Discoveries from Belgium World Cinema

In the late 1980s, thousands of Belgians began reporting strange sightings in the skies over their otherwise stable country: large triangular unidentifiable flying objects. Nobody knew for sure what they were. To solve the mystery, a civil investigation group started working together with the authorities, counting on the support of the gendarmerie and the Belgian Air Force. Thirty years later, the Belgian UFO wave still lives in the minds of witnesses and onlookers from the era, some of whom are still searching for answers today. What on earth was going on in the skies over Belgium?

Kobarweng reconstructs the first encounter between a remote village set in the highlands of the island of New Guinea and the outside world. Mainly told through a native narrative, it reclaims the memory of a colonial past. Switching the roles of observer and observed, it is anthropology-and specifically the desire underlying anthropological representation, that is depicted as an object of curiosity destabilized by the villager's questions. Point of departure was Kaiang Tapior's question "Where is your helicopter?", a remark which puzzled the filmmaker during his visit to the village of Pepera.

Interweaving family lore, mythology, science fiction, and digital abstraction, Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi’s film follows the collaboration between the artist and her mother, Thuyen Hoa, who fled Vietnam after the end of the American War via a near-calamitous sea journey. Oscillating between voices, visual registers, and timescales—was it seven months or seven thousand years?— Into The Violet Belly offers up an image of its multiplicitous structure: a massive digital swarm, tiny avatars of migrating bodies, swimming in an infinite blue.

El Público, The Audience and Le Public / Het Publiek are three films about a theatre audience and the city they live in. They’re also about theatre pieces that we only get to know through the narration of it. The performance is over, the actors step off the stage, the audience leaves the theater. However,in this case, the end marks the beginning. Eleven spectators star in their own tales, intertwined in a collage crafted by life itself. Restaurant and movie theater owners, immigrants and tourists, regulars and passers-by interact with the urban entourage and the people they come across, weaving a mosaic of endless possibilities. Third film of The Audience series by Mariano Pensotti.

Sam, an introverted 12-year-old who is crazy about film, follows a tough girl called Bobby for a full day, with his camera. In order to make the video a bit more spectacular, he tries to add all kinds of things - but Bobby is not entirely on board.

The short film for the eponymous EP.

A portrait of two Palestinian women whose individual struggles both define and transcend the politics that have torn apart their homes and their lives. Farah Hatoum, a widow living with her children and grandchildren, and Sahar Khalifeh, a novelist from the West Bank.

It was summer on the shores of Lake Geneva. Alice was on vacation at the campsite with her mother, she was bored. One day by chance, she met Zack in the middle of the sunflower fields. Today the summer is over. Before dying, the faded sunflowers tell us the story of this invisible love.

Join us aboard the luggage rack of my bicycle to enjoy a sensory roller coaster as it passes through a territory full of tricks.

To truly live, one must stare Death into the eyes. Danse Macabre is an youthful adventure following a young girl, Esther, who is terrified of this act, doing everything in her power to avoid even glancing. She runs away from her appointment, setting in motion a series of strange encounters. A story about fear of the unknown and acceptance of the inevitable, Danse Macabre shows us that after all is said and done, things aren't so bad as they seem.

The unique local queer community that once thrived in the Alzou Valley has vanished. Alzou - the deity of the river - moves cautiously through the landscape, lost yet determined, searching for a way to restore balance in the valley after years of exile. The dense forest envelops them, whispering its secrets as they linger in silence, attempting to reconnect with nature.

A madcap director takes his cast and crew to a location once rumored to be home to a cannibal family, with the plan of shooting an amateur horror film. Scripts and preparation turn out to be completely unnecessary, and chaos soon ensues. But the real madness has yet to begin—because the legend isn’t as far-fetched as they thought. The psychopaths in question are still very much present. In fact, one of them harbors his own ambition to direct horror films and is handed the perfect opportunity on a silver platter.

After surviving arbitrary detention and torture for her political activism in 1970’s Morocco, Fatna El Bouih continues to pursue relentlessly today, her dream for change.

