News

Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, whose “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” was Oscar nominated, is considering making a film in another language.

“If I’d want to make a film in Europe right now, or in the West, everything’s ready,” he told Variety before accepting the first-ever Locarno City of Peace Award.

“The question is not when to start making it. The question that concerns me more is this: ‘Who am I? What does it mean to be me? Where do I continue my struggle?’ That’s what will inform my next work.”

Rasoulof fled Iran after being sentenced to eight years in prison.

“When you’re making a film in a foreign country, in a foreign language, obviously you need time to really grapple with the society you want to reflect in a deep, meaningful way. You have to really understand it and submerge yourself in it. What concerns me,...

In Soheil Beiraghi’s “Outcry”, the twentysomething Seti (Sarvin Zabetian), who’s mostly relegated to backup or chorus singing, wants her voice to chime out from the rest. She persistently demands it, but her requests are dismissed. Instead, it’s categorically underlined for her that the male voices will always override. In Iran, it cannot be a level playing field for all genders, as imposed by the administration. The latter may only privately practice or among themselves in groups. They are all lumped together. Any single female singer is barred from distinguishing herself and standing out. However, Seti is hungry for more, her passion undimmable.

She lands a gig at a nightclub but runs out of luck quickly as it gets raided. Even illicitly, her dream gets rudely snubbed. But she refuses to quieten, buckle down. She snips her hair and goes almost rogue, having had enough of systemic erasure.

Berlin-based Pluto Film has acquired world sales rights to Iranian director Soheil Beiraghi’s “Bidad,” which won the Special Jury Prize at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival earlier this month.

Beiraghi’s fourth film, produced independently, follows the young rebellious singer Seti, who fights for her voice to be heard despite the political oppression that women face in contemporary Iran.

Variety’s review said the film, “like its magnetic 20-something protagonist Seti, remains defiant, insisting that female voices be heard in a society determined to silence them.”

Speaking to Variety about the risk of showing the film abroad, Beiraghi said: “I have nothing but this film. That’s why I’m attending the festival, no matter the outcome and no matter the risk.

“We were immediately captivated by this powerful story of resistance that is so relevant today,” Daniela Cölle, head of acquisitions at Pluto Film, said. “From the very first frame,...

Top prize for Czech director Miro Remo at Karlovy International Film Festival Photo: Film Servis Kviff For the first time in eight years, a home-spun production scored the top prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The Crystal Globe at the 59th edition of Kviff was awarded to the Czech-Slovak documentary Better Go Mad In The Wild, the latest work by the acclaimed Slovak documentary filmmaker Miro Remo. The film follows the lives of two peculiar men in their 60s in the forests of the Šumava mountains.

The Special Jury Prize was bestowed on the Iranian drama about a young singer Bidad. “I thank the Iranian women for their courage, they taught me not to be afraid. They don’t need pity, they need support, so let’s give them a standing ovation,” said the film’s director Soheil Beiraghi to the audience at the prize-giving ceremony in the Grand Hall.

Seti (Sarvin Zabetiyan), a young music prodigy, has one big dream – to make her voice heard. But she lives in a country that bans women from singing publicly. For her, giving up is not an option, so she goes on a personal quest to bend the rules. Unfortunately, each time she gets the opportunity to perform, something or someone gets in her way. Even on such rare occasions when she is offered to do something legally, like performing backing vocals on a song sung by a male vocalist, she has to keep her voice down because – as she gots to hear from her mentor: “A voice can not be identified as a woman’s, and men sing louder anyway.”

We meet Seti already in the opening minute of Soheil Beiraghi’s drama “Bidad” that world-premiered in the Crystal Globe Competition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize.

Czech-Slovak documentary Better Go Mad in the Wild won the Grand Prix Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which closed its 59th edition on Saturday, July 12.

The fifth feature from Czechoslovakian filmmaker Remo, Better Go Mad… is loosely based on Ales Palan and Jan Sibik’s book of the same name, and follows two twins who see whether it is possible to live their entire lives in the same place.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Awarding the $25,000 prize shared between Remo and producer Tomas Hruby, the jury praised “a funny valentine to the fading art of being true to yourself.

