LMFF 2019
FILM LIST
Here is the list of confirmed films presented at LMFF 2019.
To know more about the full programme of LMFF 2019 please visit our programme page.
Features
ÁGA, 2018 (Bulgaria, Germany, France)
In a yurt on the snow-covered fields of the North, Nanook and Sedna live following the traditions of their ancestors. But way of life starts changing - slowly and inevitably. Hunting becomes more and more difficult, the animals around them die from inexplicable deaths and the ice is melting earlier every year. Chena, who visits them regularly, is their only connection to the outside world – and to their daughter Ága, who has left the icy tundra a long time ago.
Director: Milko Lazarov
Length: 24min
Where and When: SOAS, Thursday 28 November, 7:10pm
ARAB BLUES, 2019 (France, Tunisia)
After years abroad in Paris, Selma returns ‘home’ to Tunis to set up a psychoanalysis practice to help local citizens cope with the stress of the post-Arab Spring cultural and social changes.
Director: Manele Labidi
Length: 1h 28min
Where and When: Genesis Cinema, Friday 29 November, 6:30pm
TRANSIT, 2018 (Germany, France)
In today’s France, Germans are hunted by the police and brutally arrested. Georg manages to flee Paris, and to secure an escape to Mexico. While he is waiting for his time to leave, he is confined to the corridors of a small hotel, the consulates, cafés and bars that line the harbour. But everything changes when Georg falls in love with the mysterious Marie.
A metaphysical mystery about identity - and a dream of something that happened long ago, or something yet to come…
Director: Christian Petzold
Length: 1h 41min
Where and When: Genesis Cinema, Saturday 30 November, 4:30pm
RAMEN SHOP, 2018 (Singapore, Japan)
Masato, a young ramen chef, leaves his hometown in Japan to embark on a culinary journey to Singapore to find out the truth about his past. And in doing so he uncovers a lot more than family secrets and delicious recipes.
Director: Eric Khoo
Length: 1hr 30min
Where and when: Genesis Cinema, Saturday 30 November, 7:00pm
THE FLOOD, 2019 (UK)
Wendy, a hardened ‘Home Office’ caseworker, is offered a high-profile asylum case based on her ability to quickly and clinically reject applicants. Through her interview, she must uncover whether Haile is lying and has a more sinister reason for seeking asylum. We follow Haile on his perilous 5,000km journey over oceans, across borders, and amidst the flurry of the Calais Jungle to seek safety in the UK.
Director: Anthony Woodley
Length: 1h 39min
Where and When: Genesis Cinema, Sunday 1 December, 3:50pm
BANGLA, 2019 (Italy)
Phaim is a 20something guy living in Rome with his Bengali family. While is mum dreams of moving to London and his sister is planning to get married, Phaim falls in love with a girl from a posh Roman family.
A romantic comedy where the protagonist has to navigate multiple identities and make choices about the kind of person he wants to be.
Director: Phaim Bhuiyan
Length: 1h 24min
Where and When: Genesis Cinema, Sunday 1 December, 6:30pm
BOY AND THE WORLD, 2013 (Brazil)
One boy lives a life of quiet wonder, exploring all that the countryside has to offer. But his cozy life is shattered when his father leaves for the city, prompting him to embark on a quest to reunite his family. The young boy’s journey unfolds like a tapestry, the animation taking on greater complexity and variety as his small world expands.
This stunningly animated film depicts a clash between village and city, hand crafted and mechanised, rich and poor - and throughout the tumult, the heart and soul of the people beats on as a song.
For children ages 5 and up
Director: Ale Abreu
Length: 1h 20min
Where and When: Upstairs at the Ritzy, Sunday 1 December, 12:00 noon
CHEZ JOLIE COIFFURE, 2018 (Belgium)
Enter the Jolie Coiffure hair salon in the Matonge district of Brussels, where charismatic owner Sabine presides over customers' flirting, gossiping, and harrowing tales of immigration. And behind it all, despite having been in Belgium for almost a decade, Sabine herself is still awaiting a decision on her asylum claim.
Director: Rosine Mbakam
Length: 1hr 10min
Where and when: Upstairs at the Ritzy, Monday 2 December, 6:15pm
BORDER SOUTH, 2019 (Guatemala, Mexico, USA)
The filmmaker spent four years following migrant routes from southern Mexico to the US - Mexico border, where years of tightening controls have pushed people onto ever more precarious routes. The result is a close-up, nuanced and highly original view of the migrant experience, one fraught with risk and danger but also camaraderie, ingenuity and humour.
