[Laeral]

2020 IDU Film Festival

Categories

Best New IDU Film:
- Entries must be films produced primarily or entirely within an IDU nation and not released outside their nation of origin before the end of the most recent Film Festival in November 2018.
- Entry should consist of a plot synopsis, language(s) spoken, list of main characters & actors, and any relevant production or background information.

Best Classic IDU Film:
- Entries must be films produced primarily or entirely within an IDU nation and released more than four years ago.
- Entry should consist of a plot synopsis, language(s) spoken, list of main characters & actors, information on why the film is considered a classic.

Best Actor in an IDU Film:
- Entries must be actors/actresses of any sapient species who has appeared in a film produced within an IDU nation in the last eight years.
- Entry should consist of details about the actor/actress and must cite a specific film they have appeared in.

Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film:
- Entries must be non-fiction films produced primarily or entirely within an IDU nation within the last four years.
- Entry should consist of a synopsis of the film, language(s) spoken, any relevant production & background details.

Best Foreign Film:
- Entries must be films produced outside of the IDU, not released outside its nation of origin more than two years ago.
- Entry post should consist of a plot synopsis, language(s) spoken, list of main characters & actors, any relevant production & background details.

Judging
Every nation that has submitted an entry to any category of the 2020 Film Festival is entitled to cast one vote for each category, which they may cast as they wish. Votes may not be changed once they have been cast. The entry which garners the greatest number of votes within each category will be announced as the winner of that category.

OOC: Entries may be submitted using puppets, yet voting is restricted to one vote per player.

Prizes
The winner of each category will receive a statuette and a plaque detailing their achievement, as well as the prestige of winning the IDU's most prominent film award. The travel costs for the exhibitors of the winning entries will be reimbursed, within reason.

The nation which wins the Best New IDU Film category will have the honor of hosting next year’s film festival, in 2021. In the event of a tie, precedent will be granted to the nation which has spent the longer time since hosting the festival. Beyond this, it is the responsibility of the involved governments and the attending nations of the festival to resolve any disputes over this.

Venue
The 2020 IDU Film Festival will be hosted in the city of Hanshui, in Laeral's west in the heavily-populated Riverlands region. Hanshui, nicknamed the "Jewel of the Riverlands," is the third-largest city in Laeral, and at the center of film production within the nation. Hanshui has a rich film history, with a golden age beginning in the 1960s in which Silver Harvest and other studios became known for a distinctive "Riverlands style", involving fast-paced wuxia historical dramas and contemporary action flicks featuring a unique style of fast-paced fight choreography and showy, death-defying stunts. This style made stars of local martial artists such as Stephen Chu and Laurie Zhang, and it's in honor of this great film tradition that the 2020 IDU Film Festival is hosted in Hanshui.

The easiest way for exhibitors to reach Hanshui is through Zhou Wei-lin International Airport, while the Film Festival itself will be hosted at the Palace Grand Cinema, in downtown Hanshui, and the adjoining Prosperity Conference Center. Films will be screened at the Palace Grand Cinema at a rate of one per night; exhibitors are suggested to use the city subway system or private vehicle to reach the cinema for the nightly screenings. Cars will be provided upon request, and hotel accommodations will be reimbursed for all official exhibitors or judges.* Exhibitors are invited to attend all nightly film screenings, as well as the opening reception on April 12th (featuring special guest and honorary festival host Laurie Zhang).

Further Information
The start date for posting entries is Thursday, April 9. The end date for posting entries is Saturday, April 25th, although this may be adjusted at the discretion of the host. Voting will take place for two weeks following the close of entries, although winners may be announced earlier once all eligible nations have cast their ballots.

The 2020 IDU Film Festival is now declared open for entries!



*Each nation is invited to bring eight official exhibitors or judges, plus an additional four exhibitors or judges per additional entry submitted. Reimbursement is courtesy of the Laeralian Ministry of Culture.

[Latidonia]

Film: Spring unsung.

Category: Classic film

Running time: 40 minutes


Synopsis:

The movie opens with a shot of a yellow cottage hidden in the embrace of nature. Behind a curtain of tall grass gently swaying in the wind, framed by the leaves of birches standing in its yard, a house can be seen. The weary voice of a man talks, a sense of sorrow apparent in his voice.

"I live a kilometer away from my childhood home. The dirt path that connects it to my cottage is one I have walked, skied, and cycled throughout my life hundreds and thousands of times. Ever since I was a boy, not even four years old, I've known that spring had come, when a great choir of birdsong took over that path. The whistles of songbirds, beeps of pigeons and the chirps of doves so gently filled the air. Ever so often, if lucky, you could hear the rhythmic peeping of an owl. What a wonderful paradise of birds."

A small boy walks down an narrow worn-down dirt path, looking around in the splendor of nature that surrounds it. It is surrounded by aspens so lush, that they almost seem to swallow the path within them. A polyphony of birdsong fills the forest; keeks, peeps and chirps. An owl hidden inside a pine stares right into the camera.

"Most of that path went around a lush thicket. If you wandered into it, you would find a dream-like grove. That grove was like from a fairy tale. At the center of that grove was a pond. It reminded me of an oasis. Within it, lived a colony of otters. Without a doubt, the biggest I've ever seen in Latidonia. A rich thicket of aspen and thin, twisted birches surrounded that grove." As the man speaks, a raft of otters roots around on the shore of a pond so clear the rocks that cover its bottom are visible. "Yet somehow that thicket had room for walnut trees and a great pine tree that rose high into the sky." The foot of a dark pine appears. Indeed, the tree reaches into the sky. Pinecones hang from its evergreen branches.

"The scent of flowers danced in the grove and rich fields of wildflowers grew along the shores of that pond. Those were the meadows of my childhood."

A tender, happy melody of flute and violin begins playing, as a thriving pasture of wildflowers appears, their colourful blossoms waltzing in the wind to the rhythm of that symphony. The young boy from earlier appears, and he begins to sprint through the field. The duet of violin and flute guides the child through the glory of this green meadow, clad in a lavish curtain of purple, yellow and white. Clustered bellflowers, orchids and daisies - the dew on their leaves glimmers in the sunlight of spring. The shot changes to a yarrow rocking in the wind. A small white, a type of butterfly lands on its petals, and the music slowly fades away.

A pair of strong-looking hands appear. These are hands worn down by hard work. Their rugged skin is thick and covered in unwashed dirt from what must be hours and hours of labouring outside. The nails are short and brown with grime. The shot concentrates on these hands for a moment, before panning up. The man is dressed in a checkered flannel shirt. He looks middle-aged, with wrinkles and grooves running down his cheeks and his forehead. His eyes look worried and full of sorrow. He is sitting in a dimly lit cabin.

"My two hands were never enough when I walked into that grove. I wanted to pick all of my favourite flowers. I'd give them to my mother. I'd put them in a vase. A handful of white daisies, a bouquet of purple orchids, a single Dane's blood. Of course, a cup or two of wild blueberries and strawberries as well. One summer, when I was eight or nine years old, I noticed a single lily of the valley blossoming on the edge of those meadows. I couldn't pick that lonely flower. Some summers later, those pastures flourished with a marvelous abundance of those lilies."

He stares at his hands solemnly.

"Some time ago, that childhood path, which sometimes had been carefully cleared of twigs and branches, so perhaps a smaller car could pass through it, was further "developed." Turned into yet another road of the brave new world. Gravel, gravel and even more gravel was dumped on it. Thankfully, no ditches were dug alongside it, but the stones around the path were nonetheless overturned, their mossy side against the ground. The brushes, trees and bushes of that path were pushed aside, their roots facing up like mangled bones. The rest of the ground surrounding that road was tilled black. Suddenly, the familiar people, bicycles and tractors that once used that path no longed belonged to it."

Two trucks power through the gravel road, carrying a several loads of wood, pushing a cloud of dust into the air. Their engines murmur deeply. That familiar path is indeed now wider than before, its lushness now gone. Pebbles and stones surround the dusty road and the ground looks barren and lifeless.

"The landowner of that thicket which hid that beautiful grove started working on it as best he could, in accordance with all the principles of modern forestry and with all the latest inventions. His chainsaw roared and the smell of noxious pesticides flooded from the thicket. Today the grove once so rich in clusters of different trees resembles a tundra. An empty and muddy field dotted by lonely birch saplings, and a lonely forgotten small walnut tree. It's been sheared raw. Even the smallest shrubs were culled."

"Of those birds whose song once signaled the arrival of spring, few remain. A couple of songbirds, a single dove. Despite this destruction of their home, they try to persist and cling to life. But the others are gone. Owls I have not seen for long."

A terrible heap of broken branches, twigs and shattered sticks lay on the ground. The shot pans over this heap, which carries on almost as far as the eye can see. The birdsong that earlier so beautifully filled that path is now much quieter, almost gone. One keek there, another peep there. Otherwise there is just silence, the murmur of engines in the distance.

"Truckloads upon truckloads of pine, birch, spruce and oak lumber and pulpwood were taken from that thicket."

A mountain of thick logs piled on top of one another are stacked next to the road. There are hundreds if not thousands of lifeless logs in those piles, the branches stripped clean from their trunks. The shot pans over these piles, and they seem to carry on forever. When one pile ends, another one starts right away.

"Countless pines, aspens, oaks, walnut trees and birches have been hoarded into mounds, that form a belt half a kilometer long around that road. The state-owned company, Forestry Union Group bought the logs and they were meant to be used for the Pax heating plant. However, they ended up not needing them. Now the trees that were felled a year and a half ago still surround that path, and will, I fear, probably remain there."

The heap of logs has turned to a greenish colour, and the sound of engines is now gone. The new gravel road can be seen in the distance, and a person is cycling through it.