Miro Remo’s Better Go Mad in the Wild won the Grand Prix – Crystal Globe, the top award, at the closing ceremony of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) on Saturday, where Stellan Skarsgård was also honored with the Kviff Crystal Globe Award for his “outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema.” The Special Jury Prize went to Iranian filmmaker Soheil Beiraghi‘s fourth feature, Bidad (Outcry), whose announcement the fest had held back to ensure the safety of its creators.

This year’s jury, consisting of Nicolas Celis, Babak Jalali, Jessica Kiang, Jiří Mádl, and Tuva Novotny, lauded the “delightfully inventive documentary” Better Go Mad as “a funny valentine to the fading art of being true to yourself” and “a portrait of bickering twin brothers who may live a weird, off-grid life on their dilapidated farm, but who, in a world as mad as ours,...

Miro Remo’s stunning portrait of identical twins, “Better Go Mad in the Wild,” took top honors at this year’s Karlovy Vary Film Festival, meaning the festival’s Crystal Globe and a cash prize of $25K will be staying at home in the Czech Republic.

A hybrid documentary with plenty of visual power and also a wise-talking bovine, the film immerses us in the daily lives of Ondřej and František Klišík as they live with only each other (as well as their animals) for company in their remote home. Surrounded by the beautiful Šumava forests, their lives are defined by reflections (often literal in that there is a mirror that becomes a haunting yet breathtaking way through which to view their world) about life, death, and isolation. At the same time as it is visually stunning, with Remo and his co-cinematographer Dušan Husár working wonders within the twins’ humble world,...

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival announced its winners on July 12 during its closing ceremony. More than 128,000 tickets were sold for 465 screenings of 108 features, 23 documentaries, and 44 shorts. The festival is key in the year’s film circuit, nestled between Cannes and Venice.

The 59th outing, held from July 4-12, gave out its top honor, the Grand Prix — Crystal Globe, to director Miro Remo’s “Better Go Mad in the Wild” from Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. The filmmakers — producers included — received $25,000.

“A funny valentine to the fading art of being true to yourself, Miro Remo’s delightfully inventive documentary is a portrait of bickering twin brothers who may live a weird, off-grid life on their dilapidated farm but who, in a world as mad as ours, actually might be the sanest people on earth,” the Crystal Globe jury, which consisted of Nicolas Celis, Babak Jalali, Jessica Kiang, Jiří Mádl, and Tuva Novotny,...

The 59th International Karlovy Vary Film Festival passed by in a blur this week after playing host to a stream of largely uncontroversial guests compared to previous years. With appearances by Festival President’s Award winners Vicky Krieps, Dakota Johnson and Peter Sarsgaard, plus a special cameo from Michael Douglas, it was left to Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution winner Stellan Skarsgård to generate headlines, which he did rather spectacularly by describing venerated Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman as “manipulative” and “the only person I know who cried when Hitler died”.

The lineup of this year’s Crystal Globe Competition was similarly strong, a fact reflected in the sharing out of the awards; all the word-of-mouth titles seemed to win something, which isn’t always the case. That said, the winner was something of a surprise at a festival where the strongest films featured female leads (Broken Voices; Don’t Call Me Mama...

Miro Remo’s hybrid doc “Better Go Mad in the Wild” picked up Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s Grand Prix on Saturday – and $25,000, shared by the director and the producers.

Following hermit twins František and Ondřej Klišík, the Slovak director first discovered them thanks to Aleš Palán’s book. “I contacted Aleš right away, and he brought me into their world,” he said. “I fell in love with them and with their environment. I was fascinated by everything magical and enchantingly unusual.”

Jurors Nicolas Celis, Babak Jalali, Jessica Kiang, Jiří Mádl and Tuva Novotny called it “a funny valentine to the fading art of being true to yourself” and a “delightfully inventive documentary.” Despite living on a dilapidated farm, “in a world as mad as ours, [they] actually might be the sanest people on earth.”

They added: “ ‘Better Go Mad in the Wild’ feels like a gulp of fresh, woody air,...

