10 21 oct '23 49th edition

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Explore Zone

The films in our Explore Zone understand what it is like to be young now. They reflect the world of Gen Z and the last remnants of Millennials and stimulate all their senses. Our own youth jury is happy to be charmed by these films and yearly presents the Explore Award.

Explore Zone?

Film Fest Gent will help you select your favourite films from our programme. Via Sections & Tags you can find out which films suit you best. The tag Explore Zone offers a selection of films especially chosen for youth.

Discover the selection

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Boy from Heaven (ولد من الجنة)

Tarik Saleh 120min

John le Carré is never far away in this political thriller about a venerable Islamic institution in Cairo where a young student loses his innocence with the snap of a finger. Boy from Heaven won the award for Best Screenplay in Cannes.

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Coma

Bertrand Bonello 80min

With the peculiar 'corona film' Coma, French iconoclast Bertrand Bonello puts the dream theory of philosopher Gilles Deleuze and your brain together in a blender. Try waking up from that!

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Echo

Ruben Desiere 74min

With Echo Ruben Desiere offers a surprising glimpse into the training of Belgian soldiers, who are subjected to almost theatrical role-plays and the authority of an amiable commander.

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How to Save a Dead Friend

Marusya Syroechkovskaya 103min

A gut-punch of a documentary about the past years in Putin's Russia, a country that has seemingly given up on its youth. A heartbreaking debut.

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A Human Position

Anders Emblem 78min

In a society where happiness suddenly becomes precarious, a young woman searches for her purpose as a journalist and her place as a human being. Apparent simplicity graces this Norwegian summer portrait.

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Joyland

Saim Sadiq 126min

The first Pakistani film ever to be screened in the Official Selection of Cannes, Saim Sadiq's debut Joyland is about a man who falls in love with a trans woman.

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Metronom

Alexandru Belc 93min

Freedom under Ceauşescu’s despotic regime is a thing of the past. Younger generations live in great uncertainty about their future. Alexandru Belc's fiction debut follows seventeen-year-old Ana, who is dragged into a totalitarian nightmare after she gathers with friends to ...

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Next Sohee (다음 소희)

July Jung 134min

Next Sohee is a powerful indictment of exploitation in Korean workplaces, where numbers matter more than people. July Jung's sophomore feature is a haunting but empathetic plea for change.

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Un petit frère (Mother and Son)

Léonor Serraille 116min

In Un petit frère, Léonor Serraille follows a single mother and her two sons who leave Ivory Coast for Paris in the late 1980s.

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Piaffe

Ann Oren 86min

Piaffe is the liberating story of a complex sexuality. A sensual mix of Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio and The Duke of Burgundy with a touch of 'bio-eroticism'. Queer, kinky and fascinating.

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Rodéo

Lola Quivoron 105min

In her feature debut Rodéo, Lola Quivoron follows a young woman who makes many in the Parisian motorcross scene bite the dust.

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Sick of Myself (Syk Pike)

Kristoffer Borgli 95min

Kristoffer Bergli serves us a hilariously infuriating character that perhaps really embodies Joachim Trier's film title "the worst person in the world". Behind the narcissism, the tragicomedy and the beats of body horror, lurks a lonely young woman who's obsessed with the image ...

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Small, Slow But Steady (ケイコ目を澄ませて)

Shō Miyake 99min

In the true story Small, Slow But Steady, deaf-born boxer Keiko Ogasawara fights for recognition and her boxing community in Tokyo. As if Yasujirō Ozu, the Japanese master of serenity and the everyday, were directing the American sports drama Million Dollar Baby ...

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Sonne

Kurdwin Ayub 87min

In Sonne, Kurdwin Ayub looks at a young Muslim woman who explores the boundaries of her identity and faith online.

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Tengo sueños eléctricos (I Have Electric Dreams)

Valentina Maurel 100min

Director-screenwirter Valentina Maurel makes her debut with the feverish Tengo sueños eléctricos, in which a daughter and father can only cry out their fierce love for each other. The film won the prizes for best actor, actress and direction at the film festival of Locarno.

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To the North (Spre Nord)

Mihai Mincan 122min

A haunting thriller about stowaways hoping to find heaven in the United States but ending up in hell along the way. To the North pulls you to the edge of your seat.

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War Pony

Gina Gammell, Riley Keough 115min

In their Cannes award-winning directorial debut War Pony, Gina Gammell and Riley Keough take an honest and tender look at the hard lives of two young Native Americans.

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Explore Zone Jury & Award

Every year, five sharp-witted film lovers between 18 and 26 form the Explore Zone Jury. These critical young people judge the films from the Explore Zone tag. As the jury president, StuBru reporter Sander Vandenhende makes sure that there is plenty of discussion and debate!

Find out which films have been granted an Explore Award in the past.

Winners & Jury Members

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