International Film Festival Rotterdam

Sixteen films have been selected for IFFR's Hivos Tiger Awards Competition 2013. The complete lineup, comprising first or second feature films concurring for three equal Hivos Tiger Awards of each 15,000 euro, includes eight world premieres. Five competing films have received support from Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund and three were launched as project at CineMart. Celebrated visual artist and filmmaker Ai Weiwei will join the five member jury from his home in Beijing.

Jury Hivos Tiger Awards Competition 2013

The Jury of the eighteenth Hivos Tiger Awards Competition for first or second films of International Film Festival Rotterdam consists of distinguished Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamedarya who has been banned from acting in film, theatre and television for the past two years; Russian script writer and filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa ( The Revue , My Joy, In the Fog); Dutch filmmaker Kees Hin who directed ninety-five films in his long filmmaking career; José Luis Cienfuegos, currently artistic director of the Seville European Film Festival (Spain) and Chinese visual artist and filmmaker Ai Weiwei, who will not be able to attend the festival and will judge the competition films at home in Beijing.

Sergei Loznitsa’s In the Fog will be screened in Spectrum and the world premiere of his short film Letter will be part of the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films. Ai Weiwei’s documentary Ping’an Yueqing screens as a premiere in Spectrum.

Hivos Tiger Awards Competition for first and second feature films 2013

Noche/Night, Leonardo Brzezicki, Argentina, 2013, 85, World premiere, Hubert Bals Fund-supported film

Six friends return to the big farmhouse in the middle of a subtropical landscape where their best friend Miguel spent his last days. While the sound of his recordings fills the house and gardens, they pack the things he left behind. Brzezicki’s directorial début is a haunting sensorial journey through memories, images and sounds.

Chungmeng/Longing for the Rain, Yang Lina, Hong Kong, 2013, 96, World premiere, Hubert Bals Fund-supported film

Linking several genres in a surprising and successful way, Yang Lin’s fiction feature debut is an Asian ghost story in which documentary scenes show how incongruous today’s reality can look in China. Protagonist Fang Lei lives in material wealth and only has to care for her daughter. One night, a young mysterious lover appears who makes passionate love to her.

Penumbra, Eduardo Villanueva, Mexico, 2013, 89, World premiere, Hubert Bals Fund-supported film

In Penumbra, second feature film by writer, producer and filmmaker Eduardo Villanueva, an experienced old hunter shows his world within a rural Mexico lost in time: a place of suspense and mystery where he creates a fascinating and illusory world together with the spirits of the forest.

A csendesek/Silent Ones, Ricky Rijneke, Netherlands/Hungary, 2013, 97, World premiere, CineMart Project 2009

Rotterdam-based Ricky Rijneke shot her first feature film for a large part in Hungary. A young Hungarian woman (played by Hungarian actress Orsi Tóth) wakes up inside a crashed car in the middle of nowhere, not knowing where her brother Isti is. Upset and alone, she leaves aboard a cargo ship to keep a promise she made to him. Once at sea she withdraws into a dream world and loses grip on her life completely.

De wederopstanding van een klootzak/The Resurrection of a Bastard, Guido van Driel, Netherlands, 2013, 90, World premiere, CineMart Project 2010

The Resurrection of a Bastard, feature debut by visual artist and filmmaker Guido van Driel, is based on his own graphic novel. An original, bleak and sometimes surreal story shot in a compelling , controlled way, Van Driel’s film brings together an old Frisian farmer bent on revenge, an Amsterdam criminal barely surviving a liquidation and an illegal immigrant.

Môj pes Killer/My Dog Killer, Mira Fornay, Slovakia/Czech Republic, 2013, 90, World premiere

My Dog Killer is a one-day drama portraying eighteen-year-old Marek living near the Slovak -Moravian border with his dad and with his racist friends. However Marek’s best true friend is his dog. His life is shaken up when he discovers the secret of his lost mother Marika. Fornay’s first film Foxes (2009) premiered in Venice and was presented in IFFR 2010’s Bright Future.

Sao karaoke/Karaoke Girl, Visra Vichit Vadakan, Thailand, 2013, 74, World premiere

Young sex worker Sa is the protagonist of Visra Vichit Vadakan’s first feature film. Sa was sent to Bangkok when she was just 15. After three years in a factory, she decided to become a sex worker in order to support her family. Four years later Vichit Vadakan met her and invited her to be the subject of this film. She documented her life in the city and in the country and also wrote a fictional script for her to act in. Karaoke Girl is made from these building blocks of real life and fiction.

