Screenplay: Amir Reza Koohestani, Mani Haghighi 
Cinematography: Morteza Najafi
Editing: Meysam Molaei
Cast: Taraneh Alidoosti (Farzaneh/Bita), Navid Mohammadzadeh (Jalal/Mohsen), Ali Bagheri (Farzanehin tast), Esmail PoorReza, Farham Azizi, Vahid Aghapour, Soheyla Razavi, Saeed Changizian
festivals, awards (selection): Toronto 2022

A suspense-ridden psychological drama, the story of a young couple finding their doppelgängers in the middle of Tehran is a new masterpiece by a renowned Iranian director Mani Haghighi who adopts an aesthetic of muted colours and a rain-battered cityscape. 

Farzaneh is a pregnant young driving instructor who lives with her husband Jalal. Their marriage is far from ideal, especially because Farzaneh is suffering from chronic depression. One day she spots her husband walking into an unknown woman’s house. When she confronts Jalal, he claims he wasn't in town at that time. With the help of her brother-in-law, Farzaneh decides to look into the matter herself. 

Mani Haghighi 
Born in 1969 in Tehran. Haghighi received his basic education in Iran, later attending Appleby College in Canada. He took a BA in philosophy in Montréal and directed plays. He moved back to Iran in 2001 and made television commercials, educational films and documentaries. His first feature film, Abadan, was made with no official shooting permit. It was the first Iranian independent feature film to be shot with a digital camera.
 

Filmography (selection) 
2003 Abadan
2006 Kargaran mashghoole karand (Men at Work) 
2007 Canaan
2012 Paziraie sadeh (Modest Reception)
2016 Ejdeha Vared Mishavad! (A Dragon Arrives!)
2018 Pig
2022 Tafrigh (Subtraction)

Screenplay: Alejandro Loayza Grisi
Cinematography: Fernando Epstein
Cast: José Calcina (Virginio), Luisa Quispe (Sisa), Candelaria Quispe (Elena), Placide Ali (Eugenia), Félix Ticona (Estanis), Santos Choque (Clever)
Festivals, awards (selection): Sundance 2022 (Grand Jury Prize, Audience Award), Cyprus 2022, Malaga 2022 (Best Iberoamerican Film, Best Director, Best Music, Special Critics Award, San Francisco 2022, Transylvania 2022, Istanbul 2022

 

A festival favourite, Utama is a visually arresting, vividly coloured story about an elderly couple’s struggle to remain alive in the drought-ravaged Bolivian highlands. 

On the parched expanses of the Bolivian Altiplano, Virginio and Sisa, an elderly Quechuan couple played by non-pros and a real-life couple, eke out a basic existence as llama farmers (“Utama” is Quechuan for “our home”). An extended drought has made an already challenging subsistence into a precarious struggle for survival. When the couple’s grandson, Clever, comes to visit from the city, they refuse to flee to the city. Would sacrificial offerings to the gods help? Is it true that when a condor feels it has become useless, it goes to the top of a mountain, folds its wings, and abandons itself to the void? In the world of Utama, the parched land, the flaming sunsets and majestic mountains fuel our imagination and imbue everyday realities with a mythical quality.

Alejandro Loayza Grisi
A Bolivian filmmaker born in 1985. His debut feature, Utama, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Dramatic Competition. Loayza Grisi first built an artistic career in still photography, holding exhibitions, issuing publications and winning two national awards in Bolivia. He started out on his filmmaking career as a director of photography. 

Filmography (selection) 
2022 Utama (Our Home)
 

Screenplay: François Ozon (priredba po Rainerju Wernerju Fassbinderju)
Cinematography: Manu Dacosse
Editing: Laure Gardette
Cast Denis Ménochet (Peter von Kant), Stéfan Crépon (Karl), Isabelle Adjani (Sidonie), Khalil Gharbia (Amir), Hanna Schygulla (Rosemarie), Aminthe Audiard (Gabrielle)
Festivali, nagrade (izbor): Berlinale 2022
Laure Gardette
Festivals, awards (selection): Berlinale 2022

Loosely adapted from Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Ozon’s cheeky take is a feast of satirical humour. A behind-the-scenes glimpse at stardom and an exposé of the balance of power in the relationship between an influential artist and his muse.

