In January 1989 the first Message to Man International Film Festival took place in Leningrad. This film, made during the festival, is a record of its events, guests and participants, such as the American director Leo Hurwitz, the Latvian director Ivars Seleckis, and the ballerina Natalya Makarova,...
In 2009 the Norwegian government introduced several measures to restrict immigration. One of the measures was to provide unaccompanied asylum seeking children temporary residence permits. They should be returned to their country of origin when they turn 18. In Norway child welfare custody of their...
Two people are stuck in a quarantine hotel during a deadly pandemic. Physical contact equals death, total isolation is required. Yet, it is human nature to seek togetherness. But what happens when you have to choose between love and life?
The twin sisters Helena and Irene are born in Helsinki during World War II. A few months later their mother, Sirkka, leaves the girls in the care of their grandmother, an old communist, and runs away with a German soldier. Their life under the protection of their grandmother and the teachings of...
"Cold/Kyla" - About the murder of John Hron at Kode, Sweden, 1996. "Kyla" is a state of mind, it gives the image of the fatherless patriarchate's lost sons. It's graduation and three boys gather at a lake to celebrate the school's over. But they has no future to look forward to. The atmosphere is...
Young adolescent girl Jenna's mother is dying, while at the same time Jenna is turning from a young girl into a young woman. So it is difficult for her to admit that she is afraid to lose her mother; instead she behaves contrary to how one would expect.
The Polish government issued a burial fund to the relatives of any deceased citizen. Now the undertakers of Lodz in Poland have figured out a way to lay their greedy hands on those funds. By paying ambulance drivers to get the information where the unfortunate relatives live, they went there with...
The last summer the five boys are together in Falkenberg. They are now grown up to be young men, on their way out into the world. At least most of them.
22-years old Josephine has moved from Stockholm to Malmö in the south of Sweden after her mother's death. Her closest friend is her godmother Emma. In Copenhagen she meets Elvis, who falls in love with her. When her ex-boyfriend Simon turns up she must confront the scars from her past and also...
Hindu god Indra has a daughter Agnes, who visits Earth to find out if people have legitimate complaints. She marries a lawyer from Bergen and has children, but is disillusioned by marriage and embarks on a journey among men.
Forty years ago, the first film about the Jordbro families was released. The latest one came out in 2006. When Rainer Hartleb once more trains his camera on the families, the children of the Jordbro children have grown up and live far from the area where the Jordbro story began.
Mia returns from Stockholm to her parents' home in a small town in Dalecarlia (Dalarna) to celebrate her father's 70th birthday. Her elder sisters Eivor and Gunilla welcome her, but their different lifestyles prevent them from really communicating. The tension builds, and the party that should be a...
It’s Ireland in 1967, when a flying saucer full of aliens lands on Dan’s farm. Dan falls in love with an alien girl and tries his best to make everybody believe that she and all the other aliens are humans.
Two young sisters go to great lengths to fulfill their mother's dying wish. Pursued by the grown-ups who want the conventional funeral procedures to start, the kids embark on a last journey with their mother to fathom the process of her death.
Vera's 40th birthday is approaching and she's tired of being single. She'e desperately in love with her colleague Frank, but her tired life-coach wants her to lower her standards, lock-on a more resonable guy and get on with her life.
Maria is 8 years old and thinks her younger brother is really annoying. She meets Makka in the neighborhood who has a magic ball. In some way Maria wishes her brother away. When the babysitter Gerda turns up Maria and Makka think she's the answer to Maria's wish - a witch that has come to abduct...
A forty something man, Bosse, perpetually down on his luck but always optimistic, hopes to impress his new girlfriend by accepting a job as headwaiter at a remote boardinghouse.
In honor of the twentieth anniversary of Andrei Tarkovsky's death, student filmmaker Dmitry Tarkovsky sets out in search of his favorite director's legacy. His journey leads him to fifteen moving interviews in California, Italy, Sweden, and finally, Russia as he attempts to come closer to the...
