Dumitru Budrala • Romania • 1997 • 43′

Every autumn, shepards from Transylavania set off with their flocks in search of green grass. They follow an ancient route wich takes them hundreds of miles away from home. During his journey, the master of the flock is murdered in a forest. His youngest son mist take over one thousand sheep, five donkeys, seven dogs and four hired sheperds. sleeping in the open, marching through villages and fields, fighiting bad wheater and truck drivers’prejudice, he learns to be a master.

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Alina Skrzeszewska • USA, Germany • 2010 • 83′

Sirens, screams, laughter, singing, bartering: these are the sounds sweeping into the rooms of Downtown Los Angeles’ old forgotten hotels. Their inhabitants’ stories tell of lives lived on the margins. Some residents stay for a few months. Others have lived there for as long as 40 years. According to Charlie, the desk clerk at the King Edward Hotel, “you can be anything you want; you can do anything you want – and nobody gives a damn!” After all, we’re on America’s most notorious skid row, also known to old-timers as the Nickel. Director Alina Skrzeszewska also lived in one of the hotels for a year and a half, while shooting SONGS FROM THE NICKEL. The result is a strikingly intimate portrait of people living in this largely invisible community.

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Dumitru Budrala • Romania • 2004 • 93′

“I cared for my donkey more than I do for my own man and kids. But now it’s dead. If I had a donkey now, I’d be as well off as a Member of Parliament.” concludes Turica, one of the main characters in the film. She and her relatives wander from village to village, carrying on their backs huge bundles of handmade brooms and baskets which they try to trade for food. The filmmaker follows this extremely poor Gypsy family in their survival winter trips. Employing a cinéma vérité camera style, the film goes beyond all Gypsy stereotypes and clichés to reveal a group of real people doing their best to cope with the harsh, absurd and at times tragicomic situations they stumble upon in their everyday lives. A remarkable photography and a bunch of colourful people, all of them natural born storytellers, open the gates towards a world most of us find to believe it really exists.

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Jasna Krajinovic • Belgium, France • 2016 • 60′

Challenging our understanding of radicalization and its reasons, “The Empty Room” is a deeply moving portrayal of a global problem personified: a Belgian family is faced with the aftermath of their 19 year old son’s death, who had left to wage jihad in Syria. Banding together with other parents in her situation, the mother fights against the silent disappearance of her son through the cracks of the judiciary system, demanding that his death be officially recognized and that she be let to grieve properly. Of course, her struggle is not easy, as she has to cope not only with her overwhelming loss, but also with the unspoken blame cast on her for not preventing her child’s indoctrination. But by making everyone her audience, from Parliament officials to teen-agers in high-school, she questions issues of responsibility and victimhood, unveiling our deeply flawed understanding of them.

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