The House / Kjell / Runaways

Five mentally handicapped women meet at the home of one to spend the afternoon talking together, drinking tea, but above all painting. Inside each painting is the hidden story, experience, desire or world view of its creator; each tells of how they are, how they were and how they would like to be. The director allows the paintings to come to life, combining animation with documentary film footage to bring us closer to the internal lives of these women who differ little in their wants and outlooks from healthy individuals. / "I don't feel like a real man, or like a real woman. More like something in between," says Kjell at the beginning of the film. He wistfully remembers the fifties, when as a young handsome model he infatuated more than one man in St Tropez, Cannes, Paris and London. He was successful, beautiful, and popular, yet none of his relationships lasted for long. Now Kjell is old and sick, and despite the fact that he senses he will never find the long-sought love of his life, he does not stop living his dreams. / Director Orzu Sharipov accompanies a group of Afghan refugees who escape from war to the safety of an uninhabited island on the Panj River, which forms a natural border with Tajikistan. The women carry their smallest children, while the men and donkeys carry everything else that the group will need for survival. The war has driven thousands of people from their homes. Many of them are able to find refuge after a number of months in the middle of the border river, in no man's land. The director allows the poetic footage of the camera to speak for itself, undisturbed by verbal commentary, with Afghan music softly playing in the background.