El Clásico
Alan and Gona are in love, but Gona's father won’t approve their union because Alan is a little person. So, Alan hits the road with his brother, traveling from their small Iraqi village to the Bernabéu Stadium, home of Real Madrid. The plan: meet Cristiano Ronaldo, and earn the blessing of Gona’s father.
(Country: Norway, Iraq; Year: 2015; Director: Halkawt Mustafa; Writer: Anders Fagerholt, Halkawt Mustafa; Stars: Wrya Ahmed, Dana Ahmes, Kamaran Raoof, Rozhin Sharifi)
North America premiere
Icaros: A Vision
An American woman in search of a miracle embarks on an adventure in the Peruvian Amazon.
(Country: US, Peru; Year: 2016; Director: Leonor Caraballo, Matteo Norzi; Writer: Leonor Caraballo, Matteo Norzi; Stars: Filippo Timi, Ana Cecilia Stieglitz, Iker Amaya, Taylor Marie Milton, Micaela Helvetica Saxer, Michael Intile, Guillermo Arévalo, Arman Pardisi, Benedict de Bocos, Alan Shoemaker, Ronald Suarez, Don Ricardo Torres Ríos, Jorge Manuel Pérez Ramírez, Lurdes Valles, Arturo Izquierdo)
World premiere
Junction 48
Set against a backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Junction 48 charts the musical ambitions of Kareem, an aspiring rapper from the town of Lod.
(Country: Israel, Germany, US; Year: 2016; Director: Udi Aloni; Writer: Oren Moverman, Tamer Nafar; Stars: Tamer Nafar, Samar Qupty, Salwa Nakkara, Saeed Dassuki, Adeeb Safadi, Tarik Kopty, Sameh 'Saz' Zakout, Ayed Fadel, Hisham Suliman, Mariam Abu Khaled, Michael Moshonov, Maisa Abd Elhadi)
International premiere
Madly
An international anthology of short films exploring love in all its permutations.
(Country: US, UK, Japan, Australia, India, Argentina, Sweden; Year: 2016; Director: Gael García Bernal, Anurag Kashyap, Natasha Khan, Sebastián Silva, Sion Sono, Mia Wasikowska; Writer: Gael García Bernal, Anurag Kashyap, Natasha Khan, Sebastián Silva, Sion Sono, Mia Wasikowska; Stars: Radhika Apte, Kathryn Beck, Tamsin Topolski, Satyadeep Misra, Yuki Sakurai, Justina Bustos, Ami Tomite, Tarô Suwa, Adarsh Gourav, Mariko Tsutsui, Pablo Seijo, Lex Santos)
Opening film. World premiere
Mother
(Ema)
This darkly comic, crime mystery set in small-town Estonia centers on Elsa, the full time caretaker of her comatose son, Lauri, and the locals, who are abuzz with rumours about who shot Lauri and why. But in this tight-knit town, where everyone seems to know everyone and everything except for what’s right under their nose, the world’s clumsiest crime may go unsolved.
(Country: Estonia; Year: 2016; Director: Kadri Kõusaar; Writer: Leana Jalukse, Al Wallcat; Stars: Endla Härm, Kalju Johannes Härm, Katrin Kalma, Merle Kiivet, Liis Laigna, Rea Lest, Siim Maaten, Märten Matsu, Getter Meresmaa, Margus Mikomägi, Marin Mägi, Tiina Mälberg, Andres Noormets, Jaan Pehk, Jaak Prints)
International premiere
