Alois Nebel
2011, Czech Republic/Slovak Republic/Germany - by Tomás Lunák
It is the end of summer, 1989. Alois Nebel works as a train dispatcher at a small railway station in the Sudetenland, a mountainous region on the Czechoslovak border. He is a loner who prefers old timetables to people, and he finds the loneliness of the station tranquil - except when the fog rolls in. Then he hallucinates, seeing ghosts and shadows from the dark past of this region where after WWII harsh revenge was exacted on the German population. WillAloiserid oftheseghosts?
Arrugas - Wrinkles
2012, Spain - by Ignacio Ferreras
Based on Paco Roca’s comic of the same titleprized in 2008 by the Department for Culture with the National Comic Award and by Italy’s prestigious Lucca Comics&Games with the Gran Guinigi Award for best long story, Wrinkles portrays the friendship between Emilio and Miguel, two aged gentlemen shut away in a care home. Recent arrival Emilio, in the early stages of Alzheimer, is helped by Miguel and colleagues to avoid ending up on the feared top floor of the care home, also known as the lost causes or “assisted” floor. Their wild plan infuses their otherwise tedious day-to-day with humour and tenderness, because although for some their lives is coming to an end, for them it is just beginning.
Attack the Block
2011, UK/France - by Joe Cornish
In London, Sam, a trainee nurse, is walking home from work when she is mugged by a gang of five young hooded punks: Moses, Pest, Denis, Jerome e Biggz. She manages to flee when a meteorite falls from the sky on a nearby parked car. Intrigued, the youths go and look and are attacked by a small alien. Not intimidated at all, the five boys chase the creature and drag it around the block as a war trophy.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below
2011, Japan - by Makoto Shinkai
While listening to an old radio that her father left her, the girl Asuna hears a mysterious song playing. Asuna finds herself unable to forget the song, feeling that it sounded like someone’s very soul. On her way to her usual hideout in the hills, she is attached by a strange animal and saved by a young man that appeared out of nowhere. Calling himself Shun, he claims to come from a far away land called Agartha. Shun tells Asuna that he has come to the surface to see something and because there is someone he would like to meet. However as suddenly as he appeared, Shun disappears.
The Great Bear
2011, Denmark - by Esben Toft Jacobsen
The story takes place in a rich, imaginative universe. Jonathan, 11 years old, and his little sister Sophie are on holiday at they grandfather’s cabin deep in the forest. A small door from their grandfather’s garden leads the children into a colossal forest where, among others, the rain frogs, stealing birds, the world’s biggest bear and the hunter live. Jonathan tries to get rid of Sophie, but when he finally succeeds, it’s in a way Jonathan would never have imagined. Sophie has been kidnapped by a huge bear, and now he has to somehow find her and get her back home.
Green Days – Dinosaur and I
2011, South Korea - by An Jae Hoon
I-Rang fell down intentionally for fear of losing by Min-Jeong in the race, the only event she was confident in, when Min-Jeong overtook her. She is idling away defying any competition ever since. She gets irritated by TV commercials which are saying people remember only the winner. She hates herself who is nothing. She hates herself called by fill-in of someone. One day, Su-Min grabs her attention. She does not care others and does and says whatever she wants to, a girl from Seoul. I-Rang admired her for her uniqueness contrary to her mediocrity.
A Letter to Momo
2012, Japan - by Hiroyuki Okiura
Momo is a young girl who grew up in a big city. However, following the premature loss of her father, she has to move with her mother to the old family house on a remote island. Here, time seems to have stopped: old wooden buildings, holy shrines surrounded by trees, terraced fields painstakingly carved out from steep hills… and no shopping mall. Needless to say, Momo is not too overenthusiastic about this new environment. Most of all, her heart is still feeling uneasy about an unfinished letter her father left behind.
Midori-ko
2010, Japan - by Keita Kurosaka
A ten-year labour of love and composed from over 20,000 images, Kurosaka Keita’s animation film brings together narratives of bio-mimicry, food politics, and an uncanny, mystical environmentalism. In anticipation of the coming food crisis, five scientists are working to develop a “dream food,” one that is both meat and vegetable. But, progress in the laboratory, located amidst a derelict shopping district, has hit a dead end. One day, in the wee hours of the night, a pillar of light penetrates the lab. This is the light of a special starry sky that graces the Earth only once every ten thousand years.
Un monstre à Paris - A Monster in Paris
2011, France - by Bibo Bergeron
Paris, 1910. Panic sweeps the city. Floodwaters are rising and a monster is on the loose! Formidable Commissioner Maynott and his men hunt it down day and night. With no luck. It could be that in the limelight at The Rare Bird, a Montmartre cabaret where feisty Lucille is the star attraction isn’t a bad place to hide after all! Emile, a shy movie projectionist, and Raoul, a colourful inventor, find themselves embarked on the hunt for a monster terrorizing citizens.
Tibetan Dog
2011, Japan - by Masayuki Kojima
Based on Chinese writer Zhijun Yang’s bestseller, studio MadHouse’s first film produced in China tells about social relations of men and animals. After his mother’s passing, little Tenzin leaves the city of Xi’an, where he used to stay, and goes to his father’s, a physician who long before decided to move away and live in the deep barren Tibetan prairies. Clashing with the difficulties of an inhospitable world and the harshness of a father he barely knows will isolate Tenzin, who discovers about living in the savage wilderness. Witness of the ruthless struggle for supremacy amongst Tibetan dogs, he saves from death a mysterious stray gold-coloured Tibetan Mastiff: from then on, the two develop a strong bond of friendship that goes beyond the inexorable laws of Nature.