16/10/2015 - The Estonian gathering unveils the inaugural Tridens First Features competition line-up

The 19th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (13-29 November) has unveiled the inaugural Tridens First Features competition line-up. Festival director Tiina Lokk says, “The festival was looking for the birth of an artist with an original and strong vision and the ability to engage the audiences with universally graspable messages.”

The festival has selected 14 world and international premieres from diverse regions with an aim to discover and showcase new talent. Estonian documentary filmmaker Urmas E. Liiv’s debut Ghost Mountaineer [+see also:
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film profile] employs autobiographical elements in an adventure story set in the Siberian taiga balancing youth drama with mysticism and horror elements. Swinging eloquently between comedy and drama, the Norwegian first-time director Charlotte Blom presents the story of the impact of the break-up of a couple with two children in Staying Alive [+see also:
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interview: Charlotte Blom
film profile]. In the Spanish feature Food and Shelter [+see also:
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interview: Juan Miguel del Castillo
film profile] by director Juan Miguel del Castillo the story of a young single mother and her son fighting to avoid eviction and starvation serves as a powerful and poignant societal critique of the Spanish government. A road trip as a means of escape forms the French-Columbian co-production Anna [+see also:
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interview: Jacques Toulemonde
film profile], by Jacques Toulemonde Vidal (read the news), a story of a mother desperately trying to fight for the right to be with her beloved son. In Road-Movie [+see also:
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film profile], by Czech director Martin Jelinek, an advertising professional goes on a road trip with his childhood girlfriend only to realise how far his pragmatic mindset has taken him from her spiritual freedom and naiveté. And German-Mongolian director Uisenma Borchu’s Don’t Look at Me That Way [+see also:
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interview: Uisenma Borchu
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The journey, in a physical and, even more so, a moral sense is also a central theme in the Russian feature The Find, directed by Viktor Dement, where a fishing and hunting inspector accidentally stumbles on an abandoned baby through the Siberian forests. Israel’s Tova Ascher makes her directorial debut with A.K.A. Nadia, telling a story about a Palestinian woman forced to change her identity. US drama Lost in the White City, directed by Tanner King Barklow & Gil Kofman presents a story about artistic, emotional and sexual self-discovery in Tel Aviv. Australian film Pawno, by Paul Ireland, depicts the intersection of small stories in metropolitan Melbourne, a melting pot of cultures, races and people. An afterglow of an ancient culture in decline can be felt in Paraguayan-Argentinian co-production Guaraniby director Luis Zorraquin. Delivery, by Columbian director Martin Mejira Rugeles, shot in 16mm, follows a pregnant woman living in a distant Columbian forest village. The change of ties with one's habitat is one of the central conflicts in the Iranian actress Soheila Golestani’s directorial debut Two. And Loev, by Indian director Sudhansu Saria, presents a story of the complex triangular relationship between three gay Indian men.

The section includes two films Out of Competition: French film All Three of Us [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Kheiron – a feel-good drama with comedic elements, depicting a journey of an Iranian family migrating to France in search of a better life – and South Korean historical drama Snowy Road by director Lee Najeong.