Handle With Care

Trauma can be individual or collective, something inherited from our ancestors or born in the social shifts of the present and grief can last an eternity, tucked away in the secret corners of our self(s). Sometimes cinema can be an escape from the urban landscape that crushes us, from the darkness of our minds, from the shadows of history that haunt us like a stubborn nightmare. The films included in this program analyse the ways in which traumatic experiences influence our existences, exploring at the same time possible mechanisms of resistance and rebellion in the face of collective oppression and individual suffering. In this context, Handle with care becomes an imperative, be it whispered or shouted out loud, that is more necessary than ever. (Andreea Chiper & Oana Ghera)

YAROKAMENA

Andrés Jurado | Duration 21 min

Yakomena's story didn't end with his death: decades after he died, a filmmaker returns to the mythical Colombian fighter to remind us of a lesson about resistance in front of colonialist oppression.

WATCH THE FIRE OF BURN INSIDE IT

Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel | Duration 18 min

To the beat of electronic music, a mysterious figure with a petrol can in her hands wanders across the Corsican plains and, like an ode to the purifying fire, burns everything in her path.

THE SPIRAL

María Silvia Esteve | Duration 19 min.

A WhatsApp audio begins, and with it, a downward spiral unfolds. The voice of a woman sinking into a health anxiety attack, quickly entangles a complex labyrinth of fears and emotions that deal with childhood, family, and the loneliness of “home”.

MANTA RAY

Anton Bialas | Duration 30 min

Three characters live out their own insurgencies in contemporary Paris, in personal rebellions through which they escape beyond the rules of an increasingly hostile city.

IT’S RAINING FROGS OUTSIDE

Maria Estela Paiso | Duration 14 min

The end of the world is about to end and frogs are raining down from the sky. Maya is back in her childhood home but it no longer feels like home. Overwhelmed by loneliness, isolation and despair, she slips into a fever dream that feels like a horror film screened on the walls of the mind.