Is it possible, when you come from a family of Maghreb immigrants and you are a girl or a woman, to invent your life, to choose to leave the traditional universe, to break up with your family, without renouncing that which bases you, to the recognition of your own? Four portraits of women bear witness to a generation that lives its life through its own choices. Their mothers were illiterate but dreamed of a university education for their daughters. They invested their children with their hopes, but also with their lacks, their solitudes.

In a dystopian world ravaged by zombies, a small community has endured for generations, hidden away within the walls of an ancient convent. They call themselves the Immaculates. Bound by an uncompromising faith, they are ruled by the Bishop, who exerts absolute control over every resource and every life within the enclave. When one of their own dares to steal a life-saving medicine for her dying child, she is seized and brought before a merciless tribunal. Her sentence is final: she must face a deadly ordeal designed to measure the purity of her soul.

This film raises an important question for us, the parents of different children: how do we bid farewell to someone while the situation forces us into a hand-tohand fight? If a baby kangaroo leaves his pouch at a certain moment, the handicapped child stays longer in the lap of his/her mother. Then the stake is, when does one dare to gently push him/her out? For his/her part, the child also has to prove to the mother that (s)he can become independent.

During the last days of her pregnancy, young Maya is faced with a devastating decision for the sake of her own wellbeing and her baby’s future.

On the road to Galicia, confined in a car, generations face each other, balancing tenderness and tension. My grandmother, widowed and clear-eyed, shares the love stories and journeys that shaped our family. With my boyfriend Raphael, we explore what it means to love, to commit, and the expectations that weigh on our young relationship.

Based on true events, the film follows Mathilde Cordier, a young detective from the Criminal Investigation Division with a history of abuse, is laid off as an intervention goes awry. Following the disappearance of a young girl, Mathilde, outside the law, will conduct her own investigation and follow the trail of a man named François Renard. A man with a troubled and violent past who claims to have settled down. As she sinks into a spiral of darkness, Mathilde faces the most monstrous aspects of humanity.

In a dystopian future where borders between countries are indefinitely closed, a replica of Hannover becomes the only way to experience Western culture. Citizen Yu roams through this nostalgic yet eerie town, built from memories of the past. What does he really see?

Altitude Cent Square, in Brussels. William (55) lies, claiming he's waiting for the tram; Béatrice (38) pretends that everything is fine; and Evdokya (75) tries to convince herself that she'll make it. The three of them coexist in the solitude of the night, each facing in their own way the fear of revealing their vulnerabilities.

A still from the Hollywood film Dracula, a small pink spade, and a nursery rhyme are the keys that unlock this enigmatic narrative labyrinth. In Hyaloïde, the Nysts create a "beautiful confusion" of childhood memories, associative games, verbal and visual analogies, metaphorical objects, self-referential humor and poetic metamorphoses. This dreamlike, semiotic voyage through memory, language and representation emerges at the psychological and linguistic origins of narrative: "Once upon a time..." The characters Thérèsa and Codca (played by the Nysts) imagine that one can "pass under the level of the story, insinuate ourselves in the mesh of signs as we were able to when we were children... where the opacity of the image becomes transparent (hyaloid) and lets in the light of a legendary world." This enchanted universe of signs articulates the Nysts' unique system of "writing" through video.

Muscle Man, the world’s cleanest superhero embarks on a thrilling battle against a giant robot determined to reduce the city to rubble. But his obsession with order will lead to his downfall.

In a medical facility in 1952, a young nurse tries to save a boy with paranormal abilities from the cold-blooded doctors.

One night, when I was a kid, I woke up on a black sand beach. I was on an island and it was daytime. It was a special place. Space and time were determined by mysterious and unfathomable rules - On that island, there was no logic. And anything was possible.

'Daughters' tells the story of the nine-year-old Nadine who meets her foster sister Romy for the first time. Nadine needs to get used to her new role as a big sister and all the changes that come with it.

From Brussels to São Paulo, letters are sent to someone who never answers them and may not even receive them. With the streets collapsing and the police sirens ringing incessantly, a cry for help.

The story of Sarah, a young deaf woman who is about to hear for the first time. What will happen may upset her whole perception of the world.

