38th Manaki Brothers Film Festival (23-30 September 2017)

An experimental film about that one hypnotic moment on a regular, unassuming Tuesday when one realizes that time has stopped and the universe has been sucked into a single smile.

Multiple stories of taxi drivers while they work one night.

The main character, the Waitress, sees people on the breakdown (or breakthrought?) and absorbs it all. One by one, through their personal drama, the clients push her towards her own edge.

A journey through the preparation and hardworking process of ballet dancers and musicians for a unique spectacle in Tokio that Béjart choreographed with the Ninth symphony of Beethoven. Béjart ballet dances with Tokio ballet and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Israel. A marvellous combination of dancers movements and expression of different feelings along the four movements of the symphony with absolute elegance and strength.

A historical fiction drama and thriller set in the turbulent period of the late 1920s in the Balkans as a place where high politics, local interests, capital and crime all merge together.

Janina Duszejko, an elderly woman, lives alone in the Klodzko Valley where a series of mysterious crimes are committed. Duszejko is convinced that she knows who or what is the murderer, but nobody believes her.

A series of comedic and nostalgic vignettes set in a 1930s Italian coastal town.

In a classroom newly arrived refugees learn a lesson about multifarious Europe. Operating at the intersection of fiction and documentary, Stranger in Paradise reflects on the power relations between Europeans and refugees in a candid fashion.

The story of those who are going through suffering, struggle, loss and despair, trying to find their way out of the depths.

JOHANNES lives together with his father, the middle-aged widower ULRIK in a small fishing town in the northern part of Denmark. They live a quiet routine life, each minding their separate jobs in the fishing industry. Ulrik misses the love and tenderness of a woman and arranges for the young, beautiful, Filipino ROSITA to come to Denmark - just as many other men in the town have done before him. Johannes is reluctantly drawn into this as Ulrik's translator. However, over the following weeks Johannes and Rosita are getting more and more attracted to each other which forces Johannes to take responsibility for his dreams and his future.

The mini beetle Mini appears in a flea circus together with Egon and Dagmar. The flea-girl Miranda bullies Mini and tricks him into interfering in Dagmar's line dancing, making her fall and sprain her foot. Deeply ashamed, Mini runs away and meets a gang of robbers. The gang is led by the brutal beetle, Basse, who orders Mini to break into the bees' honey stock. But the bee-soldiers catch him, and he is sentenced to life-long hard labour. Meanwhile, Miranda regrets her bullying of Mini and together with Mini, who has managed to escape, and their brave friends the ants, they succeed in recovering Egon's beloved racing bike which has been stolen by the robbers.

The film is inspired by true events and centers on a young journalist, who goes to Transylvania together with a French TV crew led by a top reporter, to deal with a case of a young prostitute repatriated from France.

An intimate portrait of a peasant-turned oil painter transitioning from making copies of iconic Western paintings to creating his own authentic works of art.

Zeko, a barber and a former fighter with PTSD, calls his brother Braco and his friend Svaba at Bajram. He intends to use the holiday mood and change his brother, gambler and alcoholics.

Katja's life collapses after the deaths of her husband and son in a bomb attack. After a time of mourning and injustice, Katja seeks revenge.

The story of three men in search for meaning and happiness in the autumn of their lives.

Famed swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac is in love with his cousin Roxane. He has never expressed his love for her as he his large nose undermines his self-confidence. Then he finds a way to express his love to her, indirectly.

The ghost of a dead man strives to find his other half.

In the last hours before the delivery, a pregnant woman is anxiously seeking for support from her current married lover, while rejecting the biological father of her yet unborn baby. After the baby is born, she realizes she lacks a real bond with any of the two men, and she feels incapable to embrace the transition to motherhood.

Synopsis The short movie "Conversation on life" represents a reconstruction of an event that happened to the movie hero, the writer himself, Vulnet during his youth. Vulnet describes his life story to his grandson Arbresh, who after many attempts manages to prepare an adorable surprise for his grandfather. Arbresh invites his grandfather to a joint trip to Kicevo and convinces him that this train journey will help him to return back to his writings and become again an idol to the young readers. During the journey we get familiar with the life story of Vulnet, in particular the event that occurred long time ago in 1974. Vulnet as young writer loved the nature where he found inspirations. In fact, the nature enabled him to meet the girl that changed his life.

A young priest, who has devoted his life to the church and has sworn an oath of celibacy, is tempted to break his vows as the world is about to end.

The inhabitants of a small village in a backward area of Macedonia earn their living by sending their men abroad in search of employment. Three young girls, named Elica, Maria and Nikolina live and work as schoolteachers in the village. Each of them try to make sense of their lives, in that situation where it is imposed on them. In the village the greatest problem is the supply of water. Spring water is carried by Marko from the distant mountains Marko is falls in love with the poor girl Kate. The monotonous peasant life is dispelled with the arrival of a group of mining engineers who come to do some research. The one engineer, named Victor is among them and he attracts the schoolteacher Maria's attention. The return of Trandafil, the old man working abroad, Kate's uncle, is a special event in the village's life. The destiny of a great number of the inhabitants depends on the wealth of the uncle returned from America. However there is no place for faith and hope as the uncle returns with no earnings at all.

Iqbal and Sille are best friends and have always lived next door to each other. Their street must undergo urban regeneration and Easelman and The Swine will unluckily be in charge of the project. For the construction project is in fact a cover to get their hands on the oil they have discovered beneath Blågårdsgade. Iqbal and Sille must now fight against the villains and get the money to buy back their building, so they don't have to move away from each other. When Iqbal discovers a chip with magic energy, the kids manage to convince Easelman and The Swine to buy the chip so they can reclaim their building. But the villains deceive the children, and now Iqbal, Sille and the grown-ups in Blågårdsgade must put in every effort to retrieve the chip and expose the villains' secret plan.

Unwanted by her mother, Viktoria is being born with no umbilical cord and doesn't need Boryana until the hardships of life bind them together.

While the left idea conceived by Karl Marx gains popularity around the world, a country from the former Socialist block is torn apart by Communist apparatchiks and informers. 25 years after the fall of Communism a young Bulgarian opens her Grandad's Secret Service file to unravel the past and find answers to why the Socialist idea had failed so badly in reality. When reading the file entitled "Beast" she realizes that the Red Beast has never left Bulgaria. In a semi-mystic dialogue with her Granddad, visualized with animated sequences she restores the collective memory of generations so far apart.