Eye For Film >> Festivals >> Karlovy >> 2023 >> Horizons
View other Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Films by strand: Another Birth. Iranian Cinema Here and Now., Crystal Globe Competition, Imagina, Midnight Screenings, Proxima Competition, Special Screenings, Tribute to Yasuzo Masumura
The Mother Of All Lies and Club Zero
About Dry Grasses (Kuru Otlar Üstüne)
(Country: Turkey, France, Germany, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Writer: Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Akin Aksu; Stars: Merve Dizdar, Deniz Celiloglu, Musab Ekici)
A young teacher hopes to be appointed to Istanbul after mandatory duty at a small village. After long time waiting he loses all hope of escaping from this gloomy life. His colleague helps him to regain his perspective.
The Adults
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Dustin Guy Defa; Stars: Michael Cera, Hannah Gross, Sophia Lillis)
The plan to make a trip back home as short as possible begins to unravel when Eric has to balance his addiction to poker with the challenging relationships with his two sisters Rachel and Maggie.
Anatomy Of A Fall (Anatomie D'une Chute)
(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Justine Triet; Writer: Arthur Harari, Justine Triet; Stars: Sandra Hüller, Samuel Theis, Swann Arlaud, Jehnny Beth, Milo Machado Graner, Antoine Reinartz)
A woman is accused of her husband's murder.
Animalia
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Sofia Alaoui; Writer: Sofia Alaoui; Stars: Oumaïma Barid, Mehdi Dehbi, Fouad Oughaou)
A young, pregnant woman finds emancipation as aliens land in Morocco.
The Animal Kingdom (Le Règne Animal)
(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Thomas Cailley; Writer: Thomas Cailley; Stars: Adèle Exarchopoulos, Romain Duris, Paul Kircher)
Sci-fi adventure set in a world where humans are mutating into "creatures".
When The Waves Are Gone and Iron Butterflies
Autobiography
(Country: Indonesia, Poland, Germany, Singapore, France, Philippines; Year: 2022; Director: Makbul Mubarak; Writer: Makbul Mubarak; Stars: Kevin Ardilova, Yusuf Mahardika, Arswendy Bening Swara, Lukman Sardi, Rukman Rosadi, Haru Sandra, Gunawan Maryanto, Yudi Ahmad Tajudin)
A young man working as a housekeeper sparks a chain of violence after defending his boss's mayoral election campaign.
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
(Country: Georgia; Year: 2023; Director: Elene Naveriani; Writer: Elene Naveriani, Nikoloz Mdivani based on the novel by Tamta Melashvili; Stars: Eka Chavleishvili, Temiko Chinchinadze, Anka Khurtsidze)
The story of a 40something in a dead-end town who discovers love for the first time.
La Chimera
(Country: Italy, France, Switzerland; Year: 2023; Director: Alice Rohrwacher; Writer: Carmela Covino, Marco Pettenello, Alice Rohrwacher; Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Josh O'Connor, Alba Rohrwacher, Lecu Chikovani, Carol Duate)
The story of a group of archaeologists and the black market in historical artefacts.
Club Zero
(Country: Austria, UK, Germany, France, Denmark; Year: 2023; Director: Jessica Hausner; Writer: Jessica Hausner, Géraldine Bajard; Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Sam Hoare, Camilla Ritherford, Amanda Lawrence, Elsa Zylberstein)
A teacher takes a job at an elite school and forms a strong bond with five students - a relationship which eventually takes a dangerous turn.
Dead Girls Dancing
(Country: Germany, France; Year: 2023; Director: Anna Roller; Writer: Anna Roller; Stars: Luna Jordan, Noemi Liv Nicolaisen, Katharina Stark, Sara Giannelli)
On a road trip across Italy, four recent high school graduates stumble upon an abandoned village. Away from the expectations of parents and teachers, they experiment with the limits of their newfound freedom.
To The North and No Bears
The Delinquents (Los Delincuentes)
(Country: Argentina, Brazil, Luxembourg, Chile; Year: 2023; Director: Rodrigo Moreno; Writer: Rodrigo Moreno; Stars: Margarita Molfino, Esteban Bigliardi, Cecilia Rainero)
Two bank staff rob their own establishment.
