Shorts

So Where Is Meral, 2012

Turkey, 35 mm, Color, 37’, Turkish,Kurdish, English Subtitled

Director: Melek Özman

Meral is 22 years old. After ending her marriage in which she was victim of violence, she tries very hard to begin a new life with her daughter On the June 22nd, 2011, her ex-husband breaks into her hairdressing shop and murders her, stabbing her nine times. The news get to be published in the newspapers as “Yet another Woman Murder”. In the documentary, Meral’s mother, sister and the neighbours testifies the truth whereas Aynur Doğan, Feryal Öney, Fulya Özlem, Neslihan Engin, Rojin and Sezen Aksu participate with songs they sing for Meral and against women murders.

Twinset, 2010

United Kingdom, Digibeta, Color, 12’, English

Director: Amy Rose

Tea and cake, stilettos and gentle murmurs; old ladies in an Essex church welcome a towering transvestite into their midst. But families ask questions that polite old ladies do not dare.

The Trace, 1994

Turkey, 35 mm, Color, 117’, Turkish, English Subtitled

Director: Yeşim Ustaoğlu

Cast: Derya Alabora, Aytaç Arman, Nur Sürer, Meral Çetinkaya

Awards:

1995, Istanbul Film Festival, Best Film

1994, 4th Köln Turkish Films Festival, Best Film

1994, Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director of Photography Awards.

Superintendent Kemal has had his face altered by plastic surgery because of his job. He has been depressed by the suicide of the pavilion clarinettist Cezmi Kara and incessantly remembers the tortures he had done to criminals. The Trace is a film about Kemal’s inner world where he seeks for his own face after his friend Cezmi Kara.

Invoking Justice, 2011

India, DigiBeta, Color, 85’, Tamil, English, İngilizce Altyazılı / English Subtitled

Director: Deepa Dhanraj

In the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, family disputes are settled by Islamic councils, called Jamaats, which consist exclusively of men. This documentary looks at a group of courageous women who in 2004 stood up against this injustice by establishing a women’s Jamaat.

Nobody Loves Me / Keiner Liebt Mich, 1994

Germany, DigiBeta, Color, 104’, German, English Subtitled

Director:Doris Dörrie

Cast:Maria Schrader, Pierre Sanoussi-Bliss, Michael Von Au, Elisabeth Trissenaar

Awards:

1995, Bavarian Film Awards, Best Actress / Outstanding Feature Film

1995, German Film Awards, Best Performance by an

Actress in a Leading Role

Fanny, alone for 4 years, is on the brink of her 30th birthday and thinks that she will never have a happy relationship again. As a woman obsessed with death, Fanny encounters with a skeleton on the elevator of her apartment building. The skeleton convinces Fanny that she is about to meet “him”...

On the brink of her 30th birthday, Fanny feels the door to marital happiness closing up on her. She is obsessed with death, so it seems fitting, that she encounters a skeleton in the malfunctioning elevator of her apartment building, who convinces her that she is about to meet "him".

Cherry Blossoms / Kirschblüten – Hanami, 2008

Germany, DVD, Color, 127’, German, English, Japanese, English Subtitled

Director:Doris Dörrie

Cast:Elmar Wepper, Hallenore Elsner, Aya Irizuki

Awards:

2008, Bavarian Film Awards, Best Production / Best Actor

2008, German Film Awards, Outstanding Feature Film

2008, Seattle International Film Festival, Best Film

When Trudi learns that her husband Rudi is dangerously ill, she suggests visiting their children in Berlin without telling him the truth. As Franzi and Karl don't care much about their parents, Trudi and Rudi go to the Baltic Sea, where Trudi suddenly dies. Rudi is thrown out of gear, even more when he learns that his wife wanted to live a totally different life in Japan.

Beyond / Svinalängorna, 2010

Sweden, 35mm, Color, 94’, Swedish, Finnish, English Subtitled

Director: Pernilla August

Cast: Noomi Rapace, Ola Rapace, Outi Mäenpää, Ville Virtanen, Tehilla Blad

A morning just before Christmas, Leena, 34, receives a phone call from a hospital in her childhood hometown telling her that her mother is dying. This news takes her on a journey to face her mother for the first time in her adult life. Leena has fought all her life to let go of her grief over her lost and dark childhood. She is now forced to deal with her past to be able to move on. A poignant story, told with sincerity and humor, about a young woman´s dramatic childhood and about her grief and the struggle to move on.

