Nominated Films 2021
Apples
Amidst a world-wide pandemic that causes sudden amnesia, middle-aged Aris finds himself enrolled in a recovery programme designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities. Prescribed daily tasks on cassette tapes so he can create new memories and document them on camera, Aris slides back into ordinary life, meeting Anna, a woman who is also in recovery. Through images deadpan, strange and surreal, Greek writer-director Christos Nikou posits a beguiling reflection on memory, identity, and loss, exploring how a society might handle an irreversible epidemic through one man’s story of self-discovery. Are we the sum of the images we compile and display of ourselves, or are we something richer, and deeper?
Flee
Amin Nawabi (a pseudonym), a 36-year-old high-achieving academic, grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, one that threatens to derail the life he has built for himself and his soon to be husband. Recounted mostly through animation to director Jonas Poher Rasmussen — his close friend and high-school classmate, he tells for the first time the story of his extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan. Through heartfelt interviews between Jonas and Amin, FLEE tells an unforgettable story of self-discovery. Showing how only by confronting the past it is possible to carve out a future, and the universal truth that only when you stop fleeing from who you are you can find the true meaning of home.
Great Freedom
In post-war Germany Hans is imprisoned again and again for being homosexual. Due to paragraph 175 his desire for freedom is systematically destroyed. The one steady relationship in his life becomes his long time cell mate, Viktor, a convicted murderer. What starts as revulsion grows into something called love.
Happening
Adapted from Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel, HAPPENING recounts the journey of a young woman’s physical and emotional battle to access illegal abortion in a desperate race against the clock. A powerful and gripping drama set in a society that condemned female desire and sexual liberty.
Quo vadis, Aida?
Bosnia, 11 July 1995. Aida is a translator for the United Nations in the small town of Srebrenica. When the Serbian army takes over the town, her family is among the thousands of citizens looking for shelter in the UN camp. As an insider to the negotiations, Aida has access to crucial information that she needs to interpret. What is at the horizon for her family and people - rescue or death? Which move should she take?