"Beautiful bunches of bright-red berries grew on a large, lush guelder-rose next to the path, on the very southern edge of the thicket. Their brilliance alone was enough to get me out of bed - not to mention those amazing rich meadows hidden within that thicket, veiled in the beauty of wildflowers. There I would go, whenever I was in need of encouragement or joy. And what joy did they bring me." And that guelder-rose was as beautiful as the voice said. Their glossy carmine colour of its berries truly captivates the eye. A splash of colour in the otherwise green landscape. Briefly, we can see the young boy walking in the distance.

"Alas, that guelder-rose was torn down last year. And the lonely grand pine that stood within that thicket, reaching high into the sky? Only a short moss-covered stump remains."

"As for those fields of wildflowers and that clan of otters I earlier described. The path that lead past them was shut away from me for months. I couldn't force myself to see their fate. I just couldn't. For months I caged myself in my cabin, but eventually I had to break out. I got up on my bike, glued my eyes to the road and pedaled as fast as I could. I muttered to myself. "You'll get used to it. It'll get easier."" He pauses for a moment. "Somehow, it did. But my smile never came back."

"That colony of otters is now gone, and those meadows I so fondly remember from my childhood have been uprooted, poisoned and stomped to the ground. A ditch had been dug in their place. Not a single daisy remained. Not a single lily of the valley. Yet somehow my hope persisted. While the grove was lost, perhaps life would somehow return and a few wildflowers could force their way into being on the two, thin green strips that flanked the road amidst the mountains of lumber. I convinced myself that would happen."

"And so it did happen. One June day, as I walked along that road, I noticed that bundles of yellow anemones had sprouted to life next to the road. And, of course, the landowner had on his way through that road carefully poisoned and killed those strips of land with pesticide. Those wildflowers now laid lifeless, wilted and twisted on the roadside. Somehow, I managed to get home. He pauses, and takes a deep breath. I felt that I simply couldn't take it any longer."

The shot pans over the gravel road, the grey corpse-like logs laying next to it in rotting piles. The green strips, those small glimmers of life in that otherwise lifeless modern road, have now turned into a brownish colour, the life drained from them by poisonous gases. Mangled yellow buttercups lay dead on the ground, reminding the viewer of what once was or what might've been. The desolation is palpable. The grove is no longer as it used to be. The foot of that grand old pine tree appears, but no longer does it reach into the sky. Only a stump remains. Those luxuriant, flourishing, lush pastures of wildflowers unimaginably rich in colour have been laid waste to. All that remains is a muddy ditch, where the only signs of the old and the beautiful lay butchered on the ground. The shot concentrates on these dead flowers for a moment, before panning to the pond. Likewise, the otters that once inhabited the pond are nowhere to be seen. The birdsong is completely quiet. The shot concentrates on the spot where the group of otters was playing around before, which is now just black, lifeless mud. The pond has turned murky, and its water is being drained through the muddy ditch. Yet again, the shot changes to the man sitting alone in his ill-lit cabin. He sits there silently for a moment, gets up and walks outside.

A tender melody, reminiscent of that joyful song that earlier played as the child frolicked through the meadow, begins playing. The violin is now much softer and quieter, and the flute is gone, and the boy from earlier is sitting in a row-boat. The water beautifully glimmers with sunlight, and the boy looks around. Old wooden buildings pass by on the shorelines. The opposite shore is veiled in a thick curtain of evergreen pines. The music has a sense of sad melancholy to it.

"In life I have truly loved nothing else than islands, lakes, coves, capes, virgin forests, marshlands, hills, fells, mountains, swamps, streams, trees, animals, birds and flower meadows full of buzzing insects and vibrant life. All else, my friends, my loved ones, books, thoughts, work, family and love, has been supported by nature. Nature has been the pencil which has drawn my life. Without it, everything else loses its meaning, it's outlines. Turns into a formless mist."

We now see the man rowing the boat. It is now much darker, and a cloud of mist surrounds the boat. "The attack against nature are growing more gruesome and vile with each day passing. The siege keeps on getting stronger and stronger. I am curled up in the landscapes and meadows of my childhood, those memories I so fondly hold from those precious times. They are sacred to me. After last spring, all I have left is my own yard. My small garden of daisies, the dandelions sprouting next to my doorway. The few trees surrounding my house. I wish I was younger. But alas, I am not. Time is cruel and keeps on going, no matter how hard I wish I could stop it. But it won't stop. Each morning I have to get up and make it until evening."

The boat goes ashore, and the man climbs out, the ground scrunching under his boots. Mist covers the beach, and the sun has set. The waves strike against the ground, making a gentle sploshing sound. He slowly walks along the shore, staring at the pebbles covering the ground.

"I know nothing good will follow from this. Each article I have written has caused me more trouble than good, both when misunderstood and properly understood. Despite all my efforts and all my writing, nature continues spiraling further and further down towards the point of no return." He sighs. "Yet stupidly, against my better judgement. Despite all my sorrows. I cling on to hope." He pauses. "Maybe, just maybe, I could turn this world into a slightly softer place."

The man abruptly stops walking. A single lily of the valley is growing on the shore.

The shot changes to the little boy staring at the flower.

His eyes look full of wonder.

Languages spoken: Latidonian

Actors:
Narration - Magnus Ansler
Man - Magnus Ansler
Boy - Unnamed

Information:
The Latidonian fisherman and author Magnus Ansler wrote the article, Paradise Lost, into the Latidonian environmentalist magazine, The Circle of Life, in the 1980's. In the text he described the destruction of his childhood surroundings. The film Spring unsung is based on Ansler's article and was produced and published by the Latidonian state TV channel. The film is primarily filmed in the authentic locations Ansler describes in his text, and Ansler also narrates the entire film and appears in it.

Perhaps the most concrete result of the film, however, was the discussion that it spurred into existence. Concerns regarding the destruction of virgin forests and the Latidonian environment in general were raised by citizens and bipartisan politicians alike. As a result, several national parks were established in Latidonia and conservation laws were made stricter.

The film itself has been praised for its beautiful visuals, emotional elements and symbolism. However, it has also received criticism, as some view it as the cataclysm that created the Ecological party, a radical green party in Latidonia which many consider to be extremist. Magnus Ansler himself has been subject to a lot of criticism, as many of his other texts take a much harsher tone than that presented in Spring unsung. Indeed, the original text Spring unsung is based on, was initially much harsher in its criticism towards the Latidonian government, but these critiques weren't included in the film.

Whatever one might think about the Ecological party and Magnus Ansler himself, the film itself is indisputably a visually beautiful classic, which has had a definite effect on the politics of Latidonia for several decades.

[Lauchenoiria]

Name: A Different Life (2019) (Spanish: Una Vida Diferente)

Category: Best New IDU Film

Synopsis: Ines Casales grew up in Iustos, in a tiny flat with four younger siblings, her parents and grandparents. Since her early childhood, she has been forced to look after her siblings, and has been neglected herself. When her family forgets her 18th birthday, because they’re too wrapped up in their own affairs, she becomes angry, and decides to run away. She stows away on a ship to Lauchenoiria, and sneaks into the country.

Wandering through the streets of Summersea, she stumbles upon a house party in the wealthy district and decides to gate-crash. She ends up dancing with a wealthy Xiomeran 20-year-old whose parents run a business in Lauchenoiria, and the night ends with him gifting her a necklace. Unbeknownst to him, as he says the necklace was his mother’s, the necklace is worth an extremely large amount of money. Ines sells the necklace to a jewellery shop owner, Patricio Herrero, and has enough money to buy a fancy house, and reinvents herself, pretending she is a wealthy socialite.

At first everything is going smoothly, and she becomes best friends with a wealthy Lauchenoirian from Butterfly Island, Casandra Robles, until the man who gifted her the necklace is found murdered, with evidence that he was tortured before his death. Ines begins to look into the murder, and when she returns home to find her house has been searched, she begins to worry that the murderer was seeking the necklace. She realises she needs to find out who killed Cāxiuh… before she is killed herself.

Unwilling to admit to her wealthy friends like Casandra that she sold the necklace in order to seek help, she begins to look into the affair herself, and her friendship with Casandra slowly dissipates. She discovers that Cāxiuh’s mother had been born into poverty, and had not owned an expensive necklace – Cāxiuh had lied. Further investigation reveals that Cāxiuh stole the necklace, and had come to Lauchenoiria fleeing from those pursuing him. He had given her the necklace to get rid of the evidence.

She rushes to the place where she sold the necklace, only to find it had been destroyed in a fire the previous evening. An elderly man, who is seen throughout the film watching her as she investigates the murder, comes over to her, and tells her that it was arson, and that someone had been seen leaving the building, holding a necklace. Patricio, who owned the shop, though, has lost everything as a result of the theft. Ines returns home, but cannot sleep, the guilt of what happened weighing on her.

The next morning, she goes to where the Patricio is staying, and hovers outside, uncertain. Eventually, she takes a deep breath, and walks up to the door…

Cast:
Ines Casales - Teófila Espinoza
Cāxiuh - Xīyauh
Partricio Herrero – René Salcedo
Casandra Robles – Jennifer Ureña
Elderly Man – Celino Asturias


Production and Filming: Following the war, the Lauchenoirian film industry has had many budget issues, however with Lauchenoiria hosting the 2018 festival shortly after the war, the industry benefitted from investment in a way that other “non-essential” industries did not. As such, there is no notable drop in quality from pre-war, despite the budgetary constraints. Filming took place primarily in Elopolis, despite the setting of Summersea, as a result of the destruction of much of that city during the war. The film was set in 2017, so prior to the war: a choice many film-makers in Lauchenoiria are making if they do not want the war to be a subject of the film.

