FRIDAY 23 JANUARY 2026 17:00 – 18:45
Official Selection: Lift As You Climb
This block explores the connections between individuals and their communities. The stories follow lives shaped by power and tradition, moving
through streets, homes, and workplaces, to reveal how resistance begins to shape in everyday spaces.
BOTTLES
Directed by Yassine EL Idrissi, 18″, Italy
Said, a 13 year old boy in the old Medina of Rabat, has a side job collecting empty beer bottles to buy food for a dog he is hiding. Said finds keeping the dog he rescued conflicting with his family, friends, and religious tradition.
LOMOTIMO
Directed by Jovana Lazin, 9″, Serbia
“Lomotimo” is a narrative triptych documentary that portrays the fragile preservation of tradition and faith in a cluster of forgotten villages in Serbia.
WHITE VEIL
Directed by Žiga Ciber,, Slovenia, 9“, Documentary
Nestled by the banks of the Soča River, the village of Anhovo carries a legacy buried beneath layers of history and dust. More than 100 years ago, an asbestos cement factory was built. Through shifting wars, regimes, and borders from fascism, socialism, and capitalism. From Italy, Yugoslavia, to Slovenia, the factory endured. It gave people jobs, homes and hope. But soon, it began to take their breath, their health, and eventually, their lives. Today, it is still belching smoke, as time stands still under the White Veil. The film gives voice to those silenced by progress and asks what remains when the skies clear.
MY GRANDMOTHER IS A SKYDIVER
Directed by Polina Piddubna, Germany, 13″, Animation, Documentary
Alfyia, a joyful young woman in 1960s Central Asia, is actively parachuting and studying to become a midwife, when she receives an extraordinary phone call from her granddaughter in 2022. She is worried about her grandmother’s safety amid the invasion of Ukraine. In this intergenerational conversation across time and space, the granddaughter tries to restore and rethink family memory and her own ethnic identity, break the endless cycle of collective trauma and reflect on the meaning of human life.
HAPPY END
Direted by Hossein Firoozeh, Iran, 19″, Drama, Social
Hana, a young woman, lives with an elderly man and experiences love for the first time with a young man named Ardalan.
Following the village’s traditions, the elderly man plans to marry off their young daughter. Determined to prevent her daughter from sharing the same fate, Hana does everything in her power to stop the marriage. She seeks Ardalan’s help to ensure her daughter isn’t wed to a man as old as her own husband. However, it seems Ardalan shares the same mindset as her husband.
THE CARE PACKAGE
Directed by Vera Shysh, 7″, Animation
The Care Package is a story inspired by a fairy tale written by a sister to her imprisoned brother in Belarus, where over 4,000 people have been recognized as political prisoners since 2020. Political prisoners are often deprived of phone calls and visits, even from family members. A care package is sometimes the only means of communication with the outside world. In this story, a care package comes to life, becoming a character that interacts with the prisoner.
FRIDAY 23 JANUARY 2026 20:30 – 21:45
“Young Jury”: What we Carry
Reflecting on inherited legacies from cultural traditions to colonial histories, these films explore the challenges, wounds, and hopes we carry and act upon.
FRAGMENTS OF HER
Directed by Brina Cedilnik, 6″, Slovenia
The film is about a woman who struggles with guilt and visions of her dead sister, who now haunts her.
IMMIGRANT
Directed by Nilram Ranjbar, 2″, Iran
This film is a animation about a woman who is forced to be an immigrant due to her love for her country and family.
THE VOICE OF OLD
Directed by Adesh Vinod Dhage, 14”, India,
Set in a remote village, the film follows a young tribal boy who struggles to memorize an English poem for his school assignment — a poem that ironically speaks about the disappearance of old voices and languages. On his way home, he wanders through nature,rivers, forests, and hills reciting the poem in a lyrical rhythm. When he reaches home, his grandmother sings him a century-old tribal song. Moved by its beauty, he unknowingly carries it within him. The next day, as he is punished outside the classroom, the echoes of the grandmother’s song rise again — symbolizing the fading yet resilient voice of a forgotten culture.
THE BREAD OF THE TRADITION
Directed by Marko Plejić, 14”, Croatia, Documentary
The weight of being a woman. An intimate glimpse into the daily struggle of Vesna, a baker and mother of five who singlehandedly carries the weight of her entire family until she finally reaches her tipping point.
