ADEM – Hans van Nuffel (Belgium 2010): A touching portrait of young people trying to embrace life in spite of chronic illness. (Please note that only the Maastricht venue will show ADEM with English subtitles)

AUTUMN GOLD – Jan Tenhaven (Germany 2010): This documentary tells the life-affirming stories of five senior athletes preparing for the Track and Field World Championships. The biggest challenge they face is their age: they are all between 82 and 100 years old.

BIBLIOTHÈQUE PASCAL – Szabolcs Hajdu (Hungary 2010): A disturbing sex-trafficking fairy tale from Central Europe with Fellini- and Gilliam-esque touches. Szabolcs Hajdu takes us to the Bibliothèque Pascal, a debauched S&M brothel where prostitutes are forced to act the parts of literary characters.

BURIED SECRETS – Raja Amari (Tunisia 2009): A dark fairy tale about repressed desire, set in the underground servant’s quarters of a deserted mansion. This is where sisters Aicha and Radia live. When a young couple moves into the house, the women attempt to keep their presence a secret.

DRAQUILA – L’ITALIA CHE TREMA – Sabina Guzzanti (Italy 2010): Satirical documentary in the vein of Michael Moore about the aftermath of the earthquake in the Italian city L’Aquila. Guzzanti investigates Silvio Berlusconi’s self-serving exploitation of the events. The Guardian: ‘the Italian film Berlusconi doesn’t want you to see.’

DE ENGEL VAN DOEL – Tom Fassaert (Netherlands 2011): This intimate documentary sketches the lives and forced departures of the last inhabitants of Doel, a small village standing in the way of the expanding port of Antwerp. The demolition permit has been granted; the past must make way for the future. But Emilienne, a sprightly and wily old lady, sees things differently.

EUROPEAN SHORTS Compilation programme with short films from young and talented European directors. One of the selected films is LE RODBA, the directorial debut of our guest of honour Hafsia Herzi.

DIE FRAU MIT DEN 5 ELEFANTEN - Vadim Jendreyko (Switzerland 2009): Swetlana Geier is considered the greatest translator of Russian literature into German. Her translations of Dostoyevsky’s five great novels, the ‘five elephants’, are her life’s work. During her extraordinary life, she experienced the horrors of two dictatorships, but was able to survive.

THE GIRL – Frederik Edfeldt (Sweden 2009): A poetic portrait of childhood solitude, depicting the private realms kids create when free of adult supervision. In the summer of 1981, a nameless 10-year-old red-haired girl is stunned when her parents go to Africa to work on a humanitarian project, but leave her behind because she’s too young.

JIMMY RIVIÈRE - Teddy Lussi-Modeste (France 2011): Jimmy Rivière is a young Gypsy, bright and edgy. Under pressure from his community, Jimmy gives up his two passions: Thai boxing and his girlfriend Sonia. But how can he resist the powerful desire that binds him to Sonia?

LITTLE BABY JESUS OF FLANDR – Gust Van Den Berghe (Belgium 2010): Filmed in black and white, this experimental film tells the unusual Christmas tale of three beggars and their encounter with little baby Jesus. The main cast of this unique film is made up almost entirely of actors with Down Syndrome.

MADE IN DAGENHAM – Nigel Cole (UK 2010): Delightful British comedy starring Sally Hawkins as Rita O’Grady who is the catalyst for the 1968 Ford Dagenham strike by 187 sewing machinists which led to the advent of the Equal Pay Act.

MADE IN LIMBURG SHORTS - Compilation programme with short films made in the Province of Limburg (Belgium/Netherlands).

NEDS – Peter Mullan (UK 2010): A tense, claustrophobic and violent drama set in the 1970s Glasgow. John McGill is a bright, sensitive boy, eager to learn, but the cards are stacked high against him because his family’s dirt poor. John’s on his own. And then there’s the gangs. The Neds. Non-Educated Delinquents.

RUNDSKOP – Michaël R. Roskam (Belgium 2011): Visceral thriller about a young beef farmer based in the province of Limburg, set against the backdrop of the Belgian hormone mafia. Marked by a mesmerizing, powerfully physical lead performance by Flemish actor Matthias Schoenaerts. Opening film of the festival in Maastricht.

TILVA ROŠ - Nikola Ležaic (Serbia 2010): A childhood filled with hanging around, skating and silly Jackass-stunts is coming to an end for best friends Toda and Stefan. After the summer, Stefan’s going to study at the university in Belgrade. Toda will stay in Bor, the biggest hole of Europe. Their friendship is put to the test when they fall in love with the same girl.

LA VIE AU RANCH – Sophie Letourneur (France 2009): A portrait of modern student life in France. Academia isn’t exactly on the agenda for students Pam and Manon who share an apartment known as the Ranch. Their primary activity: talking. Life, friends, smoking, sex, parties and clothes are far richer subjects than the occasional, last-minute sociology paper.

WEEMOED & WILDERNIS – Digna Sinke (Netherlands 2010): On the island Tiengemeten fertile agricultural soil has been reshaped to wild nature for recreational use. This film shows the changing landscape from a personal poetic perspective, with temporality and transitoriness as central themes.

THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING – Marwan Hamed (Egypt 2006): A sprawling, star-studded epic that spans all the social classes populating contemporary Cairo. In three fast-moving hours, THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING dramatizes topical issues like adultery, political corruption, Islamist terrorism, and the hitherto taboo subject of homosexuality. Special screening as a result of the recent political events in Egypt.