The Echo (El Eco)
(Country: Mexico, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Tatiana Huezo)
In a remote and solitary valley, punished by winter and drought, the children learn to gaze upon death, illness and love.
The Edge Of The Blade (Une affaire d'honneur)
(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Vincent Perez; Writer: Karine Silla Perez, Vincent Perez; Stars: Roschdy Zem, Doria Tillier, Vincent Perez, Guillaume Gallienne, Damien Bonnard)
Paris, 1887. Duels have been officially outlawed but are still regular practice. This historical drama is set against that backdrop.
Endless Borders (Marzhaye bi payan)
(Country: Germany, Czech Republic, Iran; Year: 2023; Director: Abbas Amini; Writer: Abbas Amini, Hossein Farokhzadeh; Stars: Pouria Rahimi Sam, Mino Sharifi, Hamed Alipour, Behafarid Ghaffarian, Naser Sajjadi Hosseini, Ghalem Sakhi Nazari, Latife Zousefi, Houtak Balouch)
A teacher originally from Tehran and living in exile near the border with Afghanistan, tries to protect a young man in love and a girl trapped in an arranged marriage – all while also trying to reconnect with his estranged wife.
Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet Lehdet)
(Country: Finland; Year: 2023; Director: Aki Kaurismäki; Writer: Aki Kaurismäki; Stars: Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen)
The course of potential love does not run smooth for a shelf-stacker and a metal worker.
Perfect Days and Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Fantastic Machine (And The King Said, What A Fantastic Machine)
(Country: Sweden, Denmark; Year: 2023; Director: Axel Danielson, Maximilien Van Aertryck)
From the first camera to 45 billion cameras worldwide today, the visual sociologist filmmakers widen their lens to expose both humanity’s unique obsession with the camera’s image and the social consequences that lay ahead.
Fireworks (Stranizza d'amuri)
(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Giuseppe Fiorello,; Writer: Giuseppe Fiorello, Andrea Cedrola, Carlo Salsa, Josella Porto; Stars: Gabriele Pizzurro, Samuele Segreto)
Sicily in the 1980s. Seventeen-year-old Gianni faces harassment because of his sexual orientation. His life changes the moment he meets Nino
Goodbye Julia
(Country: Sudan, Egypt, Germany, France, KSA, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Mohamed Kordofani)
Wracked by guilt after covering up a murder, Mona — a northern Sudanese retired singer in a tense marriage — tries to make amends by taking in the deceased’s southern Sudanese widow, Julia, and her son, Daniel, into her home.
If Only I Could Hibernate
(Country: Mongolia; Year: 2023; Director: Zoljargal Purevdash)
A poor but proud Mongolian teen aspires to win an Academic Olympiad; first, he and his siblings
must survive the bitter winter in Ulaanbaatar’s Ger district.
Inshallah A Boy (Inshallah Walad)
(Country: Jordan; Year: 2023; Director: Amjad Al Rasheed; Writer: Delphine Agut, Rula Nasser, Amjad Al Rasheed; Stars: Mouna Hawa)
A mother fights for her rights in a partriachal system after her husband's death.
Past Lives and Omen
Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell
(Country: Vietnam; Year: 2023; Director: Thien An Pham; Writer: Thien An Pham; Stars: Nguyen Thi Truc Quynh, Le Phong Vu, Nguyen Thinh, Vu Ngoc Manh)
A man has to return his sister-in-law's body to her hometown after an accident while, along with his nephew, he searches for his long-lost brother.
Iron Butterflies
(Country: Ukraine, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Roman Liubyi)
In summer 2014, sunflower fields and coal mines in eastern Ukraine turned into a 12 square kilometer crime scene. A multi-layered investigation into the downing of flight MH17, in which a butterfly-shaped shrapnel was found in the pilot's body, implicated the state responsible for a war crime that remains unpunished.
Kidnapped (Rapito)
(Country: Italy, France, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Marco Bellocchio; Writer: Marco Bellocchio, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Edoardo Albinati; Stars: Enea Sala, Leonardo Maltese, Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi, Filippo
Timi)
In 1858, a six-year-old Jewish boy is forcibly seized from his family by the Catholic church.
