In the USSR of the early 1920s – a moment in time encapsulated by an incredible sense of liberation and the prospect of a future to be entirely written which offers a seemingly unlimited freedom to experiment – many young directors make outstanding masterpieces. They are the years of the friendship that links the kindred artistic temperaments of Isaac Babel and Sergei E·isenstein (who work together for years on a number of film projects, from Benya Krik to Beshin Lug, none of which are ever realised). From the starting point of this partnership, through great films and small discoveries, this section takes a look at a bloody historical moment (from the 1905 Revolution to Stalin’s regime of terror) that was interwoven with the destinies of great Ukrainian and Russian artists such as Vertov and Mikhoels, as well as Grossman and Askoldov, the direct heirs to Babel. But above all, it is an homage the city of Odesa, a famous location in the history of cinema, and to the Ukrainian productions of the VUFKU during that brief glimmer of freedom from 1924 to 1929.

Curated by Mariann Lewinsky

Mikio Naruse is known to the world as the fourth master of classical Japanese cinema, alongside Ozu, Mizoguchi and Kurosawa. Yet with the exception of one or two canonical titles, his pre-war films have been neglected. This programme focuses on a crucial five-year period in his career (1935-39), when he worked at the newly established P.C.L. film studio and its successor, Toho. There, he made use of the most advanced studio technology available in Japan, as well as novel styles of lighting and cinematography adapted from Hollywood, to create brilliant explorations of Japanese modernity. He engaged with metropolitan life, and developed his sustained interest in the place and role of women in Japanese society. Audiences accustomed to the sombre, resigned tone and stylistic understatement of Naruse’s postwar cinema will be startled by the passion, vitality and experimentation of his earlier work. Filled with rare gems, this programme seeks to reposition Naruse as one of his country’s most important auteurs, both pre- and post-war.

Curated by Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström

A tribute to the once immensely popular Austrian actor-turned-director, who has faded into obscurity today. A consummate craftsman, Willi Forst was a versatile filmmaker who excelled in both dramatic and comedic genres. His films from the 1930s and 1940s, constituting the most accomplished body of work by any director active in Germany during the Nazi era, reveal a profound, almost obsessive love for music. Far from serving as mere background, music permeates every aspect of his work—shaping the plot, influencing the mise-en-scène, and driving the editing. In a Forst film, a single melody can lead to happiness, despair, or even both simultaneously. Remarkably, Forst largely avoided contamination by National Socialist ideology, preserving in his cinema the urbane and sophisticated spirit of the late Weimar Republic while cultivating a darker, more melancholic worldview uniquely his own.

Curated by Lukas Foerster

The 11 restored films in this programme cover a time span from the early 1960s to the mid-1980s within a cinematic topography that places marginality at the centre of its investigation. This year, the focus is on lesser-known voices from the essential period of Latin America liberation cinema and those silenced by the Iranian regime, the repression of the Arab world and colonial violence. Some of this year’s rediscoveries include: Gehenu Lamai by Sinhalese film poet Sumitra Peries; Iranian New Wave’s Postchi and Safar, by masters Dariush Mehrjui and Bahram Beyzaie; La paga (debut film believed to be lost) by Ciro Durán, a key figure in Colombian cinema; São Paulo Sociedade Anônima by Luiz Sergio Person and Uirá, Um Índio Em Busca De Deus by Gustavo Dahl, two faces of Brazilian history between colonialism and industrialization. Last but not least, the previously unseen, longer version of Ghazl el-Banat by Jocelyne Saab and two fundamental Tunisian works: the incendiary Riḥ Es-Sed by the Tunisian master Nouri Bouzid and Al Ôrs by the Nouveau Théâtre Collective. Finally, a new restoration of the Guinean diptych Mortu Nega by Flora Gomes, and O Regresso de Amílcar Cabral by Sana Na N’Hada.

Curated by Cecilia Cenciarelli

From the vaults of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish film archives come the original noirs of the North – the cinematic forerunners of today’s popular Nordic noir TV series. Rarely seen outside Scandinavia, this selection showcases the influence of the genre in melting the seemingly icy surface of life in some remarkable films, such as in Bodil Ipsen’s Danish Melody of Murder (1944) and the Norwegian Death Is a Caress (1949). Speaking of the femme fatale, in the latter movie, the “femme” was also behind the camera, as it was directed by Edith Carlmar, whose style evoked the fatalism of the best of film noir. After the war, Scandinavian countries properly caught up with the Hollywood tradition, and low-key lighting, jarringly unbalanced compositions, and tales of desire and lust ending in disaster paved the way for the formation of Nordic noir. This programme celebrates that legacy by featuring archive 35mm prints and digital restorations.

Curated by Tora Berg, Mikael Braae, Sophie Engberg Sonne and Irene Torp Halvorsen