Rotterdam Festival World Premieres Include Malaysian Horror Movie and Nepalese Dostoevsky Adaptation

International Film Festival Rotterdam has revealed the first wave of world premieres for its 56th edition, which runs from Jan. 28-Feb. 7. The 10 titles will screen as part of the festival’s Bright Future and Harbour sections. The Harbour strand includes several films by filmmakers whose work previously featured at the festival. These include Kiluanji Kia Henda, who returns with “Karl Marx, Luanda,” following his commissioned performance “Resetting Birds’ Memories” in 2021, and Kyros Papavassiliou returns with “Yiannis,” following his 2015 IFFR Tiger Competition selection for “Impressions of a Drowned Man.” Additionally, Rita Hui Nga Shu returns to IFFR, following the premiere of “Decameron” in 2021, with “The Lapse.” Alongside these returning filmmakers, the Harbour selection introduces fresh voices, including filmmaker siblings Iskander and Feisal Azizuddin with their comedy cannibal horror “Ali and Ben’s Spicy Meats” and Omer Shamir with intimate documentary portrait “Waiting Room.” Bright Future presents a selection of feature-length debuts, whose subjects range from claustrophobic fairy tales to tragic personal experiences and an adaptation of Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.” In the selection are four debut filmmakers who bring “markedly different approaches to storytelling,” the festival said. These include the Ben Hicks with “Kids Go Free,” made over 15 years across three countries, Parbat Chapagai with stylized Dostoevsky adaptation “Portrait of a Young Criminal,” Lucila Las Heras with the dark fairy tale “The Muglur” and Mohamed El Zayat with Egyptian ensemble dramedy “In the Name of Galeela.” Additionally, Ali Bakhtiari brings documentary “Tehran the Obscure Atelier of Desire.” Vanja Kaludjercic, festival director at IFFR, said: “Cinema is at its most exciting when it challenges our expectations, when filmmakers find new ways to express experiences, contradictions and realities that resist easy answers. These first 10 films already offer a glimpse of that incredible range, from the playful and provocative to the intimate and politically urgent.” The complete program for IFFR’s 56th edition will be launched on Dec. 16. The first selections across Bright Future and Harbour are as follows: BRIGHT FUTURE“The Muglur” (world premiere)Director: Lucila Las HerasMexico, ArgentinaStruggling to write a fantasy novel under the thumb of her alcoholic father, Aurora makes a Faustian pact with a strange creature: the Muglur. But what price will it ask of her? The answer will be found at the dark heart of this claustrophobic fairy tale. “In the Name of Galeela” (world premiere)Director: Mohamed El ZayatEgyptWhen money for a pilgrimage to Mecca is stolen, a young man’s community comes together to convince his blind grandmother that she’s still going. Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed El Zayat asks us how far we’ll go for someone we love in his “endlessly creative” debut feature. “Kids Go Free” (world premiere)Director: Ben HicksU.S., Taiwan, JapanA taste for worldly adventures can bring passionate love and the thrill of the unknown, as well as niggling questions about economic security and one’s future. Told through a kaleidoscopic structure and a humanist lens over 15 years, Ben Hicks’ debut feature “tackles these concerns in a miraculous manner,” IFFR says. “Portrait of a Young Criminal” (world premiere)Director: Parbat ChapagaiU.S., NepalDavid, a destitute tutor, develops an attachment to teenage sex worker Sonya. Wishing to save her from the spiritual squalor of their surroundings, David resolves to kill his rich employer. A stark, psychologically vivid adaptation of Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” set in small-town Nepal. HARBOUR“Karl Marx, Luanda” (world premiere)Director: Kiluanji Kia HendaAngola, PortugalKiluanji Kia Henda’s satirical future history of Angola imagines that the nation renews itself as a Marxist state. Via time-travelling love story and Afro sci-fi-spaghetti western, we discover that in the forest, political doctrines don’t help the rain to fall. “Ali and Ben’s Spicy Meats” (world premiere)Director: Feisal Azizuddin, Iskander AzizuddinMalaysiaAli and Ben, broke buddies running a failing pickle business, stumble upon a magic recipe made from human meat. When their overnight success attracts the suspicion of a local politician, the friends must do what it takes to protect their nascent empire in this zany horror-comedy. “Waiting Room” (world premiere)Director: Omer ShamirFranceFleeing from Khan Younis, Palestinian photojournalist Mohammed Zaanoun moves his family to safety in Egypt, unsure of what’s to come. Filmmaker and activist Omer Shamir paints a moving documentary portrait of the family in their exile home across a year. “The Lapse” (world premiere)Director: Rita Hui Nga ShuTaiwan, U.K.Hong Kong filmmaker and artist Rita Hui Nga Shu layers life, declassified governmental documents and her AI-cloned voice to open a dialogue between the promises on paper and the reality of life for Hong Kongers. An “uncompromising, impactful and radically human film-essay,” says the festival. “Tehran the Obscure Atelier of Desire” (world premiere)Director: Ali BakhtiariIranA contemporary documentary portrait of artists in their studios across Tehran. They return to unfinished canvases, abandoned experiments and sketches of future projects. They scrape, paint, sculpt and listen intently to music, while outside the threat of war looms. “Yiannis” (world premiere)Director: Kyros PapavassiliouCyprus, GreeceWhen his father’s body vanishes from the morgue, a Cypriot teenager and his mother cross into the occupied north to find Yiannis, a bird psychologist from his father’s past. Kyros Papavassiliou “turns a missing-body mystery into a dreamlike journey through grief on a divided island rarely seen on screen,” IFFR says.