The incredible story of 13 young circus artists as they reclaim skills that once came at a high cost: they were slaves in Indian circuses - sold as children. Now freed, together they form Nepal's first circus. An intimate, beautiful film that harnesses the visual power of circus to give a unique perspective into the complex world of human trafficking.
Following 2015's Grand Jury Winner A Syrian Love Story, Sean McAllister returned to his hometown, Hull, as curator of its' UK City of Culture opening. Living with his elderly parents and reflecting on changes to a city hit by austerity and divided by Brexit - drawn to the fringes of town, Sean encounters Steve, a struggling warehouse worker with a dream.
Across the water on the island, four individuals experience the end of life. Showing rarely seen and intensely private events, the film follows the progression of illness for each character and, for one, the last days and hours of life, the moment of death, and after death care. A lyrical, slow cinema description of the temporality and phenomena of dying, this film sensitively witnesses the transition away from personhood.
This is a palliative island, the Isle of Wight, an enigmatic landscape where all around rituals persist. Parallel to bedside vigils and the rhythm of breathing, we see rescue owls on the hospice ward, the rugged coastline, and the constant ferry arrivals. A choir rehearses Brahm's 'German Requiem'. In the hospital pathology lab, microscopic close-ups of cancer show the interior of the bodies, our biology, our creatureliness. Death is presented as natural and everyday but also unspeakable and strange.
Fumi and Kazu are life partners, both professionally and privately: they run the first and only law firm in Japan set up by an openly gay couple. The lawyers know all too well the realities of being a minority in a conformist society, where the collective unity is absolute and often maintained at the expense of individual rights and freedom. Not being part of the majority could lead to prosecution by law and alienation by society at large - illustrated by the cases that the two lawyers take on. The individual freedom is viewed as a privilege not a right, and the fundamental human rights of equality and security are only extended to the majority. In a 2014 report, Amnesty International slammed Japan for 'veering away from global human rights standards', while the World Economic Forum places Japan 101st out of 145 countries in the global gender equality ranking, far behind developing countries such as Rwanda and the Philippines. Laws of Love and Other Things follows the two lawyers as.
Noura and Machi search for answers about their loved ones - Bassel Safadi and Paolo Dall'Oglio, who are among the over 100,000 forcibly disappeared in Syria.