LAUGHUING AND CRYING
Director by Che Tagyamon , 9″, Philippines, Animation
Laughing and Crying (Tumatawa, Umiiyak) is an animated short about a man’s recollection of a bygone afternoon with his grandfather. Together, they wander through their old neighborhood and into the city, tasked with picking flowers for school. Along the way, they play games to pass the time and endure the afternoon heat. From the narrow streets of their community, they eventually reach the nearby business district, where towering buildings rise beside an oddly placed cemetery: a resting ground for the wealthy, marked by vast greenery and a tranquil stillness in stark contrast to the bustle outside its gates. The film is a meditation on the first stirrings of class consciousness in a young mind, and how such formative memories continue to shape who we become.
TIE YOUR HAIR
Directed by Sheida Makaremi, Iran, 10”
A seven-year-old girl visits an old, beautiful house with her father , a house filled with valuables, long abandoned after its owner’s death.
Everything seems normal until the girl suddenly disappears.
CHUNO Y MOTE
Directed by Isabella Mancioli, Italy, 9″, Documentary
Chuño y Mote is a multimedia project that explores the contrasts of contemporary Bolivia through body, memory, and a plural gaze that intertwines female voices and eccentric visions. It’s a journey between the wrestling rings of the cholitas luchadoras and the streets of La Paz — between strength and tenderness, rituals and silent revolutions.The title refers to two symbolic elements of Andean culture: chuño, the dried and resilient potato, a symbol of endurance and survival; and mote, boiled corn, soft and nourishing, representing care and gentleness. Photography, video, and sound merge to portray a complex reality made of multiple identities and everyday struggles.
6657
Directed by Ana Bizjak, Slovenia, 12”, Documentary
The documentary follows the daily life inside a dairy cow barn, where existence unfolds in a monotonous rhythm of feeding, milking, and passive stillness, confined to the same spot by chains. At the heart of the story is cow no. 6657, whom the farmer one day takes away from the barn. Her empty place is soon filled by a newborn calf, and life in the barn continues unchanged.
SATURDAY 24 JANUARY 2025 10:00-12:00
Jury Films, Kulturni Dom, Krško
DAYS OF SOLLITUDE, Directed by Setareh Pirkhedri,, Animation, 52″
Sanaz and Mina, two girls aged 7 and 9, live with their parents in a village in western Iran. The IranIraq War, which began in 1980, and the first Iraqi bombings tear their family apart, leaving them displaced and homeless.
WHERE DO WE MEET? Directed by Tallita Virginia, 15″
SESTRE, Directed by Kukla, 23″
SATURDAY 24 JANUARY 2025 12:00-13:15
“Young Jury” Claiming Ground, Kulturni Dom, Krško
Through films exploring displacement, separation, and the threats of new realities, this selection claims ground – bearing witness to lives profoundly altered.
YA HANOUNI
Directed by Lyna Tadount, Sofian Chouaib, 3, France,
While the Mom and the Dad try to put their baby to sleep, a competition arises between them: who will manage to get the baby to say the first word?
TO BE EIGHTEEN (The War)
Directed by Romane Pilote Lamontagne, 9″, Canada, Documentary
In this cinematic essay, the filmmaker intertwines imagery from her own daily life with the memories of Lisa (Yelyzaveta), an 18-year-old Ukrainian who lived in Montreal for a few months. Two strangers, so far yet so close.
154
Directed by Andrea Sbarbaro, Riccardo Copreni, Italy, 19″, Sci-Fi, Drama
A kindergarten teacher is assigned to educate an advanced prototype of artificial intelligence, on the condition that he approaches it as a child.
FRATRUM
Directed by Edit Nagyistók, 17”, Hungary
The backcountry. Hard lines, sharp separations. Tired colors and honest faces, where the bare minimum is looked up to as the sufficient standard.
That’s where Zoli and Laci live. Orphaned brothers, who lost their mother 6 years ago, and shortly after their father abandoned them as well. They start their days at dawn working on the local farm, ending it with a beer in the pub. They live a secluded life – two orphans living together-alone as part of an underprivileged section of society. What happens when things change where they usually don’t? Zoli receives a letter from Zsófika, the postwoman: he has been accepted to the agricultural college he so desperately wanted to attend to for years. The day that follows the news is slow, painful and quite fateful for the boys. They already know grief. But it is the first time they have to face the threat of real loneliness.
