The Stone Putter (Sweden) by Nils Agdler

The Stone Putter is a cinematic portrait of a serious and physically strong middle-aged woman, deeply focused on throwing stones in a desert-like landscape. How did she get here? What do the stones symbolize – as alien in the landscape as the woman herself in her black dress? Here you can sense a story about both sadness, integrity and stubbornness, about intersecting paths and about continuing forward without bowing to others. Both the stones and the woman are filmed from a variety of angles, giving the viewer an opportunity to experience the event from different perspectives, and for a moment possibly drop the anthropocentric gaze.

Running time: 00:08:00

Pieces (Germany) by Klara Schmickler

Swimmer Elin finds herself at a crossroads after her girlfriend Alma persuades her to embark on a risky adventure...

Running time: 00:14:04

Shoes (Turkey) by Sertaç Bozkurt

Soldiers interfere with a refugee group just about to cross the border, the refugees split and one woman runs deep into the woods, only to be chased by a soldier. As the game of cat and mouse gets heated, a surprising incident occurs, that makes them both question the meaninglessness of this whole thing. 

Running time: 00:05:14

The "Madman" and His Ruins (China) by Xiaolong Zhu

A middle-aged man lives in ruins, and his home has been burned down twice. After suffering from a stroke, he even refused government relief, and his neighbors called him a madman and did not want to interact with him. He lives alone, cultivates alone, eats alone, walks around alone... everything seems very primitive.

Running time: 01:36:08

The Urge to Escape. Slowly. (France) by Pascal Nowak

Since the famous Meadows report of 1972, The Limits to Growth, environmental awareness has exploded extremely...slowly. From world congress to international conference, large gatherings calling for the great evening of ecology have punctuated the last 50 years without any real change in governance. However, a sense of urgency has taken hold among many citizens.  Filastine and Nova are among these activist artists who have long punctuated their songs, clips and concerts with messages in favour of the environment. Until they realized that their incessant travels were in total contradiction with their texts. The change in life that they initiate is then a long journey, a reflection of our contradictions between what we would like to change and what we actually achieve.

Running time: 01:15:00

Kissing Ralph (United States) by Daniel Lewinstein

Kissing Ralph follows an anxious young man struggling to participate in social rituals.

Running time: 00:40:00

Descension (United States) by Sean Ryan

In an adaptation of Dante Alighieri's Inferno, when an ex-soldier goes rogue, he is killed and descends into Hell. Will he seek vengeance against his betrayers or atone for his sins to reach the shores of Purgatory?

Running time: 00:18:17