Stadt/Land: Der große Graben(2021)

Arcadia(en)

A provocative and poetic exploration of how the British people have seen their own land through more than a century of cinema. A hallucinated journey of immense beauty and brutality. A kaleidoscopic essay on how magic and madness have linked human beings to nature since the beginning of time.

Cyrille(fr)

Cyrille, a young gay farmer from Auvergne, has only one friend, a homosexual like him. One day, he goes on vacation to a beach in Charente Maritime. He cannot swim and sees the sea for the first time. It was there that he met the director Rodolphe Marconi who decided to devote this sensitive and gentle portrait to him, plunging us into an agricultural world in crisis and into a life often lonely and made up of hard work rarely pays off.

A Life on the Farm(en)

A strange story from Somerset, England about a filmmaking farmer and the inspiring legacy of his long-lost home movies.

CircleSpeak(en)

Shot in Southern England over the course of six weeks by a crew of three American filmmakers, CircleSpeak offers a nuanced look at the passions and beliefs of the people immersed in the crop circle phenomenon during the season of 2001. This feature-length documentary presents interviews with serious “researchers”, self-proclaimed “hoaxers”, local farmers and villagers who are all, in one way or another, involved in this strange and compelling summer spectacle taking place year after year.

The Gleaners and I(fr)

Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.

Monegros(es)

Accompanied by the songs of singer-songwriter José Antonio Labordeta, a poetic journey through the inhospitable shire of the Monegros, located in the region of Aragón, in Spain, in search of peace and isolation.

Country Queer(fr)

Benoît built his paradise hidden from view, emancipated in his own way, resolved to face the constraints of a space which, in imaginations, conflicts with his identity. The countryside. One day, he and other queers from the area decide to organize the first Pride of the Périgord vert, because it is time to come out, to take up space to celebrate, heal, and finally open a path.

Four Roads(it)

In the absence of any physical connection, this short explores alternative forms of contact among neighbors by making use of an old 16mm camera, a zoom lens, and a few meters of expired film.

A Place of Our Own(it)

Fighting Soldiers(ja)

Documentary of an Imperial Japanese Army regiment's advance from Shanghai to Wuhan in 1938. This film was shelved before submission to Home Ministry censors amid rumors that Fumio was a Communist.

Las Hurdes, a Land with Soul(es)

A modern answer to Luis Buñuel's mythical documentary “Land Without Bread” (1933) about Las Hurdes, a historically impoverished region of the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, and also a journey of discovery of the soul of this beautiful land and its inhabitants.

As Nature Intended(en)

Three girls on a tour of the English countryside meet up with two young women who introduce them to the joys of life in a nudist camp.

Rioja: The Land of a Thousand Wines(es)

By telling the human stories behind the entire value chain that gives life to the Spanish wine with the greatest international projection, ‘Rioja, Land of the Thousand Wines’ portrays a currently blooming wine region underpinned by the talent and the work of the new generations of winemakers that operate side by side with the region’s historic wineries. The film puts the focus on the match between territory and product, wisdom and tradition, and lays a bridge between the origins and the future of Rioja. An immersion into a fascinating world that, through captivating cinematography and careful editing, attempts to find the keys to understanding what Rioja wine is and what makes it so special.

Sugartown: The Bridegrooms(en)

In the Greek village of Sugar Town, men have a serious problem. Women are fleeing the area in search of work or marriage in the big cities, leaving them behind - and lonely. Fully aware of the men’s dire situation, the astute mayor of Sugar Town promises to find them wives in Russia, as part of his re-election campaign. Against the odds and local traditions which frown upon mixed marriages, the bridegrooms from SugarTown set out on a great journey to find their future brides and happiness.

John Ford: The Man Who Invented America(fr)

Over a 50-year career and more than a hundred movies, filmmaker John Ford (1894-1973) forged the legend of the Far West. By giving a face to the underprivileged, from humble cowboys to persecuted minorities, he revealed like no one else the great social divisions that existed and still exist in the United States. More than four decades after his death, what remains of his legacy and humanistic values in the memory of those who love his work?

Bécquer and the Witches(es)

In 1864, the Spanish poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-70), suffering from health problems, retires to the monastery of Veruela. Far from the noise and worldly activity of the capital, he immerses himself in the landscape of the mysterious Moncayo mountain. There, he discovers a new world full of legends that converge in a small village located at the foot of the mountain: Trasmoz, the Village of the Witches, the only officially cursed village in Spain.

La ruta de don Quijote(es)

A poetic journey through the paths and places of old Castile that were traveled and visited by the melancholic knight Don Quixote of La Mancha and his judicious squire Sancho Panza, the immortal characters of Miguel de Cervantes, which offers a candid depiction of rural life in Spain in the early 1930s and illustrates the first sentence of the first article of the Spanish Constitution of 1931, which proclaims that Spain is a democratic republic of workers of all kind.

Miyama, Kyōto Prefecture(de)

The follow-up film to “Barstow, California” takes us to the mountains of Miyama, a remote forest and tourist area north of Kyoto. Uwe Walter, a shakuhachi player from Germany, lives there with his wife Mitsuyo for 30 years. Together with the villagers he prepares the annual Gion Festival. On the eve of the festival, the village representatives tell him that his self-built studio is to be demolished. This brings back memories for him of earlier times and his first steps as a Nō actor. In the manner of a fresco, the film interweaves rural depictions of everyday life with the story of its German protagonist. In the village community with its togetherness of generations, Uwe shares life with his neighbours, with farmers, hunters, woodsmen, poultry farmers and anglers, tills his kitchen garden, and like other tradition-conscious villagers, he also grows his rice. The film shows them in a harsh mountain landscape between the rainy season and the first snow.

Here We Come A-Wassailing(en)

A documentary on the surviving syncretic pagan midwinter customs of the British Isles, focusing on nine ritual celebrations ranging from the Moray Firth in the north, the Somerset Levels in the south, Humberside in the east, and County Kerry in the west. Featuring music by the Albion Band and narration by John Tams.

A ház(hu)