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Ruben Amar

Director
Ruben Amar is a French director, screenwriter, and producer. Before turning his attention entirely to cinema, he studied business administration and gained his first experience in the media industry. From the mid-2000s onwards, he made several short films in Paris, London, New York, and the Middle East. His film Checkpoint (2011) attracted particular attention, winning awards at international festivals and revealing his signature style as a politically and socially engaged storyteller. His first feature film was made in 2013 in collaboration with director Lola Bessis: Swim Little Fish Swim (2013) was successfully screened at festivals in the US and Europe and established Amar as part of a new generation of independent cinema. Together with Bessis, he also founded a production company to develop and realize his own projects independently. With Silver Star (2024), Amar presented his next feature film project, which he once again co-directed with Lola Bessis. His works are characterized by a strong visual language, detailed characterization, and an interest in people who move between cultures, milieus, and identities.

Films

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Forest of Echoes

Forest of Echoes

2016 | 30 min | Drama

A young woman runs through a forest racing two men. Then the men disappear, leaving behind a damsel in distress, and the path of the film takes a horrifying turn. At the shore of a river, the young woman discovers the corpses of three children. But suddenly a hard cut alters everything once again: tableaux vivants of three nymphs are seen – not dead but on the contrary most lively, full of macabre, mystical and humorous ideas – and these are not in the least bit childish. Maria Luz Olivares Capelle ...

Day Is Done

Day Is Done

2011 | 111 min | Documentary

Over a period of more than 15 years, Swiss director Thomas Imbach filmed with a 35mm camera from the window of his Zurich studio. Accompanied by authentic answering machine messages from 1988 to 2003, a cinematic portrait of the invisible man behind the camera emerges. The combination of image and sound forms a fictional autobiography that addresses personal experiences such as birth, death, separation, and new beginnings, while at the same time painting a universal landscape of the soul. The film ...

Snowman

Snowman

2018 | 20 min | Drama

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Lebe schon lange hier

Lebe schon lange hier

2019 | 98 min | Documentary

A year in the life of an ordinary street in Berlin. "Summer from of a balcony in Berlin - but also spring, fall and winter: Sobo Swobodnik spent a year observing life in his neighborhood from his apartment and made a unique film about it - with intimate perspectives and vantage points." Filmportal.de The minimalist work of art unfolds a fascinating image-sound-music collage about the “productivity of waiting”.

Lucky Child

Lucky Child

2014 | 22 min | Drama

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Zoe - Long Version

Zoe - Long Version

1999 | 79 min | Timeless

Maren-Kea Freese's ZOE was her award-winning graduate film as a student at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin that perfectly encapsulated the lives of drifters in Berlin at the turn of the millennium. Just as the Berlin School is low-key and stoic (and Freese does share a similar lean toward the anti-dramatic), ZOE is laconic, yet near hallucinatory. "Fascinating portrait of one of the 'broken characters' that director/author Freese is so fond of." (Moving Pictures). ZOE is the main ...

Eisenberger – Art Must be Beautiful, as the Frog Says to the Fly

Eisenberger – Art Must be Beautiful, as the Frog Says to the Fly

2018 | 94 min | Documentary

How does Austrian artist Christian Eisenberger churn out uniqueness seven days a week? By the age of 40, he had already created over 45,000 artworks. This documentary show what drives the art market, how art is created, and how the concept of art has broken all boundaries.

Like A Summer Sonata

Like A Summer Sonata

2016 | 11 min | Shorts

LIKE A SUMMER SONATA consists of four parts named after the classical structure of a sonata. In timeless black and white, it's a surreal, modern-day morality fairy tale. Paloma shares a dark secret with Stephen and she uses it to play with him according to her rules. Torn between being attracted to and being scared of him, she follows him everywhere he goes, trying to find out more about him. LIKE A SUMMER SONATA by Natalie McMahon celebrated its premiere at the Cannes Short Film Corner and played ...

Voltage

Voltage

2018 | 16 min | Drama

Lizzy is in love with Bernhard, but Bernhard is undecided. Lizzy returns Bernhard’s dog, which she occasionally watches, and stays a little longer. Lizzy shows Bernhard some kung-fu moves; Bernhard starts to flirt; and, although it’s not like her, Lizzy gets embarrassed. The same night, Bernhard asks her to drive him to a party outside town. A tense ride begins.

Zu ebener Erde

Zu ebener Erde

2018 | 91 min | Documentary

They are everywhere and yet often invisible: homeless people are often ignored. Visibility is also a social indicator. Micha always stands at the same place, at the entrance of a Vienna subway station. There he wishes the passers-by a "successful day", at Christmas also "Merry Christmas". His politeness makes him stand out, he once said. This is why the filmmaker trio Birgit Bergmann, Steffi Franz and Oliver Werani make it their top priority to take a longer look. In her documentary film ZU EBENER ...