During its press conference May 18, International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) presented the full programme for its celebratory 50th edition.
No fewer than 41 documentaries are selected for the multi-section live/online fest, whose final part runs 2-6 June (on demand available until 9 June). Eight world, four international, three European and 20 Dutch premieres are selected within the Harbour, Bright Future and Cinema Regained and Short/Mid-length strands.
The World to Come (fiction) by Mona Fastvold opens the festival on Wednesday 2 June and Hirota Yusuke’s Poupelle of Chimney Town (fiction) marks its close on Sunday 6 June, with on demand available until 9 June. Due to ongoing governmental regulations, the closing chapter of the festival will now take place online and in cinemas in Rotterdam.
Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic commented: “I am extremely proud to share all we have in store for the closing chapter of our 50th jubilee edition. From June 2 to 6 we will offer an incredibly rich and varied programme that is jam-packed with over 139 features, short and mid-length films as well as plenty of VR projects, talks and more. From the rediscovery of arthouse classics to celebrate IFFR’s history to the latest futuristic genre-bending TV series, there will be a wide range to choose from.
“All this in a way that captures the energy and excitement that has long been at the heart of IFFR, while adhering to the latest governmental regulations. We are raring to go and look forward to celebrating our 50th anniversary with audiences at home and in cinemas in Rotterdam.”
Documentary selections: Harbour
Decameron by Rita Hui Nga Shu, 2021, Hong Kong, 107 min.
Critical visual essay on the present, past and future of Hong Kong. Using archival material and contemporary images, Rita Hui Nga Shu sketches a damaged Hong Kong, which perseveres in spite of repressed mass protests and a pandemic.
World premiere
Lutar, lutar, lutar by Sérgio Borges, Helvécio Marins Jr., 2021, Brazil, 110 min.
Atlético Mineiro – or Galo to its fans – may not have the most trophies, but few clubs have such a dedicated army of supporters. After a century of bad luck on the field and injustice off it, in 2013 this people’s club from Belo Horizonte finally won the Copa Libertadores. Now it also has the film it deserves.
European premiere
Self-portrait 2020 by Lee Dongwoo, 2020, South Korea, 168 min.
A devastating documentary portrait of a man who was once a promising filmmaker. Now in his fifties, Lee Sang-yeol is homeless, an alcoholic and unpredictable, but finds a kindred spirit in a young filmmaker he serendipitously encounters on the streets of Seoul. A tale of lost dreams and the brutality of life.
European premiere
Amor fati by Cláudia Varejão, 2020, Portugal, Switzerland, France, 102 min.
What makes for a complete human being? Finding a soulmate, according to this documentary. Intimate portraits of very different couples – from older twin sisters who dress identically to a drag queen with a pug puppy – make up a beautifully filmed portmanteau story of completing love.
Dutch premiere
Bottled Songs 1-4 by Chloé Galibert-Laîné, Kevin B. Lee, 2020, Germany, France, USA, 77 min.
For its propaganda, terror organisation ISIS makes use of Hollywood film techniques and the mechanisms of Western journalism. This desktop documentary, consisting of video letters, decodes ISIS videos and also analyses the role of the viewer in these – because watching has consequences.
Dutch premiere
Davos – Daniel Hoesl by Julia Niemann, 2020, Austria, 99 min.
A documentary portrait of the Swiss town of Davos, where each year the World Economic Forum takes place in pursuit of its stated aim to improve the state of the world. The filmmakers contrast local farmers and café proprietors with the global financial and political elite, who visit and then move on.
Dutch premiere
A Man and a Camera by Guido Hendrikx, 2020, Netherlands, 64 min.
An unconventional tour of Dutch front doors, calming and disquieting in equal measure. The silent man with the camera doesn’t seem to have any plan after ringing the bell. So his intentions are filled in for him by the residents, whose assumptions make for great stories and awkward situations.
Dutch premiere
MINAMATA Mandala by Hara Kazuo, 2020, Japan, 372 min.
Shot over 15 years, Hara Kazuo’s film documents the arduous legal and medical battle endured by the residents of Minamata, a city whose name has become synonymous with the infamous neurological disease caused by corporate mishandling of chemical wastewater. An epic tale of struggle and commitment.
Dutch premiere
Only the Winds by Karim Kassem, 2020, Lebanon, USA, 131 min.
Hybrid drama interweaves fiction with documentary to create a poetic, meditative whole. A filmmaker who emigrated to New York returns to Lebanon for eye surgery, to visit his family and research a new film. While visiting an institute for the blind, he learns to again appreciate the art of listening.
Dutch premiere
Birds of America by Jacques Loeuille, 2021, France, 80 min.