Residing within the confines of a dimly lit night shop in Brussels, an undocumented Indian immigrant, fondly known as Happy, aspires to provide a bright future for his wife and daughter back home. Yet, the ever-present threat of discovery and his longing for his beloved family inflict fatigue, evoking surreal visions and sounds.

Judith, 7 years old, stays with her mother in her deceased grandfather's house and tries to console her.

Terminator Too – The Movie: A selfmade homage to blockbusters .

What would you do if you could fly for one day? As 15 neighbors answer this question, we fly with them. Along the way, it becomes clear that fantasy is more necessary for some than others.

Gilles is a doctor. After a procedure, in the middle of the night he ends up in a small hotel in a downtown area. As soon as Gilles enters his room, the hotel receptionist knocks on his door and asks Gilles to help care for a young woman who was badly beaten…

A group of 10 influencers participate in a brand new reality show. The show, which takes place deep in the forest, does not seem as innocent as it seems. Numerous bizarre situations occur during the program. When a masked killer suddenly shows up, the show turns into a cat-and-mouse game between the influencers and the killer. Can they escape?

Little Loes has to go to bed on time every night, together with her favorite cuddly toy Bumba! But suddenly her cuddly toy comes to life and takes her to a world where anything is possible. She ends up in the Bumbcircus! Together with the circus director, Bumba, and his friends, she experiences the funniest adventures! Would you like to join Little Loes in dreaming along with the jokes and antics of Bumba and Bumbalu? Then put on your favorite clown nose and let yourself be heard! Bumbalu!!!!

The New Saint is a film about Yevgeny Rodionov, an ordinary young Russian boy who fell in the first Chechen war after being taken prisoner and refusing to convert to Islam. He was proclaimed a martyr and many Russians found in Yevgeny their own unofficial saint. The life of Yevgeny’s mother underwent a radical change when her child ‘became’ a saint. By campaigning for his canonisation she keeps the memory of her son alive. The success of her mission is illustrated by the portrayal of Yevgeny’s image on icons throughout the country. Who is this holy soldier exactly and what makes him the perfect icon of Russia today?

Shot in Cameroon and Brussels, 'Je ne suis pas moi-même' examines the complex network surrounding the international market of African antiquities, and the contradictions in a European art market hungry for new tribal objects. Where do the African masks come from? What journey do these masks make before their unveiling in the windows of the biggest galleries or art collections in Europe? Who determines the economic and aesthetic value of these objects now that colonialism is supposedly dead? And then there’s a continent called Africa, in need of economic resources and therefore willing to sell its cultural heritage or, if need be, to fake it. The authenticity of the objects becomes blurred when the people that once adored them start to sell them.

After yet another painful rejection, a young man takes to the road. With no clear destination, he drives through the night, the hum of the engine drowning out the echo of disappointment. His journey seems directionless until he encounters a sick crooner stranded by the roadside.

A film festival jury, composed of film professionals, judges a film about a court in which three terrorists who allegedly kidnapped a judge to try him are put on trial.

“A Colheita do Diabo is my first major film experience (…) in which for the first time, aside from theatre actors, I used people who had no [film] experience. The main characters were former fighters, former FRELIMO guerrilla fighters who took part in the war for independence.” Licínio de Azevedo

Short film that shows a day in the life of Monsieur Chose.

The long wait of two people never crossing paths

The story of Tom, an adolescent who learns to cope with his sexuality. Which is not always easy.

Once upon a dream, a young woman stumbles upon her childhood home. As the house continues to shift its shapes, it comes to lay bare the memory of a loved one.

"A.WAY" is a journey into lost memories of youth, purely constructed with archive material. A nostalgic reverie that transitions into a feeling of melancholy and unease. The beauty of life and the fear of death as a universal sentiment.

This haunting psychological thriller follows a young couple who have to go through their darkest hours after losing part of themselves.

Every evening, a dog passes by Isaac's window and asks him to come along southward. This proposal becomes increasingly appealing, especially as Isaac becomes increasingly annoyed by the strange behavior of his parents, with whom he lives in a remote castle.