Discoveries from Belgium World Cinema

In post-revolution Tunisia, this captivating documentary offers a poetic exploration of a nation's journey from dictatorship to democracy, capturing its struggles, hopes, and resilient spirit.

"The birds have flown, spreading their dark wings, their shadow cast upon us, us so small, for them, so high in the sky" A Short Film about a passionate man and his birds.

From the Mountain We See the Mountain blends haunting imagery and whispered myth to explore a land marked by ecological trauma and the colonial experience. As animals and humans cautiously re-emerge after a forest fire, rumours swirl: was it an accident, an act of nature, or something more insidious? Through eerie nighttime scenes, surreal lighting and interviews lit by the flicker of imagined flames, the film evokes a sense of environmental dystopia and quiet resistance. Balancing elements of myth, sci-fi and thriller, the film conjures a land reckoning with monsters it did not create.

To finally start her hormonal transition, Nova needs to go through one last step : the freezing of her gametes. To support her in this difficult masturbatory endeavour in a hospital ward, Matos, Estech and Aimé-es decide to accompany her. Armed with their cameras, lights and colour gel filters, the dream team of CLAP ! infiltrates the ART service to make this trial the most pleasurable as possible. Gametes is an ode to T4T loves, mixing documentary and fiction to highlight a little-known stage of MtoF transitions.

On vacation in the countryside, a filmmaker thinks about the mourning of his parents. As their faces, and most especially their gaze, fades away, he starts meditating on masks as passages to the afterlife.

A cowboy strands in a small bar after a fight with his ex. In the search for oneself, he is soon immersed in the jungle of drunkenness, loneliness and sadness.

His voice, his gaze, and his movement rescue Jorge Donn from oblivion. Drawing on an intense archive, the film reconstructs a unique life: a journey through his glory alongside Béjart, his tragic fate, and a body that never ceased to shine.

At a desolate golf club, three people become entangled in their drive for control and perfection. When their paths cross, an unexpected opportunity for change arises.

A Dionysian bacchanal that merges the immersive pleasures of the body with the physical textures of the vegetal, fruit and floral worlds. Brazilian artist Fabio da Motta’s shibari ropework awakens the dancers to their bodies’ sensuous powers. Could it be that once we understand the way we are bound, the more we are able to enjoy the the cornucopia of the world?

Labelled disabled or autistic as teenagers, Brian, Jason, Jules and Kieran faced fewer opportunities and lost their self-confidence. Now in their twenties, they are at a crossroads in their lives. Will they have an independent future? Will they ever find a job, meet a partner, or start a family? The film, on which the young people have been actively collaborating for years, is a creative process and an emotional journey that aims to strengthen their self-image and prospects.

The Swirling Tangle unfolds across twelve chapters, tracing Yokeh's journey amidst a solar eclipse in Aalst, Belgium, where the elliptical structure of her memories evolves into a profound confrontation. Portrayed by the renowned actress Joke Devynck, Yokeh, a soap opera star, is meticulously observed in the tapestry of her everyday existence. An ageing, crackling voiceover comments on Yokeh's actions and encounters, yet the narrator's desperate attempts to steer events prove mostly futile. The story takes an irreversible turn as the sun vanishes behind the moon, altering Yokeh's life forever.

A boy hides in his sheets from his drunken father

At the bottom of the wolf pack, a young black wolf avoids confrontation and tries to take advantage of the fruits of others labour. This alongside his growing popularity with the she-wolves, our Casanova greatly irritates the alphas of his pack. As he comes of age he fights for survival in his own cowardly manner, losing all of his family along the way. Attracted by some young females he finds a place in a new wolf pack and endures the dominance of a new alpha male wolf. Only at an older age does the black wolf rises up to the occasion to defend more than himself.Its a story about a wolf trying to become a wolf.

Two people, a girl and a boy, tell the same story to their group of friends.

Level crossing-keeper on an abandoned road, an old lady lives alone with her cow. She fills her loneliness by the tenderness she feels for her pretty cow and she escapes by playing the violin. Until one day she decides to stop the trains...

What goes through our minds when we're about to meet someone on the street? Anxiety, prejudice, expectation, surprise, disappointment. These brief moments are the nest of a real brainstorm.