He stepped into a veritable natural paradise in the early 1800s. Naturalist and artist John James Audubon wanted to immortalise all the birds in America before humans wrought irreparable devastation. A documentary that is a love letter to the founding father of nature conservation and his stunning paintings.
Dutch premiere
Mi chiamo Francesco Totti by Alex Infascelli, 2020, Italy, 106 min.
This documentary about Francesco Totti, AS Roma’s footballing icon, exudes passion. Before his final game, he looks back on the crazy heights and perilous depths of being a star athlete and family man. A well over 25-year rollercoaster, compiled from an overwhelming wealth of archival footage.
Dutch premiere
Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché by Celeste Bell, Paul Sng, 2017, UK, India, USA, 88 min.
As a woman of colour with braces and self-designed, futuristic clothing, Poly Styrene stood out in Britain’s late-1970’s punk scene. Her daughter made this admiring and critical portrait of the somewhat forgotten icon, who psychologically succumbed to the pressure and ended up joining the Hare Krishna movement.
Dutch premiere
Faraway My Shadow Wandered by Jiekai Liao, Sudhee Liao, 2019, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, 70 min.
An unfulfilled promise to become the heir of his grandfather’s Shinto shrine weighs heavily on Junya. Returning to his hometown from which he drifted away, Junya tells his story to a dancer, Sara, with whom he shares his date of birth. Dance, film and photography give voice to repressed feelings in this soul-stirring hybrid documentary.
Dutch premiere
Documentary selections: Bright Future
Damascus Dreams by Émilie Serri, 2020, Canada, 80 min.
Filmmaker Émilie Serri’s father is from Syria, but he doesn’t talk much about his home country. Serri’s desire to build a connection to this war-ravaged country results in an exceptional, poetic documentary in which she links the reminiscences of refugees to her family history.
World premiere
Faya Dayi by Jessica Beshir, 2021, Ethiopia, USA, Qatar, 120 min.
The leaves of the stimulant khat plant have become Ethiopia’s biggest agricultural crop. Against the backdrop of this industry, an enchanting, layered impression of Ethiopian life unfolds, shot in poetic black and white. About an old myth, repression and the young, who dream of a better life elsewhere.
Dutch premiere
Rock Bottom Riser by Fern Silva, 2020, USA, 75 min.
Against lava flow, starry skies and images of nature, Fern Silva explores a vast canvas in this free-associating, experimental film on Hawaii: from the island’s indigenous culture to extra-terrestrial worlds, Christian preachers and ancient Polynesian navigation by the stars; from documentary to fiction and poetry.
Dutch premiere
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror by Kier-La Janisse, 2021, USA, 194 min.
Folk horror is a comparatively new concept in genre-cinema discussions, although the films it’s anchored in have been venerated for decades. Why do we now feel so threatened by folklore, rural settings and ancient cultures? Janisse offers many answers that go far beyond film culture.
Dutch premiere
Documentary selections: Short & Mid-length (non-competitive)
Unrendered Road by Tali Liberman, 2021, Israel, Palestine, Netherlands, 21 min.
Unrendered Road traces the road between two ancient cities: Jerusalem and Jericho. A journey Google Maps will not show you.
World premiere
UNEARTH – In Between States of Matter by Anika Schwarzlose, Brian D. McKenn, 2021, Russia, Netherlands, Germany, 18 min.
UNEARTH zooms in on resource extraction, mining machines and material transformations, interweaving conversations recorded in the Russian Ural region.
World premiere
Improvised Objects by Katja Verheul, 2021, Netherlands, 9 min.
In a world where billions are spent on state-of-the-art weaponry, the deadliest weapon is still a low-budget DIY device.
World premiere
The Blind Rabbit by Pallavi Paul, 2021, India, 43 min.
Grainy CCTV images show the brutal police raid on the library of an Islamic university in Delhi in late 2019, ending with the lens breaking. An essay on invisibility as a repressive strategy. Poorly recorded events live on as intangible spirits liable to appear anywhere.
World premiere
À la recherche d’Aline by Rokhaya Marieme Balde, 2020, Switzerland, 27 min.
A young woman embarks on a quest to understand the story of Senegalese symbol of resistance, Aline Sitoe Diatta.
Dutch premiere
Aasivissuit by Jasper Coppes, 2020, Netherlands, Greenland, 23 min.
Two park rangers introduce us to the rapidly changing landscape in Aasivissuit, West Greenland.
Dutch premiere
One Image, Two Acts by Sanaz Sohrabi, 2020, Canada, Germany, USA, Iran, 44 min.
Sanaz Sohrabi uses photos and films from British Petroleum’s extensive archives to reveal how oil production, ideological propaganda and shifts in political power went hand in hand in Iran. Ultimately this image culture was reclaimed by the developing anti-colonial film movement: the Iranian New Wave.
