Cinematographers’ and Directors’ Debuts Competitions were initiated in 2010 due to the Festival’s increasing openness to the noteworthy artists and the new film phenomena they create. The idea of creating additional competition sections was a natural consequence of our previous activities. For years we have been promoting innovative projects that combine intellectual freedom, remarkable insight into world affairs and a desire to inspire other artists of the screen.

Cinematographers’ and Directors’ Debuts Competitions bring new discoveries: great movies of high artistic value and great filmmakers whose new ventures surprise not only the Jury members but all audiences around the world as well.

An exceptionally modern thriller about the age we are living in – about a world lived in by a significant minority of people – which speaks to the very real social, economic and moral fears of a growing mainstream of people. Tim’s innate morals are the opposite of the world he inhabits. He is an innocent person in a guilty environment. The masters of this universe are those who wield intimidation as a tool. Tim can only work to the imperatives that govern life here. A person of good moral character thus commits acts that are illegal, that are morally ambiguous. And he does so consciously. And there is a burden in that consciousness.

Directed by: Duane Hopkins
Cinematography: David Procter
Producer: THIRD FILMS LTD

Through life, death, rebirth and the afterlife, the film flows seamlessly between the past, present and future, all simultaneously unfolding in parallel voids and universes. Dark Samurai explores the very human and agonizing processes that go through the shattered mind of Miyamoto, who is so broken and destroyed that the only thing he has left is the rapidly fading memories of his love. His undying, yet, as a samurai-yakuza warrior, strictly forbidden love for a woman is the only thing that has ever made him feel like a man and a human being.

Directed by: Sidney Lexy Plaut
Cinematography: Sidney Lexy Plaut
Producer: Spearhead Pictures

Three hours outside of Addis Ababa, a bright 14-year-old girl is on her way home from school when men on horses swoop in and kidnap her. The brave Hirut grabs a rifle and tries to escape, but ends up shooting her would-be husband. In her village, the practice of abduction into marriage is common and one of Ethiopia’s oldest traditions. Meaza Ashenafi, an empowered and tenacious young lawyer, arrives from the city to represent Hirut and argue that she acted in self-defence. Meaza boldly embarks on a collision course between enforcing civil authority and abiding by customary law. Based on a real-life story.

Directed by: Zeresenay Berhane Mehari
Cinematography: Monika Lenczewska
Producer: Haile-Addis Pictures
Polish distributor: Bomba Film

In a modern-day metropolis, Marcin, a mysterious lone ranger, steps into the younger Ola’s world, which revolves around parties, alcohol, and drugs. Having met her parvenu parents, he starts to take terrifying steps. Their motivation constitutes an intriguing enigma of this independent film production. Is Marcin the god of revenge in a world of appearances, in which the crisis of genuine values prevails? Is he only an accomplice or also a victim of the spiritual void?

Directed by: Krzysztof Skonieczny
Cinematography: Kacper Fertacz
Producer: głębokiOFF
Polish distributor: GUTEK Film

During a seemingly easy burglary Jenny tells her boyfriend that she is pregnant. He proposes to her on the spot. However, the burglary ends in a gunfight... After serving 10 years in prison for murder, Jenny returns to society. She wants to live a quiet life and resume her responsibilities as a mother, but soon shadows from the past start to appear. It’s Only Make Believe is – despite all the crime – a warm tale of love and longing.

Original Title: Eventyrland
Directed by: Arild Østin Ommundsen
Cinematography: Arild Østin Ommundsen
Producer: Chezville

One day, Samuel and Rodrigo’s mother disappears in a rather strange way; she only leaves behind a note on the dining table which says: “I had to go out. Mom.” This odd situation forces the brothers to break away from their tranquil everyday life and go out into the desert to look for her. They follow the clues they can remember from their childhood and this situation creates a tension which ends up hurting their relationship. This is a portrait about attachment and detachment between two brothers, a history about a search for roots and a true home, as well as about the way we inherit customs and behaviors which are also part of our parent’s legacy.

Original title: La Vida Después
Directed by: David Pablos
Cinematography: José De- La-Torre
Producer: Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC)

An impressionistic fable of trauma and love. Ruin is the story of Phirun and Sovanna – two young Cambodians. Inexplicably drawn together and silently united on the streets of Phnom Penh, Phirun and Sovanna find refuge in one another until a sudden and brutal murder committed in self-defence forces them to flee the city and travel deep into the jungle. As their vulnerable love ebbs and flows along their journey, they gradually open up to one another and find a profound intimacy that sits somewhere between platonic love and sexual desire.

