July 14, on Bastille Day. Strained by the military cadence of the barracks, Sergeant Lafleur struggles with the silent burden of duty. A doctor grants him one night of freedom, under the condition that he shall return before dawn. Nocturnal wanderings begin in the heart of a world which gradually drifts away from reality. A night suspended between destiny and desertion

For twenty years, Sultan Zeib Khan has kept watch over a ruined Neolithic necropolis in the Sharjah desert in the United Arab Emirates. Although majestic, the wide-angle shots have no monumentalising intent: the beauty and extent of the site speak for themselves. What is playing out here is the possibility for one man to become part of a landscape that overwhelms him yet seems to need his help. Seen under the silhouette of a rock about to devour him or as a dwarfed figure spade in hand walking from the back of the frame, Sultan curiously busies himself from day to day to prevent the ruins… from falling into ruin. Hamlet’s words in the famous gravedigger scene come to mind: “Has this fellow no feeling of his business? He sings at grave-making.” But here the human remains have long since become archaeological artefacts: the highly luminous outside sequences alternate with shots inside a museum where the bones are sorted and laid out for the visitor’s eye. The switching between day and night but also the soundscape of the man’s singing and the sound of his transistor radio suggest that even the greatest solitude can allow itself be inhabited. Above all, it underlines the paradox of these empty tombs, where death is compounded by the absence of the relics. – Charlotte Garson

Presented as an investigation of Lebanon’s history of earthquakes, Ali Cherri’s short film is a captivating poetic meditation on contemporary representations of catastrophe, whether the collapse of a bridge, or an empire.

Sudan, near the Merowe dam. Maher works in a traditional brickyard fed by the waters of the Nile. Every evening, he secretly wanders off into the desert to build a mysterious construction made of mud. While the Sudanese people rise to claim their freedom, his creation starts to take a life of its own. 'The Dam' is a political fable about the power of imagination set against the backdrop of the Sudanese revolution.