Discoveries from Belgium World Cinema

Jasper (20), on the edge of adulthood , wanders around lost in the Port of Ghent. Fragments of a phone call betray a loss.

Sinterklaas is coming to our country again! As is tradition, he will once again give his speech from the balcony of Antwerp City Hall.

Cécile’s life is turned upside down after the Alzheimer diagnosis of her husband. In an attempt to keep him close, she loses herself.

Luce and Ulysse love each other. They live a full and happy life managing their own little veterinary clinic on the Atlantic coast. Luce is awaiting a happy event. The future looks good. At least at first sight. But when baby Rose arrives, nothing goes as planned. Luce is out of her depth before the constant crying of her baby. Why does the baby cry so? Is she trying to warn her about something? Could it be that the little family is in danger?

Cherry is 6-year-old girl. She lives with her parents on their large property. Her mother schools her and teaches her music and painting. Cherry is fascinated by the birds she sees from her large terrace but doesn’t realise that her father overprotecting her prevents her from spreading her wings. But on the day she turns seven, she receives a pair of binoculars that allow her to… See further. That is how she discovers Flower, the gardener’s daughter, who walks about freely, yet who is the same age as her. Flower talks about a bird that Cherry had never seen before, the nightingale. From that moment on, Cherry has only one thing in mind: go and meet it.

July 1996, the beach, the sea, the sun. Sophie, 10, spends her summer vacations with her mother and her cousin Laurence. But Laurence has grown up and her mother's thoughts are elsewhere. While the whole country is still looking for two missing little girls, Sophie discovers that this will be her last summer as a child.

Based on her own experience, which she extends through the testimonies of other infertile people, director Élodie Lélu shows how Medically Assisted Procreation modifies the relationship to the body and to the imaginary.

Photographer and visual artist Sammy Baloji’s fascinating film essay explores the Democratic Republic of Congo’s colonial history and its ecological significance. Drawing on research from the 1930s, the film highlights the Congo Basin’s vital role in consuming carbon dioxide and shaping global environmental balance over a century.

Jonas picks up a Flemish hitchhiker Vittal on a lonely road in Sweden. These two lost souls embark on a road trip to Stockholm where their underlying loneliness unravels.

Alexandre learns that his father, whom he didn't know very well, has left him a pig farm on a small farm in the Dauphiné region. This is a fortunate turn of events for him: by selling it, Alexandre can pay off his debts. But to claim this inheritance, Alexandre must win the ultimate prize at an agricultural competition with a pig named "Big Jim." Luck continues to smile on the new owner because, after a few setbacks, Alexandre finally manages to get the animal's value recognized.

After seeing 'Singin' in the Rain', a man decides to give up his peaceful life of happiness to pursue his new dream of tap dancing.

Max and Tikkelotje own an unsuccessful theatre company. When Tikkelotje notices Ramon - the faithful companion to Saint Nicholas - playing the guitar and singing, she decides to kidnap both him and Slechtweervandaag, Saint Nicholas’s trusty steed. Saint Nicholas is devastated, but eventually he pulls himself together and goes around the houses to collect the children’s wishlists. An adventure involving assorted people then ensues as he tried to beat the clock to rescue the hapless pair.

Businessman Christian Vandenheuvel planned to spend the long weekend with his young mistress, Lisa. Instead, they're take hostage by Jos Diels and Nick, two of the 46 laborers who lost their job recently when Christian had his family film bankrupted. Each victim fails to escape, even the fire alarm doesn't get them freed. After Jos realizes the mistress is his only daughter, and Nick falls in love with Lisa, the masked men's mood evolves as they progress to truth time, when the police arrives.

Elvie is an inquisitive young girl, who lives in a caravan with her intellectually disabled mother – a loving but naive woman who has difficulty understanding others. During one long summer Elvie’s life is about to change forever. Growing more mature, she starts to see and understand the world in a way her mother is incapable of.

On his way to a DJ Championship in Brussels, a young Egyptian is mistaken for an illegal immigrant and detained in a country he's never heard of before.

Tom Vansant is an emergency physician from Brussels who is desperately searching for his daughter who ran away from home and is now missing for eighteen months. He meets a girl of whom he thinks that she knows what happened to his daughter but the girl doesn't want to talk about her past. In his search to find out why she doesn't talk about it he ends up in a small village in the Ardennes where no one wants to help him discover what really happened.

