Into My Name

Four friends – Leonardo, Raffaele, Andrea and Nicolo take a look back on their childhood and youth. They share their experiences and memories, even when they failed to live up to society’s norms. Each of their gender biographies is different and yet there are similarities. This helps them understand one another better and feel less alone.
In front of the camera they talk about love, partnership, choosing their name, hormone treatment, surgery decisions and dealing with the bureaucracy of those long and complex processes. In a very binary world, and especially in a conservative country such as Italy, the decision to determine your own gender is a subversive act.
Into My Name” provides its protagonists with a safe space to describe their personal journey to their chosen selves. This film is a sensitive description of the hardships they’ve had to overcome in their way to fulfill the social, physical and legal change they yearn for.

Q&A with the director and producer after the screenings.

In association with the Italian Cultural Institute

Jezabel

Venzuelian director Hernan Jabes’ third film is a bold and surprising erotic psychological thriller.
In a country where political chaos reigns, a group of upper class privileged youth – Lolo, Caca, Eli and Alan, live carelessly amongst drugs, sex and petty crimes, until one day Eli is brutally murdered. 16 years later Alan is experiencing a beautiful romance with an author who specialises in unsolved murders. The memories start to resurface and the haze of drugs alcohol dissipates and reveals an unexpected truth.
Jezabel” is a film that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, with many surprising turns and twists and gives us a dazzling performance by Gabriel Agüero as Alan.

Viewing is 18+ due to explicit sex scenes.

Camila Comes Out Tonight

Camila’s entire world is thrown into a spin when her mother moves the family to Buenos Aires. She starts attending a new school, million miles away from her liberal world view. Politically opinionated Camila is like a breath of fresh air to the other students and she quickly draws the attention of fun loving Bruno and Clara. Even though Bruno is nothing like the boys Camila dated in the past, it’s the flaming haired Clara that invokes something stronger in Camila’s heart. But Camila is unaware that Clara has a secret that can ruin their budding relationship before it even begins.
Director Inés Barrionuevo brilliantly captured the teen spirit in all its chaotic glory, and actress Nina Dziembrowski is absolutely mesmerizing as Camila.

We Will Never Belong

Adolescence can be tough, especially for young queer girls who haven’t yet fully formed and accepted their identity. Emi recently discovered that her mother is in a loving relationship with another woman and she’s not handling it well. She leaves her mother and returns to her birthplace to live with her father and his new family and spends more time with her maternal grandmother. Everything there is a lot less confusing until her intriguing step-sister shows up. Soon Emi realizes why she’s been having such a hard time dealing with her mother choosing to live her life freely.
We Will Never Belong” delicately traces the journey of one girl to find her truth. Director Amelia Eloisa’s debut film does that with plenty of style and grace.

Director in attendance

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

Blessed Boys

In the sunny Sanita quarter of Naples, Italy, a working-class neighbourhood, where everyone knows each other, two inseparable friends live in a protected bubble until their friendship is put to the test.
Mario (Vincenzo Antonucci) and Lino (Francesco Pellegrino) are two young men, born and raised in Sanita. They still never left the city to explore the world. When Lino’s younger sister convinces the locals she’s a saint, who can perform miracles, and gains their admiration, Lino’s destiny changes abruptly. Free from the financial responsibility for his mother and sister, he is able to imagine a life outside the slums for the first time. Meanwhile, Mario is experiencing an increasing attraction towards his best friend which he didn’t notice before now.
Director Silvia Brunelli’s debut film is Italian cinema as we love it: funny, bold and housing a plethora of colourful and humane characters. This is a film that confronts us with the differences between sacred and secular, old world and new world.

Breaking the Ice

29.10 and 30.10 screenings include Q&A with the director

Director Clara Stern’s debut film “Breaking the Ice” premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Festival. In this film Stern brings to the screen a story of what happens when someone with a very rigid and uncompromising view on life meets the exact opposite – the side she yearns to live and experience.
Alina Schaller is Mira, who sometimes seems to be carrying the weight of the entire world on her shoulders. She’s the captain of a women’s ice hockey team and the heiress to the barely financially surviving vineyard. She is taking care of her grandfather, whose Alzheimer is progressing rapidly, and her younger, irresponsible brother, Paul, returns home after being gone for a long while.
When a new, spontaneous, free-spirited young woman joins the team, Mira finds herself being swept into a surprising and freeing affair, maybe even more freeing than she can actually afford to have.
Breaking the Ice” is a romantic sport drama about the freedom to be who you are with no limitations.

Additional screening: Rosh Pina Cinematheque 2.11, 20:30
Jerusalem Cinematheque, 2.11 – 19:00

In association with the Austrian Cultural Forum

Alis

28.10 screening – Opening speeches

In a youth shelter in Colombia, ten young women sit down in front of the camera and close
their eyes. They are instructed to picture Alis, an imaginary friend that came to the shelter, and to tell her life story. Like the other girls, Alis used to live in the streets of Bogota. This imaginary companion is the beginning of a very unique and extraordinary documentary project. Alis is used as a gentle and reflective entry point to the personal stories of the participants. Alis becomes a chilling mirror of the life stories of ten young women who talk to the camera about past traumas, surprising love stories and their ambitions for the future. “Alis” might be an imaginary friend, but she will take you on a moving journey into the world of young women who have been through so much at a too young age and now deserve to enjoy some of the freedom the shelter provides before embarking on a new journey as adults.
Directors Claire Weisskopff and Nicholas Van Hemlrick’s work is sensitive, gentle and compassionate, and gives a unique and direct glimpse into the stories of young women whom society doesn’t notice. For the first time they look straight into the camera and tell their story, as they try to break the vicious cycle they were born into.

Additional screening: Rosh Pina Cinematheque 29.10, 20:30

In association with the the Romanian Cultural Institute

Phantom Project

When was the last time you saw a gay urban ghost comedy in cinema or on TV? This film from Chile, by the director Roberto Doveris (who also produced “El Príncipe”), is an unexpected surprise.
Pablo is a young actor with dreams of becoming a star. Until his dream comes true he is working as a simulated patient in a medical school where medical students do experiments on him. Not only is his acting career at a standstill, his whole life seems to be going nowhere – he’s still in love with an ex-boyfriend, his roommate disappeared without paying rent and has left an unusual problem in his wake. A ghost.
Phantom Project” is an indie comedy about the journey of a young man to self discovery and about following dreams in strange and surprising ways.

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.