Director: Raul O. Paz Pastrana
Length: 1h 28min
Where and When: SOAS, Monday 2 December, 7.00pm
THE FAREWELL, 2019 (USA, China)
Billi is a young woman living in New York who moved to America from China with her parents when she was a child. Her family returns to China under the guise of a fake wedding to stealthily say goodbye to their beloved matriarch -- the only person that doesn't know she only has a few weeks to live.
Director: Lulu Wang
Length: 1h 40min
Where and When: Genesis Cinema, Monday 2 December, 6:30pm
MIDNIGHT TRAVELLER, 2019 (Afghanistan, Serbia, Hungary, Germany)
When the Taliban puts a bounty on Afghan director Hassan Fazili’s head, he is forced to flee with his wife and two young daughters. Entirely filmed using just two mobile phone, the film captures the uncertain journey that over the course of three years takes the family from Tajikistan to Europe. In his film Fazili poetically shows firsthand the dangers facing refugees seeking asylum and the love shared between a family on the run.
Director: Hassan Fazili
Length: 1h 30min
Where and When: Genesis Cinema, Tuesday 3 December, 6:30pm
CONGO CALLING, 2019 (DR Congo, Germany, Belgium)
In crisis-ridden Goma, eastern Congo, three Europeans are forced to question their roles as charity workers, researchers and members of a community. Deeply personal insights into coexistence and cooperation between Europe and Africa – and the question: how helpful is the help of the Global North?
Director: Stephan Hilpert
Length: 1h 30min
Where and when: SOAS, Tuesday 3 December, 7:00pm
LINGUA FRANCA, 2019 (USA)
Olivia, an undocumented Filipino transwoman, works as a caregiver to Olga, an elderly Russian woman, in Brooklyn. When Olivia runs out of options to attain legal status in the US, she becomes romantically involved with Alex, Olga's adult grandson, in the pursuit of a marriage-based green card.
Director: Isabel Sandoval
Length: 1hr 29min
Where and when: The Lexi, Tuesday 3 December, 6:30pm
FARMING, 2018 (UK)
Based on his own life story, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's ‘Farming’ charts the extraordinary journey of, Enitan, a young Nigerian boy fostered, or ‘farmed out’ in 1980s Essex.
Caught between two worlds and belonging to neither, Enitan’s need for love and acceptance is exploited by the adults in his life, transforming a sweet boy into a teenage menace, and slowly drawing him into the very skinhead gang that abused him.
Director: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Length: 1h 41min
Where and when: The Lexi, Wednesday 4 December, 6:30pm
ANBESSA, 2019 (Ethiopia)
Ten year old Asalif and his mother have been displaced from their farmland on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by the construction of condominiums. Asalif uses his most fantastic and powerful persona to stand up to his country’s dream of “progress”. But finally he must find his strength as a boy, and shed his persona, in order to deal with the tides of change and violence that are usurping in his community, his country, and his own identity.
Director: Mo Scarpelli
Length: 1h 25min
Where and When: Curzon Bloomsbury, Wednesday 4 December, 6:30pm
ONLINE PROGRAMME
GRANDMOTHER, 2019 (UK)
‘Grandmother’ tells the story of migration through the faces that you might not associate with the anger and hatred that fuels British news and politics: the faces of granny, naniji and baba - three ordinary grandmothers. Step into their worlds, and understand the story of the UK via their stories.
Director: Heather Dirckze, Charanpreet Khaira, Melina Campos
Length: 6min
Where and when: Anytime on our online programme
SCENES FROM A MIGRANTHOOD, 2019 (Sweden)
Simon won't tell Akif about his secret mushroom spot, so Akif follows him into the forest and hunts him down with his rifle. The real Simon is not sure whether this is good art, nor if it's a good idea to make a film where a young Afghan refugee wants to kill a Swede. Akif's answer is a sardonic poem he's written at a poetry workshop about his brother who's no longer with us.
Director: Roozbeh Behtaji, Jovid Eisai
Length: 10min
Where and when: Anytime on our online programme
THE DEAD DIE ONCE, 2019 (USA, Syria)
Based on a short story by Syrian writer Jehan Sayed Issa, ‘The Dead Die Once’ centres on a young refugee living in the U.S. whose evening routine is transformed by the power of memory. When her kitchen radio picks up familiar voices demanding freedom, she is drawn into a place where food can unite friends and family across time and space.
