Synopsis

Spanning one sunset to another, When the Light Breaks is a whisper-quiet rumination on love, beauty, and human perseverance in the face of disaster. Two lovers, Una and Diddi, look toward the horizon at the end of a long Icelandic summer day. Una, a passionate performance art student, dreams of the future, which begins with the two lovers announcing their well-kept secret relationship to their friends. Then a sudden, devastating tragedy befalls Reykjavík, and Una and her friends are forced to reckon with a broken new reality. Visionary director Rúnar Rúnarsson (Sparrows, 2015) deploys a haunting score while training his expressive, incisive camera on a talented young cast to create an intimate, hushed examination of loss and grief.

Synopsis

Aicha lives in Tunisia’s isolated north with her husband and youngest son. Following the departure of their oldest boys to fight alongside ISIS in Syria, the family exists in a state of fear and uncertainty. Then Mehdi, her oldest, reappears unexpectedly with a mysterious, pregnant bride, and a creeping panic begins to take hold of the family and surrounding community. Mehdi’s return seems to trigger strange happenings around the village, and an unseen darkness lurks around every corner. Shot with stunning intimacy, director Meryam Joobeur deploys breathtaking close-ups that turn faces into landscapes. Charged, wordless gazes and an unsettling, dreamlike atmosphere deepen the sense of mystery as Aicha quietly struggles between her instinct to protect her family and her moral commitment to root out the truth.

Synopsis

Luciana, a trusted Italian astrologer, promises her clients a way to make their dreams come true: All they need to do is take a special birthday trip to a destination determined by their astrological profile. Sitting behind her computer, Luciana quickly types in some data. Out comes a client’s wish-fulfilling location, be it Taipei, Beirut, or Alaska. As Luciana’s customers — from fun-loving twins to an elderly woman — venture out, they discover fulfillment in the unlikeliest of places.

Mixing deadpan wit and bittersweet poignance, Slovak director Péter Kerekes (ChicagoIFF winner Cooking History) returns to the Festival with a wondrously stylized documentary that is as surprising and idiosyncratic as its central psychic. No matter what you think of Luciana’s practice, Wishing on a Star offers an authentically sensitive and universal portrait of the human desire for happiness—and the lengths people will go to find it.

Synopsis

Riveting, heartrending, and enraging, Zurawski v Texas is an inside account of the groundbreaking 2023 lawsuit in which several women came forward to sue the state of Texas over its draconian abortion laws. The film follows unwavering attorney Molly Duane as she mounts the case, along with three of her key plaintiffs: Amanda Zurawksi, who nearly died from septic shock; Samantha Casiano, who had no choice but to carry a fetus with a fatal condition to term; and Dr. Austin Dennard, an obstetrician who joined the lawsuit as a patient.

As these women find solidarity in their fight and strength in tentative legal victories, they also witness how a system of laws that are supposedly meant to protect their rights instead utterly fails them. Equal parts suspenseful courtroom thriller and powerful tale of injustice, the film profiles the brave individuals on the frontlines of the battle for women’s reproductive rights and their ongoing struggle. “We will not be silenced,” Zurawski says. “This isn’t over.”

Synopsis

After 20 years away, Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The king has returned from the Trojan War, but much has changed in his kingdom. His beloved wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) is a prisoner in her own home, hounded by suitors vying to be king. Their son Telemachus faces death at the hands of these suitors, who see him as an obstacle to their pursuit of the kingdom. Odysseus is also no longer the mighty warrior from years past, but he must rediscover his strength in order to win back all that he has lost.

Starring a forceful Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus and a sublime Juliette Binoche as Penelope — 25 years after their Oscar-winning collaboration The English Patient — The Return transforms Homer’s famous Greek epic into a classic tale of Shakespearean intrigue, fueled by great passions, cunning political machinations, and extraordinary violence.