Pandora’s Box, 2008

Turkey, Germany, France, Belgium, 35 mm, Color, 112’, Turkish, English Subtitled

Director: Yeşim Ustaoğlu

Cast: Tsilla Chelton, Derya Alabora, Övül Avkıran, Onur Ünsal, Osman Sonant

Awards:

2010, Traditional Boston Turkish Films Festival, Excellency in Turkish Cinema Award

2009, MedFilm Festival, Eurimages Italy Award

2009, Istanbul Film Festival, Best Actress Award

2008, San Sebastian International Film Festival, Golden Oyster Best Film Award

Three adult siblings—Nesrin, Güzin, and Mehmet—lead modern, neurotic, and preoccupied lives in Istanbul. But when their aging mother Nusret starts showing signs of dementia, the dysfunctional children must navigate a minefield of unresolved issues to care for her. They take the aging matriarch away from her home on the Black Sea—for her own good, they think—but hectic Istanbul is the last place Nusret would like to be. In fact, her final wish is to be left alone in the mountains surrounding her home.

Polisse, 2011

France, 35 mm, Color, 127’, French, Italian, Arabic, Romanian, English Subtitled

Director: Maïwenn

Cast: Karin Viard, Joey Starr, Marina Fois, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Maïwenn

Awards:

2011, Cannes Film Festival, Best Film, Jury Award

2012, Cesar Awards, Best Fiction

2012, Cesar Awards, Promising Actress

The daily grind for the cops of the Police Department's Juvenile Protection Unit - taking in child molesters, busting underage pickpockets and chewing over relationship issues at lunch; interrogating abusive parents, taking statements from children, confronting the excesses of teen sexuality, enjoying solidarity with colleagues and laughing uncontrollably at the most unthinkable moments. Knowing the worst exists and living with it. How do these cops balance their private lives and the reality they confront every working day?

Unwelcome in Tehran / Nakhaandeh Dar Tehran, 2011

Iran, Betacam, Renkli / Color, 54’, Farsça / Persian, İngilizce Altyazılı / English Subtitled

Director: Mina Keshavarz

Mina, the director, is a girl from Shiraz who gets married in order to move to Tehran. Influenced by her own life, she decides to make a documentary about the girls nationwide who, like Azar, move to Tehran to start an independent life away from their families’ watchful eyes and restrictions. The film is about Mina and Azar’s constant struggle to find the answer as to why families and the society have difficulty in accepting an independent life for a single girl.

Umoja –No Men Allowed, 2010

Australia, Kenya, Color, 32’, English, Samburu, English Subtitled

Director: Elizabeth Tadic

Awards:

2012, Cleveland International Film Festival, Best Women’s Short Film

2012, Sydney World of Women Film Festival, Best Documentary, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Audience Award

2012, USA Nevada Dam Short Film Festival, Best Documentary Award

2011, Artivist Film Festival, Human Rights Award

UMOJA (Kiswahili for “unity”) tells the life-changing story of a group of impoverished tribal Samburu women in Northern Kenya who turn age-old patriarchy on its head by setting up a women-only village.

Shift / Vahetus, 2010

Estonia,Betacam, Color, 15’, Estonian, English Subtitled

Director: Anu Aun

Cast: Mari Abel, Katariina Lauk, Mait Malmsten, Aleksander Eelmaa, Indrek SammulAwards

2011, Poland 20th Euroshorts Film Festival, Grand Prix

2010, Albania First Step Film Fest, Best Director Award

2012, 10th Rome Independent Film Festival, Best Foreign Short Film Award

When Miina, beautiful, apparently wealthy woman is caught shoplifting, a female police officer Mare treats her with obvious contempt. Also, Mare is disturbed by the fact that her male colleague seems to feel sorry for the beautiful thief. She considers Miina as a rival and decides to teach her a lesson. At this moment, none of the two women realize, that in their lives which seem completely different, there is something dreadfully similar – everyday psychological violence. Only some hours later, they meet unexpectedly again in a situation where destiny exchanges their roles completely and rivals become partners in crime.