Another Year

In Huli, Beijing, the Chen, Lin, and Pan families have transformed over forty years of reform. The Chen family's son, Chen Huan, became a famous economist, while daughter Chen Qing and her husband He Dahai overcame layoffs. The youngest, Chen Xiaoou, embodies modern women. The Lin family's son, Lin Yida, transitioned from government work to business, bringing his rural wife Qunying, who grew into a strong woman. Daughter Lin Pingping studied abroad but faced difficulties. The Pan family struggles with Liangzi's unemployment and his mother Pan Tao's hopes. Chen Huan succeeded professionally but lost in love, Lin Pingping had a challenging life abroad, Chen Qing and He Dahai found stability, and Lin Yida's business led to divorce and remarriage.

During a year, a very content couple approaching retirement are visited by friends and family less happy with their lives.

He's an unemployed guy who earns some money by giving lifts to strangers. She's a graphic designer who just got her first job. The film tracks their relationship - and the way it gradually melts away - throughout a year. A subtle, moving portrait of an immature love that breaks down easily.

Thirteen dinners of a Chinese migrant worker's family over the course of fourteen months. The film portrays a series of random occurrences. Joys, frustrations and the struggle for survival. The meals unfold in real-time through thirteen static, long takes. Each take captures with vivid detail the reality of the relationships between the different family members. As the seasons unfold, so does time and the echoes for better working conditions penetrate the frame. Issues such as the one-child-policy and the possibilities for better wages weigh heavily on the minds of the three-generation family.

Stephen lives in Berlin and is unemployed. Together with his ex-girlfriend he shares custody of his son, Jasper, but while other fathers go with their children to the movies, they browse through their days, collecting old clothes or returnable bottles. Jasper loves his father and covers for him towards his mother and the child welfare office, but it is increasingly difficult for Stephen to bear his own free fall through the German social network. He knows what personal and professional mistakes he has made and as he realizes that he now runs the risk of failing as a father, he decides on a calm farewell and prepares himself for a serious act of desperation.

Lucas wakes up finding out it's his birthday again. For him, nothing's normal during his birthday because every year, it's always the same.

Just another year documents how a mother and a daughter celebrated Norooz at home, not very differently from the previous years. As they aren’t surrounded by an Iranian community, some of the rituals such as jumping over fire have been adapted to living in a flat. The film looks at the small but important domestic gestures that constitute the setting of the Haft-Sin table, embracing this poetical approach to life which is performed again every spring.

yet another leap year is a visual and psychological investigation into the shooting down of an aircraft. The film focuses on the time this tragic event occurred and its aftermath, connecting it to pain – both of the human soul and body throughout time.

I'm walking along the beach in a howling gale - another year is passing in the roaring waters. The Blue Nile, and the Blue Grotto. The grotto is lit by light that is refracted through the water from a small opening five feet high into a vast canon. The ferrymen sing 'O Sole Mio'. The silent magic is broken. Black blue sadness in Geertgen's 'Nativity at Night'. The virginal blue robe which mirrors the blue sky is swallowed by black.

Five Year Diary