Mukagali
The fate of the POET, living in a totalitarian state with its society deprived of liberty, is quite tragic. Living in the conditions of total subjection when not only behavior but also thoughts are identical, the horror of totalitarianism is that even the souls of people with a rather prosperous destiny are broken by the regime.
The main character is a talented poet; he cannot be like everyone else. For a poet, unfreedom is fatal. He has to choose between art and a comfortable life. A poet cannot adjust, he cannot write dictation, and cannot give up art. Along with this, personal tragedies come to him: the death of his daughter and the arrest of his son. In an agony of grief, he is haunted by the guilt. As a result, his life was short, but the legacy of his poetry is great!
Deadlock
An encounter of two married couples from two opposite social classes that seem to have nothing in common. A tragic event fatefully brings them together and binds them for the rest of their lives.
Absence
Rouzbeh arrives in Prague, away from his troubled family life in Tehran, and drowns himself instead, in a research about his father’s past as a communist expatriate in the former Czechoslovakia. Upon visiting the flat where his father used to live 50 years ago, he’s stopped by the police investigating a recent accident. The resident of the flat (Vladimir) has fallen from the window and his father’s name is identical to Rouzbeh’s. This can be no accident and he must accept that Vladimir is his own half brother. As he gets closer to the soul of Vladimir and discovers the hidden corners of his life, he learns a shocking fact about his father’s past, in total contrast to the hero he always admired. This directs him to a course of events identical to the one which brought Vladimir to his fall from the window.
Skookum Jim And The American Dream
This film by Scottish artist Ken Smyth explores the impact of The Klondike Gold Rush on both the indigenous people of Yukon in North West Canada and on the fake-news-inspired, get-rich-quick, American prospectors. It raises issues of racism, cultural imperialism and environmental destruction that remain highly relevant today. The film is based on a poetry sequence by Chrys Salt and a soundtrack by British composer Richard Ingham, and is voiced by Canadian actor Peter Marinker and the poet herself. Production was supported by Creative Scotland.