Peter von Kant is a successful film director. He lives with his assistant Karl, whom he likes to mistreat and humiliate. Sidonie is the great actor who was his muse for many years. She introduces him to Amir, a handsome young man of modest means. Peter falls in love with Amir on the spot and offers to share his apartment with him and help him break into the film industry. The plan works, but as soon as he acquires fame, Amir breaks up with Peter, leaving him alone to face his demons.

François Ozon 
Born in 1967 in Paris. After obtaining a master's degree in film from Paris I University, he studied directing at the famous French film school, La Fémis. Many of his short films have screened at various international festivals. Sitcom, his first feature, was in competition at the 1998 Cannes Festival. The rare combination of humour, sensitivity and psychology has earned him international acclaim and established him as one of the most daring and original French directors.

Filmography (selection)
2000 Gouttes d’eau sur pierres brulantes (Water Drops on Burning Rocks)
2002 8 femmes (8 Women)
2003 Swimming Pool (Bazen)
2004 5 x 2
2010 Potiche 
2013 Jeune et Jolie (Young and Beautiful)
2020 Été 85 (Summer of 85)
2021 Peter von Kant
 

In their signature realistic style, the Dardenne brothers relate a touching story about the exploitation of young African migrants arriving in Europe.

The Belgian authorities are grilling Lokita, a young African woman, over the details of how she supposedly found her brother Tori in a West African orphanage when he was eight years old, despite not having seen him since he was a baby. She can’t answer because it is indeed a lie. The two children, biologically unrelated and actually from two different countries, met while traveling to Europe together and became firm friends. They work together by night at a nearby Italian restaurant. But the kids have been drawn reluctantly into the criminal underworld to pay debts and send desperately needed money back home.

About director
Brothers Jean-Pierre (b. 1951) and Luc (b. 1954) are an acclaimed Belgian filmmaking duo. In 1975, they established the Dérives production company, and in 1981 the Films Dérives Production. Together, they have produced over fifty TV documentaries. Jean-Pierre works at the Audio Visual Department of the Liege University, and Luc teaches at the Free University of Brussels. Two of their films, Rosetta and The Child, won the Palme d’Or Award at Cannes.

Rather than a mystical land of fantastic tales, Cristian Mungiu's Transylvania is a cauldron of xenophobic anxieties echoing modern Europe’s ongoing problems.

A few days before Christmas, having quit his job in Germany, Matthias returns to his multi-ethnic Transylvanian village. He wishes to involve himself more in the education of his son, Rudi, left for too long in the care of his mother, Ana, and to rid the boy of the unresolved fears that have taken hold of him. He’s preoccupied with his father, Otto, and also eager to see his ex-lover, Csilla. When a few new workers are hired at the small factory that Csilla manages, the peace of the community is disturbed. Underlying frustrations, conflicts and passions erupt through the thin veneer of apparent understanding.

About director
Born in 1968 in Romania. After studying English literature he worked as a teacher and journalist for a few years. He then obtained a BA in film directing in Bucharest. Mungiu first made several short films, and in 2002 debuted with his feature film, Occident, which won several international awards. In 2007, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days won the Palme d’Or, marking the first time this coveted prize was awarded to a Romanian filmmaker.

A tribute to fading traditions, Alcarras tells a heartfelt story about a family of peach growers whose livelihood is threatened by the new socio-economic realities. Berlinale 2022 Golden Bear for Best Film.

For as long as they can remember, the Solé family have spent every summer picking the peaches in their orchard in Alcarras, a small village in Spain’s Catalonia region. But this year’s crop may well be their last, as they face eviction. The new plans for the land, which include cutting down the peach trees and installing solar panels, cause a rift in this large, tight-knit family. For the first time, they face an uncertain future and risk losing more than their orchard.

About director
Born in Barcelona, in 1986. After studying audio-visual communication in Barcelona, she directed TV series for the Catalan television and then attended the London Film School.
An acclaimed screenwriter and director, Simón actively participates in the Cinema en Curs, a film education project. In 2013, she founded Young For Film!, an organisation that fosters young audiences’ appreciation of cinema.

