
The 3 Rooms of Melancholia
Shot in St. Petersburg, Grozny and Ingushetia, this multilayered, poetic film in three chapters reflects a range of fundamental human feelings and mental states that war invokes.
More infoAll films that play at IDFA are English-spoken or English-subtitled. On this page, you can see the overview of all films with English subtitles.
Films with English subtitles
Shot in St. Petersburg, Grozny and Ingushetia, this multilayered, poetic film in three chapters reflects a range of fundamental human feelings and mental states that war invokes.
More infoA couple at a campground in Spain are behaving very strangely, and the imaginations of three teenage girls are running wild. This playful film-about-film moves effortlessly between documentary, thriller, detective story and fairytale.
More infoThe teenage girls who live in a shelter in Bogotá have already been through a lot in their young lives. They talk about it through the perspective of a fictional friend: Alis. Their soulful narrative reveals an amazing strength to embrace a brighter future.
More infoTwo Muslim brothers living in Delhi, one of the world’s most polluted cities, try their best to run a sanctuary for birds of prey. In a film that swings between hope and despair, the two central figures remain determined to never give up.
More infoWhen the young queer actor he cast to star in a vampire film dies of an overdose, filmmaker Theo Montoya dives deeper into the no-future generation of Medellín, in this “trans film” about all the people who don’t belong to anything or anyone.
More infoAn award-winning documentary taking a humorous look at the entrance exams at the Prague art academy, held under the watchful eye of the receptionist. How do you apply a selection procedure to something as subjective as art?
More infoRiots at the 1990 soccer match between Hajduk Split and Partizan Belgrade presaged the Yugoslavian Civil War. Thirty years on, army teams from the six now-independent nations are competing in a soccer tournament. Are the tensions a thing of the past?
More infoA patient family portrait in black-and-white, featuring an elderly father, who lives with his wife in the Chinese countryside, and their alcoholic son, who lives in the city. At his parents’ home, his isolation becomes tangible.
More infoA multimedia performance about the murder of 18-year-old Lucas, the nephew of filmmaker Maxime Jean-Baptiste, reflecting on the tragedy through a combination of video footage, interviews, readings, music, dance and lighting effects.
More infoHow should a young woman with big ambitions survive in the new Russia? The answer is Bitch Academy, a course for the most determined gold diggers. With merciless candor, this short film provides a jarring portrait of a society adrift.
More infoMore than 4,000 citizens were tortured in the context of the Basque Conflict in Spain between 1960 and 2014. One of them was the filmmaker’s father. He and experts discuss the past, what torture is and how it affects the victims.
More infoAn intimate report on the transition of the former actress Rüzgar Erkoçlar, who has to go through his journey of self-realization under media scrutiny in the traditional society of Turkey.
More infoA powerfully visual film, with stunning cinematography, about a worker at an old grain silo in Budapest. His work is like that of a scuba diver: each day he is lowered into the 25-meters-deep silos, where he performs a dazzling dance.
More infoA portrait of a former math teacher with a passion for women with large breasts. His explanation of the mathematical laws of sine and cosine merges into a paean to female curves.
More infoFiction and reality intertwine over the course of this award-winning film in which inmates at Rebibbia prison in Rome throw themselves into a production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, a classic play packed with lies and treachery.
More infoDo those who live near the Argentinian army base Campo de Mayo still remember its dark past? Writer Félix Bruzzone’s mother was murdered there during the dictatorship. Now he travels this emotionally charged landscape and meets the local people.
More infoDebut filmmaker Alain Kassanda and his grandparents explore their family history in this richly layered portrait, drawing together politics and personal memories. The upheavals of post-colonial Congo feel palpably close.
More infoSinger, performer and artist Niño de Elche is renowned for his groundbreaking vision of flamenco. Playfully provoking his audience, he invites them to consider a question: What can flamenco be?
More infoA visit to Matonge, the African quarter in Brussels, evokes mixed feelings for filmmaker Neema Ngelime. She would like to be part of the community, but at the same time struggles with its stifling morality.