Limbo
(Country: Australia; Year: 2023; Director: Ivan Sen; Writer: Ivan Sen; Stars: Simon Baker, Rob Collins, Natasha Wanganeen, Nicholas Hope, Mark Coe)
A detective reopens the case of an Aboriginal woman murdered 20 years ago. The people in the victim’s small outback town and her family are silent because the cop is white and the truth is complex.
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
(Country: Ukraine; Year: 2022; Director: Antonio Lukich; Writer: Antonio Lukich; Stars: Anna Alsheva, Lyudmyla Sachenko, Ramil Nasirov, Amil Nasirov)
Twin brothers find their lives disrupted after a phone call about their long-estranged dad.
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry and The Edge Of The Blade
Mami Wata
(Country: Nigeria; Year: 2023; Director: CJ "Fiery" Obasi; Writer: CJ "Fiery" Obasi; Stars: Evelyne Ily, Uzoamaka Aniunoh, Kelechi Udegbe, Emeka Amakeze, Rita Edochie, Tough Bone)
When the harmony in a village is threatened by outside elements, two sisters must fight to save their people and restore the glory of a mermaid goddess to the land.
The March on Rome
(Country: Italy; Year: 2022; Director: Mark Cousins)
One of the first propaganda films ever made, A noi! was shot in 1922 and covered the March on Rome, an important event in the rise of Italian fascism. A hundred years later, Mark Cousins revisits the film.
Midwives
(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Léa Fehner; Stars: Khadija Kouyaté, Héloïse Janjaud, Myriem Akheddiou, Quentin Vernede, Tarik Kariouh)
Sofia and Louise are newly qualified midwives. They quickly encounter the challenges of everyday hospital life.
Monster (Kaibutsu)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2023; Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Writer: Yûji Sakamoto; Stars: Sakura Ando, Eita Nagayama, Soya Kurokawa, Hinata Hiragi)
A mother is shocked when she learns what a teacher has said to her son, but the truth is more complicated.
The Mother Of All Lies
(Country: Morocco, France, Qatar; Year: 2023; Director: Asmae El Moudir)
The filmmaker doesn’t have any pictures of herself as a child. This is the starting point of a documentary investigation that unfolds the secrets of a Casablanca family.
Kidnapped and The Animal Kingdom
Mountain Woman
(Country: Japan, US; Year: 2022; Director: Takeshi Fukunaga; Writer: Takeshi Fukunaga, Ikue Osada; Stars: Anna Yamada, Masatoshi Nagase, Mirai Moriyama, Ryutaro Ninomiya, Toko Miura)
Story of a girl living in a village hit by famine.
My Worst Enemy (Mon pire ennemi)
(Country: France, Switzerland; Year: 2023; Director: Mehran Tamadon; Stars: Zar Amir Ebrahimi)
Mehran Tamadon has lived in France for many years. As an experiment, he asks exiled Iranians to interrogate him as if they were an agent of the Islamic Republic. A renowned actor with first-hand knowledge of such mistreatment takes up the challenge. Documentary.
The Nature Of Love (Simple Comme Sylvain)
(Country: Canada, France; Year: 2023; Director: Monia Chokri; Writer: Monia Chokri; Stars: Magalie Lépine-Blondeau , Pierre-Yves Cardinal, François Létourneau , Monia Chokri)
Sophia, a 40-year-old philosophy professor. Sylvain is a craftsman, renovating Sophia and her partner Xavier's new country house. When Sophia and Sylvain meet, Sophia’s world is turned upside down.
No Bears
(Year: 2022; Director: Jafar Panahi; Writer: Jafar Panahi; Stars: Jafar Panahi, Mina Kavani, Bülent Keser, Vahid Mobasheri, Sinan Yusufoglu, Naser Hashemi, Bakhtiyar Panjeei, Reza Heydari, Mina Khosrovani)
The director appears as himself, relocated to a rural border town to remotely oversee the making of a new film in Turkey, the story of which comes to sharply parallel disturbing events that begin to occur around him.
The Old Oak
(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Ken Loach; Writer: Paul Laverty; Stars: Debbie Honeywood, Andy Dawson, Reuben Bainbridge, Col Tait, Rob Kirtley)
A musing on the future of The Old Oak, the last remaining pub in a village in Northeast England, where people are leaving the land as the mines are closed. Houses are cheap and available, thus making it an ideal location for Syrian refugees.
