Proxima Competition

What do you do when love simply isn’t on the cards and keeps passing you by? 60-year-old Kristýna has lost her last ray of hope, so she goes off with her daughter Sára to talk to a fortune-teller about her sorry lot in life. One year on from Mirrors in the Dark, Šimon Holý brings us another wholly independent film about life’s traumas as seen from a female perspective, this time with a liberal dose of esoterica on top.

In 1972 Yugoslavia became the site of Europe’s last smallpox epidemic. This gripping archival documentary, aptly described by its creators as a medical thriller, reconstructs the dramatic events of those spring months, and viewers will find it difficult not to draw comparisons with the worldwide events of the past two years.

Artistic endeavour isn’t about competing; even so, applicants still have to be placed in order of merit at the academy’s entrance exams. But how do you assess artistic talent? And what role can art play in today’s world? A layered, observational documentary which presents a portrait of an institution and a light generational statement in one.

Marlena (62) and Tomasz (42) are living contentedly in a house on the coast, wrapped up in their own little world. But their cosy existence is turned upside down by Marlena’s decision to bring home her sick son… In his unsettling family drama Tomasz Wasilewski concentrates on compelling visual stylisation and a detached narrative form, while the carefully composed images well illustrate the protagonists’ inner struggle.

It's the Christmas holidays, and Andy leaves the city in order to spend some time at a luxury villa with his best friends. As they goof around, their initial consensual horseplay reveals that they each have different personal boundaries. Marco Berger’s new film takes a subversive look at masculinity in its dangerously toxic form.

A wealthy family withdraws from society after something unforeseen happens. When one of its members leaves the house on the pretext of paying an innocent visit to someone outside, the family’s fragile equilibrium is disturbed. In Broad Daylight presents an inscrutable, tantalisingly elusive fictional world enhanced by a colourful array of absurd characters.

Haleh and her husband Amir are having to cope with a tough situation: their four-year-old son Ilya has suddenly stopped talking. There is evidently no physiological cause, so they go to see a psychotherapist who comes up with a radical solution. Ilya’s mother, who has cared for him until now, is to take a back seat while the father assumes her role looking after the child. This change in the established order sends the family into a downward spiral of tension and aggression, and it's extremely difficult to see a way out.

Mateo lives with his mother Libertad in a rose-tinted world: a microcosm which has precisely two inhabitants, mother and son. One day Mateo is diagnosed with cancer… There are few films which defy all the rules in order to tell an utterly realistic story, and La Pietá is one of them. We find ourselves in a reality where the mother exercises the same kind of power as the dictator governing North Korea. Just as toxic, just as absolute, and just as deadly.

When Ramona meets the charismatic Bruno on one of her strolls through the city, it never occurs to her that she might encounter him again the following day. Will an innocent flirtation get in the way of her career dreams and the perfectly good relationship she has with her boyfriend? A refreshing romantic comedy that sets the scene for the immortal feud between sense and sensibility.

If film geometry were a field of study, then this supremely aesthetic “figure” from Brazil would deserve special attention. A sports drama and fanciful “body thriller” in one, the film tells the story of Marina, who competes in synchronised diving events. However, an attack of tinnitus – an unbearable ringing sound in the ears – drags her from the top of her game to the edge of madness.

Yugoslavia, late 1980s. Parents and son are hastily making the final preparations for Christmas Eve dinner. Their beloved uncle will be turning up from Germany any minute now. But, hang on, are things really as they seem? An unnerving debut à la Haneke that cleverly balances on the edge of farce and oppressive thriller while ingeniously toying with narrative structure.

The pandemic brought society to a standstill, but from an animal’s perspective the world didn't change that much. Unless, of course, you live in a zoo. What was life like in the Salzburg zoo when no visitors were allowed? Microstories from the pavilions, enclosures, and terraria, told with Horvath’s typical sense of humor.