The presence of a Xiomeran actor in a Lauchenoirian film, and the prominence of a Xiomeran character, was the cause of much surprise among critics. Interviews with Xīyauh suggest he viewed starring in a Lauchenoirian film as a new challenge, especially given the hostile relations between the two countries at the time of filming. However, the quality of the film was lauded by critics, and the plot was described as “gripping” by reviewers. It is thought that production on a sequel will begin soon.

Languages: Spanish

*

Category: Best Actor

Name: Celino Asturias
Age: 72

About: Asturias has been a stalwart of Lauchenoirian Spanish-language film-making since 1967, when he was nineteen years old. He has starred in numerous films, including Sobre Un Estrella Fugaz. In his younger years, he was best-known for starring in action roles, including as the lead in a chain of Lauchenoirian spy movies called simply Espía. In his later years, he began to play “wise man” roles, and branched out into television, playing a wizard on the children’s show Castillo Mágico.

Due to ill health, he has recently begun taking on fewer roles, but recently played an unnamed elderly man in A Different Life, who appears throughout the film watching the main character, and at the end informs her of the fate of a man who lost everything. It is thought that a sequel to A Different Life may be announced soon, in which Asturias’ character would play a greater role. He has won many awards in Lauchenoiria during his time in the film industry.

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

Best IDU Film
Sawdust

Release Information
Released - June 30th, 2019 (LOM) and July 10th, 2019 (IDU)

Language - English
Run time - 104 minutes
Directed by Mathew Bradley
Staring James Greenheart as Michael

Synopsis
Set in the months leading up to the Maximusian Civil War (Winter of 1836-1837), Sawdust opens on a muddy farm located just outside of Litudinem. Michael (James Greenheart), a young carpenter, sits silently on his rickety porch, eyes lazily scanning the horizon. Off in the distance, a group of soldiers can be seen setting fire to a small home. As the building goes up in flames, the soldiers move their attention to an old man who has been tied to a fence post. They taunt and jeer at the old man for a few seconds before one of the soldiers unceremoniously guns him down. Laughing maniacally, the soldiers turn to face Michael.

The film then jumps back a few weeks. Michael leads a fairly ordinary life as a carpenter, spending most of his time working diligently on a set of cabinets for a wealthy Litudinem socialite, Mabel Hawkins. Mrs. Hawkins visits the young carpenter every day to check on his progress. During one of their meetings, Mabel expresses her disdain for the local governor, finding him to be a corrupt and cruel figure. Knowing that speaking ill of local officials is a punishable offense, Michael simply shrugs the comment off and returns to his work. 



That evening, Michael runs into an old friend, Peter, at the local pub. Looking quite distressed, Peter asks Michael if he can store several crates in the shed behind Michael’s store. The carpenter initially rejects his friend’s request after Peter refuses to tell Michael what is in the crates. After a heated discussion, Michael ultimately agrees to store the crates for 24 hours but vows to turn the containers over to local authorities if they are not picked up before that time. Peter thanks Michael and the two part ways. 



On his way home from the pub, Michael is assaulted by two soldiers. They beat the young man violently, steal his wallet, and leave him, bleeding and injured, on the side of the road. A defeated Michael slowly limps home. 



The next morning, seeing Michael visibly wounded, Mrs. Hawkins inquires about his injuries. Michael explains the entire event to the socialite and sadly acknowledges that the soldiers who beat him will never be punished for their crime. Continuing from where she left off the day prior, Mrs. Hawkins tells Michael that she believes the entire political system must be rebuilt from the ground up. Michael agrees with the woman and the two happily consider what life would be like if the current regime was removed from power. The pair are snapped out of their fanciful daydream when a young man enters the store, prompting Mrs. Hawkins to begin her walk home. The man attempts to retrieve Peter’s crate but is stoped by Michael, who asks the young man to describe the contents of the package. Clearly believing that Michael knew what was in the crates and was just testing him, the young man states that the crates contain 25 rifles, all intended for use by the local militia. Quickly realizing that Michael was not a member of the local militia, the young man attempts to stab him but is stopped by Peter, who enters the shop and disarms his compatriot at the last minute. 



The trio return to the pub where Peter explains that the local militia is planning to stage an uprising in downtown Litudinem. Peter, who is revealed to be one of the militia’s primary coordinators, implores Michael to join the group and aid him in the upcoming attack. Michael politely declines, believing that resistance against the local authorities is an act of futility. As he gets up to leave, the young carpenter recalls his conversations with Mrs. Hawkins. Inspired by the woman’s words, Michael decides to allow the militia to store their arms and ammunition in his shed. 



That night, in an oddly euphoric state, Michael locks himself in his workshop and completes Mrs. Hawkins's cabinet set, a task that should have taken several more days. Mabel Hawkins, upon seeing his completed work the next morning, pays the carpenter twice their agreed-upon amount and tells Michael that the cabinets are the finest set she has ever seen. Having enjoyed her company greatly, Micheal confesses to Mrs. Hawkins that his burst of energy was the direct result of joining a cause bigger than himself. Upon further prompting by Mabel Hawkins, Michael explains that, following their discussion the day prior, he had agreed to aid the local militia in their efforts to topple the governor from power. A seemingly elated Mrs. Hawkins encourages Michael to do all he can for the militia and leaves the shop. 



Unbeknownst to Michael, Mrs. Hawkins walks up the road only a few blocks before climbing into a horse-drawn buggy. Sitting directly beside her is the Governor of Litudinem himself, who Mabel passionately kisses before the scene abruptly drops. 



The film cuts back to its original scene. Michael sadly scans his eyes over the horizon before dipping them down to examine a newspaper at his feet. “Mabel Hawkins and Governor William Price announce their engagement” the newspaper reads. With a sudden look of confidence, Michael stands and begins walking towards the fast approaching soldiers. The leader of the soldiers, surprised by the carpenter’s apparent eagerness to face his fate, asks them to hold their position several yards behind him before walking up to Michael alone. The captain then proceeds to mock Michael for his naivety, explaining that Mrs. Hawkins had never even once believed in the carpenter’s fanciful ideals. Ignoring the captain’s statement, Michael simply muses that history will look fondly upon the actions of those who strive for a better world. As if on cue, a huge pillar of smoke begins to rise from the city of Litudinem, which is just visible in the far off distance. Horrified, the captain shoots Michael in the head, killing him instantly. 



In a post-credits scene, the body of Mrs. Hawkins is seen sprawled out on the marble floor of a collapsed manor house. The splintered remains of Michael’s once-grand cabinet set can be seen nearby.

Production and Filming

The Maximusian Civil War has been the subject of dozens of films over the years. The courage and bravery displayed during the course of the war are inspirational even to this day. With that being said, most takes on the conflict are patriotic “war-flicks” that focus more on the grisly engagements of late 1837 than the war in it’s earlier phases. Mathew Bradley, the director of Sawdust, wished to break the mold by making a film that depicted the life of a common man living at the very beginning of the war. His film focused not on the quasi-deified “heroes” of the war, but on the “normal” people who made the war possible in the first place. While there is no historical basis for the characters of Sawdust, Peter was likely inspired by James Pearson (1799-1837), a militia leader who is credited with orchestrating the first uprising in Litudinem (depicted at the end of the film).

[Zamastan]

Category: BEST FOREIGN FILM

Name: Gaviria
Directed by: Carmeno An'rto
Language: English
Run-time: 209 minutes

Synopsis:

ACT I: MARVIN JAYDEN
On December 7, 1909, in the city of Little Tribe River, Pahl, Zamastan, Walter Forrester Gaviria rushes into a hospital lobby panting from the run from his carriage to the door. He is guided to a room where his wife, Pricilla Amanda Gaviria, is in labor. Walter takes Pricilla's hand, pressing his head to hers as she sweats and stresses. An encouragement for a final push is met with a scream as her first child emerges into the world. Weakly smiling down at her newborn boy, Walter asks Pricilla what she wants to name him. She whispers in soft breaths the name "Marvin. Marvin Jayden." Pricilla, already sick and physically weak, closes her eyes and gives one last breath.

In 1921, Marvin is exploring the woods of the Gaviria Estate with his younger brother, Elijah, when they come across a squirrel caught in a hunter's trap. Elijah tries to help free the squirrel, but the trap snaps back as he opens it, piercing through his arm. Marvin rushes to his brother's aid, freeing him from the trap and picking him up, rushing him back to the house slung over his shoulder. Inside, the estate's butler takes medical care of Elijah while their father, Walter, takes Marvin to his study. While Marvin explains what has occurred, his father explains to him that helping others runs in the family of the Gaviria's, and that he is proud of both of his sons.

In 1936, Marvin marries his wife, Padma Tio. At the wedding reception, Elijah, who has an amputated arm due to the injury 15 years earlier, expresses his frustration due to his recent unemployment. He jokingly states that Marvin should enter politics and take on President Tyler Kordia. Marvin responds in a similar joking matter, saying "maybe in the next election." A montage of the next decade of Marvin's life follows, showing the birth of his twin sons Randall and Henry, his rise through the prestigious banking firm of Prospei and Fullerton, a car accident that left him with a scar under his eye, the birth of his youngest son Thomas, with each moment inter-cut with newsreel footage of Tyler Kordia's reelections in 1938, 40, 42, and 44. The montage ends with Gaviria's decision to run for President in 1946, his rallies, and finally, his victory.