More infoDutch U.N. soldiers speak about their experiences in various conflict areas around the world. The vehicle for their recollections is the music they played at the time, which has become forever tied to their memories of war.
More infoA stimulating and vivid portrait of a generation, about a group of young people in their thirties and their relationships in Paris between 2019 and 2021. With a macabre news item as a common thread, we gradually get to know who they are.
More infoA wild collage of scenes of state oppression and suspicious deaths that have taken place in Thailand over the last 90 years. Archive footage of violence and pornography is interspersed with dance scenes and video clips, creating an audacious blend.
More infoWhy did her mother not reveal that she had cancer? This is just the first of many questions the filmmaker has in this tender feature-length debut where mother and child explore their relationships—with illness, death and each other.
More infoFollowing in the footsteps of Andreas Vesalius, who five centuries ago was the first to map human anatomy, this sensorial film explores the bodies of men and women during operations on various parts of the body. Intimate, at a microscopic level.
More infoOil is rebellion in a sprawling favela on the outskirts of Brasilia. A group of self-assured women illegally tap it and sell gasoline through a motorcycle gang. This is the heart of a broad panorama of a Brazil we rarely see.
More infoThe dirtiest jobs in the clean-up after the 9/11 attacks were given to undocumented immigrants, at the cost of their health. Creatively edited images and animations accompany their testimonials.
More infoFramed by the solar eclipses of 1961 and 1999, this essayistic documentary examines how a Serbian family—and taking a wider perspective, an entire country—relates to a turbulent history.
More infoAs Kabul is recaptured by the Taliban, the passionate journalists of the Etilaat Roz daily newspaper grow increasingly concerned. Hopelessness and fear gradually take over in this penetrating film.
More infoFrom one day to the next, an Algerian woman is driven into illegality. The life Zohra planned in France becomes an imaginary existence. Her isolation is made palpable as she literally vanishes from view.
More infoA delightful feel-good predecessor to the classic Être et avoir. The camera follows staff and patients at a remarkable French psychiatric facility during rehearsals for the annual stage show—this year it’s an operetta.
More infoA dystopian vision by Rithy Panh à la Animal Farm and Planet of the Apes. Inspired by 20th-century dictators and the horrors of factory farming, animals—represented by clay figures—maintain totalitarian rule over humans.
More infoA group of fabulous trans women gather to honor their deceased friend Antonia in a way denied to her by her family, who buried Antonia in men’s clothes. Politics, pain and joie de vivre combine in this rousing and heartwarming tribute.
More infoThe video diary of 18-year-old Fatima, who fled Afghanistan with her family and now lives in Bucharest. With increasing frankness, the young Muslim woman records her life in the Romanian capital.
More infoIn this intimate live performance, Belgian theater director Tom Struyf tells the story of the footage he shot over several years in Willard, a tiny American hamlet, where the ruin of a psychiatric institution led him unexpectedly back to Belgium.
More infoIsrael has banned harvesting za’atar and akoub, two plants essential to Palestinian cuisine. Officially, it’s to preserve nature, but Palestinian wild pickers see it differently. A subtle but powerful film on how politics can reach into the kitchen.
More infoIgor Ivanko discovers piles of old negatives belonging to his grandfather Leonid Burlaka, and delves into the life of this retired Soviet cameraman. Ivanko gets the pictures developed, only to discover they are damaged—just like Burlaka's memory.
More infoSylvana and Mohammed, both from Lebanon, like to go for walks together. She is in a wheelchair, he is blind; as he pushes her, she guides the way. They discuss the obstacles they face on a daily basis, which are physical, but above all societal.
More infoA sun-soaked portrait of Gigi, a police officer investigating a worrying series of suicides in a charming small Italian town. Fortunately, there’s enough time left for flirting, chatting with colleagues or daydreaming in his overgrown jungle garden.
More infoA coming-of-age film about the young shaman Sujin, who oversees a temple together with her grandmother in the mountains of South Korea. Will she be able to combine her calling as a seer with her studies at the University of Seoul?