The French film critic-turned-filmmaker Jacques Rivette once said that “every film is a documentary of its own making.” In the case of the Iranian film “Bidad,” or “Outcry,” it’s a work as much about a young woman named Seti (Sarvin Zabetian) who is trying to sing as it is about its creator Soheil Beiraghi as he tries to hold onto his own voice when the world around him would rather he be silenced.

Written, directed, produced and co-edited by Beiraghi, who shared that his go-to karaoke song is Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” the film premiered as part of the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival this week. However, its inclusion was kept a secret by the organizers until right before the festival in order to “protect the safety of the film’s delegation” while they traveled out of the country due to fears of retaliation over its depiction of the Iranian government.

Whereas Hollywood has told and retold “A Star Is Born” so many times as to make trite its plot — of a preternaturally gifted young female singer whose career is simultaneously encouraged and complicated by an alcoholic has-been — Iranian director Soheil Beiraghi’s bold, risky and occasionally clunky “Bidad” depicts how radically different that trajectory might be in the filmmaker’s home country. In “Bidad,” a star is born and very nearly smothered in the cradle by the Islamic system, which all but forbids women from singing. But Beiraghi’s film, like its magnetic 20-something protagonist Seti (Sarvin Zabetian), remains defiant, insisting that female voices be heard in a society determined to silence them.

More overtly critical of the oppressive regime than most Iranian cinema, but also more traditional in its storytelling than recent films from Panahi and Rasoulof, “Bidad” presents itself as a straightforward aspirational artist story (with a surprisingly...

In contemporary Tehran, a young woman named Seti possesses a voice that could fill concert halls, yet she is forbidden from letting it be heard. Her passion is singing, an act that, for a woman performing solo in public, is a crime. Her personal ambition immediately becomes a political statement. This is the central friction of Soheil Beiraghi’s Bidad, a title that translates to “Outcry.”

Seti, who models herself on Western artists like Amy Winehouse, refuses to be a footnote in her own life. Her story is not merely one of artistic suppression but a specific look at the high price of creative freedom within a system of strict control. Her individual defiance becomes emblematic of a generational spirit, a personal cry that echoes with the sound of a larger movement.

The Anatomy of Defiance

Seti’s name, meaning “sickle blade,” is a deliberate choice for a character whose...

Days before his drama Bidad enters the Crystal Globe competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on 9 July, Iranian filmmaker Soheil Beiraghi disclosed that several members of his production team have been sentenced in Tehran for their work on the film, receiving jail terms later converted to fines and suspended sentences.

Court documents list charges such as “encouraging corruption,” “producing obscene content,” and “propaganda against the state.” Beiraghi himself was fined the equivalent of 165 million tomans after a three-year-seven-month custodial term was commuted; lead actress Sarvin Zabetian received a 91-day term, suspended for five years, and is banned from using a smartphone in that period.

Shot in secret and without government permits, Bidad follows Seti, a young woman who sings in public despite Iran’s four-decade ban on female solo performance, transforming city streets into a stage for spontaneous audiences. Festival organizers say they delayed announcing the film until...

Outcry. That is the English-language title of Soheil Beiraghi’s fourth feature, Bidad, which has been making waves even before world premiering at the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) on Wednesday.

Festival programmers held back on unveiling the 12th movie in the Crystal Globe Competition until the last minute to allow the filmmaker to travel to the Czech fest. After all, the movie about a Gen Z girl in Tehran who wants her voice to be heard and decides to sing in the streets, even though women are not allowed to perform in public, would not be allowed by the censors in his home country.

Bidad stars Sarvin Zabetian (180 Degree Rule, Terrestrial Verses), Leili Rashidi and Amir Jadidi. Beiraghi (I, Cold Sweat, Popular) wrote, directed, produced and co-edited the movie, and he handled art direction. His Alef Pictures is the production company and is also handling sales.

Iranian director Soheil Beiraghi is coming to Karlovy Vary Film Festival to present the independently made drama “Bidad.” But he won’t be joined by his cast and crew.

