Official Selection - Out of Competition

A door-to-door soap salesman comes to a sparsely populated village in northern China. With his arrival, however, the number of bizarre attacks on the local population increases. Laced with a considerable dose of black humor, the movie offers an unusually entertaining and uncompromising sketch of Chinese society today.

If gifted teenager Santosh is to achieve independence, finish school, and escape the trap of slave-like migrant field labor, he has to overcome one main obstacle: the cruel paymaster Juze. In uncompromising terms, the film unmasks the dire poverty hidden only a short distance from the tourist resorts of India’s Goa state.

A young farm girl named Liina is hopelessly in love with Hans, and she’s willing to do anything to secure his affections… One of the most original cinematic achievements of the season, the film is set in a pagan Estonian community where werewolves roam, the greedy villagers steal whatever they can lay their hands on, they have to cope with the plague, and hovering over them all is an ensemble of kratts, peculiar creatures made of metal and wood. Best Cinematography at Tribeca.

This visually meticulous and mesmerising film revolves around the life of the great traditional Irish singer, Joe Heaney. The power and magic of the songs provide the central motif threading its way through the film. Indeed, didn't the songs help the residents of this magnificent but desolate Irish landscape to survive and commune with God? And what part of his heart and soul must the artist sacrifice in order to satisfy his inner compulsions?