Advanced search

At the age of 17, Eritrean cyclist Biniam Girmay dreams of riding the Tour de France. Against all odds, Biniam climbs up the international rankings. But will he make it into a top team and get selected for the Tour?

The cross-frontier migrant's life 'within the system' - an endless, featureless, futureless round of queues - becomes even bleaker in December. Bipul doesn't want to admit it, but the arrival of Lidia, a Russian girl makes a difference. Hope? Surely not! A future? Get real! December is also the ninth month of Martina's pregnancy. But, just when the situation seems hopeless, help is at hand. A Christmas story.

6 people in transition via the microcosm of the local barber shop: in Rio de Janeiro, barber Pedro picks teenagers from the street to teach them a profession.

At the start of the summer season, Ismail and Hakan are preparing for their new job in a gigantic all-inclusive hotel at the Turkish Riviera. They observe the colourful swimsuits, the unemptied plates, the different ways of addressing other people, and gradually discover new opportunities to move ahead in life. ALL-IN explores the loss of innocence against the backdrop of a fading European dream. Initial kindness turns into indifference as Ismail and Hakan's initiation into the absurd world of Western tourism soon leads them to ask: which dreams are really worth aspiring to?

The film uses the oyster and its sensual and lavish associations as a symbol to explore human drives and desires. The oyster takes us on a trip around the world, in which protagonists that all have their own special relationship to the oyster share their ambitions, desires and existential fears. This cinematic documentary explores the intricate nature of our deepest yearnings and quest for self-fulfillment.

Two little sisters prepare for the Day of the Dead in the mystic mountains of Mexico, remembering the stories their shaman granny used to tell. A portal opens as the Mazatec community celebrates and we enter the interactive universe of their ancestors and the spirits of nature, each keeping a secret world to be unveiled.

'How camels become lions' depicts the urge for freedom. Through 4 episodes we see 4 family members in a moment when they are tired of being a camel, as a beast of burden. They realise their tasks are meaningless and find themselves in a spiritual desert. The camel wants to become a lion. A spirit that fights against the false values in order to find his own place, his own freedom. Vincent, Renée, Alice and Robin are searching for the strength to undergo this transformation.

How to navigate the world fiercely when it doesn't seem created for you? She They Us is a documentary series about the hopeful fight for a future where everyone can be equal. Each in their own way, seven people from the Lowlands strive for a world that better suits their well-being, bodies, work and love. We see, among others, musician Charlotte Adigéry, esports journalist Eefje 'Sjokz' Depoortere, cultural worker Fatima-Zohra Ait El Maâti, top model Hanne Gaby Odiele, domestic worker Mieke Van Hove, space scientist Angelique Van Ombergen and gender expert Kaouthar Darmoni. Through five thematic and visually surprising episodes, they show how they deal on a daily basis with discrimination at the intersection of gender, sexuality, skin colour, class and religion. The three young filmmakers Zaïde Bil, Sam Peeters and Heleen Declercq travelled across Europe, the United States and North Africa to line up their various fights for equality.

In March 2018, the last male northern white rhino remaining on earth died. His name was Sudan, and after 42 years on this planet he had lived his - and his species' - life to the very end. THE LAST MALE ON EARTH shows his last years on earth, in which he was not alone. Ever since he was the last one, armed bodyguards protected him, tourists were standing in line to take a photo with him, journalists rushed to Kenya to tell his story and, still now, scientists are determined to find ways to reproduce his species. What is so attractive about the threat of extinction? How does this reflect on us? A difficult topic served in a light and elegant, but serious form. For even though the irony of man's (self) destructive dominance on earth has become clear to most people, Sudan stands heavily and majestically in the midst of it all, like a mirror image of our own megalomania. Floor van der Meulen's debut film testifies to an extraordinary talent for balancing the many parallel narratives of the rhinoceros Sudan's last days and in the human tragicomedy that unfolds around him.

Since the large waves of migration in summer 2015, many are ready to house and welcome the less fortunate people of this world. Long before that Doctor Bartolo took responsibility for Omar, an 18-year-old Tunisian who stranded on Lampedusa's coast. Dr Bartolo offers Omar a family, a home and a job as an interpreter in the local detention centre. Around the same time also Adam, a 16-year-old from Ghana, is taken in by a hotelkeeper, who gives him a job as the hotel's valet. Both boys have been lucky. Or haven't they? Because a future is more than a roof above your head. And good intentions don't suffice for true integration. We should at least listen to the boys themselves. Lampedusa: promised land or prison in the Mediterranean Sea? These 2 unique adoption stories reveal the search for freedom and happiness of both the Lampedusiani and the newcomers, and are a metaphor for the task that awaits the European continent.

A poetic portrait of Giorgi Shakhsuvarian, an Armenian boxing coach from Tbilisi. Living and working in Belgium, he prepares a young boxer to become a European champion.

