Rotterdam festival unveils first wave of 10 world premieres

By Tom Whitfield

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has announced a first wave of 10 world premieres for its 56th edition, which runs Jan. 28 to Feb. 7. All 10 screen in the festival’s Bright Future and Harbour sections.

IFFR calls Bright Future a selection of feature-length debuts. Harbour includes several filmmakers whose work previously featured at the festival. The release gives no cast lists, running times, screening rooms or ticket details. Most entries also omit production history beyond Ben Hicks’s 15-year, three-country project.

What changes for festivalgoers?

For now, the announcement offers a 10-film preview rather than a usable schedule. IFFR says it will launch the complete programme for the 56th edition on Dec. 16. Until then, the release cannot settle practical questions about where and when the films screen or when tickets become available.

Bright Future

IFFR presents five titles in Bright Future. The festival says four debut filmmakers bring “markedly different approaches to storytelling.” It describes the strand’s range as claustrophobic fairy tales, tragic personal experiences and a Dostoevsky adaptation, then separately identifies Ali Bakhtiari as the director of the fifth title.

• The Muglur (world premiere; Mexico, Argentina), directed by Lucila Las Heras. IFFR’s synopsis follows Aurora, who struggles to write a fantasy novel while living under her alcoholic father. She makes a Faustian pact with the strange Muglur. The price lies at the heart of what IFFR calls a claustrophobic fairy tale.

• In the Name of Galeela (world premiere; Egypt), directed by Mohamed El Zayat. IFFR says money for a young man’s blind grandmother’s pilgrimage to Mecca is stolen, prompting his community to convince her that she is still going. The festival calls the feature endlessly creative and examines how far the group will go for someone it loves.

• Kids Go Free (world premiere; U.S., Taiwan, Japan), directed by Ben Hicks. IFFR says Hicks made the feature over 15 years across the three countries. Its kaleidoscopic, humanist account follows worldly adventure, passionate love, the thrill of the unknown, economic security and the future. The festival says it tackles these concerns in a miraculous manner.

Portrait of a Young Criminal (world premiere; U.S., Nepal), directed by Parbat Chapagai. IFFR’s synopsis casts David as a destitute tutor who becomes attached to Sonya, a teenage sex worker. He resolves to kill his employer to save her from the spiritual squalor. The festival calls this Dostoevsky adaptation stark and psychologically vivid, and locates it in small-town Nepal.

Tehran the Obscure Atelier of Desire (world premiere; Iran), directed by Ali Bakhtiari. IFFR describes a contemporary documentary portrait of artists in studios across Tehran. They return to unfinished canvases, abandoned experiments and sketches for future projects; scrape, paint, sculpt and listen intently to music. War looms outside.

Harbour

IFFR says Harbour combines returning filmmakers with new voices. Kiluanji Kia Henda returns after the commissioned 2021 performance Resetting Birds’ Memories. Kyros Papavassiliou returns after his 2015 Tiger Competition selection Impressions of a Drowned Man. Rita Hui Nga Shu returns after Decameron premiered in 2021.

The strand also introduces filmmaker siblings Iskander and Feisal Azizuddin and Omer Shamir, a filmmaker and activist, among its new voices.

• Karl Marx, Luanda (world premiere; Angola, Portugal), directed by Kiluanji Kia Henda. IFFR calls it a satirical future history in which Angola renews itself as a Marxist state. A time-travelling love story and Afro sci-fi-spaghetti western lead into the forest, where political doctrines do not help rain fall.

• Ali and Ben’s Spicy Meats (world premiere; Malaysia), directed by Feisal Azizuddin and Iskander Azizuddin. IFFR’s synopsis has two broke friends with a failing pickle business discover a magic recipe made from human meat. Overnight success draws a local politician’s suspicion. They protect their nascent empire in what the festival calls a zany horror-comedy.

• Waiting Room (world premiere; France), directed by Omer Shamir. IFFR says Palestinian photojournalist Mohammed Zaanoun flees Khan Younis and moves his family to safety in Egypt. Shamir follows the family in their exile home across a year, uncertain about what lies ahead. The festival calls the result a moving documentary portrait.

The Lapse (world premiere; Taiwan, U.K.), directed by Rita Hui Nga Shu. IFFR says the Hong Kong filmmaker and artist layers life, declassified governmental documents and her AI-cloned voice to set promises on paper against reality for Hongkongers. The festival calls it an uncompromising, impactful and radically human film-essay.

Yiannis (world premiere; Cyprus, Greece), directed by Kyros Papavassiliou. IFFR’s synopsis sends a Cypriot teenager and his mother into the occupied north after his father’s body vanishes from a morgue. They seek Yiannis, a bird psychologist from his father’s past. IFFR calls it a dreamlike journey through grief on a divided island rarely seen onscreen.

Vanja Kaludjercic, festival director at IFFR, said: “Cinema is at its most exciting when it challenges our expectations, when filmmakers find new ways to express experiences, contradictions and realities that resist easy answers. These first 10 films already offer a glimpse of that incredible range, from the playful and provocative to the intimate and politically urgent.”

The slate’s breadth is clear; its quality remains untested. The festival director’s language sets a promotional frame, not an independent verdict. Because every title is a world premiere, the announcement contains no wider critical record against which to test the claims.

For festivalgoers, the practical value is 10 premieres to track before the full programme appears on Dec. 16; showtimes, venues, cast, running times and ticket details remain unanswered.