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Drama 2023

All the Fires

“Fire will attract more attention than any other cry for help.” Jean-Michel Basquiat

Bruno is on a collision course with his greatest passion – fire. He’s a high school student that likes to upload videos of burning things onto social media. He is aided by his best friend Ian in order to document his petty arson acts that become more and more dangerous. Bruno is not happy with his mother’s new relationship, he also cannot deal with his growing attraction to his male best friend who is also interested in him. He spontaneously decides to run away to a small town where a girl he’s been messaging with on Instagram lives, only she has her own secrets. Reality will force him to confront his father’s death and the doubts he has about his sexuality, but not before leaving a trail of chaos behind him.
“All the Fires” has mysterious overtones, it’s full of deep passion that is threatening to erupt and consume everything around it. Young and different Mexican cinematic piece on exploration of sexuality, sexual diversity and self acceptance

The Persian Version

Screening on the 28.12 will include an Awards Ceremony for winners of TLVfest 2023 competitions

Leila is a young New Yorker. She’s a lesbian and an Iranian-American and contains within herself the cultures of two warring countries. She tries to find balance and embrace what’s different and contradicting in her identity and combine it all together. Leila’s dealing with her conservative parents who are still clinging to their homeland traditions, while trying to celebrate her identity and the freedom New York offers. She loves to challenge the labels society is fast to pin on her. While her family reunites in New York for her father’s heart transplant, Leila is trying to separate her family life and personal life. She tries to keep as much distance as possible from her judgmental mother Shireen, but when the secrets start to unravel, the similarities between Leila’s life and her mothers’ become apparent.
“The Persian Version” is colorful cinema that combines New York and Persian-Iranian humor, lively dances and a complex and chilling cross-generational story of women who decide to stay loyal to themselves and go against the traditions of their families and the society they grew up in. “The Persian Version” celebrates their stories and does that in an intelligent, fascinating and unapologetic way.

Rivière

17 years old Manon, an outstanding hockey player, leaves her home in Switzerland to go look for the father who abandoned her and her mother years ago. She arrives at a small French town on the Swiss border, where she makes new connections and falls in love for the first time. Manon is determined to make her dream come true – to become a professional hockey player, but before that she must accept her sexuality as well as the reality where her parents will never be there for her.
“Rivière” describes the journey of a young woman who has to fight the entire world for her place in it because nothing is a given. Lead actress Flavie Delangle (Manon) gives us a tough and captivating character from the beginning till the end. Get ready for a particularly moving drama.

 

My Sole Desire

A striptease show to a techno remix version of Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the sugar plum fairy”, nude reading of Chekhov and a satirical striptease on the theme of yellow vests protests. All these and more are part of a show in the Parisian strip club “À Mon Seul Désir”, a place where stripers with artistic flair can take professional risks and challenge their audience.
Manon (Louise Chevillotte, “Synonymes” by Nadav Lapid) is a young aimless woman with no real purpose in life. She spontaneously decides to start working at the club and is immediately drawn to her new colleagues, especially Mia (Zita Hanrot, “Angry Annie”), an ambitious actress with a partner and a child. The relationship between the two intensifies as they spend more and more time together and Manon finds herself falling for Mia. The two begin a secret affair in a place where you must draw the line between love and work.
Director Lucie Borleteau created a film about sex workers through a female non judgmental gaze. She describes the world of the women working in the club with all its complexities. The result is a surprising and unusual cinematic journey with excellent actresses in the lead roles and quite a few surprise guest appearances, such as Melvil Poupaud (“Time to Leave”), Félix Maritaud (“120 BPM”), legendary director Frederick Weisman and actress Ariane Labed (“Lobster”).

Viewing is 18+ due to explicit sexual content.

In association with the Embassy of France

Homecoming

Catherine Corsini, director of the excellent “The Divide” (TLVfest 2021), is back with another magnificent drama that was part of the Palme d’Or official competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Khédidja is working as nanny for a wealthy Parisian family that takes her to the summer holidays on Corsica island. She brings along her two teenage daughters Jessica and Farah. This is an opportunity for the mother and two daughters to go back to the island they left in a hurry 15 years ago under tragic circumstances. While the mother is overcome with memories, the two daughters enjoy everything summer has to offer – unexpected rendez-vous, first love experiences and parties far into the night. In between, questions of their family history on the island arise, which lead the two girls to discover other sides to their mother’s version of the events that she never disclosed.

Just like in her previous film, Corsini creates a microcosm of tensions due to race, sex and gender with a strong and moving female story. “Homecoming” is a drama that is sure to move and impress the viewers.

