Synopsis

When a juvenile giraffe named Marius was euthanized by the Copenhagen Zoo a decade ago, the decision sparked an international outcry. But filmmaker Max Kestner was more intrigued than flabbergasted, and uses the provocative incident as a launching pad for this wry and provocative essay film about life, death, biology, genetics, human and animal consciousness, and, well, just about everything else.

Jumping around the planet for a plethora of fascinating interviews — including Italian microbiologist Donato Giovannelli and Oxford veterinarian Charles Foster, who lives as a wolf to better understand them — the film explores the nature of life at a brisk pace, mixing the massive and the microscopic with the existential and the scientific using the lightest of touches. (The Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize?” makes for a memorable framing device.) Fascinating and funny, Life and Other Problems delves into the quandaries of existence while offering no single solution.

Synopsis

From Oscar-nominated director Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence) comes a poignant and deeply human musical about a family that survived the end of the world. Twenty-five years after environmental collapse left the Earth uninhabitable, Mother (Tilda Swinton), Father (Michael Shannon) and Son (George McKay) are confined to their palatial bunker, where they struggle to maintain hope and a sense of normalcy by clinging to the rituals of daily life — until the arrival of a stranger, Girl, upends their happy routine.

As tensions rise, their seemingly idyllic existence starts to crumble, with long-repressed feelings of remorse and resentment threatening to destroy the family’s delicate balance. But their reckoning with difficult truths also points to a different way forward, one based on acceptance, love, and a capacity for change. An urgent and unforgettable cautionary tale.

Synopsis

Karoline, a pregnant factory worker living in post-WW1 Copenhagen, is struggling to make ends meet. Fearing her unborn child will be doomed to a life of poverty and hardship, she searches for a solution. By chance (or is it fate?) she meets Dagmar, a friendly woman who runs an illegal adoption agency hidden behind the facade of a candy store. Seeing a way out, Karoline accepts a job as a wet nurse. But she slowly begins to realize that things are not what they seem. Director Magnus von Horn, helmer of the Gold Hugo-winning Sweat, returns to the Festival with this expressive, nightmarish, Gothic fairytale. Sublime black and white photography, long shadows, and grimy streets conjure a striking, if grim, vision of early 20th century Copenhagen that hides dark secrets and unsettling truths.

Synopsis

Defamed actress Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve, The Worst Person in the World) is abruptly called into a parent-teacher meeting at school. There, she is presented with scathing allegations about the behavior of her six-year-old son Armand. A tangled web of accusations between parents and faculty ensues, but who can say with certainty what really happened? As it becomes increasingly clear that much more is at stake, Elisabeth struggles to uncover the truth, and she is drawn into a chaotic fight for redemption where desire, madness, and obsession prevail.

Writer-director Halfdan Ullmann-Tøndel’s striking debut feature shrewdly unfurls with a keen observation of the quirks, pettiness, and rivalries inherent in human nature. Surrealist moments are dotted throughout, alternately providing flashpoints of comedy and consternation in this tension-filled, angst-fueled drama.

Synopsis

Over the past decade sculptor and animator Niki Lindroth von Bahr has utilized stop motion animation to breathe life into anthropomorphised animal puppets. From pigeons singing in a zoo in Something to Remember to a pedantic spa manager in Bath House to the delightful rabbit and fox neighbors Tord and Tord to the existential marketplace musical The Burden, this showcase of her work conjures hilarious, bizarre, and even profoundly moving worlds where human and animal merge.