Dutch premiere
Documentary selections: Cinema Regained
Amos Gitaï, la violence et l’histoire by Laurent Roth, 2021, France, 76 min.
A portrait of Amos Gitaï focusing on two clusters in his oeuvre: the three films about a house in West Jerusalem visited and revisited over the course of 25 years, and his works investigating and remembering the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. A forceful tribute to a political fighter and public intellectual.
World premiere
María Luisa Bemberg: El eco de mi voz by Alejandro Maci, 2021, Argentina, 85 min.
A portrait of an exceptional artist. María Luisa Bemberg was a woman of independent means and spirit. A pivotal figure of the nation’s intellectual life as well as a feminist activist since the 1950s, she became an internationally celebrated filmmaker in the 1970s.
World premiere
Cinephilia Now: Part 1 – Secrets Within Walls by Sasaki Yusuke, 2020, Japan, 103 min.
When Sasaki Yusuke moves to a city new to him, he discovers a wonderful world of privately organised film screening initiatives in community centres, galleries, museums but also people’s living rooms. This is a paean to those creating such events to make their communities better and more beautiful places.
International premiere
The Dinosaur by Veikko Aaltonen, 2021, Finland, 89 min.
Rauni Mollberg is one of Finland’s greatest filmmakers, whose artistic genius came with often brutally sociopathic behaviour – fodder for the 1970s/80s tabloids. Veikko Aaltonen explores his mentor’s troublesome legacy. A masterpiece of political cinema.
International premiere
MÍR Hundred Years of Revolution by Haukur Hallsson, 2020, Iceland, Czech Republic, 21 min.
The USSR might be gone, but some Icelanders still meet every week to watch Soviet movies.
International première
Modern Korea – Doing Our Best the People’s Network by Jisun Youm, 2020, South Korea, 46 min.
Self-critical look by Korea’s public broadcaster at its involvement with the military dictatorship, using its own materials and interviews.
International premiere
All Other Things Equal by Anya Tsyrlina, 2020, Russia, 20 min.
Can we find a different feminism in the images of state-sponsored Soviet documentaries about women and their role in socialism? Yes.
European premiere
Como el cielo después de llover by Mercedes Gaviria, 2019, Argentina, Colombia, 73 min.
When Colombian master Víctor Gaviria started production on his latest film, he invited his daughter Mercedes along for the ride. While assisting him, she filmed proceedings, on and off set. What she managed to document is the core of a tense relationship – a generational divide as well as a gender abyss.
Dutch premiere
Hopper/Welles by Orson Welles, 2020, USA, 130 min.
One evening in 1970, young movie rebel Dennis Hopper accepted the invitation of Hollywood’s supreme maverick, Orson Welles, to spend an evening drinking and talking together. Several cameras filmed the meeting at Welles’ behest. A candidly bawdy view of two men and artists of their time.
Dutch premiere
The Village Detective: a song cycle by Bill Morrison, 2020, USA, 80 min.
Four cans of water-damaged film from a popular 1960s crime comedy become the starting point for Morrison’s gallivanting journey through Soviet history, cinema and beyond. Anchored in the life of actor Mihail Žarov – which is as full of holes and smudgy parts as those reels. An object lesson in poetic research.
Dutch premiere
The Philosophy of Horror – A Symphony of Film Theory by Péter Lichter, Bori Máté, 2020, Hungary, 62 min.
Adaptation of Noël Carroll’s 1990 treatise The Philosophy of Horror Or, Paradoxes of the Heart. Divided into eight chapters, Lichter and Máté open each with a Carroll quote on one aspect of horror’s functioning, followed by brutally treated appropriated footage from classics of the genre that highlight this observation.
Dutch premiere
Charisma by Amos Gitaï, 1976, Israel, 18 min.
An essay parable, part documentary part fiction, on the desire for a leader, anchored in Brecht’s 1935 poem A Worker Reads History.
No premiere
The Crown Jewels of Iran by Ebrahim Golestan, 1965, Iran, 15 min.
A vanguard work for Iran’s New Wave in its never-before-seen, uncensored original version.
No premiere
Les nomades du soleil by Henry Brandt, 1953, Switzerland, 44 min.
The Woɗaaɓe are a nomadic people who wander the vast spheres from the central Sahel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the region and country are called today. Swiss documentarist-ethnographer Henry Brandt was among the very first to film their now-famous culture and rites.
No premiere
Les rendez-vous de l’été by Jacques Ertaud, Raymond Zumstein, 1966, France, 44 min.
The French track and field team prepares for the world championships. A paean to sport as a shining example of human nobility.
No premiere
La Suisse s’interroge by Henry Brandt, 1964, Switzerland, 20 min.
A critical self-portrait of Switzerland in five short movements, made for the great National Exposition of 1964. A watershed documentary restored.
No premiere
