mesmerizing

Cristovam, a native from the brazilian hinterland, works in a milk factory in a former Austrian colony in Brazil. He feels lonely, ostracized by cultural and ethnic differences. One day, he discovers an abandoned house filled with objects that remind him of his origins. He slowly settles in this house. Curiously, more objects start to appear without explanation, as if the place was « alive ».

Odette is a 8-yr-old girl who loves to dance and draw. Why should she distrust a friend of her parents' who offers to "tickle" her ? Once she has become an adult, Odette realizes she was abused, and immerses herself body and soul in her career as a dancer while trying to deal with her past.

Before entering a prestigious American university, Gabriel Buchmann decided to travel the world for one year, his backpack full of dreams. After ten months on the road, he arrived in Kenya determined to discover the African continent. Until he reached the top of Mount Mulanje, Malawi, his last destination.

A Nigerian musician travels to Brazil to find his long lost brother.

On a business trip to the Cannes Film Festival, Manhee is accused of being dishonest, and fired. A teacher named Claire goes around taking photos with a Polaroid camera. She gets to know Manhee and sympathizes with her. Claire is like a person who can see Manhee's possible future or past selves, through the mysterious power of the beach tunnel. Through taking photos, Claire has acquired the ability to look slowly at things, and to transform objects. Now, Claire goes with Manhee to the café where she was fired. We look forward to seeing Claire's power at work.

André is an 18-year-old boy who lives near an aluminum factory in the industrial city of Ouro Preto, in southeastern Brazil. One day, after a fatal accident that has occurred in the factory, he is sent to the home of the dead worker, Christian, to collect some of his belongings. There you will find a newspaper that describes the last years in the life of the worker, a man who spent his entire life in the midst of poverty and social oppression. The first film directed jointly by Joao Dumans and Affonso Uchoa tells the adventures, loves and despairs of Cristiano, a fascinating character whose lyrical gaze immerses us in the reality of the most disadvantaged class in Brazil.

Clara, a 65 year old widow and retired music critic, was born into a wealthy and traditional family in Recife, Brazil. She is the last resident of the Aquarius, an original two-storey building, built in the 1940s, in the upper-class, seaside Boa Viagem Avenue, Recife. All the neighboring apartments have already been acquired by a company which has other plans for that plot. Clara has pledged to only leave her place upon her death, and will engage in a cold war of sorts with the company. This tension both disturbs Clara and gives her that edge on her daily routine. It also gets her thinking about her loved ones, her past and her future.

Irene, 38 years old, is married to Klaus, 45. They live in Petrópolis, a small city on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, and have four children. Fernando (16); Rodrigo (10), and the twins (5). The couple has been struggling for years to finish building their new house. Irene works as an independent seller while finishing her studies to get her high-school diploma. Klaus runs a small copy shop where he also sells books. Fernando, their eldest son, plays handball. After being the highlight of the season, the boy is invited to join a professional team in Germany and will leave his parents house much sooner than expected. Among the everyday issues of their family's life, Irene will have to deal with the early separation from Fernando and adapt to a new life without him.

Fernando is a 35-year-old ornithologist. He decides to go down a river in a kayak, hoping to find extremely rare black storks. Distracted by the beauty of the landscape, Fernando is soon thrown overboard by the current, and his motionless, bloody body reaches the riverbank.

Nuria, 12, Fabio, 9, and their mother arrive on a small island in the middle of the Amazon, bordering Brazil, Colombia and Peru. They fled the Colombian armed conflict, in which their father disappeared. One day, he mysteriously reappears in their new home.

In order to take a new job as an employee in the public sanitation department, Juliana moves from the inner city of Itaúna to the metropolitan town of Contagem in Brazil. While waiting for her husband to join her, she adapts to her new life, meeting people and discovering new horizons, trying to overcome her past.

Etienne comes to Paris from Lyon to study cinema, meets many new friends and falls under the thrall of the mysterious Mathias.

Georgina's newborn daughter is stolen at a fake health clinic. Her desperate search for the child leads her to the headquarters of a major newspaper, where she meets a lonely journalist who takes on the investigation.

Yoav, a young Israeli man, has a one-way ticket to Paris believing France to be his salvation from what he sees as the madness of his country. Things don't get off to a great start as he discovers his living arrangement is unfit for living, yet his grandiose expectations leave no room for a failure to adapt. Wholehearted in his resolution to erase his Jewish-Israeli origins, he refuses to speak Hebrew and obsessively studies his constant companion, a French dictionary. He develops a particularly strong bond with his privileged neighbor who symbolizes - to Yoav - the French promise of fraternité. Nothing can extinguish Yoav's determination to be thoroughly French. Based on the real-life experiences of writer-director Nadav Lapid, SYNONYMS explores the conflicted realm of fervent Nationalism and the challenges of putting down roots in a foreign land.

Ricky and his family have been fighting an uphill struggle against debt since the 2008 financial crash. An opportunity to wrestle back some independence appears with a shiny new van and the chance to run a franchise as a self employed delivery driver. It's hard work, and his wife's job as a carer is no easier. The family unit is strong but when both are pulled in different directions everything comes to breaking point.

Set in 1950s Rio de Janeiro, the film revolves around two sisters, living restricted lives with their conservative parents. However, each nourishes a passionate dream: Eurídice of becoming a renowned pianist; Guida of finding love. In a dramatic turn of events, they are separated and forced to live apart. They take control of their destinies, while never giving up hope of finding one another.

A 15-year-old Krahô boy called by his dead father's voice to celebrate the funerary feast which will allow his father's spirit to depart to the village of the dead. Reluctant to embrace what this implies, a first step in becoming a shaman, he flees to the nearest town, inhabited by white people. Whether Western civilization will offer him any solutions to his problems is, however, another question.

Broke, with nothing but her cat and doors closing in her face, Paula is back in Paris after a long absence. As she meets different people along the way, there is one thing she knows for sure: she's determined to make a new start and she'll do it with style and panache.