Dummy Jim, Matt Hulse, United Kingdom, 2013, 90, World premiere, CineMart Project 2007

More than fifty years ago, deaf Scotsman James Duthie cycled from his fishing village to the Arctic cycle. Together with deaf actor / filmmaker Samuel Dore, Matt Hulse set out on the long journey through northern Europe to adapt this story into his first feature film. Hulse mixed fictional and documentary elements into a virtuoso blend: unusual people in fictional Super 8-films, playful animated sequences and archive footage of the era in the countries traversed.

Soldate Jeannette/Soldier Jane, Daniel Hoesl, Austria, 2012, 79, European premiere

Daniel Hoesl makes his directorial debut with Soldate Jeannette after working in the arts for a while and for filmmakers like Ulrich Seidl and Michael Glawogger. Soldate Jeanette, a film with a distinct personal signature, impeccable aesthetics and original narrative, portrays Fanni, a middle-aged woman living a lifestyle that only the most advanced post-postmodern capitalist society can offer: independence, financial speculation, compulsive consumerism, matcha, taekwondo. She meets Anna, an attractive young woman in dire need of reinventing herself. Together, the comrades set out for new horizons, defying all conventions.

Eles voltam/They'll Come Back, Marcelo Lordello, Brazil, 2012, 105, International premiere

Cris, aged 12, and her brother are left at the side of the road by their parents. The punishment quickly turns into an even greater challenge. Marcelo Lordello’s first feature film Eles voltam, as it follows Cris in her attempts to find her way back home, is a modern-day fable through different realities guided by the people that inhabit them.

Su Re/The King, Giovanni Columbu, Italy, 2012, 87, International premiere

Transposing the story of the Passion of Jesus to Sardinia, Su Re draws for the very first time on the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John together. Giovanni Columbu’s distinct view is shot in a landscape unaffected by modernity and played out by an amateur cast, offering still new insights into the life of Christ.

It Felt Like Love, Eliza Hittman, USA, 2013, 80, International premiere

In her debut film, Eliza Hittman sketches a sensitive and often painful portrait of a 14-year-old girl on her way to adulthood. During an uneventful summer on the outskirts of Brooklyn, Lila turns her attentions to Sammy, an older thug she sees at Rockaway beach. Wanting something to brag about, she weaves a story about him and becomes fixated on seeing it realized.

When her attempts fail, she propels the lie even further, claiming they’ve had sex.

Larzanandeye charbi/Fat Shaker, Mohammad Shirvani, Iran, 2013, 85, European premiere, Hubert Bals Fund-supported film

Fat Shaker is no ordinary film - certainly not by Iranian standards. Its maker, Mohammad Shirvani, is an artist who uses powerful and occasionally absurd images. The story is about a fat father who tries to con money from women with his young and attractive yet deaf-and-dumb son. The role of the father is played by Levon Haft, also the striking protagonist in the film Parviz (also in IFFR). As part of IFFR 2013’s thematic program Inside Iran, Mohammad Shirvani has made a special art installation titled Elephant in Darkness.

Halley, Sebastián Hofmann, Mexico, 2012, 85, European premiere, Hubert Bals Fund-supported film

In Halley, protagonist Beto’s days are numbered. He has been dead for years, but can no longer hide the fact. Perfume and make-up don’t help to mask his physical decline; the end is now final for this silent zombie. Sebastián Hofmann shows the world through the eyes of a zombie in decline. His first feature film is a contemporary Gothic story without the spectacle, but with plenty of compassion.

36, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, Thailand, 2012, 68, European premiere

Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit uses 36 shots for his original, crisply-told film about memory and lost digital time. In this light-footed and melancholic feature a location scout loses a year’s worth of her photos. She has the feeling that part of her own memory has been deleted and she does everything to get the photos back. In a playful way, this film tackles the issue of changing memory. Deeply hidden in the broken hard disk is also the picture of a possible lover.

Gozetleme Kulesi/Watchtower, Pelin Esmer, Turkey, 2012, 96, European premiere

After her successful fiction feature debut and Hubert Bals Fund-supported film 10 to 11, Pelin Esmer’s second feature film Watchtower is a profound character study that takes a critical point of view towards conservatism and the patriarchal system. Haunted by a tragic incident, a fire warden has isolated himself in his remote observation tower. Through a series of events, his life and that of a bus station hostess are brought together.