The Beach of Enchaquirados
A sense of unfulfilled longing intermingles with irresistible, liberating warmth in this poetic portrait of the Ecuadorian fisher Vicky and the local transgender community she’s part of.
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Pathway: Liminal Reality on Film
This selection of films harmonizes with this year’s special theme program IDFA DocLab: Liminal Reality, a celebration of ambiguity in life, tech, and art. Referring to an in-between state that is both familiar and unknown, Liminal Reality reflects on the collective ambiguity in which we now find ourselves. Recognizing the particularity of our times as highlighted by this theme, the films in this Pathway respond by searching for the spaces between the lines, where binaries and polarities dissolve, and lives lie suspended between certainties.
Items in this selection
The Burrows
In keeping with tradition, the filmmaker and his family build a tomb for his grandparents. This carefully composed portrait of a village—with scenes of the work, personal memories, and philosophical reflections—is a mirror of existence itself.
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Close to You
At the start of the corona pandemic, young transmasculine filmmaker Cássio Kelm ends up isolated in a small apartment with his father. Close to You subtly tells a layered story combining personal transition, unspoken tenderness, and Brazilian politics.
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Gangnam Beauty
English-born Oli London has spent a fortune on plastic surgery to make them look like Korean pop-star Jimin. A delightful blend of documentary and theatrical drama on the subject of idol worship, with Oli also performing a re-imagining of a Korean myth.
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Lake Forest Park
An atmospheric portrait of a group of high school students in the American northwest who have been through a shocking experience. The camera observes from a distance and captures their inexpressible sadness in beautifully composed tableaux.
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The Moment of Transition
Chiara Marotta returns to the Christian community she grew up in and to which her grandmother, mother, and sister still belong. She seeks explanations for their behavior, an understanding of her own situation, and, perhaps, reconciliation.
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Octopus
The aftermath of the explosion that took place at the Port of Beirut in August 2020 is revealed in quiet stillness, from the destroyed buildings and the despair of local residents to the cautious first sounds of reconstruction.
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Resources
An observational film about the meat industry in Quebec, where asylum seekers, mainly from Latin America, process a vast herd of livestock into meat. What is life like at various points along this chain?
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Survive
Burnt-out twentysomething Leon is struggling in a residential rehab clinic. His father Hans-Joachim, by contrast, is brimming with zest for life—in fact, this landscape artist is planning to live forever, as a “homo digitalis.”
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Taamaden
Faith, hope and harsh reality: Taamaden is an original story about the everyday lives of West African immigrants and their ties with mystical and religious fortune tellers—African occultism reaches to Europe via the smartphone.
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The Treasures of Crimea
Amsterdam’s Allard Pierson Museum inadvertently finds itself involved in an international wrangle over a loaned collection of art. This multifaceted reconstruction sheds light on the affair from every angle: political, legal, and emotional.
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Yoon
Mbaye Sow works as a courier between his two home countries, Portugal and Senegal. In a station wagon packed with goods, he drives the thousands of miles up and down, tinkering with his dilapidated car and checking in with home.
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