Dark Years

The Murderers Are Among Us(de)

After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds an ex-soldier living in her apartment. Together the two try to move past their experiences during WWII.

Cows(es)

A film set in the Basque region, beginning in the Carlist war of 1875 and ending during the Spanish Civil war of 1936. The film portrays how one single act of cowardice shapes the life of the next three generations of two families and fuels the intense rivalry which will span the next sixty-one years.

Little Peach(ja)

Anzukko (Little Peach) is the daughter of a successful writer. She turns down each one of her suitors, until she marries a beginning writer named Ryokichi. Their life quickly sinks into despair.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Him(de)

What would your family reminiscences about dad sound like if he had been an early supporter of Hitler’s, a leader of the notorious SA and the Third Reich’s minister in charge of Slovakia, including its Final Solution? Executed as a war criminal in 1947, Hanns Ludin left behind a grieving widow and six young children, the youngest of whom became a filmmaker. It's a fascinating, maddening, sometimes even humorous look at what the director calls "a typical German story." (Film Forum)

Germany, Year Zero(it)

In the ruins of post-WWII Berlin, a twelve-year-old boy is left to his own devices in order to help provide for his family.

Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll(ja)

Isabella, the daughter of the noble York family, is enrolled in an all-girls academy to be groomed into a dame worthy of nobility. However, she has given up on her future, seeing the prestigious school as nothing more than a prison from the outside world. Her family notices her struggling in her lessons and decides to hire Violet Evergarden to personally tutor her under the guise of a handmaiden. At first, Isabella treats Violet coldly. Violet seems to be able to do everything perfectly, leading Isabella to assume that she was born with a silver spoon. After some time, Isabella begins to realize that Violet has had her own struggles and starts to open up to her. Isabella soon reveals that she has lost contact with her beloved younger sister, whom she yearns to see again. Having experienced the power of words through her past clientele, Violet asks if Isabella wishes to write a letter to Taylor. Will Violet be able to help Isabella convey her feelings to her long-lost sister?

The Bastards' Fig Tree(es)

A trigger-happy Nationalist fears retribution from the son of a man he executed. To mollify the boy's anger, he takes a drastic step: he keeps constant watch over the fig tree the boy has planted at his father's gravesite. As the years pass, the man's lonely vigil makes him a tourist attraction, much to the chagrin of his former colleagues.

Forbidden Games(fr)

Orphaned after a Nazi air raid, Paulette, a young Parisian girl, runs into Michel, an older peasant boy, and the two quickly become close. Together, they try to make sense of the chaotic and crumbling world around them, attempting to cope with death as they create a burial ground for Paulette's deceased pet dog. Eventually, however, Paulette's stay with Michel's family is threatened by the harsh realities of wartime.

Ashes and Diamonds(pl)

A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.

Mona Lisa Smile(en)

Katherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.

Pugowitza(de)

World War II is over and Heinrich, a young German boy, influenced by the Russians, starts to act according to Communist principles in a small German village.

Our Daily Bread(de)

A story about a family after the Second World War. The petty bourgeois cashier Karl Weber of Berlin observes from a distance how his son Ernst participates in the building of a new socialist society. Karl does not understand Ernst's visions, instead he confides in his other son Harry. However, Harry becomes involved in illicit business and Karl quickly realizes that it would be best to join his son Ernst in the citizen-owned factory.

Ke arteko egunak(eu)

One day, Pedro Sansinenea left family, friends and country, an environment that drowned him. Twenty years later he returns to the Basque Country for several reasons, where he finds old hatreds, new conflicts and even a dramatic love story.

Castles and Cottages(de)

Lifelong hard work for the count makes the servant Anton a cripple. Everybody calls him Crooked Anton. When, after the end of the war, the land of the count gets divided amongst the farmers, Anton receives a piece and hopes to be able to work freely. But an old debt and intrigue keep Anton and his family from finding peace. The farmers of the village begin to discover their own power when Annegret, Anton's daughter, leaves. Is a new beginning possible for Anton? This film paints an impressive panorama of the development of a minor village in Mecklenburg from the end of the war to the uprising of 17 June 1953.

Ehun metro(eu)

It's 8 AM in a summer morning from the 70's. Jon, an ETA member, is being chased by the police in the Old Town of San Sebastian. While he runs, he revises his whole life.

Tommy(en)

After a series of traumatic childhood events, a psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religious cult.

The Worst of Times(eu)

Election night. Aimar, leader of the left-wing Basque nationalist movement, returns home more tired than ever. Itziar awaits him, exhausted. At the entrance, the remnants of a protest by the radical youth of their own party. Aimar has to make a decision: Does he want to continue dedicating his life to the nationalist cause, even in the worst of times?

The Purple Heart(en)

A soldier comes home with the weight of the world pinned to his chest.

The Good German(en)

An American journalist arrives in Berlin just after the end of World War Two. He becomes involved in a murder mystery surrounding a dead GI who washes up at a lakeside mansion during the Potsdam negotiations between the Allied powers. Soon his investigation connects with his search for his married pre-war German lover.

The Assault(nl)

At the end of WWII the Dutch resistance kills a German officer in front of the house of a Dutch family. Years after the war the young boy who witnessed the killing runs into the members of the resistance who committed the killing.

V.C. Andrews' Hidden Jewel(en)

When Pearl's younger brother becomes deathly ill, she travels back to the bayou to find Ruby and uncover the mysterious secrets of her past.