Is it okay to be wanting more? Can you return to the place you once left? Can we overcome the restraining power of our homes? And most of all: what happens to the one left behind?
WRITE MY NAME
Directed by Deya Ar, Begüm Aksoy, 15″, Turkey, Documentary
In Gaza, the ongoing occupation that has lasted for seventy-six years and the genocide that has continued for over a year have resulted in the bombing of homes, universities, hospitals, and schools. Palestinians living in Gaza, doctors and health workers working under difficult conditions, and journalists who continue to perform their duties despite all forms of pressure and intimidation are trying to prove to the world, through the videos and photos they capture, that there has been no safe place in Gaza for over a year, that they cannot find food, and that there is no access to clean water, electricity, or medical supplies. Gazan mothers and fathers write their children’s names on their arms and legs with a pen, in case their bodies are dismembered under the rubble, to make it easier to identify them or to ensure that if they survive, their children can be found in the hospital.
LOS INGRAVIDOS
Directed by Antonio Morra, Italy, 14″, Documentary
In a remote village in Mexico, where the Maya culture is still alive, Alonso and Bryan search for their missing friend: Gustavo. They will be forced to confront their fears on a journey into darkness and personal growth.
SATURDAY 24 JANUARY 2025 15:00-16:30 Official Selection
Official Selection: He Looks At My Plate
These films follow young women who claim their existence at the margins of homes, streets, and neighborhoods that seek to erase them. From cities shadowed by sex trafficking to intimate encounters with war and violence, they reclaim spaces and assert their presence and resistance. Confronted with emotional neglect, rigid family rules, and the creeping pressures of everyday control, they push back, leave traces of themselves, and refuse to disappear.
NEIGHBOURHOOD 23
Directed by Mojca Radkovič, Slovenia, 13″
Jagoda is leaving – the room, the relationship, the self she once was. In the waves of the night and flickers of memories, she searches for her center, until she realizes that freedom is not the goal, but the movement itself.
HIND
Directed by Stanley Miller, UK, 7″, Animation, Documentary
Hind Rajab and her family were murdered by the Israeli Occupation Forces on the 29th of January 2024. The UK is directly participating in the Israeli Genocide of Palestinians.
MOTHER’S MILK
Directed by Isaac Knights-Washbourn, Serbia, Documentary, 18″
In the hills of western Serbia, Dragica begins her workday on thefarm by milking her cow. It is the journey of the milk into food
that reveals her dedication to her family both past and present.Dressed in black, in the wake of her mother’s passing, Dragica
battles with the weight of legacy that has been handed down to her. As she provides for loved ones a cloud of doubt hovers
above her, continue in her mother’s footsteps or leave behind that which was bequeathed to her? Observing her ritualistic labour and
devotion from sunrise to sunset, we are taken on a journey within the confines of her fences. Mother’s Milk is a tender meditation on
motherhood and the chains that bind us together.
5/3/0
Directed by Danilo Stanimirović, 15″, Serbia
During the night, a teenage girl is taking a taxi ride to the neighboring town. After a disturbing ride, and an even worse night at a friends birthday party, she is forced to return home with a menacing taxi driver who insists on her sitting in the front seat next to him.
THERE IS EVIL HERE
Directed by Maxwell S Duryea, 9″, Documentary,
Just named the first city in North America to be designated a National Park City, Chattanooga, Tennessee is a southern paradise for adrenaline junkies and first time home buyers. While the parents tuck their kids in, a first date is blossoming downtown and police officers change shifts, so does the sun. Calling it a day and peeking over the horizon the empty streets, motels and truck stops also change shifts – into an ongoing epidemic: sex trafficking.
MOTHER
Directed by Maria Felenko, 7″, Ukraine
With the beginning of the war, Katya decided to leave her hometown and take her mother.
But mother is getting her nails done.
PORTRAIT
Directed by Farzam Tabibi, 15″, France, Experimental
In a photography studio, a woman and a photographer struggle to capture an innocent portrait of the woman. As tension rises between them, new photographs reveal ambiguous truths about the woman, blurring the line between reality and perception.
