The 7th ION INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - ISTANBUL, TURKEY
| Feature
FILMS
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| Homecoming (France) Paul Berling is suffering from a grave kidney disease. When he returns to his native village in France in order to seek out help from his brother, he discovers that the home he left isn't what it used to be. |
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Littlerock: (USA) When her car breaks down on a site-seeing tour of California, a Japanese student winds up stranded in a small desert town. Exhilarated by a sudden sense of freedom, she extends her stay and finds friendship, romance, and what promises to be a new home. But as she pulls back the layers on this unlikely paradise, she discovers a different America than the one in her dreams. |
As If I Am Not There (Ireland)
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| Humanitarian FILMS | |
| Problema, Germany A cinematic adaptation of The Table of Free Voices, the world's largest round table event, this is a film about the important questions that confront humanity today and the attempts of a diverse and radiant assembly of human beings to confront these questions. PROBLEMA brings together a unique combination of talking heads footage and amazing visual collage that will hopefully inspire all that watch. |
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Out of Cordoba, Palestine and Spain OUT OF CORDOBA: AVERROES AND MAIMONIDES is a feature documentary film about Jews and Muslims struggling for social justice and against the hijacking of their religions by extremists. Inspired by two medieval 'wise men of Cordoba' — one Muslim, the other a Jew — these contemporary people of faith are promoting the values of democracy and tolerance on the frontlines of the often-violent clashes that have come to define our new century. The film tells the story of the film's director, an American Jew, who undertakes a journey around the Mediterranean after the attacks of 9/11, visiting Spain, Morocco, France, Italy, Egypt, Palestine, and Israel. He meets people who are utilizing their religious traditions to challenge the propositions — advanced by several neo-conservative pundits — that there is an inevitable "clash of civilizations" between the West and the Muslim world, an incompatibility between Islam and democracy, and an unsolvable conflict between Muslims and Jews. |
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The Battle of Durban II, USA The documentary film THE BATTLE OF DURBAN II: ISRAEL, PALESTINE & THE UNITED NATIONS examines how the longstanding, seemingly intractable conflict between Israel and Palestine disrupted two successive United Nations World Conferences --leaving hundreds of millions of victims of racism and discrimination voiceless, and their stories unheard. |
| SHORT
FILMS
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| Pyramids of Athens, Greece Metaxourgeio: a multicultural neighborhood in Athens. In between an Egyptian coffee shop, a Chinese restaurant and brothels, a mysterious group of young boys and girls appears and enters the orange building across the street. It's the same building where young immigrant Egyptian Ismael sleeps illegally every night. He feels threatened and abandons his home. He spies from the coffee shop across the street where he works, in order to discover the identity of the mysterious group. He can't believe his eyes! |
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Scent, England A quiet, sensitive and poignant film, Scent aims to explore themes of love, death and denial through a delicate observation of heart breaking, yet intriguing situations. |
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Open Air, USA In an unnamed conflict in an unnamed country, two women, DREENA, ('Munich's' Lynn Cohen), and Anna, (Agata Domanska) struggle to maintain some form of normality in their lives, all the while trapped from fleeing their homes due to an unseen sniper, who keeps the two women forever on guard. |
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Point Zero, Germany What if fortune could be planned? If you were able to fulfill any of you desires – provided you were prepared to suffer? The students Lenny and Daniel try to find an answer to these questions, following the absurd theory that you only have to expose yourself to accidents in order to gain happiness. But unfortunately this theory claims a steady stream of victims. |
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Bad Language, Australia A little bit of Greece survives in the Kafenios of suburban Australia; illegal gambling houses that are a cross between a men's club, mafia den and a nursing home. When Bill (19yo) is forced to take over the Kafenio, Kosta sees an opportunity to make a fast buck off the Kid, just so long as he can keep his cool, his wife at bay and the cops on side. |
| Documentary | |
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Not an Illusion, Iran Sara Naieni who is a young Iranian singer who has been prevented from pursuing a career as a singer as a result of the laws which were introduced into Iran after the 1979 revolution. These laws don't allow women to sing in public, other than under very tightly regulated rules – such as when singing as backing vocals. Sara started to work as part of the rock band Piccolo, one of the alternative bands on the music scene in Tehran. |
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Little Alien: Documentary, Austria They are teenagers who fled crisis regions and undertook an extremely dangerous journey to Europe, all alone, hoping for one thing: to live. After arriving here, they fight to live normal lives, struggling against a system that demands they sacrifice their youth to an uncertain future. |
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Barbershop Punk , USA. (Special Preview Screening) Barbershop Punk contemplates the future of the American Internet and the Net Neutrality debate bearing witness to the importance of independent voice and thought. It follows the personal journey of Barbershop Quartet fan Robb Topolski as he takes on the nation's largest cable company and finds himself at the center of a Federal investigation. |
| AnimatioN | |
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A Purpleman, South Korea It's a documentary animation of Hyuck Kim born in North Korea. He had been tortured in a prison. He, however, succeed in escaping North Korea and lives in South Korea. This is the story of Hyuck Kim's life as a North Korean defector in South Korea, which has nothing to do with any political issue. |
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Cheez...z, USA This story is about Yamasaki, an old man who tries to take a nice picture of Warbie, a little bird. The problem is that Yamasaki is too slow for this tricky bird. The main inspiration for this film happened when I encountered an adorable old man with a smiling face. He was holding his old camera in the warm afternoon at the Japan Town area of San Francisco. I designed the characters to make them appealing, familiar and touching. I also created more of an artistic style by painting all the textures and using a mix of shading and lighting techniques. |
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The Smallest Thing, Canada A man in an empty world comes upon a flower and discovers its value. Things with greater volumes are needed, understanding the importance of smaller objects. |
| Student Film | |
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Ikilem (DILEMMA), Canada Gafur — an extreme Muslim who was brought up to view all aspects of earthly life as an investment in the afterlife. He runs into a streetwalker who looks exactly like his wife (if she were to wear make-up and seductive clothing). He takes a second glance, and, in horror, realizes that the woman could truly be his wife's identical twin. After a period of spiritual struggle, Gafur considers this a sign from God and decides to take on the mission of "saving" this woman from her perverted and sinful life. Stepping out of his secluded life, he spends time with the identical twin and experiences the outside world for the first time. This experience slowly drives Gafur into delusion and paranoia. |
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The Slipping Stone, USA The Slipping Stone delves into the mind of a young teen, Falen, trying to cope with a tragedy. When all hope seems lost, she happens upon a mysterious object, The Slipping Stone, one evening in her secret hideaway. The film explores the inner workings of Falen as she tries to understand her life while it is being completely turned around. |
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Eros, USA A child's perception of his parent's lack of intimacy leads him to construct a machine to make them fall in love. |
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The Year I Was Born, USA Joshua, a melancholy guitarist, abandons his life and his music after his fiance leaves him. He soon meets Ally, a young vagabond traveler in search of the only possession she cares about, her father's guitar. Her journey becomes his as she whisks Joshua across Los Angeles to the shores of Malibu awakening him to the world he had abandoned. |
| Music Video | |
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Mojo's Back, France A music video who is based on work about the limit of space and time in the same time. The split screen is a base for this experimentation. |
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At the Park, Australia Everyday a lone girl enters the forest armed with only an old blue saucer of milk form her satchel. Will she ever lure in the creature she lost? |