Perpetrator and Orlando, My Political Biography
Omen (Augure)
(Country: DRC; Year: 2023; Director: Baloji; Writer: Baloji, Thomas van Zuylen; Stars: Marc Zinga, Lucie Debay, Eliane Umuhire, Yves-Marina Gnahoua, Marcel Otete Kabeya)
When a man who was cast out as a child after being considered a sorceror returns home, he faces prejudice.
On The Adamant (Sur l’Adamant)
(Country: France, Japan; Year: 2023; Director: Nicolas Philibert)
Documentary about patients and caregivers at a floating psychiatric centre on the Seine.
Opponent (Motståndaren)
(Country: Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Milad Alami; Writer: Milad Alami; Stars: Payman Maadi, Marall Nasiri, Björn Elgerd, Ardalan Esmaili, Arvin Kananian)
Iman, an Iranian, lives with his family in Sweden in an ever-changing succession of refugee hostels. To increase his chances of obtaining residence permits for them all, he resumes his career as a wrestler – and is confronted with the reason he had to flee.
Orlando, My Political Biography (Orlando, ma biographie politique)
(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Paul B Preciado; Stars: Paul B Preciado)
Docufiction interpretation of Virginia Woolf's novel.
Passages
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Ira Sachs; Writer: Mauricio Zacharias; Stars: Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulos)
A married man cheats on his husband with a woman... then tells him about it.
Fallen Leaves and Passages
Past Lives
(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Celine Song; Writer: Celine Song; Stars: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro)
Nora and Hae Sung, two childhood friends, are separated from each other when Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York where Nora now lives with her American husband.
Perfect Days
(Country: Japan, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Wim Wenders; Writer: Takuma Takasaki, Wim Wenders; Stars: Kôji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto, Arisa Nakano, Aoi Yamada, Yumi Asô)
The story of an urban renewal project which involves the creation of 17 public toilets in key locations in the Japanese capital.
Perpetrator
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Jennifer Reeder; Writer: Jennifer Reeder; Stars: iah McKirnan, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Lowell, Melanie Liburd, Ireon Roach)
On her 18th birthday, tough-girl Jonny eats a cake baked by her aunt according to a magical family recipe and undergoes a radical metamorphosis.
Pornomelancholia (Pornomelancolía)
(Country: Argentina, France, Brazil, Mexico; Year: 2022; Director: Manuel Abramovich; Writer: Manuel Abramovich, Fernando Krapp; Stars: Lalo Santos)
Factory worker Lilo is a sex influencer, unbeknown to his family.
Pure Unknown (Sconosciuti Puri)
(Country: Italy; Year: 2023; Director: Valentina Cicogna, Mattia Colombo)
One forensic pathologist's fight for the rights to identity of the nameless victims she works with.
About Dry Grasses and Samsara
The Quiet Migration
(Country: Denmark; Year: 2023; Director: Malene Choi; Stars: Cornelius Won Riedel-Clausen, Bjarne Henriksen, Bodil Jørgensen, Clara Thi Thanh Heilmann Jensen, Dawid Ściupidro)
Carl is expected someday to take over his parents’ agribusiness in a rural backwater of Denmark. But, as an adopted child, he also longs to learn more about his South Korean heritage.
Samsara
(Country: Spain; Year: 2023; Director: Lois Patiño; Writer: Lois Patiño; Stars: Amid Keomany, Toumor Xiong, Simone Milavanh, Mariam Vuaa Mtego, Juwairiya Idrisa Uwesu)
Samsara is the Buddhist cycle of death and reincarnation. From the temples of Laos, alongside with teenage monks, we will accompany a soul in its transit from one body to another through the bardo.
Sorcery
(Country: Chile, Mexico, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Christopher Murray; Writer: Christopher Murray; Stars: Valentina Véliz, Daniel Antivilo, Sebastian Hulk, Daniel Muñoz)
On the remote island of Chiloé in the late 19th century, an Indigenous girl named Rosa lives and works with her father on a farm. When the foreman brutally turns on Rosa’s father, she sets out for justice, seeking help from the king of a powerful organization of sorcerers.
