Francesca Van Der Staay

The Dog Thief

Martín is a 13-year-old orphan shoeshine boy from La Paz, Bolivia, who has lived his entire life in the streets with the hope and desire to find his father. Driven by this desire and his imagination, Martin begins to suspect that one of his best clients is his father; Mr Novoa, a lonely tailor whose only emotional bond is his dog, Astor, a fine German shepherd whom he cares for like a son.

Far from Sunset Boulevard

The thirties, the heyday of Soviet film production. The story of the famed couple's glory — a filmmaker and actress, behind the external well-being of which were hidden strange contradictory relationships and a sense of fear that they carried through their whole lives. The prologue to this story is the 85th anniversary of Lidiya Polyakova, the formerly brightest star in Soviet cinema, who played the main role in all the films of her own husband, director Konstantin Dalmatov. Now in the courtyard there are other times, Dalmatov’s movies are called ideological agitation, and the director himself and his wife are hiding from the world in the country, trying not to let anyone in.

Shelter Me

Anna and Mara return from a holiday abroad, and realize that Anis, a young Moroccan immigrant, managed to hide in their car in order to cross the border to Italy. At first unsure of what to do, they then decide to take him with them.

Ballerina

Ballerina is a 2006 documentary film that follows the training sessions, rehearsals, and everyday lives of five Russian ballerinas at different stages in their career.