The Best of All Worlds (2017)
Section: International Competition of European First Films
Directed by: Adrian Goiginger
Austria, 2017, 103 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 2
Score:
Adrian is seven and growing up in Salzburg. His young mother Helga and her boyfriend are both heroin addicts; his biological father died before he was born. Helga loves her son above all else. She is torn between her attempts to be the best mother possible and her need to fill the void inside with the consumption of drugs. In this world, privation is the norm. What little money there is goes to heroin, and although Helga keeps trying to kick the habit, her efforts regularly come to nought. All of this is part of young Adrian’s daily life. His world is nonetheless full of adventure and all kinds of experiences and he perceives his to be a happy childhood. It goes without saying that this happiness is far from being an innocent idyll. When Helga finally decides to face up to her addiction and undergo treatment it also means that she must – albeit temporarily – surrender custody of her son to social services.
Summer Children (2017)
Section: International Competition of European First Films
Directed by: Guðrún Ragnarsdóttir
Iceland, Norway, 2017, 84 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 2
Score:
Two small children, Eydis and Kari, are put in a bus and sent from the city to the countryside to an orphanage. Their mother tells the sister to take care of her younger brother and that’s what she does. But both of them are still too young and being away from home is not easy – especially when the teachers are severe and strict. The only thought that helps the siblings is that they are there temporarily – there are children who live there all year long and have no other place to go. In time Eydis and Kari find new friends and adjust somewhat, but every so often one of them irritates the teachers and gets punished. Their lively imagination and playful minds help them get through many difficult moments and, after all, they will go back home soon! But their mother hasn’t come and summer is almost over...
Ava (2017)
Section: International Competition of European First Films
Directed by: Léa Mysius
France, 2017, 105 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 3
Score:
Thirteen-year-old Ava is on vacation when she learns that she will lose her sight earlier than predicted. Her mother decides to behave as though nothing has changed so they can spend the loveliest summer of their lives by the seaside. Ava, however, deals with the problem in her own way. Exploring her identity, she questions her surroundings and steals a large black dog that belongs to a young man on the run…
Dreams By the Sea (2017)
Section: International Competition of European First Films
Directed by: Sakaris Stórá
Faroe Islands, Denmark, 2017, 78 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 2
Score:
Ester (16) lives a safe but mundane life, in a small town on an island together with her religious and conservative parents. One day, when she’s in Sunday school, she meets Ragna, a girl who has just moved to the same small town with her alcoholic mother, and her 8-year-old brother. In Ragna, Ester sees what she has been looking for her whole life. Unaware that Ragna see’s the exact same thing in Ester, and especially Ester’s father. The attraction of opposites makes them best friends. Together they dream about getting away from their boring life on the island, but soon they realize that it’s only their own selves that they want to escape from.
Summer Children (2017)
Section: International Competition of European First Films
Directed by: Guðrún Ragnarsdóttir
Iceland, Norway, 2017, 84 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 2
Score:
Two small children, Eydis and Kari, are put in a bus and sent from the city to the countryside to an orphanage. Their mother tells the sister to take care of her younger brother and that’s what she does. But both of them are still too young and being away from home is not easy – especially when the teachers are severe and strict. The only thought that helps the siblings is that they are there temporarily – there are children who live there all year long and have no other place to go. In time Eydis and Kari find new friends and adjust somewhat, but every so often one of them irritates the teachers and gets punished. Their lively imagination and playful minds help them get through many difficult moments and, after all, they will go back home soon! But their mother hasn’t come and summer is almost over...
Team Hurricane (2017)
Section: International Competition of European First Films
Directed by: Annika Berg
Denmark, 2017, 96 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 4
Score:
Meet Ida, Sara, Eja, Maja, Zara, Mathilde and Ira: a teen girl squad who grows tighter than ever when local politicians plan to close down the youth community center. The youth club is their hideout from the outside world where they can draw, dance, chill, talk or just hang out and not talk at all. A safe zone away from the others. Together. Radical girls in an ordinary world.
We (2018)
Section: International Competition of European First Films
Directed by: Rene Eller
Netherlands, Belgium, 2018, 100 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 6
Score:
During a scorching summer in a Belgian-Dutch border village, eight teenagers play games of discovery to break the listless monotony. They challenge each other and themselves and pretty soon, their sexual curiosity starts to blur the lines between right and wrong. As innocence is crushed in depraved games and sexual exploitation, the teenagers soon turn into ruthless predators.
Pure Hearts (2017)
Section: International Competition of European First Films
Directed by: Roberto De Paolis
Italy, 2017, 115 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 2
Score:
Agnese and Stefano are profoundly different. She is only seventeen, lives with her mother – a harsh but devoted woman and a regular church-goer – and is about to take a vow of chastity to last until marriage. He is a twenty-five year old man with a violent temper and a difficult past who works as a warden in a car park that borders a gypsy camp. Their unexpected meeting engenders a sentiment of purity, made of little stolen moments and mutual help. But when they make love for the first time, Agnese’s illusion of purity is shattered. She experiences a deep sense of betrayal towards her ideals, which leads her to make an extreme decision in the hope of erasing her sin.
Kissing Candice (2018)
Section: International Competition of European First Films
Directed by: Aoife McArdle
Ireland, 2018, 103 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 6
Score:
17 year old Candice longs to escape the boredom of her seaside town, only finding solace in her vivid imagination. When her disillusionment drives her obsession with a troubled stranger, she becomes increasingly entangled with a dangerous local gang.