During a rainy summer, between afternoon naps and rest, family secrets creep into the skirting boards of the house. A pearl necklace clinks, peas fall to the ground, clothes dry on a clothesline and a band-aid on a wound

While a roaring storm is wreaking havoc at sea, a lonely young sailor sits by the fire of a nightly harbor tavern. Outside, screeching seagulls are devouring a cadaver, possibly still warm. The sailor is unwell. Believe it or not, the young man had never eaten fish before until this very night. There seemed to be nothing else on the menu, so why not? In the midst of various strange companions and spectators, he starts to reminisce about home while cutting up his dinner. With an empty table as his only friend the young sailor might start losing grip of reality.

Tells the story about the friendship between a promising architect and his friend, the son of a wealthy building contractor. Some beautiful girls are the cause of their “inseparability” being severely disturbed.

For many years, Joseph has travelled around the city with his trolley to gather tons of miscellaneous papers and objects of all kinds, thus filling his flat with labyrinthine chaos. He’s gifted with vertiginous erudition. I help him unclog his home.

Out of love for a gangster, a young girl becomes involved in an arms deal and chooses to die in her lover's place.

In Melantrope, we follow the daily trajectory in the city of the restless Marta. Due to stress and social pressure, this young lab assistant struggles with sleep problems and accompanying hallucinations. After a conversation with her doctor, the symptoms turn out to be deeper rooted than she thought. The viewer becomes part of Marta's wanderings, which increasingly resemble a fever dream and culminate when the inner and deepest instincts come to the surface.

In this film, co-written with Julie Morel, we find the same power and energy intact and deployed in two stages. First of all, four portraits in which we learn that practising art or thought has enabled each of the subjects to live through and confront the traumas born of social violence. For one of them it’s voluntary exile and survival thanks to the inner strength brought about by singing, for another, it’s retreating from the world and into writing. And for each of them, a unique path.

An experimental cross-over music film, connected to the conceptual music album EASY ALICE. Both creations reflect on sovereignty, isolation, seclusion, schizophrenia, gender balance and the desire for detachment. It researches the encounter between the world of Kafka, Alice in Wonderland, PJ Harvey, Eminem and Nietzsche. The movie script is based on diverse interviews with iconic figures as David Bowie, Paolo Pasolini, Donald Trump, Prince, Grace Jones, Leonard Cohen and Roy Cohn.

Disorientated by the extreme sanitary precautions. Clara goes looking for a lost gesture: the handshake. Amid the backdrop of a meticulous investigation, a fable told with masks and hand sanitizer.

Anna, 18, is at home. she tries new Instagram filters. Anna will discover that some of these filters have a real impact in real life and that she may not be so alone tonight.

With his writing board and markers, Arnout gives tips on how to survive in a busy work life full of meetings, emails, and difficult managers. As a true expert in the field, he drew useful lessons from his experiences and wrote this theater show.

When his grandfather passes away, Lucas finds himself trapped between last wishes and cultural traditions.

Maria, a 48-year-old woman, is trapped between two worlds—one guided by asceticism, the other fuelled by the need to reconnect and be with her two sons. Through carefully composed shots and minimalistic sound, we glimpse into her everyday life, thoughts, and emotions.

Rooted in Polynesia, in the heart of the South Pacific, this wandering movie crosses borders and centuries to explore time and its representations. This journey brings a constellation of stories where the science of today meets the myths of yesterday, where politics meets poetry, where dreams meet history. But it may well conclude, at the end of this meandering journey, that time no longer is what it seems to be.

The Dutroux Affair, a notorious child kidnapping and sexual abuse case that struck Belgium in the 1990s, created such a media circus that it distorted an entire nation's collective identity and memory. The generation of children shaped by its sordidly sensational and pervasive coverage are now adults looking to redress their fears, confusion and mistrust. Using shaky VHS tapes from the time coupled with voiceover, these voices of a generation confront their experiences of the crimes as "a threat that invades your body." Their private recollections focus on the effects of hearing graphic descriptions of rape and pedophilia at such a young age that it led to the normalization and development of sexuality informed by sexual abuse.

Mexico, near the celebration of Día de los Muertos. Alejandro (40), a loving single father, struggles to straighten up his life for the sake of his daughter Gabriela (6). He wants to leave the migrant smuggling gang where he works for, but fears for his life. When he gets assigned the task of transporting Central American immigrants to the border of the U.S., he sees an opportunity to escape with this daughter. During the trip, things start to go wrong and Alejandro has to make difficult decisions. It opens his eyes to a world he was unaware of.