Michel is a trainee for Dagosto, technical managers for a social housing project. Michel accidentally breaks the central boiler and doesn't dare confess his mistake to his boss.

A young policeman apparently "well to do" is shaken by the awakening of his desires on the fringe: an interloped cabaret singer breaks into his well-ordered life.

To celebrate Appie's birthday, the Anubis residents rent an old haunted house. However, strange things start to happen when the friends disappear one at a time.

A girl becomes the victim of a parental abduction. She must decide between freedom or a life in captivity.

Noé dreams of breaking away from the countryside. With Tom, his best friend, he spends time shooting whimsical DIY videos. When a real film shoot comes to the area, he sees a chance to escape and to reveal to Tom the true nature of his feelings.

A local inspector and a French police officer investigate a body found floating in the Scheldt.

Belgian pop star Angèle reflects on her life and hopes as she finds balance amid the tears, joys and loneliness of fame. Told through her own words.

Bo arrives determined at the Comedy Marathon, the annual comedy extravaganza. With her new range, she wants to convince the bookers she has invited of her abilities. Backstage, she struggles to find her own place and lets the other comedians walk all over her. When Bo feels pushed beyond her limits, she reaches an inevitable breaking point. She's kept quiet long enough. It's time to make her voice heard, loud and clear.

On an island in the Indian Ocean, the Comoros archipelago, unoccupied houses await the arrival of their owners. These places without souls and half built abound across the landscape. The myth of eternal return is repeated in the Comorian diaspora.

The director looks back on his friendship with Anmar and recalls memories of their childhood in Baghdad. In doing so, the film explores the themes of displacement and memory, and the way we deal with them.

From the music of Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski, Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen crafts a story that imagines spending the burning time of a cigarette between the sheets, interlocking smiles and touches with your loved one. This short film is part of the 2x25 Project of Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Awards. The project commissioned 25 composers to compose a short piece of music, after which 25 filmmakers made short films that are the ultimate symbioses of music and cinematography, fitting completely within the DNA of the festival. The result: 25 exceptional films where the music inspired the form, narrative and texture.

A man writes a play, hoping that it will help him understand the dramatic events his son lived in Greece.

In an abandoned villa, an android must deal with the fact that her owners are no longer there.

In France, a child is killed by its mother every ten days. By giving a voice to some of these women and their families, this documentary takes a fresh look at a phenomenon that is still taboo.

While his parents are away, a little city boy goes to the countryside. This stay will be one of initiations and forbidden games in the company of Maedeli, a little girl who is not afraid.

Lao Yang is head of logistics of the group. He is responsible for the equipment, building materials and food (mainly chickens) to arrive in the isolated Chinese prefab camp. The Congolese government was supposed to deliver these things but so far the team hasn't received anything. With Eddy (a Congolese man who speaks Mandarin fluently) as an intermediate, Lao Yang is forced to leave the camp and deal with local Congolese entrepreneurs, because without the construction materials the road works will cease. What follows is an endless, harsh, but absurdly funny roller coaster of negotiations and misunderstandings, as Lao Yang learns about the Congolese way of making deals.

Diane desires men as much as she despises them. When she learns that her mother was raped in her youth, the shock is muffled. It’s a surprise—and yet, it explains everything. Diane has only one thing on her mind: avenging her mother. But her mother has only one thing on her mind: finally becoming the woman she should have been. Between the one who wants to remember and the one who wants to forget, everything tightens.

A decade after surviving a deadly school bombing, a Hazara filmmaker returns to Quetta, Pakistan, to confront his past. Blending intimate family moments with the ongoing story of persecution and migration. The film is a poetic meditation on loss, resilience, and memory.

Marc, who works for a soundproofing company, and Sylvie, who runs a temp agency, have been married for several years. Still in love with his wife, Marc nevertheless cheats on her with Vanessa, a 25-year-old woman, telling her that his wife is dying. One day, Vanessa, who is looking for a job, happens to walk into Sylvie's temp agency.

When his loot is mysteriously stolen, a small-time thief on the run hides out in a small village, posing as the local schoolteacher.

