Michael Krotkiewski

Samia

Samia Yusuf Omar is just 9 years old when she discovers her special talent: she is faster than all the other boys and girls. With her friend Ali, who is the same age, she has the goal to earn real money with running and become famous. The children make a pact: Ali becomes Samia's coach. With his help, Samia is to become a real champion. But the ongoing civil war makes life in Mogadishu increasingly difficult...

Leaving Jesus

A group of former Christians Fundamentalists come together during a retreat in San Francisco to deal with what they’ve gone through, both as active in a restrictive congregation but also as defectors of a congregation that gave them meaning in life.

Kalak

Jan, a nurse who is also a father, was sexually abused by his father as a teenager. Working in Nuuk, Greenland, he tries to connect to the culture with sex. When someone calls him a Kalak, a Greenlandic word with a double meaning of both a "true" and "dirty" Greenlander, he wears the epithet as a badge of honor. Ultimately, he has to confront his father.

All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars

On March 11, 2011, a tsunami devastated the coasts of Japan, claiming thousands of lives. Today, the scars of this tragedy remain visible. Yet in spite of this, people, plants and animals alike continue to exist. Through striking images shot on land and in the sea, Jennifer Rainsford’s film celebrates human resilience and the endless beauty of our planet.

Tsumu - Where Do You Go With Your Dreams?

Lars, Eino and Thomas are fighting for a better future for themselves and their friends in Tasiilaq in eastern Greenland. A youth film about hope, dreams and the right to be yourself in turbulent times.

Bellum - The Daemon of War

In Bellum, modern warfare and the development of AI are connecting three seemingly disparate locations and lives; a scientist in Sweden, a private military contractor in the Nevada desert in the USA and a world renowned war photographer in Afghanistan. Through their actions and decisions, the film delves into the jargons and logics that pushes warfare forward. It’s often said that war is inhumane. But in this film, this assumption is turned upside down. Because in fact it seems there is nothing more human than war. Humanity has always been at war, often over abstract ideas such as nationality, borders, religion, money or freedom and this is something that in fact distinguishes us from all other animals on this planet. Perhaps the Greco-Roman world was right that war was a demon; Bellum. And, that the war actually feeds itself: “Bellum se ipsum alet”.

Yung Lean: In My Head

When a Swedish teen rapper finds a rabid fanbase via the internet, international superstar Yung Lean is born. But as his fame grows, darkness settles in, blurring the line between reality and his own vivid imagination.

Hamada

Filled with vitality, humor and unexpected situations, Hamada paints an unusual portrait of a group of young friends living in a refugee camp in the middle of nowhere. Western Sahara is known as “the last colony in Africa” and this conflict is the longest and one of the least known ongoing disputes in the continent, but the Sahrawi people refuse to become invisible.

Transnistria

An intimate and vital account of love and friendship within a group of youngsters. They live in a complex, contradictory, and isolated world – the self-proclaimed state of Transnistra, where the national flag still holds the hammer and sickle. Tanya plans to move abroad, however future seems to offer frighteningly limited possibilities for her lovestruck friends.

Rust / Óxido (C)

A deserted, snow-covered landscape. An unknown place and time. An anonymous, timeless man slides into a devastated industrial building. He is enclosed by ruins and rust, witnesses of time. He advances among shadows and debris, following a ritual as precise as it is cryptic. Polyphony of materials. The past resonates at every step. Echoes of a presence. A solitary figure fluctuates on an abyss.