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.

During a trip to Colombia (1932-1933), Marquis de Wavrin met various ethnic groups of Indians (Guahibo, Choco, Arawak, Motilón…). They allow him to film rituals that no foreigner had been able to attend before.

The film follows a prison warden (played by Charles Janssens) who is utterly miserable because his prison is empty. When Max (played by Paul Cammermans) is mistakenly arrested for murder, the warden is thrilled to finally have a "guest." A delightfully absurd situation ensues, with the warden looking after his prisoner like a doting father. In the end, Max is proven innocent and marries the warden’s daughter. Based on the play of the same title by Jos Janssen.

Xander De Rycke, still Belgium's youngest professional comedian and yet already a veteran, presents his greatest hits in 'Ten years on the road, two hours of fun'. Xander De Rycke is the court jester of a generation. His trilogy has come to an end, and the time is ripe to look back on 'Uw Zoete 666' (Your Sweet 666), 'Mijn Zwarte Parade' (My Black Parade), and 'Zijn Derde Show' (His Third Show). This 'best of' performance is a two-hour cocktail of his best jokes and even a few fun new ones!

You wake up alone in the forest. A fairy finds you and guides you underground - towards the ways of the ants, the roots, and the deep intelligence of the Earth. A poetic and enchanting offering for the frozen, dissociated and forgotten.

Life goes on as usual at the Goetgebuer children's farm, where everyone works hard. But all that comes to an end when Aunt Zeunia realizes that her days are numbered and she wants to see her niece from Paris one last time before she dies. The three unmarried brothers and their sister do not understand why their aunt, the daughter of their deceased sister who lived in Paris, wants to meet her again after more than ten years. Cordula fears that her aunt will give away her entire fortune to her niece. The three brothers think it won't be such a big deal and are looking forward to their niece's arrival. When she arrives, Leontine turns out to be a beautiful young woman. In no time at all, she turns her three uncles' heads, much to the annoyance of her aunt Cordula.

Episode of the Belgian Flemish Television (BRT) program Het Gerucht on the development of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's choreography "Bartók/Aantekeningen" (in English: "Bartók/Annotated"), created in 1986 for four dancers from the company Roses . "Bartók/Aantekeningen" is the fifth work by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, after "Ash" (1980), "Fase, Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich" (1982), "Rosas danst Rosas" (1983) and "Elena's Aria". "(1984).

During language classes the director is not only taught basic Persian by her teacher, he also opens the gates to Iranian history and culture. Gradually, the lessons morph into a poetic, visual collage that questions the term freedom and the meaning of revolution.

A young woman with unruly hair walks down the street. She is holding a bouquet of flowers. Where did she get those flowers? Are they a gift, an apology, or a sign of unwanted attention? Men shout after her, causing her head to itch and swell.

Registration of the 2001 Belgian musical, based on two of The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé. An expedition of seven scientists, the Sanders-Hardiman expedition, discovers the tomb of the Incan mummy Rascar Capac and provokes the anger of the Sun God. A curse descends upon them. Meanwhile, Kuifje and Bobbie arrive on the train at Molensloot, and Kuifje talks to another traveller about the recent return of the expedition from Peru. He says that all will end badly, desecrating the burial chambers of the Incas like Tutankhamen's – five members of the expedition have already been mysteriously struck down.

A semi-autobiographical story about borders and integration told through the metaphor of a plant. After realising her plant isn’t growing as it should, Olive leaves her home and goes on a quest to find new grounds to let her plant re-root. Soon after she embarks on the journey, she comes to realise she has to do a lot more before she can reach her goal, or at least that’s what she thinks...

Walter Arfeuille has everything of a tragic hero. All his life he wants to be the strongest and the toughest. He will do anything to beat his great rival, muscle-man John Massis. His obsession drives him to extremes.

A young boy with a deformity finds solace with his Blue Hat which is his attempt to fit in.

In the middle of the night Lea knocks on the door of her brother's flat. Elie, disturbed, wonders what made his sister travel all the way from Lebanon to Belgium. Only in a phone conversation will he learn that his sister is pregnant, and the father of the child is Muslim. Their Christian family refuses to accept this "disgrace", demanding that Elie restore the family honor.