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A cafe manager in Tehran adds “The Listener” to their cafe menu. The clients may order someone to listen to them.

Itamar Rose sets out to discover the recipe for YouTube success. In his own attempt to go viral, the Israeli satirical activist and ineffective content creator comes up against gatekeepers and powerful monopolies. 

With exceptional filming, the filmmaker shows us the reality of Mexican children whose dream is to become professional boxers. Through a few magnificent portraits, we discover the world of boxing behind the scene. To reach the top you have to receive many blows for only one out of three thousand boxers makes it.

Two decades of intimate home video show the story of the Sanford family whose struggles with addiction and gun violence eventually lead them to a journey of love, loss, and acceptance.17 Blocks illuminates a nation's ongoing crisis through one family's raw, stirring, and deeply personal saga.

Imre and Piroska live an isolated and poor life mining charcoal. Their quiet life is disturbed by the rising numbers of foreign tourists who come to see "real forest people" among other touristic attractions. Between the hard work and pictures with tourists, they dream about winning the lottery with a very personal combination of numbers. Yet, every morning, weather forecasts and the lottery drawing announce the beginning of another hard day.

In the Tundra, in the Arctic part of Yakutia, the climate is unbearable. In winter, the temperature drops to -65°C. There is no phone service, electricity nor roads. Living in such conditions means a daily struggle with nature and oneself. On a quest for liberty and independence, Sergei breeds his herd of horses, while being challenged by the extreme climatic conditions and the distance from his family.

The visual thread running through the documentary 31 Haltes is the Stockel-Erasme Metro line crossing Brussels, whose route briefly brings together thousands of people and enables very different worlds to interact. The film follows six different people in their daily activities above and below ground. What links them are stories of loss and absence; of dreams and desires. Griet Van Reeth creates an intimate and poetic portrayal of a city and its various inhabitants.  The filmmaker will be there to talk after the movie 

The Millenium Film Festival is organizing two days of meetings aimed at documentary film professionals from Belgium and elsewhere. Through films selected from our programme and in the presence of the directors and audio-visual professionals, these meetings provide the chance to address different aspects of documentary creation and the current challenges of the trade.

A film about the Košice swimming pool, the place where, according to the filmmaker's slogan, "history came to swim." Set between 1936 and 2002, the story reflects historical events that took place in Central and Eastern Europe during that period. Using the pool as a backdrop where three generations came to cool off, a kind of "personal theatre" has been created, a space which becomes itself a model for evoking social history.

Opened 30 years ago, in the middle of the Quartier Latin in Paris, my father's hardware store is a meeting point for the neighbourhood and the playground of my childhood years. As it is about to close forever, I'm on my father's side in the last moments of the store. At the same time I try to understand why this former maoist militant with a university degree has ended up selling nails.

Roses sold in Europe often arrive from Africa. But at what price? Jane, Osca and Kennedy reveal the inside story of the global flower industry in Kenya - the violence, the terrible working conditions, the pollution and the drainage of a lake. Is this really fair for a bunch of roses?

Somewhere in Hungary, at the dawn of the year 2000, a bus disappears, becoming a 'ghost' bus that has neither driver nor passengers. Starting from real recordings of voices and sounds, the director uses the form of an animated film to document the life of a Hungarian village. The young people are moving to the city, and only older people stay in the village, leaving the yellow buses empty.

During the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh, Gurudasi Mondol became insane having watched her entire family murdered by the Razakars, the pro-Pakistani forces. She continues roaming the streets of a small rural town Kopilmoni, in quest of what she lost. Indifferent to authority and other people's contempt, she steals from foreigners and goes to places allowed only to men. In Kopilmoni, Gurudasi has become a legend. Through her untamable personality, she keeps the spirit of the liberation war alive.   

On his 30th birthday, Tom Fassaert receives a mysterious invitation from his 95 ­year ­old grandmother Marianne to come visit her in South Africa. At that time, the only thing he knows about her are the myths and predominantly negative stories his father told him. She was a femme fatale who went through countless men, a famous model in the 1950s, and a mother  that  put  her  two  sons  into a children’s home. Fassaert decides to accept her invitation. But when his grandmother makes an unexpected confession, his venture becomes much more complicated than he could ever have imagined.

Johnny believes in the future of Africa. He lives in Israel, but dreams of returning home with modern fish farming techniques. His wife, Thérèse, sees little hope back home. She is determined to create the best possible future for their children. When their visas expire, tensions between the two arise, leading to an inevitable clash.

Three young candidates start their campaign to become president on a school in the village of Kilifi, Kenya. Magdalene wants to show that women can make a difference in an environment dominated and corrupted by men. Harry comes from a very poor family and knows that winning could mean his way out. Said is resourceful and with a heart­breaking smile. Who has the best cards to win the presidency?

Anuol Deng is a newly qualified lawyer who, after studying in Britain, returns to South Sudan with the hope of rebuilding his country after independence. Yet, the readjustment of living and working back home holds more challenges than he could have foreseen. When a new civil war breaks out he has to flee the same bullets that chased him as a little boy. History is repeating itself and his motherland’s violent past comes back to haunt him. Will Anuol be able to overcome these hardships and reconcile with his past?

Twenty years after Nigerian asylum seeker, Semira Adamu, was assassinated in Belgium, two women tell the story of a war cry combined with feminism. In their stories, they highlight the reality of closed centers for migrants, the conditions of detention, the suffering of detainees, and the acts of guards and police forces.

After her grandfather's death, Julia Clever comes across objects revealing his nazi past. She doesn't remember questioning him about that past. She initiates a reflection on our history, that time, and our relationship to it.

Domestic work represents a real market in Lebanon, segmented according to the national and ethnic origins of the worker. Zein El-Amin manages a maid agency. In a catalogue, he helps each client to choose the best candidate according to his or her needs. A Maid for Each observes the components of this system that transforms young women coming from Africa and Asia into merchandise to be exchanged. In this business, the notion of a maid is utterly dehumanised and becomes a product.