The Bhutan nominee for the 2022 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is a visually elaborate meditation on a sense of purpose and happiness found in the least expected places.

Ugyen is a disillusioned schoolteacher and aspiring musician in Bhutan’s capital city, Thimphu. With one year left under his current teaching contract, he is eager to cut out for Australia in pursuit of a singing career when he is abruptly reassigned to the village of Lunana, and the most remote school in the country. With no electricity let alone a blackboard to work with, Ugyen is nonetheless presented with the chance for a new connection to music, and an unexpected sense of purpose within the community’s embrace.

About director
Born in 1983 in Darjeeling, India. After studying in the United States, he first pursued a career in photography. Returning to India, Dorji met filmmaker Khyentse Norbu and worked with him as director's assistant and producer. His feature-length debut, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson reunite after more than a decade for another triumph by Irish director Martin McDonagh. Farrell won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.

1923. Civil war is raging in mainland Ireland. Just a stone’s throw away from the tumult of war, on a remote island off the west Irish coast, life runs its usual course. Pádraic lives with his sister in a humble cottage and makes a living as a dairy farmer. He and his friend, an aging musician Colm, spend their afternoons at the local pub. Padraic and Colm find themselves at an impasse when Colm unexpectedly puts an end to their friendship. A stunned Padraic, aided by his sister Siobhan and troubled young islander Dominic, endeavours to repair the relationship, refusing to take no for an answer. But Padraic’s repeated efforts only strengthen his former friend’s resolve and when Colm delivers a desperate ultimatum, events swiftly escalate, with shocking consequences.

About director
Born into an Irish family in 1970 in London. He left school when he was 16 to pursue his love of playwriting. It was already his first play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996), that won a number of awards. Since then McDonagh has gone on to write multiple smash-hit shows and films and win multiple awards, including an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film for Six Shooter. He made his first feature film, In Bruges, in 2008.

The latest offering from Park Chan-wook, one of South Korea’s most prominent filmmakers, pays a tribute to the legacy of film noir. Best Director Award at Cannes 2022.

A man falls from a mountain peak to his death. The detective in charge, Hae-joon, comes to meet the dead man’s wife Seo-rae. Seo-rae does not show any signs of agitation at her husband’s death. With her behaviour so unlike that of a grieving relative, the police consider her a suspect. Hae-joon interrogates Seo-rae, and while observing her on stakeout, feels himself slowly developing an interest in her. Meanwhile the difficult-to-read Seo-rae, despite being suspected of a crime, acts boldly towards Hae-joon. A suspect who is hiding her true feelings. A detective who suspects and desires his suspect.

About director
Born in 1963 in Seoul, South Korea. An ardent cinephile, Park juggled film directing and criticism in the 1990s before his commercial breakthrough, Joint Security Area, which broke local box-office records. However, it was his follow-up, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, that formulated Park’s intense, signature cinematic style. Winner of the Cannes Grand Prix for Oldboy and the Jury Prize for Thirst, Park-Chan Wook stands at the forefront of Korean cinema renaissance.

Sierra
Estonia, 2022
Directed by Sander Joon; creenplay Sander Joon; animaton Henri Veermäe, Valya Paneva, Teresa Baroet, Sander Joon
format DCP, colour, running time 16'
A father and his son are losing the folkrace. In order to win, the boy turns himself into a car tire.

***

Safe Place (Sigurno mjesto)

Directed by: Juraj Lerotić
Croatia, 2022, 102'
Screenplay: Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens
Cinematography:Marko Brdar
Cast: Snježana Sinovčić Šiškov (mama/mother), Goran Marković (Damir), Juraj Lerotić (Bruno)

A traumatic event creates a rift in a family’s everyday existence. The autobiographical aspect of the story is highlighted by the fact that the author/director plays himself.

Damir and Bruno are brothers. Damir has just committed a failed suicide attempt. Bruno and their mother seek to protect Damir not just from himself, but also from the unsympathetic system consisting of rude and suspicious members of the police and the robotic, sometimes even arrogant medical personnel.