More infoIncorporating several artistic collaborations, this multifaceted audiovisual project plays with time to channel queer and non-normative countercultural responses questioning the Western Gnostic tradition.
More infoBeautifully composed images and an immersive sound design capture the last vestiges of Bengal’s jute industry, which has been virtually unchanged since the industrial revolution. Workers carry out their routine work along endless rows of antique looms.
More infoFor decades, Vincent Carelli filmed the struggles of his friend Krohokrenhum, leader of the Gavião in the Brazilian Amazon, a man who tirelessly defends the traditions of his people against political, economic and cultural assimilation.
More infoDocumentary theater in which four young Cubans reconstruct the lives of their grandparents and rewrite the history of their country. These stories are interwoven with the contemporary socio-political issues of a fast-changing Cuba.
More infoCelsa looks back on her time as a political prisoner during the brutal regime of Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay (1954-1989). Traumatic memories are reawakened when what may be the remains of her murdered husband are found.
More infoTheater maker Roza Sarkisian is united with five young Ukrainians to create a performance in which Shakespeare’s Hamlet and their reality come together. The depiction of this intense process is complemented by impressive portraits of the protagonists.
More infoThe story of the development of women’s rights in Sudan is told through unique archive material and interviews with activists. We see and hear how women have been oppressed, ignored and abused for centuries, and what has changed.
More infoExcerpts spanning Iranian film history show that women have always been oppressed, also in the years before the Islamic Revolution. Undaunted, Mania Akbari takes on the male gaze in this confrontational essay.
More infoLebanese director Heiny Srour put her life at risk in the early 1970s, filming the struggle for independence in Dhofar, Oman. In this powerful feminist statement, her primary focus is on the women fighters.
More infoWinter and war mean this Ukrainian children’s home near the front is fuller than ever. A group of resolute, no-nonsense women have created an almost magical place where they watch over children who are waiting for the government to decide their fate.
More infoThe love between like-minded millennials Marusya and Kimi turns to agony as Kimi gradually disappears into serious drug addiction. A portrait of a generation gripped by despair and hopelessness.
More infoWhen young Israelis turn 18, they have to join the army. Narrated diary excerpts of young people who died while in service illustrate their shattered dreams and desires in an increasingly militaristic society.
More infoThe boundaries between the rehearsal process and the performance of a piece are blurred in this colorful and elaborate film about the Kamak theater group, a professional ensemble for actors with intellectual disabilities.
More infoA hyperdynamically edited film about the first free elections in Serbia in 1990, which were won by Slobodan Milošević. Five presidential candidates of the time look back, and TV clips show the almost-surreal, circus-like election atmosphere.
More infoAn intimate account of a highly toxic relationship: during a lengthy visit from her boyfriend’s mother, the filmmaker documents the arguments between mother and son. An oppressive and candid study of the transmission of violence through generations.
More infoWith originality and subtlety, director Francisco Javier Rodriguez portrays the inner life of a 33-year-old psychiatric patient. The boundaries between reality and imagination fall away.
More infoThe first year of Covid lockdowns is seen through the eyes of documentary veterans Petra and Peter Lataster, in this affectionate look at their shrunken world. Their calm account captures the uniqueness of this strange period in history.
More infoThe spiritually minded vagabond Zhighou Sun guides the viewer through the extraordinary world of the “Foreigners Street” Chinese amusement park in Chongqing, a surreal sanctuary full of strange structures, from UFOs to an Egyptian pyramid.
More infoA better life seems so close here, among the skyscrapers of Addis Ababa. But the people living in the Katanga district know how difficult it is to get ahead—and that only strengthens their resilience, and their love-thy-neighbor take on life.
More infoRaw and frank portrait of Kenya, a trans woman who lives in Mexico City. She witnessed her friend, a fellow transgender sex worker, being murdered by a client. In her long battle for justice, she can’t avoid having to face her own fears.
