A Desert Is An Ocean

Short documentary about the early years of Neza City

Across a vaguely historical territory – the Argentine pampas at the end of the nineteenth century – a manhunt takes place: cavalry soldiers track a gaucho guilty of an infamous crime. The outlaw is tormented by the memories of his past. The hunt will not cease for days, perhaps weeks. One afternoon, the far away figure of the fugitive becomes visible to the posse. A young army officer faces the doubtful glory of killing. But this is just the beginning, because in the desert, time is circular, justice a fragile dream, and reality a feverish reflection.

A woman is discovered in a shelled-out truck in the Libyan Desert by a small group of soldiers.

A few men and women who went to the desert for a picnic meet two "giants". The giants fight because of one of the girls and their work is dragged to the city. Urban civilization gradually turns them into two different beings. Desert giants learn how to live and love in the city and then return to their village with the girls they have married.

In northern Chile, Leonel Codoceo (58), a lonely security guard for a mining company, dedicates his free time to unveil the mysteries of extraterrestrial life. Confident in the existence of beings from another planet, Leonel organizes what will be the first UFO vigil open to the public in an emblematic place in the Atacama Desert. At the same time, he prepares for the arrival of Sara (57), his ex-wife, who will arrive in Copiapó from Australia to remarry him. Under the starry blanket of the night sky and the immensity of the desert, Leonel will seek to make contact for the first time.

The average European has never been as responsible for the devastation of tropical rainforests as he is today. What causes it and can we prevent it? Michal Gálik's documentary Green Desert, which takes us to the tropical island of Borneo, will not only provide us with the answer to these questions, but will also tell us the startling secret that the palm oil industry hides. The film Green Desert gives a real-life account of the problems caused by oil palm cultivation in Borneo. The documentary is not just a story about palm oil, it is also a story about global responsibility and how we, as consumers, have enormous power in our hands when our purchasing decisions can affect what happens on the other side of the planet. The viewer gets the opportunity to delve deeper into the issue through real stories and interviews with local people and experts.

The son of Sheikh Makhlouf, the ruler of one of the tribes in the desert, returns to the tribe after completing his education in Cairo, only to be surprised by the killing of his father and the control of a villain over the tribe. The people of the tribe try to urge him to take revenge, but he pretends to be weak.

When the famous singer Grace Collins got off the plane that had flown her a remote place in Northen Africa little did she know she would meet love and adventure there. If she came there, it was to visit Sir Collins, her stepfather. Falling in love was not on the agenda but how could she resist the charm of Nic Brenten, an alluring and idealistic Dutch engineer? Butcan devotion and generosity really compete with the greed of someone like Sir Collins, a cynical financier who wants to dispossess the locals of the copper mine Brenten helps them to develop ?...

A European researcher is abducted by some ill-educated rebels in a North African country. Their reasons are unclear...

Electronic music, with tribal rhythms, accompanies the images with overlapping colors. A finger engraves oil colors on a board, creating geometric grooves. Close-ups by the painter Sandro Uboldi, alternating with plays of light.

The few survivors of a deserted city, sometime in the near future, are left with no water or food but somehow manage to survive. In a hospital, a lonely scientist, Foteini, is helping a patient with amnesia to recover. She also meets an actor named Aias (Ajax) – who often visits his sick sister – and becomes romantically involved with him. Foteini is swept away by love; Aias, however, is unprepared for such strong emotions. Their separation brings Foteini to the house of the amnesiac, and he takes care of her, up to the moment that she discovers a photo of hers among his things. In the meantime, Aias brings his sister back home from the hospital. While it is getting darker, with clouds gathering in the sky, Foteini and Aias wander the city and meet in the rain.

Akila, a trainee journalism student, meets Leon, a petty thief who will help her find her story.

In this thriller Kenny KWAN stars as a music composer MENG Fan, whose career has hit rock bottom when he's unable to come up with another surefire hit after "Sorry I love you", which launched his career a few years back. He has also just split up with his long time girlfriend, HE Ying when she pressures him to get married. One day when surfing the internet, he comes across an old town named "Huang Cun", which has picturesque scene of golden flowers and bamboo forest, as well as a a local inn aptly named "The Deserted Inn" with the legend of a beauty called "Rouge". In an attempt to take his mind off his problems and seek inpiration to write the next hit song he sorely needs, he sets out for a journet to "The deserted inn". Upon checking into the inn, MENG Fan encounters a series of strange events - He is having nightmares that push him to the verge of a nervous breakdown, until he unveils the hidden past of the innkeeper.

In the Atacama Desert, Antay and his friends struggle to keep their drought-stricken town afloat.

As the world learns to live again in the midst of the pandemic, for many Arabic-speaking LGBTQ+ people living in Montreal, this is just a period of time like any other. When you’ve fled homophobic violence in your home country and endured a painful migratory journey, or you still face social prejudices stemming from intercultural and intergenerational conflicts, surviving social isolation is nothing new.

In a time when communication between parallel worlds has become commonplace, Gyeong-sin hears about a special kindergarten from her counterpart in a parallel world.

The locations are often, as we know, independent of the sites where the events narrated in the films are supposed to take place. Even more so when it comes to blockbuster films, science fiction films, fantastic or mythological films or films placed in antiquity. For it is crucial to benefit from natural light, full sun, grandiose scenery (mountains or surrounding deserts), but also of extras recruited on the spot. Ouarzazate, in Morocco, has long been a resourceful town for this industry, which consists of reinventing everything, including the slightest biography. Our three directors chose to explore behind the scenes of this imaginary factory, but with a particular attention to extras. In the form of light comedy sketches, we are witnessing the solo performances of those usually relegated.

In "Falling. Desert. Syn" there is the body of repetition—not of tautology but of smooth resurrection; a body dying and being resurrected in a dance without suffering. A body of the desert, which is not deserted, but instead possessed by a force of attraction towards the sky, a force as strong as the one towards the earth. A body for the stars, the same one which plunges into the underworlds.