A PIFF Ahead

PIFF is an intense but fleeting thing.  It enters our lives for a few weeks and then flits away, leaving us only memories of wrinkled flesh, dead pets and clipped dialogue. But stop living in the past and look ahead: WW writers offer their own submissions for next year’s festival.

Année Canines (Dog Years)

[FRANCE] A wealthy retiree begins a dog-walking business, only to encounter a sprightly young poodle, awakening long-dormant passions and eroticism thought long dead in both. Runtime: 198 mins.

The Cordial Life Of Cherry Löfgren

[SWEDEN] The sordid worlds of cockfights, international human trafficking, child prostitution and arms dealing come together in this delightful confection about a young girl whose dreams of becoming the world’s greatest chocolatier take her on a whimsical adventure. Runtime: 110 mins.

Seeds of Life

[UNITED STATES] A fucking documentary about fucking grass farms. Runtime: 344 mins.

Unstinting Breasts

[TAIWAN] After a pet store loses its lease, two young prostitutes adopt a menagerie of forsaken animals. Runtime: 110 mins.

Memories of Yesterday

[CANADA] The life of a mild-mannered school-bus driver is turned upside down when he makes a special birthday wish and wakes up to discover he can perfectly recall the day before today. Runtime: 86 mins.

The Taste of Miserable

[YEMEN] A quarreling family roasts a goat. The goat tastes kind of gamey. Runtime: 181 mins.

A Night in Sofia 

[BULGARIA] A coming-of-age story of a young Bulgarian who comes to know himself only in the clothes of his twin sister, Sofia. Shot in real time, from sunset to sunrise, in a single take. Runtime: 529 mins.

The Bowling Ball

[ITALY] A young girl, at the cusp of womanhood, loses her father’s bowling ball: the symbol of his long-held dream of moving to America from his Naples slum. While searching for it, she suffers a shattering sexual assault. She hides this from her father, who regains his innocence as hers is lost forever. A silent, black-and-white masterpiece. Runtime: 127 mins.

Chik and Chavi

[GREAT BRITAIN] A group of downtrodden Roma, on the run from authorities who unjustly accuse them of theft and vagrancy, throw a wild and comic wedding party—full of dramatic character revelations—in the scenic Welsh hills. Every single male party member inexplicably shows his penis to the camera. Runtime: 94 mins.

Twin Turbo

[MEXICO] A documentary about female conjoined-twin racecar drivers. Runtime: 67 mins.

Bonitas non est Pessimis esse Meliorem

[ANDORRA] Famed experimentalist Rat Freixedo’s startling visual tribute to Andorra’s dual-princedom and burgeoning handicraft industry features no dialogue or human figures. Runtime: 160 mins.

I, Remembrancer

[GERMANY] In his directorial debut, 23-year-old German-American Paul Fruehauf takes audiences on a sweeping journey through his past, from his industrial alpine homeland to the Cleveland his mother once knew. Runtime: 108 mins.

The Shepherd

[HUNGARY] An aging sheep herder watches over his flock as they graze on a lush hillside. He eventually eats his lunch and takes a nap. Runtime: 330 mins.

The Spirit of Forgiveness

[FRANCE] Two small boys wrestle with their sexuality and their very existence after finding a bag of marbles in an abandoned building. Runtime: 165 mins.

Loose Ends

[THAILAND] The chef for a powerful gangster risks life and limb when he falls in love with his employer’s bedridden grandmother. Runtime: 105 mins.

The Day Before Boxing Day

[CANADA] Follow the travails of one Saskatchewan family as they listen to the events of World War II piped out of their beloved radio. Runtime: 127 mins.

Adolescence

[BRAZIL] An animated tale of three acne-prone teens weathering the myriad challenges of adolescence. Runtime: 117 mins.

Old People Fucking

[LICHTENSTEIN] Old people fuck. Runtime: 509 mins.

Driving on the Left

[SOUTH AFRICA] A tour-de-force documentary about Johannesburg’s automotive industry. Runtime: 108 minutes.

Meaningful Glances

[JAPAN] A bittersweet tragicomedy that compiles hundreds of close-ups of unmoving facial expressions cut with musical crescendos to express many cathartic emotions. Runtime: 120 mins.

Me and My Trench Coat

[ITALY] Vincenzo Bruno, an amateur detective and closeted gay man in Rome, takes on his first big case for nightclub owner Luigi Rizzo—and finally satiates his lust. Claymated. Runtime: 87 mins.

Bifocals

[POLAND] Based on gripping true events of Agnieszka Kowalski’s career handcrafting eyeglasses, this tribute to growing old documents Kowalski making a pair of glasses for herself, just in time for her 80th birthday. Runtime: 100 mins.

Outback Stakehouse

[AUSTRALIA] Toni Collette stars as a serial-killing jillaroo who systematically slaughters the entire population of an outback Queensland town with a rusty pair of sheep shears. Based on a true story. Runtime: 180 mins.

Pacific Island Ninja

[TUVALU] Filmed entirely on a cellphone, this martial-arts comedy stars and is written, funded, directed and produced by a local karate instructor and his students in the first feature-length release from this tiny island nation. Runtime: 60 mins.

Scot the Hoople

[SCOTLAND] This charming documentary follows the quirky characters of Kilmarnock’s seminal Mott the Hoople cover band during a final reunion tour of the church halls of East Ayrshire. Runtime: 110 mins.