‘Lazzaro felice’ tells the fable-like story of Lazzaro, a young and naïve farmer. He grew up in an isolated pastoral village of Inviolata, ruled by the awful Marchesa Alfonsina de Luna. When the young nobleman Tancredi asks Lazzaro for help in staging his own kidnapping, an unusual bond develops between the two. Their unlikely friendship creates a remarkable shift in time and space in this beautiful, modern Italian fairy tale. Alice Rohrwacher won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival for this film.

In 1990s New York, young police officer Lucas is given a special assignment. He must seduce gay men and lure them to public toilets under false pretenses so that they can be arrested. Lucas dutifully carries out his tasks until he meets his next mark. The charming Andrew manages to make him question his own identity and suppressed desires. Carmen Emmi paints in her feature debut ‘Painclothes’ a world where the boundaries of morality, masculinity, and identity are explored. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

In an abandoned outskirt near the Italian coast, the sweet and gentle Marcello runs a dog grooming salon. He’s a discrete man, loved by everyone. His peace and quiet soon get disrupted when the enormous and coke addicted ex-boxer Simoncino shows up at his front door. Marcello quickly finds himself entangled in a spiral of violence. The Italian director Matteo Garrone (‘Gomorra’) based this rock-hard crime drama on a true story from the late 1980s. Marcello Fonte won the Palme d'Or for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival.

Ann Lee and the Shakers is not the name of the band, but of a Christian sect and his leader. In the 18th century, Ann Lee (a fiery Amanda Seyfried) flees Manchester and proclaims her religious message in the New World. Her followers, who worship her as the second incarnation of Christ, believe in an utopian society and practice their faith through music and dance. But the Shaker-movement is also plagued by religious persecution in the New World. The ambitious epic for fans of both Broadway musicals and Robert Eggers’ ‘The Witch’ was nominated for Best Film at the film festival in Venice.