10:00 am
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IO STO CON LA SPOSA
ON THE BRIDE’S SIDE
Antonio Augugliaro, Gabriele Del Grande, Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry / 89 min / 2014 / Italy, Palestine
A Palestinian poet and an Italian journalist stage a fake wedding to help five Syrian migrants reach Sweden. Disguised as a wedding party, they travel across Europe, evading police checks and border controls. This hybrid docu-film, which is both moving and political, tells the story of the unstoppable power of hope, with irony and humanity.
3:30 pm
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RENÉ VA ALLA GUERRA
RENÉ GOES TO WAR
Luca Ferri, Morgan Menegazzo, Mariachiara Pernisa / 19 min / 2024 / Italy, Slovenia
René lives in a house in the Slovenian mountains. He spends his holidays alone in the woods, among the remains of abandoned bunkers from the Second World War. He loves to build rudimentary wooden weapons and imagines defending himself from an enemy attack, playing a game of combining and reworking historical evocations with current events.
IBUKA, JUSTICE
Justice Rutikara / 23 min / 2024 / Italian premiere / Canada
Rwanda, 1994. A young couple welcomes the birth of their child. They call him Justice because justice is increasingly rare in their country. In a climate of growing tension, a bloody civil war breaks out and the persecution of the Tutsis begins. The two parents flee abroad, ensuring a future for their child who, as an adult, will tell their story.
DASHT MIKHANAD
THE PLAIN SINGS
Gita Feizi / 14 min / 2024 / Iran (Islamic Republic of)
When she takes the sheep out to pasture, Zhina, age thirteen, gives free reign to her passion—singing. But her father is not enthusiastic and thinks only of finding her a husband. When one of the sheep is killed in an accident, Zhina takes off her headscarf and shepherd’s trousers and walks away.
THU GUI ME
DEAR MOM
Hà Lệ Diễm / 17 min / 2024 / Italian premiere / Vietnam
Song, a little girl of Hmong ethnicity, lives with her younger brother and father in the mountains of Vietnam. Her mother has been gone for years; she fled to China to start a new life. The little girl writes a sweet and heartbreaking letter asking her to come home.
6:00 pm
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Virtual theater
THE ICE BUILDERS
Francesco Clerici, Tommaso Barbaro / 15 min / 2024 / India, Italy
Life in the remote Zanskar Valley in Ladakh is closely tied to the presence of glaciers, which provide the water necessary for cultivating the fields. Global warming, which is also causing the ice tongues to retreat even at these altitudes, poses serious challenges to local communities. To adapt, they have revived an ancient tradition: building ice stupas—frozen towers designed to conserve precious water.
PROTIV VETRA
AGAINST THE WIND
Tatyana Soboleva / 79 min / 2024 / Italian premiere / Russian Federation
In the southern Caucasus steppes of Russia live the Nogai people, descendants of the ancient Mongol dynasty of the Golden Horde. Among them is a woman named Gulfira, who leads her community into the desert to fight the encroaching sands by planting juzgun, a shrub with long roots capable of withstanding sandstorms. It’s a battle to preserve not only the environment, but also the identity of these people.
9:00 pm
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Virtual theater
LA ROUTE
HIMALAYAN ROAD: A NEW FRONTIER
Marianne Chaud / 85 min / 2025 / European premiere / France
A new road in the Zanskar Valley will soon connect one of the most inaccessible regions on the planet to the rest of the world. Locals have sold their land and herds to become laborers. Smiling women work on the construction sites, children play, unaware of the transformation that will soon disrupt their homeland. With the arrival of the road, what will become of the delicate balance that has endured for millennia in this remote corner of Ladakh, in the heart of the Himalayas?
