Narrative Competition 2022 Archives

Joyland

Docile and unemployed Heider Rana (Ali Junejo) is married to a working woman Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq). On the face of it he has a happy marital and comfortable home life, the couple live under the same roof as the rest of the Rana tribe.
After his father pressures him to find a job Heider gets one, as a backup dancer for Biba (Alina Khan), a trans woman who is part of a colorful entertainment show called ‘Joyland’. Through Biba, Heider begins to slowly open up and discover a new way of living. While Heider is living the dream, Mumtaz is beginning to feel frustrated by the pressure of the conservative society that expects her to stay at home and serve the family’s patriarch.
“Joyland” is a bitter-sweet story of repression and the wish for self-fulfillment.

The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future

An Israeli premiere of one of the latest Sundance Festival most talked about films.
With sensual images and gentle narrative courage, “The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future” provides a rich cinematic vision that captures the humane and the inexplicable, equally.
Cecilia (Leonor Varela, “Blade 2”) is a tough surgeon and a single parent who refuses to accept her daughter’s trans identity. She receives a call that her elderly father Enrique (Alfredo Castro, “From Afar”, “The Prince”) believes he had seen her long dead mother Magdalena (Mía Maestro, “Mayan M.C.”, “The Strain” and the LGBT film “End of the Century”). Cecilia returns to the family farm to discover a series of disturbing occurrences amongst the farm animals.
In her debut film, director Francisca Alegría creates a ghost story, a family melodrama, a surreal fairytale, and ponders about the ‘here and now’, while refusing to commit her film to one specific genre. Undoubtedly, Francisca Alegría is one of present time most fascinating filmmakers.

Video movie review (no spoilers)

Additional screenings: Jerusalem Cinematheque 3.11, 18:00
3.11 , 20:30 , Rosh Pina Cinematheque

Easy Tiger

“Easy Tiger” is an intimate portrait of vulnerable masculinity, during an unstoppable romance.
An unexpected moment during a session with a new client confronts a psychologist with his inner world. For a long time he’s been feeling alienated and lonely in his relationship and perfect city life. For the first time his basic human nature bubbles up and he can’t control his desires, and that forces him to see what he doesn’t want to become in order to find out who he really is.
In his debut feature film, director Karel Tuytschaever deconstructs cinematic language and the media of picture and sound in order to create a unique and first of it kind cinematic experience.

Viewing is 18+ due to explicit nudity.

Huesera

This was supposed to be the best time of Valeria’s life. She and her husband Raul finally manage to make one of their dreams come true – having a child.
At first everything seems perfect, but as the pregnancy progresses, Valeria’s mood starts to change. The closer she comes to her due date, the more Valeria is plagued by heavy self-doubt and fear she can’t shake off. Visions of a disturbing, spider-like presence and other supernatural threats, all thanks to a being called ‘La Bonzara’. Valeria discovers she’s not the only one in her family who had to face the ancient demons and she decides to confront them. She reconnects with her old life, including her first love, Octavia.
In her debut film, director Michelle Garza Cervera delivers an intense and raw horror film, complete with very disturbing images that will raise goosebumps. Actress Natalia Solián as Valeria creates a character that has to make some very hard choices, but at the same time we feel a lot of empathy for.

In association with the Embassy of Mexico

Mars One

This darling of the Sundance Film Festival 2022, brings to the screen the story of growing up in a working class Brazilian family, when in the background rage the social and political upheavals after the elections that made Bolsonaro president in 2019.
Eunice is a young student falling in love for the first time. She meets Joana in a club and they form an intimate connection. But Eunice is hesitant about sharing her love and sexuality with her parents. Deivinho, Eunice’s younger brother, is also hiding a secret – he wants to be a scientist and one day travel to space, but his father dreams of his son becoming a successful professional football player and getting their family out of poverty.
While avoiding all the clichés of such films, director Gabriel Martins brings us the story of a first love, where it seems Eunice is the adult one, while her parents never really matured.
“Mars One” brings to life a familial, humane drama, wrapped in all the colours and music Brazil has to offer.

Additional screening: Haifa Cinematheque 1.11.2022

Maybe Someday

The screenwriter-director-actress Michelle Ehlen comes back to TLVFest after screening here two of her other films: “Butch Jaime” and “S&M Sally”. Her previous films were lighthearted fun-filled comedies that enjoyed crushing gender stereotypes. This time Ehlen proves that she is not only a gifted comic filmmaker but a quality drama master as well. “Maybe Someday” brings us the serious side of her cinematic work and this time she deals with relationships, heartbreak and memory, but despite the dramatic levels, the film is still full of humour.
After her partner leaves her, Jay embarks on a road trip across the USA with a backpack full of basics and an old phone. She arrives at the home of a childhood friend in California and gets swept by a torrent of bitter-sweet memories of their childhood. The real crisis comes when she finds out her old partner is seeing someone else. Meanwhile she meets Tommy, an amateur stand-up comedian who is funnier off the stage. With her teenage sweetheart in the next room and her ex that still messages her, Jay must decide if she really means to leave the limbo she’s stuck in.

Three Tidy Tigers Tied a Tie Tighter

A wonderful new film from director Gustavo Vingare (“The Blue Flower of Novalis”) takes place in Sao Paulo in a-not-so-far dystopian future. The city is taken over by a virus that attacks the brain and the people’s ability to remember. An entire country has forgotten their colonial past and the cruel dictatorship that ruled the place. Three young queers are getting swept into a surreal adventure in the once noisy city which is now quiet due to the virus and raging capitalism. They talk abou their experiences with HIV, get make-up tips, visit an elderly client and eventually arrive at an antique shop run by a singer named Mirta.
“Three Tidy Tigers” is a magical and clever creation about friendship and love on the outskirts of society, during a plague era.

Additional screening: Rosh Pina Cinematheque 27.10, 20:30

Petit Mal

VOD screening is AVAILABLE ONLY IN ISRAEL.

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This is the third movie to be screened at TLVFest by the Spanish director working in Colombia – Ruth Caudeli (“Leading Ladies”, “Second Star From the Right”). In her new film she brings to the screen once again an intimate, sexy and full-of-feelings creation that deals with queer women and their emotional relationships.
Laia, Martina and Anto live together in a loving thruple. When Laia goes to shoot a film she leaves Martina and Anto alone in their big country cottage. Laia is the glue that binds the two women together and now Martina and Anto will have to learn to manage alone. At the beginning each one is absorbed in her own world, but slowly the walls are crumbling down and they learn they have quite a lot in common. As Laia’s work engagement extends more and more, the two women get closer and closer.
Actresses Silvia Veron and Ana Maria Otalora are excellent in the leads, and Cuadeli herself portrays a very graceful Laia.

My Emptiness and I

Directed with rare sensitivity and compassion “My Emptiness and I”, director Adrian
Silvestre’s second feature film, is following a young transgender woman living in Barcelona and working an unsatisfying job at a call center. She yearns for “normal romance” and for a man who would love her the way she is. She fantasizes of a sweeping romance with handsome men and of starting a traditional family. As it turns out, reality is much more complicated and she experiences a series of embarrassing dates while also dealing with her physical transition.
Director Adrian Silvestre accompanies her daily life, as she talks candidly with co-workers, queer friends and men she meets through dating apps, while trying to find her place in the world.
The main character, portrayed by Raphaelle Perez (who also co-wrote the script), seems to exude vulnerability and naiveté with gazes full of longing.

Screening in cooperation with The Gila Project for Trans Empowerment