11 June 2012

The organizers of the third VOICES Fetival announced the competition program.

The list includes the debuts of and the second films of young european film-directors:

"Avalon", (Axel Petersén)

Party organizer Janne has just reunited with his former business partner Klas, and is looking forward to the launch of their new high-end night club, Avalon. Janne is constantly accompanied by his recently divorced older sister Jackie, who serves as a kind of Greek chorus/family historian, recounting her brother’s peripatetic career as a nightclub owner, realtor and general man about town. The good times seem to have returned, but when an unfortunate catastrophe occurs, Janne’s chance to relive the eighties may be permanently put on hold. And he soon discovers that Klas isn’t the fun-loving impresario they remember — he has friends and funders who aren’t exactly the forgiving kind.

"Extraterrestre", (Nacho Vigalondo)

Strangers Julio and Julia wake up beside one another in Julia’s apartment, groggy, hun¬gover and unsure how they met. Julia is about to send Julio on his way when both notice the uncanny silence gripping Julia’s downtown neighbourhood. Looking out the window, they see Madrid’s skyline dot-ted with enormous spaceships. The only other person left in the building is Julia’s fawning and somewhat creepy neighbour, Ángel, who explains that there’s been an exodus of people flee¬ing the city. When Julia’s boyfriend Tipo shows up — having now shifted into survivalist mode — the dynam¬ics between the four reach heady extremes. Attempting to hide their apparent one-night stand, Julia and Julio convince Tipo that Ángel is an alien and must be ejected.

"Gilty", (Vincent Garenq)

The investigation of the corrupt judicial system under which Alain Marécaux and his wife Edith were arrested on accusations of pedophilia and the years he spent fighting to get out of prison, clear his name and keep his family.

"Combat girls", (David F. Wnendt)

Marisa, a 20-year-old German girl, hates foreigners, Jews, cops, and everyone she finds guilty for the decline of her country. She provocates, drinks, fights and her next tattoo will be a portrait of Adolf Hitler. The only place she feels home is the Neo-Nazi gang she belongs to, where hate, violence, and heavy parties are the daily rules. When 14-year-old Svenja joins the group, Marisa appears like a role model to her: she fits the purest idea of a combat girl fighting for the group's ideology. But Marisa's convictions will slowly evolve when she accidentally meets a young Afghan refugee. Confronted to him, she will learn that the black and white principles of her gang are not the only way. Will Marisa ever be able to get out of this group?

"Hemel", (Sasha Polak)

Hemel changes her sexual partners at an even quicker pace than her father Gijs changes his girlfriends. Since the death of the mother, the father and daughter have had an unusually close, at times even overly intimate relationship which tolerates no real commitment in their respective affairs. When Gijs dumps his girlfriend Emma at a party, Hemel’s “secret” triumph is written all over her face. She is thus all the more shaken when her father falls in love with Sophie for real, who Hemel snidely refers to as “her new mother” and who is now to move in with them. Tinged with empathy and sadness, HEMEL takes a painfully precise look at the life of a troubled young woman who uses her sexuality to provoke in a scathingly aggressive manner but ends up doing the most damage to herself.

Dutch director Sacha Polak’s debut film plays with the associations that arise from its protagonist’s name. The sky is not always blue in this film, whose carefully considered colour scheme registers the subtle changes in this vulnerable human being’s existence. Cloudy to overcast with occasional sunny periods, frequent thunderous showers.

"A Night too young", (Olmo Omerzu)

Their paths cross unexpectedly on a tobogganing slope on New Year’s Day. It is there that the two boys meet Katerina, a teacher from their school, and her friends David and Stepan, who are on their way back from a somehow unsuccessful New Year’s party in the mountains. They all end up together in Katerina’s flat and the turn of events has it that they all spend the night there. A muted wintry light could still be made out outside just a while ago but now, under the cover of darkness, an unsettling sense of tension passes through the group. There are other adventures than merely sledging or cartoons awaiting these two boys, who are barely more than children. As if taking part in a ritual, they are permitted to take a glimpse at the adult world. Transgression and lost innocence hang in the air, with the camera searching for traces of this fascination in the close-ups of faces. It’s as if the boys hold up a mirror to the adults, showing them their power games, seductions and yearnings, which are perhaps even more confusing and dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes. The next morning – it’s light outside again – they each go their separate ways, all of them at least one night older.

"Summer of Giacomo", (Alessandro Comodin)

Summer in the north Italian countryside. Giacomo, a deaf teenager of 19, goes to the river with his best friend Stefania for a picnic. Straying from their usual route, they end up getting lost and arrive at a place that is like a little paradise where they are free to be themselves. Over an afternoon, their childhood games take on sensual overtones until they realise that what is happening is no more than the bittersweet memory of an era that is already long lost in the past.

"A House with a tower", (Eva Neyman)

"For Marx", (Svetlana Baskova)

"Piazza Fontana. The Italian Conspiracy"

"Sevetstal" is the general partner of VOICES Festival.