Da-yi’s mother is in the hospital. Why exactly? Da-yi doesn’t know, as his father hasn’t told him. In fact, he doesn’t tell him much at all. But when his mother is transferred to another hospital, Da-yi is determined to go and visit her, even if he has to head out on a trip to a far and unknown destination in the company of some new friends and classmates.  

In Cox’s Bazar, at the Bangladesh coast, a young girl is riding the waves on her surfboard, all confidence and grace. “All my dreams are about surfing”, says Shobe. But those dreams might be different from the future that is awaiting her and her friends. The local community has very different expectations, and only one surf club accepts girls among its members. Now that the girls are growing up, sooner or later choices need to be made, and conflicts will be unavoidable. Canadian documentary filmmaker Elizabeth D Costa captures this gang of young surfettes at a crucial moment in their lives. BANGLA SURF GIRLS is a coming-of-age story like you might never have seen before.

Tonight, Valentina wants to party until she drops, as tomorrow she’ll be leaving the city. Maybe moving to the countryside will help her escape from the obstacles she faces everywhere as a transgender teen in Brazil – with peers and grown-ups, in the big city and in the villages, at the streets and in the school office. In her new town, she builds a loyal network around her, only trusting her mother and two dear friends, who somehow feel like social outcasts themselves. But when information about her gender identity leaks out, trouble might start all over again unless Valentina can learn to firmly look her haters in the eye. With boundless anger and maturity, will she be strong enough to take on one more showdown?

Endless rice fields, as far as the eye can see. They appear as geometrical shapes, criss-crossed by the straight lines of empty roads in a region where everybody seems to be moving away – to start a new life in the city. Amidst all these rigid shapes, there’s suddenly a circle: a crop circle in the rice paddies, where two lonesome classmates meet. The secret that Akira and Maki share makes them grow closer. But while bonding, will they still leave a door open to let the outside world ooze in?

Ulja Funk… the name sounds different, cool, almost… funky. Which is not the first impression you get when meeting the film’s main character, a rather nerdy girl with a passion for astronomy and a habit of speaking her mind straightforwardly, directly addressing the camera (and the audience). Her quest now is to travel to Belarus to observe the impact of an asteroid, which she does in a stolen car, with an underage classmate behind the wheel, while being chased by a bunch of religious fanatics. This zany adventure, which cracks a hard nut with the hypocrisy of organised religion, is the opening film of this year’s Zlin Film Festival.

When you see 12-year-old Ali handling his business in the streets of Tehran, you’re looking at a boy who walks and talks like a grown man. He and his friends work and live like adults. One day they are hired for an important task; it is said that a treasure is hidden in an underground river underneath a school building. It’s only by enrolling into that school that they might be able to get their hands on the valuable goods. But for a child labourer like Ali, a school might be a more adventurous and thrilling environment than the city streets.

Jonna, a well-behaved orphan girl, dreams of finding a mother. That wish might come true when one day a gorilla comes knocking, asking to adopt her. The situation doesn’t seem ideal at first, but ultimately the two have great times together. The odd couple naturally arouses suspicion among the decent citizens of town, but Jonna and Gorilla gracefully challenge their prejudices, in a moving Swedish animated film by Linda Hambäck. Although Jonna is brave enough to drive a car, the story begins… with a bicycle!

When your father is a clown, does that mean your life is about nothing but fun and laughter? Not for 12-year-old Laura. She is a good student, a well-organised kid, and she dreams of a more steady lifestyle instead of this hectic, nomadic caravan existence. For Bill it is not easy to accept how his daughter has her own dreams to fulfil, that might greatly differ from his own. 

Must you be a film lover to become a filmmaker? If so, Pan Nalin, director of LAST FILM SHOW, must be a total film freak, as this story breathes a passion for cinema through every image. Once 9-year-old Samay has picked up the taste of film, he sneaks inside the theatre every day. He even infects his gang of friends with the cinema virus, and together they try to construct a film projector. Only his father, the owner of a tiny tea stall at the local train station, is not happy with his plans and Samay has to take several beatings to cure him of the cinema disease. LAST FILM SHOW invites you to a cinema in the Indian countryside, where the audience – chanting and clapping – actively take part in every screening.