Happy as Lazzaro
(2018) by Alice Rohrwacher
(Italy)
Duration: 128’
Synopsis
This is the tale of a meeting between Lazzaro, a young peasant so good that he is often mistaken for simple-minded, and Tancredi, a young nobleman cursed by his imagination. Life in their isolated pastoral village Inviolata is dominated by the terrible Marchesa Alfonsina de Luna, the queen of cigarettes. A loyal bond is sealed when Tancredi asks Lazzaro to help him orchestrate his own kidnapping. This strange and improbable alliance is a revelation for Lazzaro. A friendship so precious that it will travel in time and transport Lazzaro in search of Tancredi. His first time in the big city, Lazzaro is like a fragment of the past lost in the modern world.
The Son
(2019) by Ines Tanović (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Montenegro)
Duration: 106’
Synopsis
Arman is about to turn 18. He was adopted as a baby by Jasna and Senad, who were unable to have children of their own. However, four years after the adoption, Jasna gives birth to Dado. Throughout his life, Arman has had a hard time coping with being an adopted child. Full of explosive energy, he constantly gets in trouble together with his schoolmates. Despite being very intelligent, he is labelled as a problem child. The only place he feels safe and loved is with Jasna’s parents. At the same time, Arman does all he can to save Dado from self-destructing. However, despite everything he does to support his brother, his parents interpret Arman’s involvement incorrectly, and blame him for every trouble with Dado.
Hanna’s Homecoming
(2019) by Esther Bialas (Germany)
Duration: 98’
Synopsis
After three years at boarding school, Hanna is returning home to her little village to help her father’s butcher’s shop during her break. Soon she learns that she is not welcome in the village. Everyone remembers the horrific news story about her mother’s death which was followed by the discovery of three dead men in the marsh. While superstition rules the village, everyone believes her mother was a witch and had lured these men into the marsh directly to their death. While struggling to make friends, she meets the extroverted city girl Eva. Thinking she has finally found a friend, scary accidents are staring to happen around her… while Hanna’s confidence and with that her „power“ starts to grow.
Utøya: July 22
(2018) by Erik Poppe (Norway)
Duration: 78’
Synopsis
A teenage girl struggles to survive and to find her younger sister during the July 2011 terrorist mass murder at a political summer camp on the Norwegian island of Utøya. On 22 July 2011 more than 500 youths at a political summer camp on an island outside Oslo were attacked by an armed, right-wing extremist. Earlier that day he bombed a government building in Oslo before making his way to Utøya island. In this first fictional movie about the attack we get to know Kaja (18) and her friends. The movie starts when the youngsters, shocked by the bombing in Oslo, are reassuring their relatives that they are far away from the incident. Suddenly, the safe atmosphere is shattered when shots are heard. We then follow Kaja as she tries to survive – minute by minute.
Love Cuts
(2019) by Kosta Djordjevic
(Serbia, Croatia)
Duration: 80’
Synopsis
In 20 sequence shots, the film tells a story about a day in the life of young girl who struggles between taking revenge on the local bullies who stabbed her and making up with her halfhearted boyfriend. Obsessive love story set in the teenage girl’s day that might just be every parent’s worst nightmare.