 

In association with the Embassy of France

“Glitter & Doom” – Closing Film

Need a shot of shiny, romantic, musical glitter? Here’s the new film from the creators of the classic hit “Were the World Mine” (2008) and “Hello Again” (TLVfest 2017), this time with hits by the Grammy winners, queer lesbian icons, “The Indigo Girls”.
Doom (Alan Cammish) is a young ambitious musician. Glitter (Alex Diaz) is an acrobat and a clown who’s dream is to study in Paris. The two fall in love during the summer, with late night talks and plenty of songs and dances. Their relationship is put to the test when their domineering mothers (the wonderful Ming-Na Wen and Missy Pyle) try to influence their plans to achieve their dreams.

The film was shot in Mexico City and uses the city’s architecture and wonderful views to create a fantastic visual to go along with the kitschy, head-spinning, romantic and queer music. This film is peppered with plenty of guest appearances by some of the best queer stars such as Lea DeLaria, Tig Notaro, Kate Pierson from the band The B-52s, drag queen Peppermint, Broadway star Beth Malone and of course – Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, “The Indigo Girls” themselves.

 

Passages

Thomas is a German filmmaker, who is under a lot of pressure towards his last day of filming in Paris. In the evening there’s a party to celebrate the end of shooting. Thomas starts the night dancing with his British husband Martin, but ends it in the arms of Agathe, a young preschool teacher. She falls under Thomas’ spell and what starts as a flirtatious dance ends up as a passionate and surprising night. The next morning Thomas openly tells his husband he’s slept with a woman which throws the couple into a whirlpool of emotions that will change their life.

New York based gay filmmaker Ira Sachs (“Married Life”, “Love Is Strange”, “Keep the Lights On”) brings to the big screen an achingly beautiful film full of passion, a film full of laughter and sorrow about an unlikely throuple in Paris. This film stars some of the finest young actors of our age – Franz Rogowski (“Great Freedom”), Ben Whishaw (“Atlas Cloud”, “Paddington”), Adèle Exarchopoulos (“Blue is the Warmest Color”) and Erwan Kepoa Falé (“Winter Boy”).
Viewing is 18+ due to explicit sexual content.

20,000 Species of Bees

Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s increadible debut film entered the Berlin Film Fesitival’s official contest and earned its star – 10 years old Sofía Otero – Best Actress Award.

“20,000 Species of Bees” is a quaint family drama, its atmosphere can even be described as impressionist. The film was shot in the Basque region in northern Spain and follows the summer holiday of a mother and her three children. In their very traditional village, eight years old Lucia can no longer keep her secret inside.

Director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, in her debut full length film, creates a sunny and emotionally exposed drama. She takes her audience on an intimate journey with her heroines – the daughter, the mother, the grandmother and the rest of the women living and ruling the small Basque village. Those women are different and varied as the different species of bees.
Solaguren, who also wrote the script, handles the subject delicately and creates a natural feeling, almost a documentary one. The new up and coming actress Sofía Otero gives a gut wrenching performance that wouldn’t leave a dry eye in the audience.

In association with the Embassy of Spain

Opponent

Iman is a former wrestling champion, a refugee from Iran, who is now wandering between refugee hostels in Sweden with his wife Miriam and their two daughters. Iman has escaped his homeland Iran in fear of persecution after a violent crime he committed. He is looking for ways to provide his wife and daughters a place to live and works delivering pizzas on a snow motorbike.
When Miriam becomes unexpectedly pregnant for the third time, and the talks with the Swedish immigration become tougher, Iman decides to renew his wrestling career, despite the promise he made to his wife never to engage in the dangerous sport again.
Iman is hoping that being included in the Swedish team will earn him a special staying permit as a sportsman. As his skills are very much appreciated by the local team and also by one of his fellow teammates (Björn Elgerd, “Are We Lost Forever”), the deeper reasons that lead Iman to fleeing Iran are about to surface.

In his second film, director/screenwriter Milad Alami is aided by a superb cast lead by Payman Maadi. He creates a complex and layered social drama dealing with culture clashes, identities, and how the individual is getting lost inside the political.
Swedish submission for the Oscar Awards 2024.

 

In association with the Embassy of Sweden
  

All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White

Bambino is a bachelor, living happily in Lagos, Nigeria. He works as a delivery driver and has a steady paycheck, even if the promotion he’s been long promised is held back. He is well regarded in his neighborhood, helping out as best he can and being generous when people are late to repay their debts. Bambino is in a relationship with his neighbor Ifeyinwa, but he’s not in any hurry to settle down with her. When Bambino meets charismatic Bawa the two become instant friends. He becomes a model for Bawa, who is taking part in a photography contest and the more they meet the more intimate the budding relationship becomes.

Director/screenwriter/producer Babatunde Apalowo brings to the screen a delicate, innocent and soft love story between two men, in a film about finding love where you least expect it.
“All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White” is a very brave film, since homosexuality is a taboo and a criminal offense in Nigeria – in the south of Nigeria the punishment for homosexuality can reach 14 years in prison and in the Muslim north the punishment is public stoning.

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