ACT II - THE WORLD BURNS
While sitting in his office in the Zian Presidential Mansion, now-President Gaviria is surrounded by his military advisers. On April 12th, 1949, over 500,000 troops of the Drambenburgian forces stormed across the Avergnonian border. On the phone with Gaviria and his advisors, Avergnonian President, Abelard Montellogne, pleads with Gaviria to declare war on Drambenburg and to help save Avergnon from total destruction. Reluctantly, but at the advice of his generals and recognizing the humanitarian crisis unfolding, Gaviria agrees. On June 10th, after days of deliberation in Congress, Zamastan declares war on Drambenburg. Gaviria launches a full-scale assault into the northern region of Drambenburg in two flanks. One prong of the invasion smashes southeast to surround the invading Drambenburgian army and create a double front which his advisors say will exhaust the enemy forces. The second flank heads directly south to try and cut off the route from Drambenburg's capital of Lerbin and the front lines.

At the Battle of Spreitenneuve, Zamastanian forces route Drambenburgians headed towards the Avergnonian lines into a strategic retreat. However, the fighting in the interior of Drambenburg stalls and results in miles of trenches being dug, descending both fronts of the war into stalled and grizzly, un-moving warfare. For years, Gaviria struggles with the responsibility of being a wartime president in one of the worst conflicts ever seen on Iearth.

In 1954, Gaviria receives word of the successful invasion and surrender of Drambenburg, Malvare, and Sanguine to the Allied Forces. He delivers his famous "The World Is Victorious" speech, once again showing the world that good prevails over evil, and that the world has come together for the betterment of all humanity.

ACT III - GAVIRIA
Marvin Gaviria wears dark tinted goggles as his face shines with a tremendous light, as he witnesses Zamastan's first nuclear detonation in 1957. As the light fades and the mushroom cloud looms in the horizon, scientists and advisers in the observation bunker with the President cheer and clap, but Marvin does not celebrate.

The Pahlan Insurgencies of the late 50's cost thousands of civilian lives in separatist bombings. Marvin recognizes that the country he serves is tearing itself apart. All the while, Marvin Gaviria remains a popular president. He works to eradicate homelessness. He sponsors education bills. He stimulates the economy to unforeseen heights. As the decade progresses, tensions with Gladysynthia once again rise over the oil rich Tariel Heights. In 1970, Gladysynthia invades Zamastan to seize the Heights. Gaviria responds, once again thrusting Zamastan into a war. Unlike the World War, however, this victory is swift and done within two weeks. He is reelected in 1972 with a historic voter turnout. However, on the night of his election, he confesses to Padma that he fears he has failed the country and that the worse is yet to come. Padma tells him, "You have not failed the country, Marvin. You are this country's greatest light. You believe in this country, its people. You are a good, good man. And the best is yet to come."

Seven days later, Marvin ascends to a podium on the steps of Congressional Hall in Tofino. He begins a speech, humbling himself to the massive crowd by admitting he has struggled with optimism in the decades of his presidency. But he tells the crowd that they, the people, are his example of what the world can be, and how he believes there is good in everyone. "Humanity, personality, in its very nature, is good. Goodness, the kindness of humanity, is what will lead our future." The crowd erupts in applause. Gaviria smiles directly into the camera. A gunshot rings out, the screen goes black, and the sound of the crowd screaming is heard, as well as Padma yelling Marvin's name frantically.

The epilogue states that Marvin Gaviria was assassinated by a sniper during his speech. The assassination went unsolved until the sniper was finally identified by the Z.I.S. in 2019. The post-credits show the real life Elijah Gaviria, now 92 years old, reflecting on his older brother. "He was the gentlest soul who had to make some of the hardest decisions any human ever had to make. He believed in humanity. He loved people and saw the good in everything, even in the middle of everything. He wanted to help people, no matter the cost. That's what made him a Gaviria."

Cast:
Marvin Gaviria: Anthony Avi-Davis
Padma Tio: Amanda Sedwan
Elijah Gaviria: Thomas Wanssa
Young Marvin Gaviria: Timothy Laquay
Elijah Gaviria/Young: Marcus Yuan

Production and Filming:
Gaviria started its development phase in 2017. New plot materials and rewrites caused the movie to lose its place in the film release calendar, and its filming did not start until early 2019. Instead of using multiple actors for Marvin Gaviria, the director, Carmeno An'rto, insisted on Anthony Avi-Davis using de-aging and age enhancing camera technology to have consistency in acting throughout Gaviria's life as captured in the movie. The costly VFX de-aging, therefore, became the tech centerpiece, with 1,750 shots created for two and a half hours of footage. A posture coach was hired to instruct Avi-Davis on how to comport himself like a much older man.

An'rto envisioned the film as having an "old-fashioned" look which cinematographers accomplished by using "a series of lookup tables" for each scene. The extensive production design covered 117 filming locations, 319 scenes, 160 actors, in a story spanning 70 years.

In Act II, several war scenes had to be filmed to capture the reality of the World War, specifically in the Battle of Spreitenneuve. Production of the sequence depicting the battle cost Z$12 million and involved up to 1,500 extras, some of whom were members of the Zamastanian Reserve Defense Forces. Members of local reenactment groups were cast as extras to play Drambenburgian soldiers.

Release and Reception:
The film was released on January 6th, 2020. With a production cost of Z$78 Million, it grossed Z$430 Million in it's theatrical run. Gaviria received acclaim from critics and audiences; much of the praise went for An'rto's directing, the realistic battle scenes, the actors' performances (specifically Avi-Davis as Gaviria), the score, the cinematography, editing, and screenplay.

[Gardavasque]

Category
Best New IDU Film
Best Actor: Heather Grey

Details
Title: The Back Country
Director: Maria Boyd
Nation: [nation]Gardavasque[/nation]
Year of Release: 2020
Language: Modern Romanx
Runtime: 110 Minutes
Filming Locations: a) Wazyria Basin National Park, b) Kumeyaay Indigenous Reserve, c) Ewiiaapaayp Township, Wazyria Province, Gardavasque

Synopsis
Two teens meet by chance in a small town on the edge of the Wazyrian Desert of Western Gardavasque. At first they clash, but everything changes one night when they witness a grizzly double murder and end up fleeing for their lives together. Can they set their differences aside and find their way across a thousand-kilometer wilderness on foot? Fourteen-year-old Kess (Heather Grey) thinks of herself as a hard-hitting investigative journalist writing on the "environmental beat" for her small town high school newspaper. Sixteen-year-old Marco (Oliver Huggins), on vacation with his wealthy parents, appears to care about nothing but working out and getting laid. Their lives are changed forever when they witness Marco's parents brutally murdered by a ruthless gang of tribal separatists led by Johnny Iron Teeth (Rowdy McGurr) bent on starting a war of personal revenge. Barely escaping with their lives, Kess tries to return to her home with Marco, only to discover her parents have been falsely accused of the murders and taken to jail. Now the gang is after them as the only witnesses, and Kess discovers she has actual footage proving her parents' innocence. With no car, no supplies, and no cell phone service, the only way to escape is to walk through a thousand kilometers of Wazyrian desert with the help of the Kess's indigenous friend, Smiles A Lot (Jimmy Looks Twice) who shows them how to thrive on the abundance of the desert Kess and Marco thought of as "barren." On the perilous journey across the Back Country, they will have to shed their prejudices and learn to depend on one another in order to survive.

Cast
Heather Grey as Kess
Oliver Huggins as Marco
Jimmy Looks Twice as Smiles A Lot
Rowdy McGurr as Johnny Iron Teeth
FaWanda Beresford as Mrs. Crimson
Toby Hassan as Mr. Crimson
Juana DeWitt as Mrs. Gardner
El Gigante as The Leopard

Description and Critical Reception
Maria Boyd (TV Folks, The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lambert Adams, Heroines Anonymous) assembles a talented cast of some of Gardavasque's brightest young stars in this gripping and poignant tale of three reluctant friends forced to flee an murderous gang by walking across the desert. Heather Grey (It Is What It Is, Shakespeare's Sister) is mesmerizing as an aspiring journalist who uses her biting wit to protect her inner feelings of insecurity. Pretty boy Oliver Huggins (Not Another Stupid Teenage Virginity Movie, Ho Hum Beach Bum) delivers a solid performance proving his acting chops as Marco, shallow jock who must deal with his life turning into a nightmare overnight. Jimmy Looks Twice makes his feature film debut as Smiles A Lot, the indigenous guide who sacrifices a once in a lifetime chance to leave the reserve to help his new friends survive the wild. Shot on location in the Wazyrian Desert of Western Gardavasque, the breathtaking landscapes alternate with amazing closeups of insect battles which provide unique means of foreshadowing the dramatic action. The Original Score by Fancy Key features the hit single "You Got To Run" by Buffy Sainte Marie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5zb0WTSLsY. The film opened nationwide New Year's Day 2020 and was a critical and financial success. The Eternity Times called The Back Country "A gripping road trip adventure without the roads." The Loyalty Journal raves "THE Coming-of-age drama for a new generation." And the Mercy Union-Tribune gives high praise "Terrific storytelling, thrilling performances, breathtaking cinematography of the Wazyrian Landscape."

[Lauchenoiria]

Kerlile (Puppet of Lauchenoiria)

Name: Swirls of Magic (1991)

Category: Best IDU Classic Film

Synopsis: Set in another world, where the laws of gravity change depending on their mood, humans reproduce by laying eggs and spiders can talk, Swirls of Magic follows the tale of two teenage sisters, Katy and Lucy, and their pet spider Webster, who decide to enter a competition in order to win infinite ice cream for their little sister so she cries less at night. They must traverse their world, to the Valley of Evil and rescue the Fox of Fortune, who can bring wealth and happiness to everyone it blesses and has been kidnapped by Evil.

