Mark Adams

It is tough to strike the right tonal balance when it comes to looking at the impact of poverty on the vulnerable in society, but while Łukasz Kowalski’s humour in his new doc may well be pitch-black at times, the Best of Fests film is also astutely compassionate as it dwells on staff and customers as they struggle to deal with their harsh lives.

Constructed from home videos from the 1990s and early 2000s, Love Is Not An Orange, which world-premiered in Leipzig, paints a fascinating portrait of the impact independence had on Moldova, formerly part of the Soviet Union, a country that struggled to make the transition from communism to capitalism, and all seen through the prism of family relationships.

With the striking vista of volcano Katla looming large and ominously over the Icelandic village of Vík í Mýrdal, the town’s inhabitants have developed a relationship with the potentially dangerous volcano and set about using it as a lure for tourists, creating a source of considerable prosperity. The problem is that an eruption is way overdue. Or maybe that’s why the tourists are there in the first place…

An elegant and insightful blend of childlike art, music and observation helps elevate Vida Dena’s documentary My Paper Life (Ma vie en papier) to something rather special, and helps deliver a thoughtful and warm look into the thoughts, memories and present-day realities for a Syrian family who have escaped the war and are now living in Belgium.

A survivor of the 1915 Armenian genocide, the story of Aurora Mardiganin is the harrowing true story of a teenager who, after seeing her family murdered, embarked on a remarkable journey that involved incarceration within a Turkish harem and escape to the US. Her story was eventually re-told in a silent Hollywood film. That she re-lived that story as star of the film makes it all the more chilling. Armenian Academy Award Int'l Feature submission.

The sense of laid-back cool that infuses the music of the band Cymande is very much reflected in this engagingly straight-forward documentary that traces the history of the band and details the influence their work had on musicians who came after them, especially in the world of hip-hop where tracks often 20 years old were sampled by major players.

A playfully provocative delve into work of performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña and his dance/art troupe La Pocha Nostra, Amber Bemak’s engagingly breezy and busy documentary manages to offer plenty of insight into culture and politics while also playfully blurring the line between filmmaker and subject.

Stories about a return to the homeland to seek fortune and happiness are familiar, but Golden Land manages to offer something generous and gently compassionate to the canon. While drama and darkness lurk in the background (and certainly have an influence on proceedings) the film is permeated with reflections on family and support as it tells the story of a Finnish family who return to Somaliland to follow their dreams.

A remarkable and provocative film, Children of the Enemy is the moving and powerful story of one man’s lonely fight to try and free his seven grandchildren from a refugee camp in Syria. Gorki Glaser-Muller’s absorbing film is straightforward in structure and tone and wisely never does more than follow Patricio Galvez through his emotionally harrowing journey.

Urban legend or shocking revelation? A controversial unnamed source provides the spine for Miran Zupanič’s chilling and often shocking documentary which tells the story of how rich foreigners allegedly paid top dollar to join Bosnian Serb Army snipers to shoot at residents of a Sarajevo under siege during the 1992-96 war.