Monica Hellstrøm

Flee

Recounted mostly through animation to protect his identity, Amin looks back over his past as a child refugee from Afghanistan as he grapples with a secret he’s kept hidden for 20 years.

Little Girl

7-year-old Sasha has always known that she is a girl. Sasha’s family has recently accepted her gender identity, embracing their daughter for who she truly is while working to confront outdated norms and find affirmation in a small community of rural France.

The Distant Barking of Dogs

Hnutove, Donbass, eastern Ukraine, 2015. Young Oleg lives in a war zone where anti-aircraft gunshots and missile attacks often resonate dangerously near. Although many inhabitants have already left this dangerous area, he remains with his grandmother, who has cared for him since his mother's death, because they have nowhere to go. They are just waiting for the war to end.

The Nile Hilton Incident

Cairo, 2011. A police officer investigates the murder of a woman in a luxurious hotel in the days leading up to the Egyptian revolution.

Oleg og krigen

The film follows 10-year-old Oleg, whose life has been turned upside down by the ongoing war in East Ukraine. Oleg lives with his beloved grandmother Alexandra in a small house in a village on the frontline. Most people have left the village, but Oleg and Alexandra love their life together there and want to stay on and take care of each other. But life is becoming more and more difficult and the war does not seem to end.

The Fencing Champion

Ruben (10) is one of the best fencers in the club. He has won nearly every title in Denmark, so this season he has to face some of the toughest and most talented fencers in Europe. A lot is a stake for Ruben and he has to find the strength within himself to overcome his anxiety and control his temper if he is to win the big european championship. Ruben's best friend Marie is fencing too, and alongside the drama that is played out on the fencing piste, an even greater story is unfolding about a friendship between a boy and a girl in their early teens - a time when many things change.

Chikara - The Sumo Wrestler's Son

'Chikara - the Sumo wrestler's son' follows the 10-year-old Japanese boy, Chikara, and his struggle to become a Sumo wrestler. His father was a professional Sumo wrestler, so expectations surrounding Chikara are extremely high. Today his father owns a noodle-shop where he works a lot. Their only time together is when they train Sumo wrestling. It's a very valuable time for Chikara. He wants to impress his father, but when he's there, Chikara gets nervous and everything seems to go wrong. The national Sumo Championship is approaching and Chikara wants to do well. It's a story of a small boy in a tough sport, parental pressure and expectations, but above all, it's a universal narrative about the relationship between father and son.