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Schoolgirls Fujina and Kyomoto find success creating manga together, until one day a rift occurs… Taking us from triumph through tragedy and out the other side, Look Back has all the grace and tenderness director Kore-eda Hirokazu is famous for.

Ralitza Petrova follows her Golden Leopard-winning debut with an emotionally textured drama about a middle-aged prison psychologist whose carefully managed routine unravels when she must travel to Bulgaria to settle her late, estranged father’s affairs.

Image: © Aporia Filmworks_Screening Emotions

In this tender, compassionate drama, we see the hardships endured by a young girl adopted in the early 1980s during China’s one-child policy. As a teenager in the 90s, she’s still fighting to find a sense of belonging and assert her worth.

When a Somali youth worker is assigned a high-stakes case, her professional responsibilities pull her back toward a community — and a past — she has worked to leave behind. Lifeline is an intimate exploration of belonging and responsibility.

Let Them Be Seen is an absurdist portrait of the town of Tapoleng in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, moving through churches, spaza shops, and a Jam Alley re-enactment to document a village reshaping faith and community in post-apartheid life.

The Flight follows three Iranian-Canadian families seeking justice after Flight PS752 was shot down, offering a compassionate and forceful tribute to grief, resilience, and community advocacy.