Morning Glow (2021)
Section: New Czech Film and TV Programmes
Directed by: Dan Wlodarczyk
Czech Republic, 2021, 85 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 3
Score:
Given the "unauthorized" name of Morning Glow by her alternative family, Social Services are taking the 8-month-old girl from them. After an ombudsman intervenes, the girl is returned, but the case continues. The media portrays this as petty bourgeois officials using bureaucracy to trouble those with lifestyles they disagree with. Morning Glow now symbolizes the conflict between the state and civil defiance. But where are the boundaries between normal and alternative?
Dragon Princess (2021)
Section: International Competition of Feature Films in the Children’s Category
Directed by: Anthony Roux, Jean-Jacques Denis
France, 2021, 74 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 5
Score:
Once upon a time, there was a dragon that lived in a cave full of gold. The cave was well hidden from people, whom the mighty dragon hated from the bottom of his soul. The treasure was his joy and pleasure, but he had no one to share it with. That's why he went to a witch for help. He wanted some offspring. The witch was happy to help him, but she had one condition: If he gets angry, the witch will come for his second favorite thing. The dragon agrees to this stupid condition, and he gets eggs which hatch 3 dragon offspring. One of them looks like a human girl. The dragon names her Bristle. She grows up next to her dragon siblings and enjoys the love of her dragon father, whom she loves unconditionally. When she saves the life of a princess from the castle in the forest, the dragon gets angry, the witch comes, and Bristle learns that she is the dragon’s second favorite thing. She decides to leave her father and enters the world of people, experiencing not only anger and resentment, but also friendship and solidarity.
Mini-Zlatan and Uncle Darling (2022)
Section: World Childrens Film Panorama
Directed by: Christian Lo
Sweden, 2022, 81 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 5
Score:
Everything is set for a perfect stay at Tommy’s, Ella’s favorite uncle and BFF. But the dream week that Ella has envisioned turns into a disastrous nightmare when Steve shows up. He is Tommy’s new boyfriend from the Netherlands! In a rage of jealousy Ella concocts all sorts of creative schemes to get rid of Steve and to win back her best friend.
Poppy (2020)
Section: Beyond the Childhood Horizon
Directed by: Linda Niccol
New Zealand, 2020, 98 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 3
Score:
Poppy Simpson is an irrepressible young woman with Down syndrome and an assumption she should get to do what everyone else does – have a job, drive a car, have sex, get married. Holding her back is Dave, her older brother and her only family since the death of their parents. Poppy and Dave work together in their inherited auto repair business. Dave doesn’t think she can get a driver’s licence. Quietly rebellious, Poppy secretly begins to teach herself to drive.
Black (2016)
Section: Top Teen Ten
Directed by: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Belgium, 2016, 95 min
Projection place: Castle SVOBODY
Score:
Mavela, a 15-year-old black teenager was a misfit until she encountered the Black Bronx, a well-known gang of young Africans. She feels at home in the gang: accepted. She has friends now, who get her mixed up in street life. For the very first time, Mavela feels like she belongs. In return, she quickly learns that Black Bronx is a lifetime commitment; once a gang member, always a gang member. And she has no intention of leaving. One day, however, she meets Marwan. He´s Moroccan and a member of the 1080s, another teenage gang and the enemy of the Black Bronx gang. It´s love at first sight, but a dangerous Romeo and Juliet story now begins
Dragon Princess (2021)
Section: International Competition of Feature Films in the Children’s Category
Directed by: Anthony Roux, Jean-Jacques Denis
France, 2021, 74 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 2
Score:
Once upon a time, there was a dragon that lived in a cave full of gold. The cave was well hidden from people, whom the mighty dragon hated from the bottom of his soul. The treasure was his joy and pleasure, but he had no one to share it with. That's why he went to a witch for help. He wanted some offspring. The witch was happy to help him, but she had one condition: If he gets angry, the witch will come for his second favorite thing. The dragon agrees to this stupid condition, and he gets eggs which hatch 3 dragon offspring. One of them looks like a human girl. The dragon names her Bristle. She grows up next to her dragon siblings and enjoys the love of her dragon father, whom she loves unconditionally. When she saves the life of a princess from the castle in the forest, the dragon gets angry, the witch comes, and Bristle learns that she is the dragon’s second favorite thing. She decides to leave her father and enters the world of people, experiencing not only anger and resentment, but also friendship and solidarity.
One Classroom (2022)
Section: New Czech Film and TV Programmes
Directed by: Petr Hátle
Czech Republic, 2022, 53 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 5
Score:
Venezuelan Grecia, Vietnamese Linda, and Ukrainian Andrei are students of the inclusive META school, supporting the integration of young migrants into Czech society. Their families came to the Czech Republic under different circumstances; each has different ideas about their future. The boxer Andrej wants to become independent ASAP, the artistically-gifted Grecia would like to get into a secondary art school, and Linda is still looking for her own path to education and a career.
Two Friends (2021)
Section: Beyond the Childhood Horizon
Directed by: Prasun Chatterjee
India, 2021, 111 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 6
Score:
The aftermath of the Babri Mosque demolition and the Bombay blasts in India, 1992-93, found its violent echoes even in a remote village of West Bengal adjacent to the India-Bangladesh border where the story unfolds. A story of friendship between two little boys (Palash and Safikul) belonging to two warring religious communities, Hindu and Muslim.