Visions of Europe

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

Perfect Obedience

The fictional Father Ángel de la Cruz is based on Legion of Christ founder Marcial Maciel, whose long history of child abuse was not addressed until 2006 and only publicly acknowledged in 2009. But director Luis Urquiza chooses to structure his film through the largely uncomprehending, wondering eyes of 13-year-old Julián, who travels from the arms of his loving pastoral family into the austere, hallowed halls of the seminary. Singling out the boy as his intimate disciple, installing him in his palatial private quarters and redubbing him “Sacramento Santos,” Father Ángel begins Julian’s instruction into the mysteries of “perfect obedience,” whose cardinal rule is: Never question a superior’s actions.

Two Friendly Ghosts

James Dean and Donald Turnupseed, the man whose car killed Dean, meet again for the first time... at the very same intersection where the accident occurred.

I Am Syd Stone

While shooting a film in a small town, a famous actor puts his personal life and career in jeopardy by starting an intense affair with another man.

Kids

A group of bored, disaffected New York City teenagers spend a day skating, smoking, drinking, partying, deflowering virgins, and getting into fights.

I'm an actrice

Baba, a preteen from Belleville, Paris, must deal with her mother's determination to turn her into an actress.

The Billionaire

A young billionaire of South Asian descent is bound by the conditions set by his beloved, deceased father in order to get married.

Caramel

A teenager comes to terms with his place in the world when he learns of his mother’s immoral past the day before his grandfather’s funeral.

Night Session

When a burglar unexpectedly runs into a homeowner during a theft, the robbery morphs into a makeshift therapy session, with the burglar helping the homeowner process his impending divorce - all while the homeowner helps to rob his own apartment.

Milkshake Girls

After being 'talent scouted' outside of an ice cream store, teen cousins Jess and Stella find themselves enslaved in the illicit world of sex trafficking.

The Lyric

An aspiring singer discovers the lyrics in a song written for her could lead her to the killer of the writer who wrote it.

Sixty Egyptian Pounds

A struggling family is attempting to deal with the consequences of a horrible catastrophe.

In the Shadowlands

Animals

Brahim is a young man, and secretly gay. At his mother’s birthday party, tensions around his unaccepted sexuality become unbearable. Brahim flees the oppressive family home into the night, where a terrible encounter awaits...

The Seagull

After agonizing for weeks, Valéria finally comes to terms with being in love with another woman and confesses her love for her best friend, Laurence. Short film from the series "L'@mour est à réinventer: dix histoires d'amour au temps du SIDA" ("Love Reinvented: Ten Love Stories in the Age of AIDS").

Level 34

Sometimes the story preceding the making of a film is just as important as the work itself. Zach Breder, a young man living with a serious heart defect, had always wanted to shoot a movie and, with the aid of the Georgia Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, he managed to do just that. This adventure story about a boy named Chris who, with the help of his friends, solves the mystery of his eccentric uncle, began as a “mere” dream and ultimately became a professional film which now celebrates its international premiere at the Karlovy Vary IFF.

Harvey's Dream

Inspired by the short story "Harvey's Dream" by Stephen King.

Apt Pupil

One day in 1984, Todd Bowden, a brilliant high school boy fascinated by the history of Nazism, stumbles across an old man whose appearance resembles that of Kurt Dussander, a wanted Nazi war criminal. A month later, Todd decides to knock on his door.

The Wedding Banquet

A Taiwanese-American man is happily settled in New York with his American boyfriend. He plans a marriage of convenience to a Chinese woman in order to keep his parents off his back and to get the woman a green card. Chaos follows when his parents arrive in New York for the wedding.

Code_Switch

After tragedy strikes, a meek Ruby Oliver enters a broken VR game for a last chance to see the dead. Little does she know that this game treats all girls as a virus as she fights to save herself.

Holding the Man

Tim and John fell in love while teenagers at their all-boys high school. John was captain of the football team, Tim an aspiring actor playing a minor part in Romeo and Juliet. Their romance endured for 15 years in the face of everything life threw at it – the separations, the discrimination, the temptations, the jealousies and the losses – until the only problem that love can't solve tried to destroy them.

The Cure

Erik, a loner, finds a friend in Dexter, an eleven-year-old boy with AIDS. They vow to find a cure for AIDS together and save Dexter's life in an eventful summer.

An Englishman in New York

Biographical drama based on the last 20 years of Crisp's life. The literary figure and gay iconoclast emigrated to New York in 1981 and lived there until his death. The film observes Crisp in both his public and private lives, from his seemingly cavalier response to the outbreak of AIDS to his tender relationship with his friend Patrick Angus and his own response to growing old.

Love! Valour! Compassion!

A group of gay friends spend summer weekends together at a lakeside house in upstate New York. As the season progresses and secrets begin to surface, the complex relationships within the group are sometimes strained and sometimes strengthened.

And the Band Played On

The story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.

Flow

A filmmaker talks about his work and love life with an unseen friend behind the camera. We also watch four of his short films.

Philadelphia

Two competing lawyers join forces to sue a prestigious law firm for AIDS discrimination. As their unlikely friendship develops, their courage overcomes the prejudice and corruption of their powerful adversaries.

Buddies

David, a naive graduate student, has volunteered to work as a 'buddy' for people dying of AIDS. Assigned to the intensely political Robert, a lifelong activist whose friends and family have abandoned him following his diagnosis, the two men, each with notably different world views, soon discover common bonds, as David's inner activist awakens and Robert's need for emotional release is fulfilled.

Kids

A group of bored, disaffected New York City teenagers spend a day skating, smoking, drinking, partying, deflowering virgins, and getting into fights.

The Boys in the Band

At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.

My Brother the Devil

Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.

Rent

The story of several friends in New York City facing financial poverty, homophobia, AIDS, and, of course, rent.

Starcrossed

Two brothers develop a sexual attraction to one another amid the unkind world around them.

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan

A decade after the death of an American TV star, a young actor reminisces about the written correspondence he once shared with the former, as well as the impact those letters had on both their lives.

Shank

Teenage gang member Cal, hides his sexuality from his fellow gang members despite their often violent dislike of anyone that isn't the same as them, be they unsuspecting shoppers, foreign students, gays, etc. When his world collides with Olivier, a student he rescues from a pointless beating, he encounters a lifestyle that presents as many new experiences as it does obstacles.

Lilting

A young man of Chinese-Cambodian descent dies, leaving behind his isolated mother and his lover of four years. Though the two don't share a language, they grow close through their grief.

The 24th Day

Tom and Dan's one-night stand turns into an intense power-play between captor and captive.

The Normal Heart

The story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a city and nation in denial.

Dallas Buyers Club

Loosely based on the true-life tale of Ron Woodroof, a drug-taking, women-loving, homophobic man who in 1986 was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given thirty days to live.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Recently divorced career woman Alex Greville begins a romantic relationship with glamorous mod artist Bob Elkin, fully aware that he's also intimately involved with middle-aged doctor Daniel Hirsh. For both Alex and Daniel, the younger man represents a break with their repressive pasts, and though both know that Bob is seeing both of them, neither is willing to let go of the youth and vitality he brings to their otherwise stable lives.