Project Type: Documentary

It is the story of an extraordinary journey of 90-year-old Zdzisław, from Krakow to the Kazakh steppe, searching for a woman – his first love that he was forced to leave there 70 years ago. Zdzisław is part of over 300,000 people who were forced to work in Siberia during the war. However, he stands out from the few still living exiles –¬¬¬ he decides to travel back to the deportation place. Zdzisław and his granddaughter will travel 3500 km by train to reach the village of Karasu in Kazakhstan. Zdzisław doesn’t know that a friend he has not seen for 70 years is waiting for him there.

THE HAMLET SYNDROME is a powerful portrait of a vibrant young Ukrainian generation, the first one born after the collapse of the Soviet Union, shaped by the Maidan Revolution of 2013, empowered by political change and scarred by war.

Stopping the next pandemic is a new challenge to the most prominent scientists. Their field studies around the world are showing that our health as humans depends on animal and environmental health. Diseases that occur in the remotest places are now our concern. We live in a connected world. We will have to preserve the environment to prevent future pandemics.

How is it possible that falling in love, feeling connected to nature, and experiences of awe and wonder, can all arise from the material atoms of our bodies? Can science explain such complex human experiences? Can a computer achieve consciousness? And what does it mean to be human in a world of increasing science and technology? In “SEARCHING: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science,” physicist and novelist Alan Lightman (Einstein’s Dreams) embarks on a journey across time and space to ponder these questions. In the course of his odyssey, he speaks with Nobel-prize winning scientists, leading ethicists and philosophers, faith leaders (including the Dalai Lama), a paralyzed ex-gang member who was the first person to have computer chips implanted in an area of his brain that allowed him to move a robotic arm by pure thought, and even an advanced humanoid android named BINA48, one of the few African-American AI’s.

Two huge plastic elephants are being pulled down from the top of the colourfully decorated grand are-na of the State Circus of Bucharest. Change has finally become unavoidable for this circus built by the communist regime in 1961. Wild animal shows are suddenly forbidden and with this, the circus loses its main attraction. Long-time animal-training partners Adi and Mioara are left without the occupation that has meant everything to them, and have to see their pupils off to the zoo. The circus is in crisis, so the director makes a risky move: he calls in Adrian, a Vegas show director who works for the famous Cirque du Soleil. Adrian holds casting calls, and now Mioara, Adi and their colleagues are expected to turn an old-school circus into a world-class acrobatic spectacle by the end of the year. Through the stories of the trainers who lose their jobs and are trying to survive in the new reality, the circus becomes a mirror for processes of transition that have been taking place all over East Europe over the past thirty years.

A heartfelt story of how a script, a stage, and a theater program composed of adults with disabilities celebrate their creativity, explore life’s complexities, and empower a community, in their own words and their own way.