Cinema Trottoir 2025

After crossing the Melilla fence from Morocco, Ihsane enters the "Divina Infantita" nuns' reception centre, where Assia and Nuhaila live. Hamza turns 18 and has to leave La Purísima, the reception centre for unaccompanied boys. They all arrived alone in Melilla but have found a new family: the NANA dance company. After months of hard work, they are selected to participate in a famous TV talent show, where they experience a mirage that seems to take them away from their reality for a few days and that vanishes in a flash when the spotlight goes out.

A young girl with a dark secret who is trying to escape.

A young girl who behaves against her traditional society.

Ana + Yek (Me + You) takes us on a journey towards mutual understanding through the evolving relationship of twin sisters Sanaa and Zohra. What begins as Zohra's exploration of their Moroccan roots gradually reveals Sanaa's growing love for Islam and unfolds as an intimate cinematic dialogue about sisterly love and independence.

Intent on providing a better life for herself and her children after the suicide of her farmer-husband, Sanjivani struggles not only against the structures of a patriarchal society that incapacitates and renders invisible widows like her, but also with the mountain of debt left by her late husband. It is only when she joins a discussion group with other farmer-suicide widows that she discovers that she is not alone with her despair and grief – the suicide rate among peasants who took their lives in the face of crop failures and dumping prices on the globalised market is harrowing: 400,000 in the last twenty years. Empowered by community, shared stories of resilience, and unexpected solidarity, Sanjivani cautiously forges a path forward. With stunning cinematography and a warm empathetic eye for his protagonists, the director manages to render a careful representation of a complex subject.

Lies and guilt are at the core of Patrick’s relationship with his mother Randa. Over the years, he collected their audio messages and video calls. He now transforms them into a portrait of her life in Lebanon and his in Belgium. By turns moving, provocative and hilarious, Mea Culpa questions the links between national and sexual identities for a young Palestinian emigrant.

In 2018, two year-old Mawda Shawri, daughter of Phrast and Shamden and sister to Hama, was shot dead by a Belgian police officer during a car chase on a central highway. In 2023, over 40 people, both undocumented and documented resident activists, assembled before the camera at La Voix des sans papiers in Brussels to stage a collective hearing of documents from and reactions to Mawda’s case. Together they produce the counter-forensic evidence of this deadly Channel crossing.