Directed by: Michael Cody, Amiel Courtin-Wilson
Cinematography: Ari Wegner
Producer: FLOOD PROJECTS

When Sebastian meets Andreas for the first time he knows they belong together. As they weave through Stockholm’s back streets and forgotten parks, shoplifting beer from a 7-Eleven and dancing the tango on an abandoned rooftop, their intoxicating connection takes hold. While Sebastian defies gender norms – flouting convention in his androgynous fluidity – straight-identifying Andreas becomes unable to accept his attraction to another man as their relationship progresses. The film captures the intimacy of its subjects with an intensity and charge that is simultaneously transgressive and deeply romantic.

Original title: Nånting måste gå sönde
Polish title: Coś musi się stać
Directed by: Ester Martin Bergsmark
Cinematography: Lisabi Fridell, Minka Jakerson
Producer: Film i Väst, Garagefilm International AB
Polish distributor: Tongariro Releasing

Things are worse for Scanlin than he admits. Unknown to his family, he has lost his job as an insurance broker because he wasn’t making it hard enough for clients to claim insurance compensation. The bank shows no understanding when he fails to keep up his mortgage payments and this brings him to the brink of financial ruin. Like so many Americans, he is under enormous financial pressure. Propelled by his need to survive Scanlin turns to crime. A world of double standards soon reveals itself to Scanlin.

Directed by: Saar Klein
Cinematography: Matthias Koenigswieser
Producer: bravecove

Marie is a beautiful and lonely 16-year-old who lives in an isolated village on a small island off the west coast of Denmark. Marie’s mother is seriously ill, suffering from an unknown disease – on medication, mentally absent and tied to a wheelchair. Marie’s father, Thor, runs the small grocery store and tries to make life as normal as possible for the small family. On the surface, everything seems fine – and yet, Marie can't help feeling that Thor is hiding something about her mother’s illness.

Original title: Når Dyrene Drømmer
Directed by: Jonas Alexander Arnby
Cinematography: Niels Thastum
Producer: Alphaville Pictures Copenhagen ApS
Polish distributor: Vivarto

The summer of 1939. On an isolated, rocky island in the Baltic Sea a lighthouse keeper, Master Hasselbond, is a God-like figure, overseeing his despairing wife, innocent young daughter and teenage son, Gustaf, who both fears and loves him. Then an outsider comes to this doomed place, 13-year-old Karl chosen by default to become the lighthouse keeper’s assistant – much to Hasselbond’s disgust. Raised in an orphanage, Karl is determined to prove his worth. He befriends Gustaf, but their friendship becomes rivalry and hate when Hasselbond starts to favor Karl over his own son.

Original title: Lärjungen
Directed by: Ulrika Bengts
Cinematography: Robert Nordström
Producer: Långfilm Productions Ltd.

A story of pirates in Somalia, told from the perspective of the pirates. Shot in East Africa using Somali non-actors, Fishing Without Nets tells the mesmerizing and sobering story of the bandits from the Somali point of view. First-time filmmaker Cutter Hodierne combines the epic cinematic vision of a glorious action-thriller with the intimate, textured qualities of an art film, humanizing the pirates by bringing us inside their moral dilemmas and gut-wrenching struggles.

Polish title: Połów bez sieci
Directed by: Cutter Hodierne
Cinematography: Alex Disenhof
Producer: Vice Films

In a modern-day metropolis, Marcin, a mysterious lone ranger, steps into the younger Ola’s world, which revolves around parties, alcohol, and drugs. Having met her parvenu parents, he starts to take terrifying steps. Their motivation constitutes an intriguing enigma of this independent film production. Is Marcin the god of revenge in a world of appearances, in which the crisis of genuine values prevails? Is he only an accomplice or also a victim of the spiritual void?

