Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Sundance >> 2017 >> World Cinema Dramatic Competition
12 features will compete for the prize. View the competition films as a gallery.
View other Sundance Film Festival Films by strand: Documentary Premieres, Kids, Midnight, NEXT, Premieres, Spotlight, Sundance London: Features, Sundance London: Redford Recommends, Sundance London: Shorts, US Documentary Competition, US Dramatic Competition, World Documentary Competition
Berlin Syndrome and Pop Aye
Axolotl Overkill
(Country: Germany; Year: 2017; Director: Helene Hegemann; Writer: Helene Hegemann; Stars: Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Arly Jover, Laura Tonke, Mavie Hörbiger, Nikolai Kinski, Hans Löw, Julius Feldmeier, Sabine Vitua, Lorna Ishema)
World premiere
Mifti, age 16, lives in Berlin with a cast of characters including her half-siblings; their rich, self-involved father; and her junkie friend Ophelia. As she mourns her recently deceased mother, she begins to develop an obsession with Alice, an enigmatic, and much older, white-collar criminal.
Berlin Syndrome
(Country: Australia; Year: 2017; Director: Cate Shortland; Writer: Shaun Grant, Melanie Joosten; Stars: Teresa Palmer, Max Riemelt, Matthias Habich, Lucie Aron, Emma Bading, Cem Tuncay, Kristina Kostiv, Claude Heinrich, Malin Steffen, Lara Marie Müller, Thuso Lekwape, Charly Thorn, Elias Esser, Mariella Josephine Aumann, Morgane Ferru)
A passionate holiday romance leads to an obsessive relationship, when an tourist wakes one morning in a Berlin apartment and is unable to leave.
World premiere
Don't Swallow My Heart, Alligator Girl!
(Country: Brazil, Netherlands, France, Paraguay; Year: 2017; Director: Felipe Bragança; Writer: Felipe Bragança; Stars: Cauã Reymond, Eduardo Macedo, Adeli Gonzales, Zahy Guajajara, Claudia Assunção, Ney Matogrosso)
World premiere
In this fable about love and memories, Joca is a 13-year-old Brazilian boy in love with an indigenous Paraguayan girl. To conquer her love, he must face the violent region's war-torn past and the secrets of his elder brother, Fernando, a motorcycle cowboy.
Family Life
(Country: Chile; Year: 2017; Director: Alicia Scherson, Cristián Jiménez; Writer: Alejandro Zambra; Stars: Jorge Becker, Gabriela Arancibia, Blanca Lewin, Cristián Carvajal)
World premiere
While house-sitting for a distant cousin, a lonely man fabricates the existence of a vindictive ex-wife withholding his daughter, in order to gain the sympathy of the single mother he has just met.
Free And Easy
(Country: China; Year: 2016; Director: Jun Geng; Writer: Jun Geng, Yuhua Feng, Bing Liu ; Stars: Gang Xu, Zhiyong Zhang, Baohe Xue, Benshan Gu, Xun Zhang)
World premiere
When a travelling soap salesman arrives in a desolate Chinese town, a crime occurs, and sets the strange residents against each other with tragicomic results.
God's Own Country and The Wound
God's Own Country
(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Francis Lee; Writer: Francis Lee; Stars: Josh O'Connor, Alec Secareanu, Gemma Jones, Ian Hart)
Young sheep farmer Johnny numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker offers the promise of something else.
World premiere
I Dream In Another Language (Sueño en otro idioma)
(Country: Netherlands, Mexico; Year: 2017; Director: Ernesto Contreras; Writer: Carlos Contreras; Stars: Fernando Álvarez Rebeil, José Manuel Poncelis, Eligio Meléndez, Fátima Molina, Juan Pablo de Santiago, Hoze Meléndez, Norma Angélica, Monica Miguel, Nicolasa Ortíz Monasterio, Héctor Jiménez, José Concepción Macías, Gabriela Cartol, Juan Antonio Llanes, Mardonio Carballo)
World premiere
The last two speakers of a millennia-old language haven’t spoken in 50 years, when a young linguist tries to bring them together. Yet hidden in the past, in the heart of the jungle, lies a secret concerning the fate of the Zikril language.
My Happy Family
(Country: Georgia; Year: 2016; Director: Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Groß; Writer: Nana Ekvtimishvili; Stars: Ia Shugliashvili, Merab Ninidze, Berta Khapava, Tsisia Qumsishvili, Giorgi Tabidze, Dimitri Oragvelidze)
World premiere
Tbilisi, Georgia, 2016: In a patriarchal society, an ordinary Georgian family lives with three generations under one roof. All are shocked when 52-year-old Manana decides to move out from her parents' home and live alone. Without her family and her husband, a journey into the unknown begins.
The Nile Hilton Incident
(Country: Germany, Denmark, Sweden; Year: 2016; Director: Tarik Saleh; Writer: Tarik Saleh; Stars: Fares Fares, Ger Duany, Slimane Dazi, Mohamed Yousry, Hichem Yacoubi, Hania Amar, Yasser Ali Maher, Mari Malek, Ahmed Abdelhamid Hefny, Nael Ali, Ahmed Selim, Tareq Abdalla)
World premiere
In Cairo, weeks before the 2011 revolution, Police Detective Noredin is working in the infamous Kasr el-Nil Police Station when he is handed the case of a murdered singer. He soon realises that the investigation concerns the power elite, close to the President’s inner circle.
Pop Aye
(Country: Thailand, Singapore; Year: 2017; Director: Kirsten Tan; Writer: Kirsten Tan; Stars: Thaneth Warakulnukroh, Penpak Sirikul, Yukontorn Sukkijja, Chaiwat Khumdee)
A disenchanted architect goes on a road trip with an elephant.
World premiere. Day One Film
Axolotl Overkill and My Happy Family
Woodpeckers
(Country: Dominican Republic; Year: 2017; Director: José María Cabral; Writer: José María Cabral; Stars: Ramón Emilio Candelario, Jean Jean, Mario Nunez, Judith Rodriguez Perez)
World premiere
Julián finds love and a reason for living in the last place imaginable: the Dominican Republic’s Najayo Prison. His romance with fellow prisoner Yanelly must develop through sign language and without the knowledge of dozens of guards.
The Wound
(Country: South Africa; Year: 2017; Director: John Trengove; Writer: John Trengove, Thando Mgqolozana, Malusi Bengu; Stars: Nakhane Touré, Bongile Mantsai, Niza Jay Ncoyini)
Sexual repression and coming of age prove a dangerous mix for a small community.
World premiere
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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