Swimming in the Sea(fr)

Several little boys run along a pier, then jump into the ocean.

X-Manas(pt)

In the underworld of sexual dissidents, gangsters, transvestites, ballet shoes and all marginalized bodies come up with a plan to destroy the cisheteronorma.

Musangwe: Fight Club(en)

The first rule is that there are no rules. For the bare-knuckle combatants competing in Musangwe fights, anything goes - you can even put a curse on him. The sport, which dates back centuries, has become a South African institution. Any male from the age of nine to ninety can compete. We follow a group of fighters as they slug it out in the ring. Who will be this year's champion?

Swan Song(en)

An aging hairdresser escapes his nursing home to embark on an odyssey across his small town to style a dead woman's hair for her funeral, rediscovering his sparkle along the way.

Scooby-Doo: Agence toutou risques, vol. 2 : Le fantôme de la télé(fr)

The Rat Catcher(en)

In an English village, a reporter and a mechanic listen to a ratcatcher explain his clever plan to outwit his prey.

The Drama of October 15th(es)

Reconstruction one year later of the assassination of Colombian liberal leader Rafael Uribe Uribe; with the participation of the perpetrators: Jesús Carvajal and Leovigildo Galarza.

A Zest For Death: A Hannah Swensen Mystery(en)

They say the real estate business is deadly, but no one is more surprised than Hannah Swensen when her mother, Delores, discovers the dead body of the homeowner – and regular customer of The Cookie Jar – while house-hunting for her sister Michelle. Hannah is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and is convinced that the prime suspect Mike and the Sheriff are focusing on isn't the culprit. Hannah's sleuthing becomes a family affair when Delores, Michelle and even her sister Andrea – who pays an unexpected visit – take part in the investigation. As Hannah uncovers clues she slowly rules out suspects and is led to the shocking truth about the killer's identity.

Naval Cadets, Charge!(ru)

Three naval cadets accidentally get possession of a secret diary that was stolen from Bestuzhev, a vice-chancellor of Russia. If this diary ever gets abroad, the consequences for the country would be grave. The cadets are trying to return the papers to their owner, but there are others who want to get the papers...

Silent Bruges(nl)

Hugues cannot get over the untimely death of his wife Blanche, who made him happy for ten years. He lives alone in his house in Bruges, a city he would like to be dead like his wife. The sorrowful widower has transformed the place he lives in into a shrine dedicated to his beloved wife. One day, he meets Jeanne, a ballet dancer, who looks like Blanche.

Vapors(en)

Mr. Jaffee is a curious but closeted married man, who decides to take a walk on the wild side one night over to the local bath house located in Times Square, New York. When he is a approached by Thomas, a swinging regular who takes an interest in Mr. Jaffe as the new face "on the scene", a deep discussion about marriage, connection and loss begins to unexpectedly unfold. The two become emotionally intimate in a very short time, with no sexual contact of any sort, while everyone around them are screwing like rabbits.

Jurassic Fight Club(en)

Jurassic Fight Club, a paleontology-based miniseries that ran for 12 episodes, depicts how prehistoric beasts hunted their prey, dissecting these battles and uncovering a predatory world far more calculated and complex than originally thought. It was hosted by George Blasing, a self-taught paleontologist.

Threshold(pt)

An autobiographical documentary made by a mother who follows the gender transition of her adolescent son: between 2016 and 2019 she interviews him addressing the conflicts, certainties and uncertainties that pervade him in a deep search for his identity. At the same time, the mother, revealed through a firstperson narration and by her voice behind the camera that talks to her son, also goes through a process of transformation required by the situation that life presents her with by breaking old paradigms, facing fears and dismantling prejudices.

Dune: Part Three(en)

The third installment in the Dune franchise. Plot TBA.

Hello(en)

The film tells the story of three best friends named Ako, Aki and Awang, who are well-known in their village for their mischievous and humourous pranks. The trio work for Pak Man. One day, they are assigned to pick up his daughter Misha, who has just returned from overseas and dreams of becoming a doctor. The trio have been in love with her for a long time but she does not pay them any heed. When Misha is robbed by a snatch thief one day, she is rescued by a doctor named Shafiq. Her face reminds the doctor of his late wife, and he begins to pursue her, which annoys the trio.

Copperman(it)

Despite his adult age, Anselmo behaves like a child and takes up the role of a superhero called "Copperman."

Road(en)

An elder brother who lived a life of crime but left to show his younger brother the lifestyle is not fit for anything. Years later his younger brother takes his footsteps in the life of drugs/crime, to a deal gone wrong his younger brother is murdered, his elder brother steps back into his crime ways and to find and avenge his younger brother's death.

Clear Skies 3(de)

If you have everything, you have everything to lose. John Rourke and his crew run the shiny new Maelstrom. But when Mr. Smith has a new job offer, everything changes and pushes New Eden again to the edge of chaos. JR, Charlie, and Sol are back for one more adventure, that takes them from a dull daily grind to trying to save an entire star system that's been taken hostage. Time to trust in rust for one last time.

People(fr)

People is a film shot behind closed doors in a workshop/house on the outskirts of Paris and features a dozen characters. It is based on an interweaving of scenes of moaning and sex. The house is the characters' common space, but the question of ownership is distended, they don't all inhabit it in the same way. As the sequences progress, we don't find the same characters but the same interdependent relationships. Through the alternation between lament and sexuality, physical and verbal communication are put on the same level. The film then deconstructs, through its repetitive structure, our relational myths.