“They decided not to come. I respect their decision, but I need to stand by my work. I need to show I have control over my actions. But after the festival? I have no idea what’s going to happen. We have no control over that.”

“Bidad,” referencing ongoing governmental oppression, focuses on an aspiring singer. Tired of being harassed and silenced, Sati starts performing on the streets. She becomes a viral sensation, but once she catches the unwanted attention of the regime, nobody can protect her: not her alcoholic mother, stuck in bad relationships, and certainly not her weed-loving friend.

The Czech fest decided to wait before announcing the film’s selection, citing the team’s safety.

“We talked about...

Things are changing in the Czech Republic, says Karlovy Vary Film Festival artistic director Karel Och. Also when it comes to the #MeToo movement.

“What we need is a conversation – and films like ‘Broken Voices,’” he says.

Ondřej Provazní’s drama, selected for the Crystal Globe Competition, was inspired by the Bambini di Praga case: a famous children’s choir which saw its choirmaster arrested and charged with sexual abuse of minors that went on for years.

“It’s a strong, intimate piece of cinema which ultimately succeeds in communicating strong political ideas. When I had lunch with the director and the producer, I realized that maybe our last year’s Audience Award winner ‘Waves’ – which reached almost 1 million spectators in Czech cinemas – opened up a new chapter in our cinema. The audience is now perceiving a film through its subject matter as well. There’s already a conversation about...

Iran’s Karlovy Vary mystery title has been unmasked as Bidad, an independent drama about a young woman who risks prison by singing in Tehran’s streets. The festival said it hid the film’s selection until director Soheil Beiraghi and his team were safely out of the country; the world-premiere screening is set for 9 July in the Grand Hall, rounding out the 12-film Crystal Globe competition.

Shot clandestinely and financed without state approval, the 104-minute feature follows Seti, a Gen Z vocalist whose impromptu street concerts energise a generation chafing under Iran’s ban on female solo performance. Festival notes and trade reports say Beiraghi was questioned by security services during production, prompting organisers to keep the title off early line-ups.

An exclusive trailer released this week drew sharp exchanges online: reform-minded viewers applauded its defiant tone while conservative commentators condemned “Western propaganda.” The debate echoes wider cultural battles at home,...

Seti loves music and singing, and she yearns for her voice to be heard. Great, you say? No problem, you say? Well, not so fast! What you need to know is that Seti lives in Iran, where it is against the law for women to perform in public.

That is why Soheil Beiraghi’s fourth feature, Bidad, meaning Outcry, world premiering as the long-secret 12th movie in the Crystal Globe Competition of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) on July 9, would not be allowed by the censors in his home country.

Seti is its protagonist, and she won’t be silenced without standing up for herself. “In the heart of Tehran, Seti, a girl from Generation Z, dreams of sharing her voice with the world. But in a society where women

are not allowed to sing in public, her dream feels impossibly distant,” reads a plot summary for the film.

Stellan Skarsgård will receive the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Skarsgård will also present his latest film, Joachim Trier’s quiet stunner “Sentimental Value,” which won the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard, and Vicky Krieps will also receive the President’s Award. Johnson will present her two latest films, Michael Angelo Covino’s hilarious “Splitsville” and Celine Song’s deconstructed rom-com “Materialists,” while Sarsgaard presents the underrated 2003 journalism drama “Shattered Glass” and Krieps her new drama “Love Me Tender.”

Among many other attendees, there will also be American director, actor, and screenwriter Jay Duplass who will presents his latest bittersweet comedy “The Baltimorons,” French actress Camille Cottin who will present the world premiere of her film “Out of Love,” Hungarian director Bence Fliegau who will be there...

Karlovy Vary has set the series of actors and filmmakers who will receive honorary awards during this year’s edition, which runs from July 5 to 12.

Stellan Skarsgård will be handed the festival’s Crystal Globe award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema. Skarsgård will also screen his latest feature, Sentimental Value, directed by Joachim Trier. Skarsgård previously was a guest of the festival in 2002, when he presented director István Szabó’s film Taking Sides.