The Survival Of Kindness (Das Überleben der Freundlichkeit)
(Country: Australia; Year: 2022; Director: Rolf de Heer; Stars: Mwajemi Hussein, Deepthi Sharma, Darsan Sharma)
BlackWoman is abandoned in a cage in the middle of the desert and left to die. But she is not ready to give up all hope. She escapes, and walks through pestilence and persecution, from desert to mountain to city, to find those who left her to die.
Suzume
(Country: Japan; Year: 2022; Director: Makoto Shinkai; Writer: Makoto Shinkai; Stars: Voiced by, Nanoka Hara, voiced by Eri Fukatsu, Hokuto Matsumura, Ann Yamane)
Animated adventure sees a teenager fight to close a series of "Doors of Disaster".
The Taste Of Things and A Thousand And One
The Sweet East
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Sean Price Williams)
A picaresque journey through contemporary America, undertaken by a young woman granted access to the strange sects and cults that proliferate in this country by a series of gatekeepers eager to win her over.
The Taste Of Things (La Passion De Dodin Bouffant, The Pot-au-Feu)
(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Trân Anh Hùng; Writer: Trần Anh Hùng; Stars: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel, Pierre Gagnaire)
The story of Eugenie, an esteemed cook, and Dodin, the fine gourmet she has been working for over the last 20 years.
A Thousand And One
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: AV Rockwell; Writer: AV Rockwell; Stars: Teyana Taylor, Will Catlett, Josiah Cross, Aven Courtney, Aaron Kingsley Adetola), Trailer
Convinced it's one last, necessary crime on the path to redemption, unapologetic and free-spirited Inez kidnaps six-year-old Terry from the foster care system. Holding on to their secret and each other, mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability in New York City.
To The North (Spre Nord)
(Year: 2022; Director: Mihai Mincan; Stars: Alexandre Nguyen, Soliman Cruz, Nikolai Becker, Emmanuel Sto. Domingo, Bartholome Guingona, Olivier Ho Hio Heen)
A religious Filipino sailor working on a transatlantic ship, discovers a hidden Romanian stowaway. Convinced by a Bible this emigrant has, the sailor starts playing a dangerous game, involving his crew, his faith in God and an innocent man’s life.
Tótem
(Country: Mexico, Denmark, France; Year: 2023; Director: Lila Avilés; Writer: Lila Avilés; Stars: Naíma Sentíes, Monserrat Marañon, Marisol Gasé, Saori Gurza, Teresita Sánchez)
In a large house, friends and family meet for a dual ritual: it is the birthday of young father and painter Tona, but also a farewell ceremony.
Opponent and Mami Wata
Umberto Eco - A Library Of The World (Umberto Eco - La biblioteca del mondo)
(Country: Italy; Year: 2022; Director: Davide Ferrario)
A visit to the library which the writer spent his life creating.
When It Melts
(Country: Belgium; Year: 2023; Director: Veerle Baetens; Writer: Maarten Loix; Stars: Charlotte De Bruyne, Rosa Marchant)
Many years after a sweltering summer that spun out of control, Eva returns to the village she grew up in with an ice block in the back of her car. In the dead of winter, she confronts her past and faces up to her tormentors.
When The Waves Are Gone (Kapag Wala Nang Mga Alon)
(Country: Philippines, Denmark, Portugal, France; Year: 2022; Director: Lav Diaz; Writer: Lav Diaz; Stars: John Lloyd Cruz, Ronnie Lazaro, Shamaine Buencamino, Don Melvin Boongaling)
Lt. Hermes Papauran, one of the best investigators of the Philippines, is in a deep moral crossroad, being a witness to his institution's being a party to a murderous anti-drug campaign, which is spearheaded by no less than the president of the country, Rodrigo Duterte.
White Plastic Sky (Műanyag égbolt)
(Country: Hungary, Slovakia; Year: 2023; Director: Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Szabó; Stars: Tamás Keresztes, Zsófia Szamosi, Géza Hegedűs D., Judit Schell, István Znamenák)
Animation. In a not too distant future without animals and plants where the price of human survival is high, a young man breaks every rule to save his wife.
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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