But the journey is not without its hazards, and the sisters have to contend with a multitude of obstacles, including a race to a destination one can never reach in a car that never starts, playing a game with no rules where breaking the rules is punished by tickling, and navigating an invisible maze. The worst of all is the land where all who enter are magically transformed into dogs, and hunted by evil cats. The sisters manage to succeed on all their challenges, by understanding that logic is illogical, and chaos reigns supreme, helped by the spider, which whispers suggestions in their ears which save them.

When they reach the Valley of Evil, they meet Evil, a normal looking man, who is sitting at a table writing letters with the Fox at his feet. The sisters confront him, and he tells them the Fox came to the Valley willingly, and will not go back with them. The Fox, which can talk, agrees with Evil, and tells the sisters that the man was given the name Evil by the people of their village, and that he only became evil because they thought him so, and so many people thinking the same thing made it true. The spider tells Evil that if he wants the village to think he’s anything other than evil, he must give back the Fox.

The Fox and Evil converse for a while, and then the Fox decides to go back with the sisters. The Fox magically grows larger, and the two sisters get on top of it, and ride it back, arriving in the village in no time at all. The villagers are overjoyed and give the sisters their unlimited ice cream. They forget all about the man called Evil, away in his valley, and they party until the sunset.

Cast:
Katy – Dina Mercier
Lucy – Natalia Bullock
Mayor – Josefine Keys
Evil – Darin Sheenan
Webster (voice) – Priscilla Aust
Fox of Fortune (voice) – Rose Ridge

Languages: English

Why this is a classic: Swirls of Magic was marketed as a family film in Kerlile, and enjoyed an initial run where it became very popular in the first several months. However, during the Kerlian Civil War, its writers and directors openly supported Democratic Kerlian State (DKS), leading to all their films being outlawed indefinitely, a law only overturned recently by the Reformist government. During the Kerlian Civil War, while safely in DKS territory, the producers confirmed that Swirls of Magic contained subversive anti-government messages.

Contemporary critics view the film as a masterpiece in clandestine Kerlian subversion, viewing the spider as an instrument of the state, whispering messages to lead the lives of Kerlians on the road favoured by them. There are continual messages that the society they live in is full of chaos and illogical, and the cats chasing the dogs is said to represent the way that Kerlian gender relations are not an improvement, but rather are just a switch of those under a patriarchal system. The most prominent male character, Evil, is given his name by the village (a representation of the state), because of what he is, with no real reason to judge his morality.

The fact that the producers managed to get Swirls of Magic past the Kerlian Censorship Bureau in 1991 is considered an exceptionally clever way of manipulating the Kerlian system, and the film is incredibly popular in Kerlian refugee communities. Of those who worked on the film, a number were executed in 2003, however some continue to live outside of Kerlile. The film has been re-released in Kerlile in 2020, following a review by the KCB in light of new reformist policies.

*

Name: The Council of Reform (2020)

Category: Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film

Synopsis: The Council of Reform is the first in-depth look at the four Councillors who chose to leave the Women’s Party of Kerlile in favour of the new Reform Party, ushering in a new era of multi-party politics and open debate in the Matriarchy. It follows the four Councillors through a week’s worth of Council sessions, community appearances and even shows how they’re changing their personal lives. The documentary follows Councillors Jennifer Hale, Rosemary Arnott, Electra Georgiou and Carmen Robinson through a week in early December.

It starts with a Council session in which they debate a new measure to amend the Anti-Matriarchal Activity Act to remove prison sentences for a first offence. This is one of a very small number of Council sessions which have been recorded, and the first to be shown in a documentary in Kerlile. It then follows Councillor Robinson at a charity event for homeless men, showing the Councillor serving food to them. She is then interviewed talking about the need to care for everyone regardless of gender or wealth.

Other moments shown in the documentary, interspersed with clips from interviews with the Council include Arnott attending university, Robinson’s two daughters playing a prank on their mother, and Councillor Hale practicing her Spanish. These moments serve to show the people of the Matriarchy and abroad that the Council families are indeed human, and live normal lives like everyone else.

The documentary also looks at the process of the formation of the Reform Party, showing secret locations in which the four met before confronting the wider Council to permit its formation. It looks at the goals of the Reform Party, their proposed timescale and garners opinions on the matter from the Kerlian population, even including some men. It shows places affected by reform, such as the new Men’s College, and a deserted Restricted Region, filmed from afar but still the first time it has appeared in public footage in Kerlile.

Languages: English

Production Details: The documentary was produced over a period of six months, beginning in August until January, though the bulk of filming took place in the chosen week in December that the documentary focuses on. However, interviews were conducted after that week, and much of the content on the formation of the Reform Party was researched and put together before that week arrived.

The documentary is rare in that footage filmed within the private residences of four Councillors is used. Footage of Councillor Hale’s residence in particular caused amazement due to the lack of expensive ornamentation, seen as a feature of all Council property. The filming in the Council Chamber was also very rare, as most Council sessions are not filmed, and only some sessions have public transcripts, known as open sessions (as opposed to closed, where the agenda can be released but no transcript, or secret, which are not recorded at all).

The Council of Reform is also revolutionary in its display of conflicting viewpoints. Opinions are expressed against the Council at times, something which would have been unthinkable only a single year ago. The makers of the documentary were allowed a great deal of leeway in how they presented the Council, something that is still incredibly rare in Kerlian society, in spite of reform.

[Xiomera]

Name: Quiauhticue: Rise of an Empire (2020)

Category: Best New IDU Film

Synopsis: Quiauhticue: Rise of an Empire is a sweeping period film set in the Unification Wars era of Xiomeran history, from 1376 to 1387. The storyline is a "historical re-imagining" of the Unification Wars era, one of the most pivotal eras in Xiomeran history, and its most controversial to this day.

The film covers the rise of Quiauhticue, the first Emperor of Xiomera. Beginning at his emergence as the tlatoani of the small city-state of Tlālacuetztla, the film details how Quiauhticue used a combination of negotiation, manipulation, alliances and outright conquest to unite the entire island of Huenya under the control of the Obsidian Throne. On the surface, the film seems like many other period pieces made in Xiomeran cinema about the early history of the Empire. However, the film dives much more deeply into the character of Quiauhticue, and the choices he made on his path to create the Xiomeran Empire, than any before it. The film explores controversial topics such as how Quiauhticue took advantage of a deadly plague to further his conquests and the ruthless and often violent manner of his new Empire's expansion. The film also provides a deep look into how Quiauhticue used an alliance with the Shen to further speed his conquests, a fact that had often been downplayed in Xiomeran history. Most importantly, the film also explores how Quiauhticue's conquests gave birth to a notion of "Xiomeran supremacy" that led to the repression of the other native tribes of Huenya, a problem that exists to this day. The film pulls no punches with its portrayal of the early days of the Empire, depicting the institutions and system that arose after the end of Quiauhticue's conquest in an often unflattering light.

Through exploration and open portrayal of topics and ideas frequently considered forbidden, or at least anti-Xiomeran, the film encouraged everyone seeing it to question the preferred version of Xiomeran history, in which Quiauhticue was a benign national father figure who helped Xiomera unify and advance. The pivotal ending scene of the film, in which Quiauhticue dies and encounters the gods and goddesses of the Xiomeran faith, makes the point with finality. Expecting to be greeted in triumph for his accomplishments, Quiauhticue is stunned when the gods and goddesses, one by one, turn their backs on him. When he asks them why, Quetzalcoatl, the creator deity of the Xiomeran faith, condemns him for the bloodshed, violence and repression that typified his reign, and then casts him down into the underworld.

The film was noteworthy for the fact that, despite being highly criticized by Xiomeran traditionalists, the general public embraced the film, making it one of the most successful and high-grossing movies in Xiomeran history.

Cast:
Emperor Quiauhticue - Chimiztlicoatl
Malinchuatli - Totinali
Shen General Cao Quin - Rì Chū
Moquahtli - Popitzcoyo
Chuacuautli - Xocheli
Quetzalcoatl - Anihuin

Languages: Various dialects of Huenyan; English; Shen

---

Name: Those Who Are Called (2020)

Category: Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film

Synopsis: This documentary covers Xiomeran participation in the Bjeorg Conflict, focusing on the stories of individual mercenaries who participated on behalf of the Xiomeran government in support of Bjeorg rebels. The film depicts the varying motivations of the Xiomerans who took up arms for Bjeorg - money, ambition, a desire to fight, belief in the rebels' cause. The film provides never-before-seen footage of Xiomeran mercenaries in combat, their struggles and their losses, and their triumphs. The film also provides an unvarnished look at war in the trenches, seen from the standpoint of those actually fighting it.

The film also explores the lives of the mercenaries who survived the conflict after they returned home, diving deeply into their thoughts and memories of combat. Some prove regretful of their actions, others proud of their service, and still others find they can't fight the memories of war as easily as they fought the actual conflict. The film further explores the lives of their family members and friends, and how they are affected by the demons their loved ones brought back with them.

Interspersed within these scenes are more never-before-seen snapshots of the motivations of the high-ranking Xiomeran leaders, including then-Emperor Xolōtl and others, who sent those mercenaries into battle. Desires for greater international influence, eagerness to test Xiomeran battle readiness and technology of war, and the age-old lure of money intertwine in the once-secret deliberations of those leaders. The film also delves into how Emperor Xolōtl's ideology of using Xiomeran wealth and technology to help struggling nations, born from the Bjeorg Conflict, would heavily influence future Xiomeran foreign relations and strategic planning, leading to future developments such as Xiomera's alliance with Kerlile.

The documentary also provides a twist in its explanation of the rise of the Xiomeran Army general who led the planning for the operation - a previously unregarded general named Topilpopoca, whose success in the Bjeorg operation would help lead him to the Obsidian Throne.