Director: Max McGillivray and Alex Morelli
Written by: Jehan Sayed Issa
Length: 8min
Where and when: Anytime on our online programme
PRACTICAL DREAMS, 2019 (UAE)
‘Practical Dreams’ is an experimental documentary mosaic which showcases and at the same time calls for a reevaluation of one’s own life choices. Through contemplative voice over, long landscape shots of Dubai, and the unyielding stares of its residents, the piece allows its viewers into the world of UAE-based architect, and expat, Antony, while at the same time giving space for his individual, introspective journey for the duration of the film.
Director: Yulia Piskuliyska
Length: 10min
Where and when: Anytime on our online programme
shorts
SCIROCCO, 2019 (Tunisia)
Based on the findings of investigative research in Tunis, the film portrays the story of one, to show the impact of deportation policies on migrants crossing the Mediterranean in search for a better life.
Director: Hannah Kirmes-Daly, Leonard Ermel, David L. Suber
Length: 5min
Where and when: Genesis Cinema, Friday 29 November, 6:30pm
Screened with: Arab Blues
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THE MONSTERS, 2019 (France)
Petru, Lilou, Esther and Baisengour are between six and nine years old. And today it’s Halloween in a school in Paris.
We take the monsters out of the closet, draw them, line by line, to try to tame them. Trapped on paper, others come to life for a day in costume, neither quite real nor quite imaginary.
Can we have fun with what terrified us?
Director: Camille Piazzo
Length: 12min
Where and when: Genesis Cinema, Friday 29 November, 6:30pm
Screened with: Arab Blues
LORD FALAFEL, 2019 (UK)
This is Muhammad Alhussein's story. A story about what matters most in life: freedom, family, finding a new home - and food.
Director: Leeya Mirza
Length: 3min
Where and when: Genesis Cinema, Saturday 30 November, 7:00pm
Screened with: Ramen Shop
GOLDEN BOAT, 2019 (Canada)
Inside a derelict warehouse in the middle of a salt pan, people from around the world are waiting to be taken to a mysterious place that promises a better life.
Director: Kristin Li and Clayton Beugeling
Length: 13min
Where and when: Genesis Cinema, Sunday 1 December, 4:30pm
Screened with: Transit
TERRA!, 2019 (Italy)
A film that suggests sailing to a land of dreams, unfulfilled hopes and promises.
Director: Selene Citron and Luca Lunardi
Length: 3min
Where and when: Where and When: Genesis Cinema, Sunday 1 December, 3:50pm
Screened with: The Flood
ROSSO : LA VERA STORIA FALSA DEL PESCATORE CLEMENTE, 2019 (Italy)
Clemente is an old Sicilian fisherman who goes on working in spite of his old age. His life is disrupted the day he finds a young refugee’s dead body stuck in the fishnets.
Director: Antonio Messana
Length: 29min
Where and When: Genesis Cinema, Sunday 1 December, 3:50pm
Screened with: The Flood
ARTICLE 50, 2019 (UK)
A dark comedy that explores how a very "Hard Brexit" indeed could affect personal relationships in the not too distant future.
Director: Marcus J. Richardson
Length: 11min
Where and When: Upstairs at the Ritzy, Sunday 1 December, 2:00pm
Screened with: EU shorts
HUMAN MACHINE, 2019 (UK)
Human Machine provides a poetic look into how systematic inequality plays a role in the increase of automation, immigration and nationalism. Focusing on stories from those at the heart of these issues the film explores the connecting and dividing factors between the people on either side of our interlinking stories.
Director: Sam Gladstone South
Length: 20min
Where and When: Upstairs at the Ritzy, Sunday 1 December, 2:00pm
Screened with: EU shorts
QUEEN CROCODILE, 2019 (Belgium)
Rayna is a Bulgarian prostitute, working in Brussels’ Red Light District. One night, she shares a mystical and sexual moment with an African client, who dies shortly after. But this night will haunt her…
Director: Charles Habib-Drouot
Length: 29min
Where and When: Upstairs at the Ritzy, Sunday 1 December, 2:00pm
Screened with: EU shorts
THE DRY VALLEY, 2019 (Romania)
A portrait of a Romanian village and its inhabitants. For the Roma of Valea Seaca, Northern Europe has become a second home. Many travel regularly across Europe to earn money for their families at home, often through begging or street work. Two Norwegian filmmakers embark on a journey through the village in search for traces of Scandinavia. An unexpected and poetic portrayal of the effects of migration on those who leave and those who stay behind.
Director: Johanne Sandvik
Length: 29min
Where and When: Upstairs at the Ritzy, Sunday 1 December, 2:00pm
Screened with: EU shorts