Directed by: Krzysztof Skonieczny
Cinematography: Kacper Fertacz
Producer: głębokiOFF
Polish distributor: GUTEK Film 

Jesper is a soldier in the German army. Although his brother was killed while serving in Afghanistan, he nevertheless reports for a new tour of duty in this war zone. He and his unit are to protect a remote village from the Taliban. One of the people accompanying Jesper is a young interpreter, Tarik, whose job includes mediating between soldiers and villagers. Both sides have a hard time trying to overcome the differences in their respective ways of life. Jesper must gain the trust of both villagers and the allied Arbaki militia and his nerves are soon on edge. He finds himself increasingly morally conflicted as a result of his superiors’ orders.

Original title: Zwischen Welten
Polish title: Między światami
Directed by: Feo Aladag
Cinematography: Judith Kaufmann
Producer: Independent Artists Filmproduktion
Polish distributor: Bomba Film

A country romance about the human streak in the horse and the horse in the human. Love and death become intertwined with enormous consequences. The fortunes of people in the countryside as seen through the eyes of horses. Kolbeinn loves Solveig and Solveig loves Kolbeinn, but Kolbeinn is in love with his prized possession and darling, the mare Grána, and Grána is obsessed with the stallion Brúnn. Spring is coming and the whole community is following the story. How will this end? Well, it all ends in the autumn.

Original title: Hross i oss
Directed by: Benedikt Erlingsson
Cinematography: Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson
Producer: Leiknar Myndir, Icelandic Film Centre

When Sebastian meets Andreas for the first time he knows they belong together. As they weave through Stockholm’s back streets and forgotten parks, shoplifting beer from a 7-Eleven and dancing the tango on an abandoned rooftop, their intoxicating connection takes hold. While Sebastian defies gender norms – flouting convention in his androgynous fluidity – straight-identifying Andreas becomes unable to accept his attraction to another man as their relationship progresses. The film captures the intimacy of its subjects with an intensity and charge that is simultaneously transgressive and deeply romantic.

Original title: Nånting måste gå sönde
Polish title: Coś musi się stać
Directed by: Ester Martin Bergsmark
Cinematography: Lisabi Fridell, Minka Jakerson
Producer: Film i Väst, Garagefilm International AB
Polish distributor: Tongariro Releasing

A Bedouin story of brotherhood and betrayal, set in Wadi Rum, 1916. Theeb (Arabic for Wolf) lives with his Bedouin tribe in a forgotten corner of the Ottoman Empire. Having recently lost his father, it falls to Theeb’s brother, Hussein, to raise him. Hussein tries to teach Theeb the Bedouin way of life, but the boy is more interested in mischief. Hussein agrees to escort two strangers – a British Army officer and his guide – to a water well on the old pilgrimage route to Mecca. Fearful of losing his brother, Theeb chases after Hussein and embarks on a treacherous journey across the Arabian Desert.

Directed by: Naji Abu Nowar
Cinematography: Wolfgang Thaler
Producer: Bayt Al Shawareb

Dreaming of the West, Boryana is determined not to have a child in communist Bulgaria. Nonetheless, her daughter Viktoria enters the world in 1979, curiously missing a belly button, and is declared the country’s Baby of the Decade. Pampered by her mother state until the age of nine, Viktoria’s notoriety comes crashing down with the rest of European communism. But can political collapse finally bring Viktoria and her reluctant mother closer together?

Directed by: Maya Vitkova
Cinematography: Krum Rodriguez
Producer: Viktoria Films

In a deserted shopping centre, Jesse’s best friend Jonas is stabbed to death as Jesse looks on, paralysed by what is taking place. The youthful perpetrators run off and their motives remain unclear. The event marks the beginning of a horrific and isolated time for Jesse. Left alone with his pain and probably his own feelings of guilt, he can find no words to express what he is feeling – either to his parents or to the other boys in his BMX gang. Their reactions are either helpless or standoffish, since they suspect Jesse of cowardice. A monstrous silence pervades their neat suburban estate.

Directed by: Bas Devos
Cinematography: Nicolas Karakatsanis
Producer: Minds Meet

Andrew Neiman is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite East Coast music conservatory. Terence Fletcher, an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. He discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into his band, forever changing the young man’s life. Andrew’s passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher continues to push him to the brink of both his ability and his sanity.

Directed by: Damien Chazelle
Cinematography: Sharone Meir
Producer: Bold Films, Right of Way Films, Blumhouse Productions
Polish distributor: United International Pictures Sp. z o.o. (UIP Polska)