Indian refugees are arrested by the Belgian harbor police. Together with them, we lose all sense of time and place.

Like us, people with disabilities, have moods and temperaments that can clash. They have their thoughts, desires, feelings and opinions and a life of their own. In poetic black and white, we peek inside the minds of Nadine, Sofie, Sam, Quan, Mathias and Jessica, who all live in a care center for people with reduced mental possibilities. Sofie cannot do all that much but when she likes or doesn't like something you will understand. Mathias has Autism Spectrum Disorder and although it is not easy to understand all social interaction, he makes people happy by memorising their birthdays. Nadine who has Down syndrome started to suffer from dementia. Sam, who also has Down syndrome, copes with his feelings through music. Quan was born in China and hopes to return there one day. And Jessica finds it difficult to combine work, competitive horse riding and a relationship. While they unravel their emotions over the course of 1 year's time, each of them teaches us about the world, about how to cope with moods and looks and how to cope with ourselves. Please don't stare, but yes, you can take a look, even more: Watch Me.

Astronauts in the desert of Oman. Or is it Mars? Bedouines, spaceships, desertships, two young omani girls passionate about space and a lost director reflecting about life in this Universe and the relation between exploration, nomadism, colonialism and freedom.

How to build a home in a place called nowhere? Kakuma refugee camp, built in the middle of the Turkana desert (Kenya), is the fastest growing city in the region. Many of its new arrivals are children sent out of conflict zones by their parents. Against all odds, these children grab all opportunities in the camp to rebuild their life. While waiting for her mother to return from South Sudan, Nyakong (8) starts to go to school. Slowly she creates a new home in the camp. At the age of 17, teenagers like Claude and Khadijo consequently compete for international scholarships, get a job, even build their own house. Filmmaker Lieven Corthouts decided to stay in one of the toughest places on earth and make this camp his home. While filming his friends for more than 4 years, he unveils the accomplishments of these strong, smart children and the true dynamics of a refugee camp. Can Kakuma really offer a future? Or is it just a waiting room, where the only option is to plan your journey to Europe?

Kakuma in Kenya, is one of the biggest refugee camps in the Horn of Africa. Many children in the camp live without their parents. Phone numbers then remain the only fragile threads that connect them. But due to conflict situations, phone numbers quickly get lost and the children lose all contact with their families. Dot, Nyakong, Souade, Claude, Mitu and Amina and thousands of others are in search for their parents. But how do you that? And how do you fill the days, waiting for them? Last year, the teenagers of Kakuma helped to design an app to reconnect families. They spread the app over the camp and very quickly 3000 children had signed up. When sharing their personal data in the app, these children all receive an avatar in this interactive documentary. Their avatars are placed on a map of Kakuma; every avatar represents a real person living in Kakuma. You are in Kakuma. Find the avatar of our 6 main characters among hundreds of other children in the camp and unlock their stories. By watching short film clips, you discover how Dot, Nyakong, Claude, Amina, Mitu and Souade live in the camp without their parents, why they had to flee South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Congo and by which means they hope to find back their family. Combining documentary storytelling, gaming elements and the impact of digital innovation in refugee situations, FIND ME IN KAKUMA wants to make this invisible reality more visible. Will children and parents be reunited? Find them in the camp and follow their search.

A poetic VR experience by Azam Masoumzadeh

Un pays plus beau qu'avant is a film about the Congo made in Brussels. The wanderings of Jean-Simon, a small-time business man, reveal the outlines of a microcosm of informal commerce within the Congolese diaspora. His everyday economic urgency connects with the political urgency regarding the situation back home as experienced from a distance by the Congolese living in Europe. The film orbits around these two imperatives, in a constant negotiation between here and elsewhere, the past and the present.

12-year-old Kwinten loves to play outside. Since his best friend Obi moved to another city, he is often alone. Kwinten now finds comfort with his dog Jagmur, donkey Carmen and the neighbour's pig Knorre. For Kwinten, his dad is his big hero. He is commander of the F931 Louise-Marie, a navy ship of the Belgian Ministry of Defense. His job requires him to be regularly at sea for long periods of time. Kwinten is used to missing his father, but every time he is away on a mission, Kwinten needs to see how to fill the days and cope with 'missing'.

When we're out of words, the body takes over. So far the dancers Bérengère Bodin, Samir M'Kirech and TK Russell agree, when you ask them: why are we fighting? Based on their personal experiences, they look for the why of violence around them in the world, but also the violence within themselves. How do you deal with fear, frustration and disappointment in today's world, where you feel unheard or misunderstood? Is it at all possible to act in a non-violent way? Or is that privilege reserved for those who create dance, music, art or words? With their film Why We Fight? Alain Platel and Mirjam Devriendt pay tribute to the arts, but also to humanity, that always seems to balance between something spectacularly beautiful and horrible cruel.

How to find each other back after fleeing situations of war? Follow Dot, Nyakong and many more children while looking for their parents in Kakuma camp.