Jürgen Karasek

About twenty percent of Israeli citizens are Palestinians. Their Arabic culture and their language are suppressed - and although fluent in Hebrew, many of them boycott the language in public and live as a separated, discriminated society. The well-known musician in the Middle East, Jowan Safadi (41), is part of the Palestinian minority. As the lead singer of the band Fish Samak he has won over a considerable fan base with his articulate and politically provocative songs. What is so special about him is that, in his writings, he criticizes both the Israeli and Palestinian positions, which caused him legal problems including a night in jail in Jordan and even death threats. Jowan lives in Haifa and is a single father to his son Don (15), who only returned to Israel about a year ago after being raised by his mother in New York for the past 5 years. He attends a jewish school due to the better education offered, but is confronted with everyday racism there, which is completely new to him. Jowan's family lives in Nazareth and is dominated by conservative Arab values - they would prefer that their son pursued a traditional life. Jowan's cousin, Yazid (33), is one of his closest confidants. He is politically active and has wanted to open an artist café nearby Akko for a long time. Due to a special legal situation, however, he is prohibited from buying land in the area because of his Palestinian origin. Jowan’s everyday life, and that of his close family and friends, is determined by the highly reserved atmosphere of the status quo. While most Palestinians do not want to enter into a dialogue with the Israelis anymore, he now decides to step in the opposite direction. He starts a daring campaign using his music and his voice, addressing Palestinians and Israelis – to open eyes and to stop speechlessness – at any price.

Gwendolyn is in her mid-sixties, barely weighs 52 kg and is a two-time world champion in weightlifting. After battling salivary gland cancer the retired anthropologist should really take a step back, but this is far from what Gwendolyn has in mind. She is training to become world champion once again. Supported by her devoted trainer Pat and her Ivorian husband Charlie, her fight against physical and personal limits begins.

My family believes there´s a curse casted on us by our mean ancestor. I don't know if the curse is real, but I'm sure there´s a trauma, transmitted in our family for generations - during the Second World War, my great-grandfather was a partisan the whole his family, including small children was shot by Gestapo, there was a lot of violence around my family, but also inside the family. Sometimes I wonder if being Roma is a curse or a blessing. I´m wondering if some magic can help to heal it. That´s why I want to find a real Roma witch who can help to break this curse, because I want to save my three-years old daughter who is supposed to be the fifth and the last victim of it.
Magical rituals and fortune – telling have fascinated me since I was a little girl, thanks to my aunt Marcela, who is a fortune teller. I realise, Marcela sinks into deep depression and I wonder if she is affected by curse too, that´s why we embark on the way together, encouraged by two friends, Anastasia and Michaela, who seek for help themselves, we try to immerse in a fairy tale world, the traditional way of passing on knowledge among Roma people. In a playful, self-ironic way, we hope to find a recipe to help us.
In encounters with the old, traditional Romani witch Elena, the eclectic Vanda with an university degree, and the healer Marta, a former workaholic in retirement, they discover step by step new perspectives on our various problems: Anastasia, Russian in Czech exile, struggles with fear, guilt and loneliness due to the war in Ukraine; Michaela, Slovakian dance teacher, seeks to make contact with her boyfriend who committed suicide four years ago; and I and Marcela want to escape the trauma of repeated experiences of violence in their family history.
If I will be able to break the curse is still open. However, the premise is probably that people must first discover the magic within themselves so that they can be helped.

Twelve years after a brutal police raid shattered his dream of becoming a teacher and leaving the Romani settlement on the outskirts of a small eastern Slovak town, Igor has found his calling as a mediator between the world inside and outside the settlement, helping local Roma with official matters and advice. He also supports his sister Veronika in raising her four sons, determined that his eldest nephew Martin will be the first in the family to make it out. But during the hot summer holidays, school and learning are the last things on Martin’s mind. With his brothers and friends, he escapes to the river and the cornfields, where battle games follow their own rules.
Although Igor’s case ended in his favor at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the police officers remained unpunished and active in the region. When disturbing testimonies of new police brutality against Roma settlers begin to spread from a nearby village, Igor must confront not only the violent images returning to his mind but also the limits of the help one can offer while living on the margins of society.
Through the observation of children’s games and the magical dimension of recurring nightmares, the film highlights the importance of collective memory in a place where life is lived day by day, as well as the need for understanding across a deeply divided society.