The 29th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) has unveiled the selections for its Rebels With a Cause and Critics’ Picks competitions, which celebrate “daring cinema and fearless storytelling.”
The fourth edition of the Critics’ Picks competition is “a cinematic feast for the brave and the curious, offering 10 dazzling world premieres handpicked from across the globe and served fresh in Tallinn,” organizers said.
Nikolaj Nikitin, curator of the program, describes this year’s lineup as “as wildly diverse as its passport stamps — from Iran to Peru, Canada to Tunisia, Mexico to Taiwan, France to Lithuania, and yes, Estonia too.”
Promising “genre-bending gems that defy borders and expectations,” he added: “From gritty noir and sharp political thrillers to sensual coming-of-age dramas and cinema-soaked thrill rides that remix the rules of storytelling — think of it as a gourmet menu for the cinephile palate: rich, risky, and radically original.”
Bhutanese director Dechen Roder, German film journalist Thomas Schultze, and French producer Jean-Baptiste Babin make up the jury for the Critics’ Picks selection.
The Rebels With a Cause competition was launched in 2017, and this year, features an all-world-premiere lineup. “Rebels consolidates its commitment to the most daring films, combining powerful debuts — from Japan, Turkey, and Canada — with rebellious masters, such as Lluís Miñarro, Jamie Adams, and Adrián Sitaru,” highlighted curator Javier Garcia Puerto.
He concluded: “Rebels’ spirit goes beyond bold language and screen — featuring striking performances by James McAvoy, choreographer Lluís Garau, and the posthumous appearance of Marisa Paredes.” McAvoy stars in Jamie Adams’ Turn Up the Sun!, which will get an out-of-competition screening.
The jury for Rebels with a Cause is made up of Iranian director Ali Asgari, British film critic and curator Rogan Graham, and Spanish producer Alicia Reginato.
Check out the full lineups for the two PÖFF sections below.
Critics’ Picks
A Summer Tale, dir. Matías Szulanski (Argentina)
China Sea, dir. Jurgis Matulevičius (Lithuania, Taiwan, Poland, Czechia)
Invisibles, dir. Junna Chif (Canada)
Mo Papa, dir. Eeva Mägi (Estonia)
Nino in Paradise, dir. Laurent Micheli (Belgium, France)
Oh, What Happy Days, dir. Homayoun Ghanizadeh (Iran, USA, France, Canada)
Round 13, dir. Mohamed Ali Nahdi (Tunisia, Cyprus, Qatar, Saudi-Arabia)
Street Wanderers, dir. Juan Martin Hsu (Argentina, Peru)
That Burning House, dir. Yin-Chuan Tsai (Taiwan)
The Silent Virgin, dir. Xavi Sala (Mexico)
Rebels With a Cause Competition:
Blindsight, dir. Adrian Sitaru (Romania, Turkey)
Emergency Exit, dir. Lluís Miñarro (Spain)
La Carn, dir. Joan Porcel (Spain)
Leleka, dir. Harald Hutter (Canada, France, Spain, Ukraine, USA)
Lo-Fi, dir. Alican Durbaş (Turkey)
MieMie ~She Can See~, dir. Katsutoshi Furuya (Japan)
The Baronesses, dir. Nabil Ben Yadir (Belgium)
The Megalomaniacs, dir. Spiros Stathoulopoulos (Greece, Colombia)
Vache Folle, dir. Hugo Diego Garcia, Lorenzo Bentivoglio (France)
Rebels with a Cause – Out of Competition:
Turn Up the Sun!, dir. Jamie Adams (United Kingdom)
Rebels with a Cause – Catalonia Special
Umbracle, (1972), dir. Pere Portabella
Ocaña, an Intermittent Portrait, (1978), dir. Ventura Pons
