Germany Director: Kaspar Heidelbach
With Nazi-ruled Berlin facing boycotts of its 1936 Olympic Games if Jewish athletes aren’t allowed to participate, party officials bully expat champion high jumper Gretel Bergmann into training alongside a team that reviles her. At the same time, they use über-athlete Marie Ketteler as a pawn in a covert campaign to defeat Gretel. This powerful true story celebrates the small triumphs strong-willed individuals can win over tyranny and hatred.
German with subtitles, 100 minutes
Mexico Director: Michel Franco
Affluent and well-loved with bright futures, Daniel and Ana Torres have it all. But when the siblings are kidnapped on the streets of Mexico City, the two are given a heinous ultimatum that will change the rest of their lives. Deftly directed by Michel Franco, Daniel & Ana created a buzz at Cannes for its unsentimental handling of the story of two young lives utterly shattered.
Spanish with subtitles, 90 minutes
Bulgaria / Sweden Director: Kamen Kalev
This multilayered debut is a fresh, honest, sensitively wrought portrait of two young men struggling with their existential ennui in different ways. Swept up in the Bulgarian capital's turbulent political climate, Georgi falls in with a violent gang of neo-Nazis while blackout drunk and all-around jerk Christo flounders in a dead-end job. Their roles in a racist beating will reveal the connections between them and alter their lives in unexpected ways.
Bulgarian, Turkish with subtitles, 83 minutes
Brazil / Portugal Director: Eduardo Valente
After a cop mistakenly kills a hostage in a holdup in one of Rio's exclusive neighborhoods, four families must rebuild their lives. But the possibility of a bright future is as uncertain as the details surrounding the accident. As the fragmented but inextricably intertwined pasts of the characters collide with the present, this stirring social drama examines the question of whether destiny is truly inevitable.
Portuguese with subtitles, 118 minutes
Germany / Israel Director: Haim Tabakman
Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox community offers the comfort of belonging, but the conformity can be suffocating. Aaron, a devoted husband and father, is well respected in this world. Then he meets Ezri, a charismatic 22-year-old, who quickly steals Aaron's heart. Soon he's choosing this taboo love over his family. Guilt, torment, and pressure from the community will lead him to make a radical decision…
Hebrew, Yiddish with subtitles, 91 minutes
Uruguay Director: Adrián Biniez
This gentle and subtly humorous one-sided love story follows Jara, a shy, heavyset supermarket security guard whose humdrum life is turned upside down when he notices his coworker Julia on the security monitors. Jara's fascination soon moves off the video screens and into the streets, but when rumors of layoffs begin to circulate at work, Jara realizes he must make a move or risk never seeing her again.
Spanish with subtitles, 84 minutes
Hungary Director: Áron Mátyássy
A car mechanic who moonlights as a smuggler, Iván Priskin finds himself wanting to chase his dreams but remaining rooted by his sense of obligation. Iván’s autistic sister Eszter depends on him for survival, motivating him to strive for more while at the same time confining him to a countryside largely devoid of both hope and opportunity. When a tragedy befalls Eszter, Iván must renegotiate the relationship between his own self-interest and his love for his sister.
Hungarian with subtitles, 90 minutes
USA Director: Judi Krant
A wide-eyed Texas hayseed travels to China to find a manufacturer for the novelty product he hopes will put him right up there with the guy who invented the whoopee cushion. But when he gets sucked into a world of scammers and schemers, this eternal optimist will have to figure out just how far he's willing to pursue the American Dream. Wes Anderson's whimsy meets David Mamet's love of duplicity in this peppy comic debut.
87 minutes
Mexico / Spain Director: Rigoberto Pérezcano
An endless stretch of corrugated metal fencing and armed patrolmen aren't the only barriers keeping Andres from illegally jumping the Mexican border into the U.S. Failing at his first attempt, he is dumped into Tijuana, where two benevolent women care for him and vie for his attention, forcing him to confront issues beyond what it takes to survive a border crossing-questions of duty, family, and fidelity.
Spanish with subtitles, 95 minutes
France / Switzerland Director: Frédéric Mermoud
It was love at first sight for the couple of devil-may-care teens at the heart of this scorchingly sexy mystery. Two months later, Vincent’s dead body is being fished out of the Rhône, and Rebecca is nowhere to be found. Using tension-building flashbacks, Frédéric Mermoud reconstructs the timeline of this ill-fated affair, plunging us into a world of kinky love and sordid prostitution.
French with subtitles, 93 minutes
Romania Director: Corneliu Porumboiu
From the writer/director of the internationally acclaimed 12:08 East of Bucharest comes an austere cop drama that says a lot by doing a little. Young inspector Cristi's conscience is keeping him from sending a kid to jail for seven years on a dope-smoking charge, but his by-the-book boss has other ideas about the definition of 'police.' Affirming Porumboiu as a singular new talent, Police, Adjective is already the winner of two top awards at Cannes.
Romanian with subtitles, 115 minutes
Czech Republic Director: Maria Procházková
In this fantastical fairy tale for all ages, the adults in young Terezka's life have suddenly begun to act oddly. Hushed conversations, a strange new character, and an unwanted revelation convince her that her mother is not who she seems. Terezka's imagination runs wild as she tries to understand the family crisis and wake up from what she hopes is a bad dream.
Czech with subtitles, 90 minutes