Those Who Are Called combines the stories of the foot soldiers who fight wars, and the men behind the scenes who plan them and start them, in a blunt and unrestrained depiction of the insanity of conflict - and what the ramifications are for the people involved once the guns fall silent.

Languages: Various Huenyan dialects; English

Production Details: The film combines previously recorded footage from 1991 onward with interviews conducted in 2020. No presenter appears on screen. Instead, minimal narration and captions are used to guide the film along, letting the voices of the people involved drive the action.

[Libertas Omnium Maximus]

Best Actor
Samuel Murphy (m)

Basic Information

Age - 50 (born April 10th, 1970)
Years Active - 1990-Present

Most Recent Appearance - The Quicksilver Gambit (2019)

Bio

Born on April 10th, 1970, Samuel Murphy is a Maximusian Actor, Stuntman, and Director. Making frequent appearances in action films throughout the late 1990s and 2000s, Murphy excels at pulling off the debonair characters frequently associated with the genre. He is known for his masterful portrayal of the antagonist in Hall of Mirrors (2008) and the protagonist of Sandstone (1999) and it’s two sequels (2001, 2003).

Making his directorial debut in 2011, Murphy starred in and directed Run, a crime thriller detailing the life of a narcotics dealer. Since 2011, Murphy has directed an additional two films, staring in one of them. His performance in the 2016 drama, Bus Stop, earned him the Maximusian Film Association's Best Supporting Actor Award. He won the award again in 2019 for his role in The Quicksilver Gambit, his most recently released film.

Preferring to do his own stunts when possible, Murphy was recently hospitalized during the filming of an upcoming action/adventure movie, One Night at a Time. His safety harness reportedly failed, dropping him 3 meters. Murphy is expected to make a complete recovery and will resume filming shortly.

[Gardavasque]

Category
Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film

Details
Title: The Dangerous Lives and Amazing Loves of Trees
Director: Ben Peters
Nation: Gardavasque
Year of Release: 2019
Language: Modern Romanx
Runtime: 76 Minutes
Filming Locations: Shot on location in Gardavasque: a) Emerald Forest National Park, b) Coastal Redwoods National Park, c) Big Granddaddy Wilderness Provincial Park

Synopsis
Trees can live for thousands of years, enduring climate change, cohabitation with humans, and devastating fires and floods. But do trees actually have feelings? Do they love? And if so, how could we know? Follow some of the nation's leading ecological researchers deep into the forests of Gardavasque to find out what trees can teach us about living and working together in community. According to recent studies, scientists have shown trees communicate, manifest the ability to nurture young, and even protect the most vulnerable members among them. With fascinating interviews with Forest Rangers, Ecologists, and even Microbiologists, veteran environmental director Ben Peters (The Secret Life of Peas, Panda-Monium) takes us on a mesmerizing journey deep under the forest canopy to reveal exactly how trees behave to instinctively promote the common welfare of all living things. Their findings are truly a game-changer for anyone who enjoys being in nature.

Tagline
"Unveiling the hidden love trees have for each other, for us, and for all life"

"A documentary 4,700 years in the making"

Cast
Yavanna Comfort, Betsy Martinez Emerald, Ali Baraktaraglu

Description and Critical Reception
Winner of the 2019 "Documentary of the Year" at the Eternity Film Festival and 2019 "Best Documentary Feature" from the Gardavasque Academy of Film.

[Laeral]

To allow time for further submissions, the deadline for submissions to the IDU Film Festival is hereby extended a further week.

[Democratic Republic Of Eiria]

Documentary Entry: Survivors, Six Unlikely Stories of Unsung Heroes

Summary: "Survivors" tells the story of six regular people during the Eirian Civil war and Darrin's regime. However, these aren't regular stories. Each of these people faced death directly, and against extreme odds, survived through strength, wit, and will, all the while risking their lives further by helping bands of resistance fighters restore the Republic.

The Documentary divides it's three and a half hour length into seven segments, each telling the story of a different survivor, and saving the final segment for when the survivors meet for the first time. Each of their stories are interconnected, and although they have never met each other properly, they could not have survived without each other.The stories are narrated by the survivors themselves, and depicted by actors.



The Priest

Thirty-four year old priest Henry Gaverra did not expect mortal danger to come with his vows. He ran a small church in the Fourteenth District of New Riga, and he took pride in helping people find their faith as part of his job. Then Neil Darrin overthrew the Republic in 2007 and forbade religious gatherings. Suddenly, his job got a lot more dangerous.

Still, he continued to meet secretly in his church, providing guidance to souls who needed it badly. One day, he was approached by a resistance band, who asked for his assistance in hiding a Senator fleeing from Darrin's executions. That Senator was named Katherine Wellton, and she had escaped the initial massacre in the Senate chambers. Gaverra agreed without question, and gave her food and shelter in the church. He also taught classes on theology to young students, explicitly illegal under Darrin's edicts.

Then, a few weeks after Senator Wellton's arrival, while Gaverra was teaching a class, a group of soldiers came banging on the church doors. Henry made sure the Senator and his students escaped out the backdoor by distracting the soldiers. Unfortunately, he was captured, and hauled off to prison.

A few days before his scheduled execution, he was being marched around the outside track. He was so tired and malnourished, he could barely run the laps. Suddenly, the gate separating the prison from the outside world was shattered by an explosion. A resistance band stormed the prison, liberating the prisoners inside.

Throughout the regime era and Civil War, Gaverra aided the rebellion, from setting up education for young children, to providing shelter and food for the homeless, to even setting up a rudimentary hospital and serving as the chaplain to bury dead resistance fighters. "It was a sad job, but I don't regret doing it. Someone had to make sure they were able to rest in peace".

The Nurse

Laura Virtanen was twenty-four years old in 2007. She was working as a registered nurse in New Riga, and was part of the way to becoming a full doctor. However, history had something different in mind. Her hospital was transferred over to military control, and she lost her job due to budget cuts.

However, that didn't stop her. She found an abandoned building in downtown New Riga and set up a makeshift clinic as best as she could. Unfortunately, she wasn't getting paid for this, and she was going hungry. She was approached by a resistance band, who offered her a deal. In exchange for treating Resistance members, she would be given food and better medical equipment.

She agreed, and soon her clinic grew steadily into a field hospital. She had invited former doctors and nurses who had been laid off to help, and soon it grew to a full-blown medical center. Then, one of the new doctors was followed by a group of soldiers on the way to work at the hospital. The secret was revealed, and doctors, nurses, and patients alike were rounded up and captured. Those who resisted were shot.

Laura saved both patients and doctors alike by showing them the back way out, but was shot in the leg and captured. Fortunately, her captors didn't tighten her cuffs tight enough. She smuggled herself out through the factory the prisoners are forced to work in.

She continued to work as a resistance nurse after she escaped, having been transferred to a makeshift hospital inside a small church that had been renovated to a proper clinic. She saved many lives throughout Darrin's regime and the Civil war.

The Architect

Johnathan Engelson was a twenty-nine year old architect living in New Riga's Third District in 2007. He was a popular up-and-coming architect, and was known for his practical layouts and sleek modern design, his most famous project being the Reitzen Market in the Fifth District.

After Darrin's forces took New Riga, Engelson was "Contracted" to design houses for the new elite and functional prisons and factories. Unknown to the authorities, he kept spare blueprints of every building he built, and started sending them to resistance groups.

Eventually, he started deliberately designing flaws, secret entrances and exits, and secret storage compartments into almost every building he designed, and told the resistance where each flaw was. He was apprehended in 2010 by the Military Police after attempting to smuggle his new designs to a resistance courier.

Engelson's situation looked bleak, and he waited in his cell for his execution date, which was fast approaching. A couple days later, a day before his scheduled execution, he was looking around at his cell, when he saw that the floor behind his toilet was broken, leading by the sewage pipes.

He waited until lights out, then crawled out of the prison, following the pipes to a sewage plant, and headed back into New Riga. While there, he started designing hideouts for resistance bands. Later in the war, he helped oversee improvements to a small church turned hospital, and continued to work for the resistance until the end of the war.

The Accountant

Rachel Davelle, a recently-graduated finance major in 2007, worked at the New Riga city hall, helping manage the city finances. Her colleagues and her worked hard to balance the city's expenses and sources of income, and did a good job.

Until Darrin's rule engulfed New Riga. Over half of her team was conscripted to the military, and the rest of the team had to work overtime just to keep up. The city's economy started to buckle, and they were ordered to oversee programs to get the workforce working for the government.

The institution of the Arms factory construction programs forced a decent portion of the workforce to work in factories building weapons, rations, and ammunition, and many of these factories housed poor working conditions. Davelle grew increasingly angry at these new programs, and sought to put an end to the oppressive "Reform" attempts.

She managed to get into contact with a resistance courier and began copying and smuggling documents on arms factories and troop training centers in New Riga. She copied huge sections of the city records in 2009. With her help, the New Riga Resistance bands were able to sabotage and destroy the factories.

In 2010, She was bringing the next batch of files to a resistance courier in the sixteenth district, when she was apprehended and taken to the infamous work camp near Saint Leare. Horrendous conditions and little food caused many there to fall victim to illness. Rachel was starved, weak, and sick, but was not broken.

After spending a year at the Saint Leare Camp, she was able to escape with the help of a sympathetic guard, and managed to stumble all the way into Saint Leare. She was taken in by a couple who owned a bakery, where she was fed and nursed back to health. After regaining her strength, she got into contact with a small resistance group around Saint Leare, and helped them secure resources that they desperately needed. She continued working for them until the end of the civil war.