More infoIn January 1946, 15 Nazis were put on trial in Kiev for their role in the murder of 10,000 civilians in Ukraine. Sergei Loznitsa draws on recovered archive footage of the trial to assemble a shocking and urgent documentary.
More infoMeasured observations of the annual cycles in a rural Latvian community. Seleckis presents the full variety of modern farming life and opens up a highly topical discussion about the future of agriculture.
More infoWhat are artists to do in wartime? Instead of producing religious statues, the Ukrainian sculptors in this short film make anti-tank obstacles. The need for these is more urgent at the moment.
More infoDaniela López aims her camera at members of her own family—at her grandmother Martha, who escaped a violent marriage after 39 years, and at the rest of the family, who is struggling not only with that trauma but also with the film project itself.
More infoOn Mayotte, the only French island in the Comoros, a group of outlawed young men lead their lives in the shadows, with nothing to rely on but their dogs. An empathetic portrait of a lost existence, both rough and tender.
More infoA dark mosaic of often-shocking videos that Russian teenagers have posted on social media. Clip after clip shows how aggression and oppression in schools is unwittingly passed on to the next generation.
More infoLithuanian filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravičius (1976-2022) filmed this visually powerful tribute to Mariupol in the spring of 2015, just after the Russian occupation of Crimea. Despite the threat, life goes on, with all its joy, love and worry.
More infoLithuanian filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravičius returned to the ruined Ukrainian city of Mariupol, a hell on earth where life goes on amid the bombardments. He was killed by Russian troops, but his crew went on to finish the film.
More infoTwo women, a Buddhist and a Muslim, work together at a maternity clinic in Myanmar. The oppression of Rohingya Muslims in the country means it’s dangerous to treat Muslim women—but neither of these obstetricians take any notice of that.
More infoBrazilian singer Miúcha worked with bossa nova legends including her brother Chico Buarque and husband João Gilberto. Her life’s story, told through a rich resource of unreleased archive material, offers a female perspective on this musical movement.
More infoMexican filmmaker Xun Sero questions his mother about her life as a Tzotzil woman. The answers reveal a strong woman who has managed to create a place for herself within a patriarchal society.
More infoThe former French colonies in Central and West Africa have been independent since 1960, but many of these countries still use the currency of the former oppressor: the CFA franc. A new generation wants to complete the process of decolonization.
More infoThe Brazilian theater group Galpão is in Moscow, working on their production of the Chekhov play Three Sisters. During rehearsals, filmmaker Coutinho captures the increasingly blurred boundaries between fiction and reality.
More infoFour Amsterdam mothers explain how their sons got in trouble with the law and were subjected to a stigmatizing crime prevention program. Despite their powerlessness and frustration, they keep fighting for their children.
More infoA hundred men audition for the film version of a controversial pornographic novel. The filmmaker seats them on a casting couch and reverses the roles. Now the men are objectified, in this film packed with discomfort, disgust and lust.
More infoIn October 2019, 1.5 million Chileans took to the streets to fight for a more just society. Legendary filmmaker Patricio Guzmán was there to see a completion of the Chilean freedom struggle of his youth.
More infoFilmmaker Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez uses family photographs, extracts from letters and audio recordings to construct a loving portrait of her exiled theater director father Mohsen Sadoon Yasin, and an elegy to their lost homeland of Iraq.
More infoAn urgent portrait of Mutlu Kaya, a rising star in Turkey who survived an attack in 2015. After her sister is subsequently murdered, Kaya decides to fight against femicide and the normalization of violence against women.
More infoIranian filmmaker Vida Dena follows an immigrant Syrian family in Brussels in this, her debut film. She brings their memories and experiences to life by animating the cutout drawings they make together.
More infoAn unembellished analysis of the political trial of Anya, a Russian teenager arrested with nine others in 2018, for allegedly forming an extremist group planning to overthrow the government.
More infoLocal Stalinists resist when the statue of Stalin in Gori, the dictator’s birthplace, is torn down. But immersed in nostalgia and ideology, they fail to see that the world has irrevocably changed.
