Rolf Orthel

A Silent Traveler

Debuting Iraq-born, Netherlands-based writer/director Ibrahim Selman starts out on docu ground, with a voiceover explaining his objectives and the film’s stand-in location, and recalling Kurdistan before the advent of war. He then shifts into narrative mode, with glimpses of life in a mountain village caught in the conflict between Iraqi military authorities and peshmergas (guerrilla freedom fighters).

Shadowland

When Laura was six, her parents got divorced and her father disappeared from her life. The happiness she experienced on her final journey with her father, when he danced with her at a flea market in Brussels, holds a special place in Laura's memory. When Laura finds the shadow puppets her father once bought for her in the attic, these open up a portal to the past for her.

Crocodiles in Amsterdam

An unlikely friendship blossoms between Elsa, a preppy, idle, spoiled blond who calls herself Gino, and Nina, a wannabe anarchist who plots with three others to blow up an arms factory. Nina is often sour and tempestuous, but with Gino she's spontaneous and funny. Yet the friendship often founders, as the feckless Gino spoils Nina's frequent and demanding plans. They decide to rob Gino's rich uncle to pay for bombs and creature comforts, they sneak into a stranger's house, they steal a painting belonging to one of Gino's boyfriends, bombs fail to explode, and Gino costs Nina the trust of her anarchist pals. Then comes the crocodile test, the ultimate for any friendship.

Mindshadows

A Dutch couple is confronted with the husband's rapid onset of senility during a snowy winter in North Eastern Canada.

The Front Door

Two very different friends who share an apartment in Amsterdam have reached a dead end in their lives. The arrival of a parcel looks like an opportunity for a change.

The White Umbrella

Two women are dissatisfied with their way of life and work. They also realize that their resistance to the frightening political and military developments in Europe has come to nothing. In seemingly different ways, they try to change their relationship with the outside world. They watch fragments of films by Resnais and Godard and even want to make their own film.

Donna: Women in Revolt

The story of those Italian women who, for eighty years, have fought against power in all its forms.