The Student

Elijah Belren was just nineteen in 2007, but was already a prodigy. He was awarded a spot at the prestigious New Riga Research Institute and University, and was majoring in engineering. He was beloved by both his teachers and his peers, and was doing extremely well in his classes.

However, after Darrin took over, the New Riga Research Institute was reassigned to developing military technology. Students were either expelled or assigned to aid the research. Belren was thrown out of the institute dorm rooms, with nowhere to go, and no way to get money.

He lived on the streets for a couple months, fending for himself, until he was forcibly hired for the arms factories in New Riga. They wanted his engineering experience to maintain the machinery and conveyer belts. He did his job dutifully, until the poor conditions of the factory started weighing on him. He sought out local resistance bands, giving them information, crates of weapons and ammunition, and even sabotaging the factory on occasion.

He was unfortunately caught red-handed on one of his attempts to sabotage a conveyer belt, and was sent to a work camp in the western mountains. This camp, designated camp 236, had worse conditions than the arms factories, and many workers died of hypothermia and exhaustion. The camp, ironically, was tasked with making environmental survival equipment for soldiers.

However, the irony worked to Elijah's advantage. Over the course of weeks, he stole individual parts of the kit, a rope one week, a match and some tinder the next, and so on. Eventually, he had enough equipment to begin escaping the camp, and so he cut a small part of the fence, and began his long trek down.

It took him a week and a half to get to a village halfway down the mountain camp 236 was built on. The village was called Slipèceda, and he was taken in by a sympathetic family. He had gotten severe frostbite, and it took weeks to get him nursed back to health. While staying with the family, he drew up a diagram of Camp 236, the only diagram still existing today.

He traveled back to New Riga, where he served as a military engineer by constructing resistance buildings and defenses. He worked on helping remodel the small chapel hospital downtown, and when New Riga was liberated, he helped design the city's defenses, preventing a counterattack. His designs saved many soldiers' lives.

The Athlete

Sarah Quellena was twenty-seven in 2007, and living in a lavish apartment in New Riga's third district. She was a member of the National Track and Field team, and was set to participate in the Olympics if she kept performing well. As such, she was in top shape, and was one of the fastest runners in Eiria.

After New Riga's fell, life initially didn't change that much for Sarah. She was deemed an essential entertainment worker and kept running in state-sponsored competitions. She won several competitions and tournaments, and was an extremely popular athlete among the elite. She didn't like having to compete under an oppressive regime, but it became a fact of life.

Life took a bad turn, however, when she was competing in the 2009 Borean Track Tournament. In the last round, when it looked like she would win the title again, she collapsed in the 400 meter dash. She had torn her left ACL, and she needed decent surgery to repair the damage. Unfortunately, the injury caused her pain if she put significant weight on her left leg, and therefore barred her from racing.

After she lost her running career, her life took a downturn. She was evicted from her apartment, and had to start living on the streets and forging ration cards to survive. She was caught with one of the forged cards, and was imprisoned in a New Riga jail in the 12th district. While incarcerated, she was forced to run laps during yard time, causing more significant damage to her knee.

Luckily for her, a particularly important resistance agent was imprisoned in the cell across from her. The Eclipse Resistance group led a jailbreak on the prison, freeing Quellena in the process. She requested a job from the formerly imprisoned resistance agent, and she became a courier for the resistance, a job ironically nicknamed "Runner".

She carried a whole bunch of secret documents and illegal contraband across cities, checkpoints, and even across provinces. After the pain from her injury began to flare up again, she was reassigned to a less dangerous job as an ambulance driver for resistance soldiers. She brought many injured soldiers to the secret hospitals in the New Riga area, including the small chapel in the Fourteenth District. She saved many soldiers' lives.

Production Information

"Survivors" was directed by the Legendary Tervali director Samuel Telea-Sunta, who previously directed the historical fiction story "Maid of the Devil", a controversial, yet extremely well written story of a servant of Neil Darrin. "Survivors" is completely narrated by the six survivors themselves, adding a candid effect. This was the first documentary Telea-Sunta has directed. The film has won a Star of Clio, the highest award for a documentary in Eiria.
Release Year: 2019

Languages: English, Traditional Eirian(Subtitles), French (Live Translation/Subtitles), Latvian(Live Translation).

[Democratic Republic Of Eiria]

Best IDU Film Entry: Craterfall

Summary: The Year is 2093. The Human Race has expanded into the stars, setting up stations and colonies in and near the Sol system. Faster than Light travel has been established, and VANISH(Vacuum Assisted Near-Instantaneous Space Hypertravel) gates have been set up in the systems inhabited by humans. Low grade VANISH Drives have become standard on most vessels, and the economy is booming with all of the previously rare items found on other planets.

The protagonist, Evan Dekanti, is a young scientist born on the moon colony Selene, the fastest-growing colony in the galaxy. Evan is studying astrophysics, and is contemplating joining the Exploratory Science Institute. He lived in the Asteria Arm of the colony, an apartment block of all economy ranges where a third of Selene's population lived.

Selene has pretty lax laws compared to Earth, due to Earth having many competing corporations and factions warring for power and control. Democracy on Earth has faded, but Selene remained a pillar of democratic politics, with the two and a half million people living there electing a colonial Senate that manages Selene.

Until one day, when Evan went to go to school, he finds the University shut down and surrounded by armed guards. A coup had turned over control of Earth to a group of corporations, and they had swiftly taken control of Selene. They had also shut down public government-owned buildings, and abolished the Senate.

Evan joined a group of dissidents who opposed the Corporate Alliance's policies and met Kira and Henry, two freedom fighters who Evan quickly befriend. Together, they fought against the Corporate Alliance and in a final Battle at Archery Spaceport, fought the rest of the Alliance's vanguard out of Selene, and made plans to expell them from nearby colonies.

Craterfall is full of action-packed scenes, and the final scene does not disappoint. Evan and friends are part of a strike team to liberate the nearest strategic moonbase, called Tycho station. During the fighting, the generator of the station blows up, leaving our protagonists and the task force running for their lives for the exit door before the pressure drops. The movie ends before they reach the door, leaving watchers on a thrilling cliffhanger.

Production Details

Craterfall was directed by action film actress and upstart director Julie Santreal. The action effects and set design have been praised by the film community in Eiria, and was awarded an Ashton Award for Best Set Design and Graphics. Craterfall was released in June 2019.

Cast:
Ezra Dekanti: Jules Rafeè
Kira Thompson: Fatima Nayani
Henry Jameson: Blair O'Donnell
Serenity Strong Commander: Evelyn Madison
Corporate Alliance Viceroy: Richard Long
Tycho Station Manager: Weston Flynn
Astrophysics Professor: Patricia Green

[Tsiba]

Name: Asal and Farideh (2019)
Category: Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film
Language: Farsi and Tsidi
Director: Farideh Duchavo
Runtime: 76 minutes

Synopsis: Asal and Farideh is the story of two sisters, and is the first widely-released documentary is Tsiba's history to discuss the generational effects of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and child marriage on rural Tsiba communities.

Asal and Farideh Duchavo were born in the village of Chato'e in the region of Tsibitsy, Tsiba’s poorest region. The sisters were toddlers when their mother fled the village with them and moved to Tsiba's largest city, Chavotsy. Asal and Farideh's mother, Bevoo Duchavo, was pulled out of school at the age of thirteen and forced to undergo FGM in order to get married. Asal was born within the year, and Farideh not long after.

Through interviews with family members and friends Bevoo made in Chavotsy, Farideh chronicles her mother’s struggles to hold a job as a teenager with no high school diploma and how she continually tried to seek help, to no avail. While FGM and child marriage are banned in Tsiba, they are still widely practiced in rural regions of the country on both infants and girls in their early to mid teens.

Six months after the sisters and their mother arrived in Chavotsy, Bevoo died in childbirth, likely of complications brought about by FGM. After their mother’s death, the sisters were returned to their father’s care. Farideh recounts how she found her childhood idyllic until she was eight, when she first witnessed a girl in her village undergo FGM. From than on, she lived in fear of the practice and what would happen in her future, as she watched the girl, only a few years older then her, quickly marry and have children.

When Asal was fourteen, it was determined that she was old enough to get married. To save money, the sisters’ father decided that both girls would undergo FGM. On the day they both would have been cut, Asal helped her younger sister, then twelve, escape. Farideh describes how she fled Chato’e, traveling on foot until she reached the town of Bute’o, where she was able to find shelter.

The rest of the film compares the lives of the two sisters. Farideh was able to enroll in high school before being accepted into Hashmi University. She graduated with honors and a double major in Film Studies and Political Science. She is now an anti-FGM activist and filmmaker. Her sister Asal, however, was married three months after she was cut, and had two sons before she turned twenty.

The film ends with Farideh returning to the village where she spent her childhood. She visits her sister, who shows her around her house and introduces Farideh to her children. Farideh and Asal discuss their lives, and Farideh asks her sister whether, if given the choice, she would switch what happened to the sisters a decade before. Asal says she would, and the film ends.


Production and Background: FGM and child marriage are serious problems in Tsiba. The origins of FGM are unknown, but many claim a conncetion between the practice and Islamic beliefs. However, no Islamic texts condone or even mention FGM. Areas in which FGM is common in Tsiba are consistently the poorest areas of the country, with the economic and social effects of the practice consistently and systematically disadvantaging women.

Farideh Duchavo was unable to produce Asal and Farideh through any major studios due to the taboo nature of the subject matter and pressure from hard-line conservative groups. Eventually, she was able to make the film through the non-profit she works for, Tsiba Against FGM, and through crowdfunding. After success in several art theaters in the Tsibitsy and Chavotsty regions, the film was released nationwide to critical acclaim.