Vicky Krieps will receive the festival’s President’s Award and screen her latest film, Love Me Tender, directed by Anna Cazenave Cambet, which also debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Dakota Johnson will also receive a President’s Award and screen her summer rom-com The Materialists, directed by Celine Song. Peter Sarsgaard will get a President’s Award and screen his seminal 2003 journalism drama Shattered Glass.

Today, Karlovy Vary also added a...

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival has added Iranian feature Bidad by Soheil Beiraghi as the 12th and final title for its main Crystal Globe Competition.

When Karlovy Vary unveiled its line-up in early June, it said would add an Iranian film to the competition but was keeping it secret till closer to the festival to protect the safety of the film’s delegation.

Bidad is the story of the young singer Seti who refuses to accept the fact that women in Iran are not allowed to perform in public. In defiance of her country’s religious laws, she decides to sing in the street.

A film from Iran that has been kept secret so far to ensure the safety of its delegation, along with Dakota Johnson, Stellan Skarsgård, Peter Sarsgaard and Vicky Krieps, has joined the lineup for the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff).

Known as a popular stop on the film festival circuit for many stars, Karlovy Vary had previously already unveiled a visit from Michael Douglas this year.

The 12th and final film of this year’s Karlovy Vary Crystal Globe main competition program is Iran’s Bidad from director Soheil Beiraghi, which tells the story of young singer Seti who refuses to accept the fact that women in Iran are not allowed to perform in public. “In defiance of her country’s religious laws, she decides to sing in the street,” according to a synopsis. “Her performances quickly gain in popularity, and Seti becomes a star...

“It was important to let people know what we were doing.”

Owners of the first arthouse cinema to reopen in the Central American country of Costa Rica say they have been encouraged by the response from audiences as they head into the second week of business.

Cine Magaly in the capital San José opened its doors on Monday (May 11) with a first-run presentation of The Lighthouse after the ministry of health said patrons could return to theatres that demonstrated sufficient safety and hygiene protocols in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Programming director Anabelle Carcheri said the family-run business – sister Jessica is manager of operations,...

“It was important to let people know what we were doing.”

Owners of the first art house cinema to reopen in the Central American country of Costa Rica say they have been encouraged by the response from audiences as they head into the second week of business.

Cine Magaly in the capital San José opened its doors on Monday (May 11) with a first-run presentation of The Lighthouse after the ministry of health said patrons could return to theatres that demonstrated sufficient safety and hygiene protocols in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Programming director Anabelle Carcheri said the family-run business...

The husband of a woman due to play a match abroad refuses her permission to travel in a fictionalised version of a true story

Permission is a handmaid’s tale taken straight from the headlines. In 2015, Niloufar Ardalan was captain of the Iranian women’s indoor football team, which had just reached the Asian Championships final in Malaysia. Incredibly, she was prevented from playing, because her TV presenter husband would not give her the permission to travel abroad that married women in Iran legally need.

A fictionalised version of this extraordinary situation, Permission is the debut feature from Iranian dramatist and film-maker Soheil Beiraghi. Baran Kosari plays Afrooz, the player who is turned back at the airport and who then realises that her sporting celebrity and Instagram following count for nothing. Her cowed teammates won’t support her; her husband Yasser (Amir Jadidi) is a preening TV star who presides...

Rungano Nyoni’s UK foreign-language Oscar submission I Am Not A Witch, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Oscar-nominated Poland-set drama Cold War, and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Japanese Cannes Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters will screen in the Panama International Film Festival’s International Portal strand next month.

Rungano Nyoni’s UK foreign-language Oscar submission I Am Not A Witch, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Oscar-nominated Poland-set drama Cold War, and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Japanese Cannes Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters will screen in the Panama International Film Festival’s International Portal strand next month.

The programme also features Nadine Labaki’s Oscar-nominated Lebanese drama Capernaum,...

Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare tale All Is True has been selected to open the Palm Springs Film Festival, which Friday unveiled its full lineup of films for the 30th edition that runs January 3-14. The fest also said that Bruce Bereford’s Ladies in Black will be the closing-night film, with the director and cast members expected to be in attendance.

