Tallinn completes First Feature Competition line-up

Twelve titles added from 11 countries

by Amber Wilkinson

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has added 12 films to complete the lineup for this year's First Feature Competition - one of which is out of competition.

The films come from 11 countries, with six from Europe, two from Asia, two from the Americas and one from Africa.

Tiina Lokk, the head of Black Nights FF, said: “I’m glad that we managed to bring together a selection of films that is diverse both, geographically and in terms of film genres. Most of the films bare traits of distinct regional cultures, while telling their stories with broad universal appeal, all of them resonating acutely with world we live in 2018 AD. It is always a pleasure to witness and support the emergence of fresh new voices with enjoyably original ways of storytelling.”

Of the titles below, psychological thriller The Pact, directed by David Victori - which tells the story of a mother who will go to any length to save her comatose daughter - will be presented out of competition.

The rest of the additional titles, with synopses provided by the festival, are below. Details of titles already announced are here.

A March to Remember (Vitoria, 3 De Marzo) director: Víctor Cabaco; Spain
A thriller set in the historic context of 1976, following a radio journalist and his family during the workers’ strike in a provincial capital that escalated into a bloody conflict with police forces.

As I Fall (Når jeg faller) director: Magnus Meyer Arnesen; Norway
Inspired by the director’s personal experiences, the story follows a young heroin addict on his way to the bottom, when he’s suddenly reconnected with his eight-year-old son, giving him a new purpose in life.

Catharsys Or The Afina Tales Of The Lost World director: Yassine Marco Marroccu, Morocco
An allegorical tale set in a dystopian world, mirroring true historical events and political situations such as the 9/11 terrorist attack aftermath.

Cronofobia director: Francesco Rizzi; Switzerland
A psychological drama following a lonely man trying to connect with a woman who is struggling with a complicated form of grief.

Hello Arsi director: Sambit Mohanty; India
Chronicles a day in the life of a young man and woman, strangers who have just met on a highway, sharing a car ride and a conversation that stretches on, as both of them hope to find something emotionally meaningful in the situation.

Head Above Water (Marche ou crève) director: Tatiana Margaux Bonhomme; France
Enthusiastic teenager Elisa is stranded living at her parents’ house after the sudden departure of her mother, a move that leaves her and her father to take care of Elisa’s older sister, Manon, who has mental and physical disabilities.

Lonesome Collectors (Noches de Julio) director: Axel Muñoz Barba; Mexico
A tale of a socially dysfunctional young man and a woman whose relationship begins as the man discovers that the woman shares his hobby to secretly enter people’s houses to steal their intimate belongings.

Lorik director: Alexey Zlobin; Armenia
A portrait of a lonely, egocentric theatre actor, thrown into a fantastical series of events after hearing the news of the closure of his workplace.

Roads in February (Las Rutas En Febrero) director: Katherine Jerkovic; Canada, Uruguay
A teenager, who, driven by childhood memories and the hope of a reencounter, visits her paternal grandmother in a village in Uruguay. She is soon faced with a struggle to reconcile her parents decision to leave decades ago with the bitterness that is stirred up in the old woman who never saw her son again.

The Song Of The Tree director: Aibek Daiyrbekov; Kyrgyzstan, Russia
A musical epic and a romantic parable of a man whose family falls from grace after a tribal feud in a nomadic village.

The Wild Fields director: Yaroslav Lodygin; Ukraine, Switzerland
Thirty-year-old Herman is forced to return from the city to take over his brother's gas station that the local mafia is interested in acquiring for their own business.

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