[Laeral]

Name: Legend of the Branded Swordsman

Category: Best Classic Film

Synopsis: Legend of the Branded Swordsman follows Wai Mengyao, an honest young man who is framed for a crime by a treacherous tax collector and branded with a hot iron, yet escapes execution and trains under a reclusive martial arts master before taking on the evil witch Tian Yuan and her army of undead feng szu le -- reanimated vampiric corpses from Laeralian folklore.

Cast:
Directed by Duc Tseng, an early Laeralian action film director and choreographer known for his groundbreaking use of constructive editing techniques to portray breathtaking action sequences. Legend of the Branded Swordsman was his fourth film, and the second to be a commercial success.

Eloi Liang (Liang Chonglin) as Wai Mengyao: Trained in Western-style theater and stage combat, Eloi Liang was among the first breakout stars of non-silent Laeralian film, and an early actor with appeal to both Rén and Arrivée audiences. Legend of the Branded Swordsman was only his second leading role; he went on to star in numerous other wuxia films. His highlands-style wushu was characterized by crowd-pleasing swift, high kicks; during his initial confrontation with the magistrate’s men, he manages to kick a mounted enemy off of his horse despite being on the ground. He also has a very expressive face in common with many silent film performers of the time, and the director’s use of close-ups of Liang’s face during fight scenes highlights his varied expressions.

Paulette Wong as Tian Yuan: Donning heavy makeup, the actress who had made her career playing heroine or love-interest characters in traditional folk opera instead played the cruel-hearted sorceress Tian Yuan, who raised an army of feng szu le vampires to rule the land. While villainous roles were not new to her (Wong had played the role of a manipulative elder relative in the opera and later film One Hundred Miles Away, released in 1917), the role of Tian Yuan featured greater athleticism and special effects than Wong was used to. Tian Yuan’s abilities depicted on-screen included disappearing and reappearing in a flash of smoke, bringing feng szu le to life from their tombs, and fighting using claw-like blades and short throwing javelins.

Regis Kang as Master Kang: Regis Kang plays the elderly and reclusive Master Kang, whose mastery of the Five-fold Kick and past battles with the witch Tian Yuan leads him to take on Wai Mengyao as a disciple.

Jasper Yung as Magistrate Hwang: Jasper Yung portrays the greedy and corrupt magistrate of Mengyao’s hometown, who lusts after the beautiful Lady Zhenzhen. He falsely accuses Mengyao of theft, orders him branded, and seeks to have him executed out of jealousy for Lady Zhenzhen’s feelings towards Mengyao.

Germaine He as Lady Zhenzhen: Lady Zhenzhen is a beautiful young woman of Mengyao’s home village, who talks of marrying Mengyao at the beginning of the film. Even after Mengyao is arrested and condemned to death, she resists Magistrate Hwang’s advances. She is captured by Tian Yuan’s feng szu le army, and Mengyao’s fight to rescue her marks the film’s climax.

Significance: Legend of the Branded Swordsman is a classic work of the wuxia (Laeralian swordplay/martial arts historical drama) genre. Although much photography was completed in 1918, prior to the outbreak of hostilities in the Laeralian Civil War, Legend of the Branded Swordsman was released in 1919 as Réne Gramont’s Committee for Democracy and Progress was in the thick of the fight against the Laeralsford government. Thanks to the connections of the film’s deep-pocketed sponsor, the movie magnate Claudius Wang, the film was released in theaters on both sides of the frontlines. However, the film’s apparent political undertones were grounds for objection on both sides. Censors in Prime Minister Brienne’s government nearly banned the film on the grounds that the film’s “indecent” combat sequences would corrupt impressionable youth audiences into hooliganism, while the heroic Mengyao’s initial exile from society by a treacherous tax collector was seen as a coded echo of Gramontist attacks on the First Allied Provinces’ corruption. In territories controlled by the Committee for Democracy and Progress, the film was largely popular with audiences-- except at a screening in the wartime capital of Songshan, where viewers in one theater rioted over depictions of cowardly soldiers fleeing the witch Tian Yuan. Nevertheless, the film was overall received exceedingly well by audiences and had great cultural impact; the painting “The Movie-House” by the painter Gustave Chiu (1920) shows movie-goers emerging from a theater screening the film. The success of the film also kicked off the career of its star, Eloi Liang, leading him to become a breakout star of early Laeralian cinema. Although ticket figures from the era are hard to come by, the film was still being screened in some theaters in spring 1921, nearly two years after its release. The film spawned two sequels, Return of the Branded Swordsman and The Branded Swordsman Versus the Lotus-Eaters.

The film itself stood out from other adventure-film fare of the time with its breathtaking stunts and special effects. Unlike the clumsy wireworks employed by other films of the time to depict the martial arts heroes’ spectacular leaps, Branded Swordsman employed the innovative technique of having actors jump down from rooftops and then played the footage backwards to show them gracefully leaping into the air. The makeup techniques used to create the feng szu le was advanced for the time, far outshining other film creatures. The filmmakers also made great use of smoke and fog special effects to create an eerie atmosphere.

Legend of the Branded Swordsman’s fight choreography took Laeralian wuxia filmmaking in a radical new direction, ushering in the “Second Wave” of Laeralian wuxia film. Previous fight scenes were heavily stylized, often based on the stage choreography of traditional traveling folk opera troupes. Duc Tseng thrilled audiences with new, fast-paced sword fights, often interspersed with innovative close-up shots of characters’ faces as they fought to emphasize their expressions. It’s worth noting that the film’s star, Eloi Liang, and most of the film’s actors had no backgrounds in traditional folk opera, unlike the stars of many other wuxia films of the time. Liang himself had in fact been trained in Western stage combat, which contributed to his dynamic performance in Legend of the Branded Swordsman and its sequels Return of the Branded Swordsman (1922) and The Branded Swordsman Versus the Lotus-Eaters (1924).

---

[/hr]

Best Actor in an IDU Film: Eloi Liang, for his role in Legend of the Branded Swordsman

Biographical Information: Born Liang Chonglin in the far-western province of Jianguo in 1896, Liang trained as a boy in Highlands-style wushu, characterized by crowd-pleasing high sweeping kicks. Working as a street performer, he eventually migrated to Laeralsford during the First Fellsian War, where he trained in Western-style theater and stage combat. After finding it difficult to break into the Arrivée theater scene, he sought a career in film, where his synthesis of his innate martial arts ability and formal acting training set him apart from other actors of the time.

His first film, Defender of the Caravans, was a modest success, but it was the success of the three Branded Swordsman films which made him a star, as audiences were enthralled by his dynamic, crowd-pleasing high kicks and expressive face. The success of Legend of the Branded Swordsman made Liang perhaps the first film actor to have broad appeal across both the Rén and Arrivée communities. Key to Liang’s success was his cosmopolitanism: fluent in French as well as Mandarin, Liang often recorded dual voice tracks, while his adoption of the screen name Eloi Liang made him palatable to Arrivée audiences often wary of wuxia martial arts films. Following his starring role in the Branded Swordsman films, Liang continued to star in historical wushu dramas, such as Silver Heroes (1923) and the naval drama Off Rocky Shores (1925).

In his professional life, however, Liang often butted heads with his employer, Wang Family Productions, over the terms of an exploitative eight-year contract he had signed early in his career which granted his employer control over much of the profits of his films while denying Liang creative input into the films he starred in. After a much-publicized legal standoff, Liang eventually bought out his contract in 1925 for 4 million Marks -- an almost unheard-of sum for the time -- and signed with Peihe Studios, which was willing to grant him greater creative freedom. As audience tastes began to shift away from wuxia historical dramas, Liang became an early star of the nascent qiangxia (literally “gun-heroes”) genre, centering on gunslingers and outlaws in the Laeralian frontier during the 18th and 19th centuries. His film Last of the Lone Tigers (1927) was considered a pioneering work of the qiangxia genre, winning Liang plaudits for his role as the famed lawman Kuo Che-wei. He married the famed opera-hall singer Denise Chiu in 1924, and continued to be a prolific actor throughout the 1930 and 40s, although the gradual wear and tear of a career spent in martial arts meant that he was no longer able to maintain the same level of activity as in his youth. He died in 1964; President Réne Gramont memorialized him at his funeral.

[Slokais]

Name: The Valley
Category: Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film
Language: English and Kaijanese
Director: Micheal Mohamed
Runtime: 108 minutes

The Valley is the story of Allkun Moore a terrorist in the Second Kaijan War. Although he was unknown when he was alive the film takes his story as an example of what people in Kaijan felt before the war. The year is 1999 a young Alkun is working on his parent's farm his family is very religious in terms of Islam. He then finds a series of books from a friend that teach the ideals of revolution and change. He internalizes this deeply and the first act of the film is him finding himself while also becoming a more radical person. In 2000 during the Great Troubles, he is inspired to join a radical group of people who believe in a free and independent Kaijan. At first, he wants to do it peacefully, however, others in the group forced him to become more violent. At 19 years old he leaves his town for Kaijan City, however, he does not find work there and becomes a full-time revolutionary and joins a group at their hideout in the mountains. Over the next 6 years, we see him grow into a radical extremist who no longer hesitates in his goals of an independent Kaijan. It then flashes to a battle in 2008 where Allkun is wounded, As he begins to grow weaker he remembers what has gone over through his life. The last scene is him in a sort of trance just before death watching how he got to this place. It's a powerful moment and sticks with the viewer. The film is praised for its great storytelling and making you be a part of his journey through his life.

[Laeral]

The period to enter submissions for the 2020 IDU Film Festival is now closed. Votes may be cast on the appropriate voting thread.