SATURDAY 24 JANUARY 2025 17:00:00-18:15
Official Selection: Territory, Kulturni Dom, Krško
The selection explores the relationship between people and territory. The stories navigate us from the violence of refugee camps, through lands lost to diaspora, to the struggle to reclaim space from gentrification.
CAMP LIFE
Directed by Helena Ileršič Salem, 8″, Documentary
Camp Life is a short documentary film that reflects some of the difficulties Palestinian refugees face in the diaspora camps. Film reveals routine, unemployment, hope, and the dream of returning.
SCAN
Directed by Indira Guzina, Italy, 4″ , Documentary, Experimental,
The relationship between the city and its people seen through CCTV cameras, which scan the urban landscapes to the sound of an MRI machine.
A depiction of the state of surveillance in its public and private aspects.
THE GODDESS ON THE THRONE
Directed by Durim Klaiqi, 7″, Kosovo
The voice of historian Aleks Buda echoes into the present – words, met by darkness, the absence of things. How to confront history when there are no objects to which this history adheres? How to revisit a history marked by gaps? Hyjnesha në Fron traces this endlessly expanding echo in the present void – a haunting sound of rhythmical distortion, stretching over excavated images. A search but also a starting point: For demanding historical spaces filled with objects and people whose sudden reoccurring make the entanglement of absence and violence hauntingly concrete.
Bens birthday
Directed by Robert Decani, Germany, 10″
Ben is nine years old today. Thus, his father lets him choose three sweets on a trip to the supermarket. His innocence is clouded when he observes his father being accosted by a stranger at the supermarket checkout shortly afterwards. Little Ben doesn’t understand much from a distance, but his father’s ethnicity seems to play a role. Ben doesn’t know exactly what has happened, but for the first time he realizes that something has.
Collection Title: Turtle
Directed by Ehsan Majouni, 13″, Animation, Experimental, Iran
A woman is determined to bring her beloved back to life, a man who vanished into the waters in search of a place to call his own. She feels compelled to recall things that have long been dead, hoping her loved one might revive. She believes he will be washed ashore someday, back to her by the tides—a sudden return, as if by magic.
NERO ARGENTO
Directed by Francesco Manzato, 19″, Italy,
Lucas and his friends spend their days, as a crew of writers, in a secret forest along the railway. Yet, Lucas senses an unsettling presence in the forest. An unexpected encounter with a mysterious figure confronts Lucas with a cathartic moment, teetering between conflict and liberation.
SATURDAY 24 JANUARY 2025 20:00 -21:10
Official Selection: The World Is Ours Kulturni Dom, Krško
Made by young women, these films confront how gender, race, and class shape everyday life, creating intersectional oppression. These stories reveal to us the home as the first political space, where repression begins.
SPACKLING
Directed by Angela Stipić, Croatia, 13″, Documentary
Skimming is the process of coating the entire surface of walls and ceilings with a special skimming compound, whose purpose is to create a very fine final layer as a base for painting(whitewashing) the wall. Skimming must be done in two passes, that is, in two layers.
MAMA
Directed by Summer Elfeky, Egypt, 3″
Through her family’s archive, Summer attempts to capture the toxic voices that mothers unintentionally pass down to their daughters from one generation to the next, all in the name of love.
Jade Buddha Amulet
Directed by Jiarui Zhang, China, 17″
After her father’s death, a high school girl is forced into a ritual of devotion by her domineering mother—wearing a jade Buddha amulet and making blood offerings for its protection. She reclaims her body by defiling it with her menstrual blood, a silent yet powerful declaration of bodily autonomy.
ORANGE
Directed by Nóra Horváth, 15″
Orange is a witchy old woman. She makes medicine from herbs helping the villagers with them. The silence of her hut and her herb-scented life are disturbed by the owner of the field.
LAVANDER
“Lavander” is a personal documentary that follows director Mateja Raičković on a journey of healing and self-reclamation. Through intimate conversations, family encounters, and moments of reflection in nature, the film explores themes of vulnerability, trauma, connection, and inner strength. It is a quiet and emotional meditation on transformation and acceptance.
DELIVERY GIRL
Milana Nikić, Serbia, 16″, Documentary
A documentary about a young actress who, during the COVID-19 restrictions, takes a part-time job delivering alcohol at night.
During these delivery sessions with the director, they question their career paths and relationship choices, supplying citizens with alcohol like modern-day Robin Hoods.
