He is called the 'Socrates of the North'. He is also called the forefather of existentialism: Sören Kierkegaard, born in Copenhagen in 1813. At the request of his father, he studied theology. He sees himself as a poet and philosopher, but always on a mission to fight for an unadulterated Christianity. His fanatical fight against an overly saturated and bourgeois church sapped his strength to such an extent that he died at the age of 42. Kierkegaard did not only set great impulses in his time. He has not lost his topicality until today. His complicated personality, his radical demands become clear for the first time in his writings.
A story of life and death, featuring Lozinski's six-year-old son Tomaszek and elderly people spending time on the benches of a Warsaw park. Riding his scooter, Tomaszek asks the elderly very adult, though basic, questions, which they are happy to answer. The boy's ideas of future and life are confronted with those of men at the end of their lives.
Wszystko może się przytrafić
1995
7
Makulatura [which means both scrap paper and pulp fiction in Russian] is a duo of poets Evgeniy Alyokhin and Konstantin Speransky, who have been performing together since 2003. Blending classic literature references, mind-bending introspection, musings on modern love and an ironic attitude to their act, they create what faithful fans and listeners call “existential rap.” The film follows Makulatura on tour through several Russian cities.
Внутренний реп
2016
8
Jørgen Leth can squeeze poetry from a stone and wit from dust, and he can find love where the milk of human kindness runs dry. In a series of tableaux of Life in Denmark, he carries absurdism to a happy extreme. To act out his minuscule non-dramas, he uses a motley crew of professional actors like Ghita Nørby and Claus Nissen, writer Dan Turéll plus a snake charmer, a bicycle racer and a circus queen.
Det gode og det onde
1975
5
A feature length documentary shot in Iceland on mediums and the relationship between humans and invisible beings such as elves ghosts, angels, water monsters and extra-terrestrials. The film is a journey to the frontiers of life questioning the scope of our existence. Are we alone in the universe? If life exists in other dimensions, it's worth knowing more.
Enquête sur le monde invisible
2002
6
What starts as a desire to experience nature more intimately develops into a relatable conversation on alternative pathways through life. Two friends go on a two-year road trip through Latin America. Presenting an insight into long term travel and how engaging in new cultures and environments can help widen our perspective and deepen our understanding of the world we live in. Pacifico forms a discussion around the pros and cons of living in the moment; Showing how slowing down and observing the world mindfully can aid in gaining perspective and broaden an understanding of what is important in life.
Pacífico
2020
0
Replikas, online chatbots, have trouble determining their place in the world. They share their thoughts with the humans they exchange with. Events unfold from their point of view through real conversations collected on the web.
The Oasis I Deserve
2024
8
"Fly too high and you will burn, go too low and you won't breathe." Daedalus weaves a tale of ambition and caution through an ancient myth, set in a nation below sea level. Shot in just seven consecutive days during the summer of 2023, it concludes the first volume of Bliss, a playlist of sounds and shapes. As the master craftsman gifts his son wings and wisdom, the film delves into the perilous dance between striving for greatness and the suffocating pull of stagnancy. This chaotic exploration bridges the warnings and epiphanic thoughts of 20th-century thinkers with the responses of today's dreamers.
Daedalus
2024
10
In the cabin the conductor activates the gear lever; his motion breaks the inertia. Behind is the station, then images of the machinery, the resignation of travelers, and the landscape. The events are increasingly bizarre; there is no destination, only the journey as metaphor.
La inercia
2008
5
Mr. Death
2016
5
For us, a thought always presupposes a society, a culture and above all the consciousness of time. We are haunted by immortality, human notion par excellence. As if the world was here to fascinate us. And to disappoint us. The film travels around the bulb like the Earth around the Sun. Light makes the film visible. A fragile film, like our existence. In the orbit of the film tragedy and our reality, the image resists the cruelty of the experiment.
Skoro ništa: i dalje noć
2017
6
Five young Ukrainians discuss life following the Maidan Revolution of 2014. Not all fought in the Russian-Ukrainian war, but it, regardless, shattered their life plans. Representing 'Generation Maidan', they face the question of how to cope with experiences of violence, how to go on. A local theatre director produces Hamlet, wherein they can use Shakespeare’s tragic character as a mirror and face their traumas onstage. For them, 'to be or not to be' is not simply text but an existential dilemma with no clear answer.
Das Hamlet-Syndrom
2022
8
A film that immerses its audience in subjective states of consciousness they might experience when they die, imagining what they can see and think and hear in a seamless but fragmentary flow of poetic images, words and music. The viewer undertakes a journey into their own interior world of dreams and projections in which time and space, and cause and effect logic, are turned on their heads. Text Messages from the Universe is inspired by The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a text which guides souls on their journey of 49 days through the 'Bardo', or intermediate state, between dying and rebirth.
Text Messages from the Universe
2019
6
As the months pass through her, Mai gives us a glimpse into old age that explores between being abandoned and being belonged, passing the time and living the time.
Mai
0
What is the purpose of our existence ? What is the soul ? Which are the power of mind, of conscience ? What is our link to nature ? Pondering these existential questions, this movie invites us to find out an universal wisdom, meeting shamans, healers, yogis, but also philosophers and doctors. From Mongolia plains to the Amazonian forest, it leads us far than we expected at first.
Etugen
2023
10
Documentary about twin brothers who go back to their childhood home to discover what happened to a Patrick Lurzing, a boy who disappeared who nobody else seems to remember.
Auf die, die noch existieren
2014
8
"Birth is not a beginning and death is not an ending. They are merely points on a continuum." - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
أزمة وجودية
2022
9
What happens to a person's self when she retires and no longer has the job to lean on? Documentary filmmaker Lars Lennart Forsberg asked that question to about ten retirees but never had the chance to complete his project. Olle Häger and Kjell Tunegård had to take over and let the e-mails exchanged between Lars Lennart Forsberg and Olle Häger become keys to "The Film That Didn't Get Made".
Filmen som inte blev av
2013
0
An essay film about Jean-Paul Sartre and the French Existentialists, featuring Roland Barthes' last interview.
Parigi '50 - L'esistenza immaginata
1981
10
One million Dutchmen (out of 16 million) play soccer. Almost two million fish at least once a year. Fishing might be the most remarkable sport in the world. The documentary V.I.S.S.E.N (FISHING) dives into the world of Dutch fish and fishermen. Above and under water, on the IJ, at the coast, on the North Sea, in the cities, in the polder and on and by lakes and rivers. The film is a personal, filmic search for the “primordial fisher” in mankind and a portrait of the Netherlands by and on the water. V.I.S.S.E.N is also about what moves the fishermen. Who are the people that fish? Is fishing a hobby, a sport, an escape or a primordial instinct one cannot repress? What goes through your mind when you fish, when you catch something, or when you do not catch anything. And: what's it like for the fish, getting hooked?
V.I.S.S.E.N
2012
8
Set in the mountains of northeast Italy, this film may be considered an observational documentary about rural life. Although this is undeniably the case, at the same time Under the cold stars can hardly be considered a documentary: the microcosm on which it focuses appears to be a reflection of a broader reality and perhaps a way to deal with the themes of man’s existence and his relationship with animals, nature and, most importantly, with time. As written by Franco Piavoli "it is a film which essentially relies on images and sound, where words themselves are sound and the music of life, of the relentless flow of time."
Sotto le stelle fredde
2020
7