In all, the fest will screen 223 films from 78 countries, and as usual will screen a slew of Oscar Foreign Language Film entries, this year numbering 43 of the 87 official submissions. Also on the docket: a 30-film retrospective of past fest selections, dubbed the Palm Springs Canon; special focuses on cinema from France, India and Mexico, and Jewish and queer cinema; and the new Ricky Jay Magic of Cinema Award, named for actor and magician Ricky Jay who died last month.

In addition to the film lineup, the opening awards gala...

The Palm Springs International Film Festival has announced its 2019 lineup, and it’s prodigious: 223 films from 78 countries, four of them world premieres. Though well known for celebrating future Oscar nominees (and winners) each year, the festival also boasts a deceptively robust world-cinema slate; among the upcoming offerings are Jia Zhangke’s “Ash Is Purest White,” Sergey Loznitsa’s “Donbass,” Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s “Birds of Passage,” and Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s “Asako I & II,” to name just a few.

A number of post-screening Q&As will also be held, including with “Black Klansman” author Ron Stallworth and “Support the Girls” star Regina Hall, in addition to a new section celebrating the best films to screen at Psiff throughout its first three decades.

World premieres:

Buck Run (USA), Director Nick Frangione

Carlos Almaraz Playing With Fire (USA), Directors Elsa Flores Almaraz, Richard Montoya (Schlesinger Documentary Competition)

The Last Color...

In the heatedly performed drama Cold Sweat (Araghe Sard), a professional female soccer player finds herself stranded at home as her team takes off to Malaysia for the Asia Cup finals. The reason she’s left behind is due to a simple and completely lopsided facet of Iranian civil law: A woman needs permission from her husband in order to leave the country. If he says no, she’s stuck.

And so, in writer-director Soheil Beiraghi’s quietly gripping second feature, Afrooz (Baran Kosari), the captain of Iran’s national futsal squad — futsal is a form of indoor soccer that’...

In the heatedly performed drama Cold Sweat (Araghe Sard), a professional female soccer player finds herself stranded at home as her team takes off to Malaysia for the Asia Cup finals. The reason she’s left behind is due to a simple and completely lopsided facet of Iranian civil law: A woman needs permission from her husband in order to leave the country. If he says no, she’s stuck.

And so, in writer-director Soheil Beiraghi’s quietly gripping second feature, Afrooz (Baran Kosari), the captain of Iran’s national futsal squad — futsal is a form of indoor soccer that’...

An angry woman rails against the system in the punchy and timely “Cold Sweat,” a fact-based drama about an Iranian national futsal team member whose husband uses his legal right to prevent her traveling abroad and playing in the most important game of her life. This intelligently written, well performed and emotionally rewarding second feature by writer-director Soheil Beiraghi (“Me”) will enlighten and entertain audiences everywhere. A hit in local cinemas when released in late September, “Cold Sweat” ought to enjoy a long festival life at the very least. French arthouse outfit Sophie Dulac Distribution will screen the film theatrically Nov. 28.

A tale with especially strong appeal in these #TimesUp times, “Cold Sweat” draws from the real-life cases of many Iranian sportswomen whose dreams were dashed when their husbands invoked patriarchal laws. Its success at the local box office comes in the wake of well-publicized protests at the men’s soccer World Cup in June,...

Brady Corbet’s “Vox Lux,” Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s “Birds of Passage” and Natalya Meshchaninova’s “Core of the World” are among the wide range of movies competing for the Stockholm Film Festival’s Impact Award.

Other movies vying for the honor are Sergei Loznitsa’s “Donbass,” Richard Billingham’s “Ray & Liz,” Beatriz Seigner’s “Los Silencios,” Soheil Beiraghi’s “Cold Sweat” and Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s “Manta Ray.”

The selections span movies from around the world, from Iran to Brazil to Russia, and are meant to be singular, politically minded films reflecting today’s world in innovative ways. The central theme of this year’s roster is the impact of armed conflicts on lives and relationships.

“In ‘Los Silencios,’ Beatriz Seigner combines the social consequences of an endless armed conflict in Colombia and the uncertain future of families with elements of a ghost story,” the festival said,...