More infoA playfully styled portrait loosely based on memoirs published in 1889, evoking recollections of an unspoiled Chile that reflect on the here and now. But the portrayal also sheds light on what has been lost through colonization and modernization.
More infoWhat did young Egyptians think of wearing the hijab around 1995? And of love? Lively conversations cover topics ranging from family pressure to get married to the complexities of dating in Arab society.
More infoA heatwave leads to huge forest fires in Siberia. Villagers join forces to subdue the inferno they call the Dragon. A visually powerful film about the havoc that climate change can wreak.
More infoAn account, filmed over 12 years, of the close bond between a mother—the filmmaker—and her daughter, who has Asperger syndrome. They face a challenge when, as a young adult, the daughter moves from Taiwan to live with her father in France.
More infoA documentary view of taxi driver Oussama as he crisscrosses Casablanca in his compact cab taking passengers to their destinations. His lively conversations with his customers reveal a potpourri of the city.
More infoAs a traditional Catholic, the young Antek holds deeply conservative views: homosexuality can be cured, Poland is for the Poles, abortion is evil, and sex before marriage is forbidden. Until he falls in love, and doubt begins to set in.
More infoMexican nude model and gay porn actor Lalo Santos is his own boss, successful online, and the star of a porn film about Zapata. The work is hard, the future uncertain, and melancholy lurks in the moments between cruising and cumshots.
More infoYou can take a soldier out of the war, but you can’t take the war out of the soldier. That certainly applies to Marcelo Wytrykusz, an Argentinian veteran of the Malvinas War. Forty years later, he’s still seeking revenge.
More infoWhen the filmmaker was eight, his father’s body was found on a beach near Montevideo. In this stylized cinematic quest, he seizes on every possible lead to find out what happened, and who his father was.
More infoAn observational documentary filmed in a Bulgarian provincial hospital, where a close-knit community has been hit by Covid-19. The hard-working medical team tackles the unpredictable disease in both a practical and empathetic way.
More infoA playful, personal, political and uncompromising self-portrait of a group of non-binary and trans friends in Brazil. Their colorful raw material shows them shaping their lives off the beaten track.
More infoA remarkably intimate portrait of a group of young friends in Homs, Syria, dreaming of a peaceful revolution that will free the country of Assad’s dictatorial regime. When the national army starts destroying their city, the boys turn into armed rebels.
More infoAtrocities were carried out on both sides of the Senegal–Mauritania border in 1989. Senegalese filmmaker Alassane Diago gives victims and witnesses the opportunity to speak movingly about their experiences, as a first step towards reconciliation.
More infoA simple, effective film about butchers working at an Argentine abattoir. They talk about their work and their personal lives, motivations and fears. The director also reveals something about himself.
More infoA casting call in Iranian newspapers to find actors for a film on the centenary of cinema yields thousands of candidates. Makhmalbaf used the filmed auditions to create a comical look at a hidden part of Iranian culture.
More infoAnanta Thitanat documents the dismantling of Scala, Thailand’s last standalone movie theater. From there, a bigger story emerges about working conditions, political upheaval and the filmmaker’s personal history.
More infoBased on publicly accessible data, testimonials and video footage, in this short film, the research group Forensic Architecture reconstructs the death of the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
More infoWe follow the fortunes of three generations of an upper-middle-class family against the backdrop of four decades of Iranian history. With the century-old family house in Tehran as a silent witness, the family’s story becomes a mirror of society.
More infoA subtle coming-of-age film about changing roles in a Polish family. When 35-year-old Aga starts caring for her teenage brother following their mother’s death, can she tell him—and the deeply conservative world outside—that she is a lesbian?
More infoA vibrant and richly emotional portrait of spirited twin sisters Husai and Hassi. They have decided to leave Sierra Leone to seek work in the Middle East. But how can they persuade their mother that’s a good idea?