In 1970s Amsterdam, two promising young dancers have their friendship put to the test when they are both hired by the same highly demanding and competitive royal ballet company.

When Jan, director, receives the good news that he can make his first feature film, his source of inspiration and lead actress, Kelly, is in love. With Vincent. Something that the actress has not yet shared with 'her director'. When Jan shows up at Kelly's door with champagne to celebrate that they are finally going to make a film, a confrontational evening follows. In other words, the first honest conversation between two extremely insecure souls.

European police infiltrate SkyECC, an encrypted app created by Eap to protect privacy, and dismantle a vast trafficking network. Sky ECC was a subscription-based messaging platform, developed by the Canadian company Sky Global. The platform offers end-to-end encryption and has been widely used for criminal purposes, including drug trafficking, money laundering, and distribution of child sexual abuse material.

Lui eats a dangerous berry, despite Plop's warning, and grows as tall as a human. The gnomes get angry, so Lui runs away crying and gets lost in the forest. Before he knows it, he ends up in the city, causing chaos wherever he comes..

Zeki is a freerunner whose life is turned upside down when his father, the widower Mahir, decides to move from Rotterdam to Istanbul. While Mahir goes out to work, Zeki has to spend the summer holidays inside the posh gated community where they live. Escaping over the wall, Zeki befriends Kemal and other street kids, who are pickpockets. Trying to belong, he conceals how he lives in the gated community. As Kemal and Zeki get closer by the day, Kemal's best friend becomes jealous…

A youth workshop in Derry is mounting various projects, including a dramatized enquiry into the death of a soldier. But when a squaddie is shot on the doorstep, then real life intrudes in the shape of the police and security forces.

An astronaut is detached from his space station, taken into an infinite drift throughout the universe. Freed from time and space, DRIFTER is confronted with the void. He takes a dive into the unknown, in search of the ultimate freedom.

Fatima-Zahra and her teenage son Selim move from place to place, forever trying to outrun the latest scandal she’s caught up in. When Selim discovers the truth about their past, Fatima-Zahra vows to make a fresh start. In Tangier, new opportunities promise the legitimacy they each crave but not without pushing the volatile mother-son relationship to the breaking point.

Somewhere in the bleak Italian Alps is an isolated boarding school for troubled boys of the ultra privileged. 17-year old Giulio is sent there by his mother and finds himself instantly at odds with both his peers and the staff until the arrival of the eccentric Eduordo. The pair bond over their mutual desire for escape, which they eventually do, and run away to a nightclub in the middle of the woods. There they meet Elena, a young prostitute whose destiny will be unforgettably linked to theirs. For the boys, the night is full of freedom, disturbing experiences, and secrets. But what they discover about their experiences, and their school, may be the biggest secret of all.

Assisi, 1211. Chiara is eighteen years old and one night she runs away from home to join her friend Francesco: from that moment on her life changes forever. With charisma and conviction, she breaks free from her family's constraints and stands up to the Pope himself. She fights for herself, for the women who join her and for her dream of freedom. The story of a Saint. The story of a girl and her revolution.

An old man's vision of a drowning world is clouded. He decides to take radical actions inflicting damage to his surroundings. Instigating a self-destructive chain of events, coming from the dark abyss of his subconsciousness.

Camille, a sensitive, dreamy, and seemingly maladjusted young woman, has no choice: she must work. For no one can escape the rules of society for long. Overnight, she finds herself catapulted into the cruel and unforgiving world of business.

Two sisters try to survive the war by isolating themselves inside the house after their parents have disappeared. Through strange messages and clues, they try to figure out where their parents have gone.

Under the scorching sun, seventeen-year-old Purdey and her fifteen-year-old brother Makenzy are left to fend for themselves. While Purdey cleans houses in a hotel complex, Makenzy scrabbles together some money by stealing from tourists. Between the recklessness of adolescence and the harshness of adulthood, they will have to support each other in this heartbreakingly sweet journey, which seems to be the last summer of their youth.

A short documentary on the fabulous courthouse building in Brussels from the architect Joseph Poelaert, temporarily a house of dreams structured in 26 bits, 1 for each letter of the alphabet, from A-Z.

Marion is an artist with FSH, an incurable muscular myopathy. She guides us on the path she has taken to no longer identify with her illness.