role of dogs, cats, and termites in his neighborhood to fascinating historical details. A nostalgic love letter to cinema and cities, Pictures of Ghosts creates evocative connections between past and present, fiction and reality, and dilapidated and beautiful.

Synopsis

1990s small town China. A woman’s body washes up in the local river. The chief of police, Ma Zhe, is tasked with heading up the investigation. An obvious perp leads to a hasty arrest, though the mystery lingers in Ma Zhe’s mind. What kind of darkness is truly at play here?

In director Wei Shujun’s murky throwback film noir, gritty, textured film grain captures the pulpy proceedings, Torrents of rain envelop the characters as they descend into madness in pursuit of the truth. Equal parts atmospheric tour-de-force and beguiling puzzler, Only the River Flows is at once a masterfully styled ode to a bygone cinematic era and a sharp-edged portrait of provincial paranoia.

Synopsis

A decaying hotel on the Portuguese coast welcomes its weekend guests: a man struggling to balance his time between his wife and mother, a woman embarking on an affair with her son-in-law, and a mother attempting to control her daughter’s every decision. During their respective stays, the vacationers observe the hotel’s scarred, resentful staff as their own familial dramas play out for all to see.

Synopsis

Formally bold and endlessly rich, veteran director Hong Sangsoo offers up his most aesthetically daring work to date with in water. A trio of friends venture to Jeju Island to make a film: Seongmo, the director and a recently retired actor, doesn’t have a script, and isn’t sure what his film should be about. Together, the three wander in search of a story, hoping the island’s rocky landscape will prove inspirational.  Walking alone, Seongmo encounters a young woman picking up trash, which gives him the creative spark he needs.

Returning to his signature themes of cinema and self-reflection, Sangsoo skews the focus of his lens to create intentionally blurred, abstracted, breathtakingly beautiful images.The result is a profound meditation on the mysteries of art, inspiration, and the enigmatic nature of the creative process.

Synopsis

Dita lives in a large household with her girlfriend, her girlfriend’s daughters, and a group of other queer misfits in the North Macedonian capital. When circumstances force Dita to become the caretaker of the two troublemaking daughters, the reluctant adults of the house must figure out a way to keep this unlikely family safe from a society that is not ready to accept them.

Explosive clashes between the strong-willed, the fiercely independent, and the culturally at odds form a vibrating orchestral narrative that tests the household’s alliances and bonds. Goran Stolevski (You Won’t Be Alone) returns to the Festival with a chaotic and remarkably tender portrait of a found family and the powerful ties that bind those pushed to the margins of society.