Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets (2021)
Section: Beyond the Childhood Horizon
Directed by: Yaniv Raz
United States of America, 2021, 110 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 6
Score:
James Whitman (16) struggles to overcome anxiety and depression by seeking advice from Dr. Bird. In his magical realism inspired world, James goes on a whimsical, but emotionally charged search to solve the mystery of the disappearance of his sister after an altercation with their parents. While James struggles to connect with his parents, he deals with the intense social anxiety of high school life while navigating his first love with a precocious girl from school.
Besties (2021)
Section: Beyond the Childhood Horizon
Directed by: Desseigne Ravel Marion
France, 2021, 80 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 5
Score:
Paris. Nedjma, a teenager living with her mom and sister, spends the summer with her gang. Her life is turned upside down when she meets Zina, from another gang. Rivals in broad daylight; they are lovers in secret. Nedjma is sucked into a spiral, torn apart between the values of the hood and her own desire, which no one around her can possibly understand or tolerate. She will have to make a choice that will ultimately define who she is.
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.
Back to Those Days (2021)
Section: Beyond the Childhood Horizon , Patron of Children Audience Award
Directed by: Konrad Aksinowicz
Poland, 2021, 104 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 5
Score:
Alek has just come back from a long emigrant stay in the US and wants to start a new life in the new post-communist Poland. Unfortunately, he’s an alcoholic and drags his wife and 12-year-old son Tomek into being co-dependent alcoholics. As young Tomek starts to have difficulties at school, he gradually begins to understand the drama of his father’s alcoholism. Alek must make a choice…
The Perfect David (2021)
Section: Beyond the Childhood Horizon
Directed by: Felipe Gomez Aparicio
Argentina, 2021, 78 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 6
Score:
At 16, David is much like any teenager, but his boyish good looks rest upon a hulking, muscular body. His weightlifting obsession is driven by his mother Juana, a troubled artist whose only goal is to have her son reach physical perfection by his 17th birthday. With countless hours spent at a grungy gym in the company of a motley clique of pumped-up gym rats, David desperately searches for what it means to be a man.
Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets (2021)
Section: Beyond the Childhood Horizon
Directed by: Yaniv Raz
United States of America, 2021, 110 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 4
Score:
James Whitman (16) struggles to overcome anxiety and depression by seeking advice from Dr. Bird. In his magical realism inspired world, James goes on a whimsical, but emotionally charged search to solve the mystery of the disappearance of his sister after an altercation with their parents. While James struggles to connect with his parents, he deals with the intense social anxiety of high school life while navigating his first love with a precocious girl from school.
Hard Shell, Soft Shell (2021)
Section: Beyond the Childhood Horizon
Directed by: Emma Benestan
France, 2021, 100 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 5
Score:
Loved-up oyster farmer Az thinks he’s made it. But when an elaborate proposal goes awry and his girlfriend Jess breaks his heart, Az is forced to confront his understanding of what happiness really looks like – both hers and his own.
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.