More infoWhether they’re all dressed up and in full make-up, or looking like the Virgin Mary, the inhabitants of the red light district of Tijuana, Mexico, live in a world of their own. Zona Norte is their home, but their minds are always elsewhere.
More infoIf collective memory exists, this may be what it looks like. An intuitive collage of people, landscapes, performances and impressionistic scenes emanate directly from the African diaspora in Brazil. Poetic and experimental, between ritual and activism.
More infoAfter the death of krautrock legend Christian Burchard, his band Embryo continues, led by his daughter Marja. Is it possible to build musical autonomy on top of such a rich heritage?
More infoBreathtaking landscapes alternate with scenes of somber small-town life on a train trip across Peru. This contemplative journey takes us along a railroad route of almost 300 kilometers.
More infoA beautiful observation of the Portuguese countryside, where the land and forests are worked with attention and respect. The film shows the intimate and reciprocal relationship between people and nature as a harmonious balance of give and take.
More infoUsing a cardboard replica of a camera and a plastic bottle “microphone,” young revolutionaries interview demonstrators at the 2019 mass protests against Sudan's military regime. A creative and hopeful take on a bleak situation.
More infoWriter Annie Ernaux looks back at her and her family’s home movies, shot with a Super 8 camera in the 1970s and 1980s. What do the films have to say about who they were then, and about the times in which they were living?
More infoThe mother of filmmaker Humaira Bilkis became a devout Muslim after a pilgrimage to Mecca. Free-spirited Humaira is her polar opposite, but in this film she goes in search of what binds them.
More infoJafar Panahi, who was put under house arrest and banned from making films in 2011, is currently imprisoned by the Iranian government. In spite of these restrictions, he's made a defiant ode to both the art and the freedom that were taken from him.
More infoAn intimate personal portrait of “Auntie Ria,” a feisty, independent woman who must face the reality that her dementia is gradually getting worse. Her niece Anneke tenderly captures the last seven years of her life.
More infoMartina is fascinated by death. In this poetic film she even stages her own dream funeral. This parting ritual helps director Beatrice Perego, a dear friend, to process her own major loss.
More infoBased on witness statements, the Forensic Architecture research group reconstructs the interior of the infamous Saydnaya prison in Syria, where countless men have been tortured and executed since the start of the civil war.
More infoTwo years after the death of a resident of the disadvantaged Cureghem quarter in Brussels, the graffiti still cries out for justice. The district is changing, but the improvements aren’t intended for the current residents.
More infoA group of children from the Achuar community, the original inhabitants of the region along the Pastaza River bordering Ecuador and Peru, move through the jungle independently—playing and working, in harmony with nature.
More infoThrough a group of dancers with a variety of disabilities, Jos de Putter and Clara van Gool explore the adaptability of human beings and the flexibility of the human body, resulting in an experience that’s as confrontational as it is moving.
More infoA nimble portrait following the lives of students Aaron, Benjamin, Nestor, and Rafiki in the Central African Republic. In this poverty-stricken country, the friends focus their hopes on the future. An award winner at IndieLisboa and Cinéma du Réel.
More infoA theater documentary following a company through the turbulent creative process of a show in search of its script. Engulfed by the uncertainty of the present, the actors wind up disoriented and confused between their lives and the play taking shape.
More infoA touching documentary on the personal impact of the Russian occupation of the Bucha region in March 2022. Traumatized locals and volunteers try to restore life from the ruins, while the war is still present in cities that have suffered heavy attacks.
More infoAs filmmaker Shuli Huang returns to his Chinese hometown in search for himself, a long due conversation with his mother plunges the two of them into a quest for acceptance and love in this Cannes award-winning film.
More infoA powerful account of abuse at a Spanish youth theater school. Testimonies from victims offer insight into the cunning manipulations of the perpetrator, who placed all his actions within the context of “theater.”
More infoDuring a mother and daughter’s intimately filmed sessions with a psychotherapist, blame, grief and anger gradually make way for reconciliation. Their uniquely personal relationship ultimately reveals itself to be deeply universal.
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