Category: ARFF Amsterdam 2024 – Staff Picks

Original Film Title: STIGMA

Director’s Name: Dali Mansour

Writer’s Name: Dali Mansour

Producer: Aly Mansour

Country of Origin: Tunisia

Country of Filming: Tunisia

Language: Arabic

Runtime: 29 minutes 55 seconds

Film Description:

During the Covid-19 lockdown, “Stigma” explores the emotional impact on Bochra, a young woman living alone in France. Through webcam exchanges with her parents in Tunisia, Bochra struggles with painful memories and a dark past. Confronted with solitude in her Parisian apartment, she faces shadows of her past, gradually revealing a deeply buried trauma. The film delves into themes of resilience, the importance of family bonds, and the quest for self in an isolated world, leading to a poignant revelation.

Original Film Title: TEK YOL

Director’s Name: Furkan Cetin, Tony Özkan

Writer’s Name: Furkan Cetin, Tony Özkan

Producer: Furkan Cetin, Tony Özkan

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Germany

Language: German, Turkish

Runtime: 14 minutes 54 seconds

Film Description:

Sahin, a Turkish immigrant in Berlin, struggles with a profound sense of belonging, questioning the meaning of home as he and his best friend Umut navigate a world of violence, identity, and resilience.

Original Film Title: CHAIN

Director’s Name: LING HAN

Writer’s Name: LING HAN

Producer: TZU-YING HO, LING HAN

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: No Dialogue

Runtime: 4 minutes 49 seconds

Film Description:

“Chain,” directed by Ling Han, is a 3D animated short film featuring charming characters and a sophisticated environment. It uniquely tells the story of the mantis catching the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
“Chain” is visually stunning and emotionally rich, expressing nature’s survival instincts and prompting viewers to ponder life’s deeper questions. We sincerely recommend this film to fans of animation and proverbs.

Original Film Title: Showerhead

Director’s Name: Craig Jocelyn Tanner

Writer’s Name: Craig Jocelyn Tanner

Producer: Anant Singh

Country of Origin: South Africa

Country of Filming: South Africa

Language: English

Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes

Film Description:

South Africa’s most prolific satirical, Zapiro, embarks on a compelling journey from his roots as a liberation artist and political detainee during Apartheid to emerge as a steadfast defender of freedom of expression in democratic South Africa. His impactful cartoons, exhibited globally, reflect an unwavering commitment to challenging societal norms and advocating for democratic ideals. Zapiro’s cartoons draws poignant parallels to Charlie Hebdo. His stance aligns with the broader theme of defending freedom of expression, emphasizing the shared responsibility of individuals, governments, and corporations in preserving this fundamental right. He has endured death threats, massive law suits and insults.

Original Film Title: COUBERTIN

Director’s Name: Adrien Walter

Writer’s Name: Adrien Walter

Producer: Anant Singh, Myriam Weil

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming: France, Germany, Greece, Switzerland

Language: French

Runtime: 1 hour 5 minutes

Film Description:

“THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO TAKE PART”… This well-known saying is about all that remains in the collective imagination of Pierrede Coubertin, a pivotal figure in sports who has given his name to dozens of stadiums, gymnasiums and schools all over his native France and the world. But who was this eccentric pioneer who built the modern Olympic games from scratch? Combative but pacifist, visionary but conservative, the only Republican in an ultra-Royalist family, a staunch colonialist who nonetheless stood against antisemitism as a young man, only for his final years to be tarnished by suspicion of proximity to the Nazi regime. This contradictory character left an extraordinary legacy: the Summer and Winter Olympics, the introduction of competitive sport from England into France, the staging of competitions for cameras. And this aristocrat, and exceptional fencer himself, opened up the world of sports and the fame it confers to the women and people of colour who were once excluded.

Original Film Title: The Asifa Bano Story

Director’s Name: Mina Isabella JafriMalik

Writer’s Name: Mina Isabella JafriMalik, Imtiaz Akram Malik, Zainab Sadiqua Akram Malik

Producer: Imtiaz Akram Malik

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: India

Language: English, Urdu

Runtime: 38 minutes

Film Description:

Asifa Bano was only eight years old when she went missing. Abducted from her village, she was drugged, starved, raped, and brutally tortured before eventually being murdered, all in the hopes of chasing her people away from their homeland.

Original Film Title: A Quick Connect

Director’s Name: Leslie Harter-Berg

Writer’s Name: Bradley Werner, Kurt Lindsey

Producer: Bradley Werner

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 26 minutes 55 seconds

Film Description:

A musical about meetings-about-meetings.
In this send up of corporate life, new-hire Brayden has until EOD to save everyone’s job, that is, if he can survive endless slide edits, navigate crammed calendars, and confirm everyone can see his screen in this hybrid workplace comedy.

Original Film Title: We Never Answer The Question

Director’s Name: Bangyang Xiong

Writer’s Name: Bangyang Xiong

Producer: Bangyang Xiong

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Chinese

Runtime: 11 minutes 7 seconds

Film Description:

This film tells the story of an elderly woman who has spent most of her life living in another region. Uneducated and illiterate, she finds it difficult to integrate into her current environment in Jinchang, Gansu, where she was relocated from her hometown of Wuhan, Hubei, due to the extensive migration in China driven by the necessity of development in a special era. Whether interacting with her children or grandchildren, she feels out of place, intensifying her homesickness. Pouring her true feelings and emotions into phone conversations with relatives back in Wuhan, she finds they too are unable to solve her problems. With little time left, she continues to search for the warmth she longs for. Living in a distant place, she misses her hometown more and more, feeling it becomes increasingly distant, like it is somewhere else entirely. Through her longing and perseverance, she embodies the universal quest for belonging and the enduring connection to one’s roots.