Elina: As If I Wasn't There
In rural Sweden of the early 1950s, little Elina goes to school again after recovering from tuberculosis, the same illness that has killed her father a few years earlier. Elina's family belongs to Finnish-speaking Finns frowned upon by a staunch schoolmistress who starts hounding Elina for questioning her authority. Elina's mother, sister, and a liberal young male teacher all try to mediate the ensuing battle of wills between Elina and Miss Holm. Elina finds consolation in wandering out on the dangerous marshlands to have imaginary conversations with her dead father. Written by Markku Kuoppamäki
Tuorås Dalska
In the small community of Älvdalen in northern Dalarna, Sweden, the unique language Elfdalian (Älvdalska) is spoken. This documentary follows Ing-Marie's personal story about how it is and has been to live with the Elfdalian language.
The Flaghoisters
When is the moment you think: I'm going to hoist my regional flag? Who are these flaghoisters? And what does it mean to identify with your region? These are questions that filmmaker Okki Poortvliet, theatermaker Hans van der Werf and designer Vera Vos asked. So, they went through the whole of Drenthe, a region in the North of The Netherlands where all three of them grew up, to collect as many stories as possible from hoisters of the flag of Drenthe. The Flaghoisters is a film about the confrontation between the countryside and, as people from Drenthe call it, “the city dwellers”. A story about a disappearing language, the safety of your village, greeting each other, being proud, and just acting "normal".
La rusna pearsa
Conflict of beliefs in a mountain village, mysticism meets bardism, Grisons folklore clashes with imported dogmas. "To get to Schamsertal in the canton of Graubünden, you have to cross a terrifying ravine, jump over waterfalls and pass the lost hole. Only then does the wonderful valley open up before you, this land of milk and honey with its incredible stories."
Echoes
The film reveals the diversity, sound and melody of Romansh, one of Switzerland's four official national languages. In the age of globalization, Romansh, which is only spoken by a small minority, seems to be threatened with extinction. For the protagonists of this poem of images and sounds, however, the language is a symbol of their belonging, their identity and their resistance.
Aloni
A young student heads back to his village during the COVID-19 lockdown to collect ethnographic material for his thesis, but as quarantine stretches on, the rituals and everyday scenes he records start bringing back childhood memories-leading him to piece the footage together into something more personal.