21.10.2026 at 16:15. International Competition 9: City of Owls, İki Laborantın Yorgun Saatleri / The Weary Hours of Two Lab Assistants, Near Light, An Ordinary Day, The Wind, One Brilliant Day, A Solidão dos Lagartos / Loneliness of Lizards, Assis, pas bouger! / Sit and Stay!, Dom Kino, Big Hall

Time and place

Wednesday, 21 October 2026 at 16:15

Dom Kino Cinema Center – Big Hall: Karavannaya Street, 12

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Description

CITY OF OWLS

2026, 13 min., France, Italy, Germany, language - Russian; short-length feature

Director: Zhenia Kazankina

İKI LABORANTIN YORGUN SAATLERI / THE WEARY HOURS OF TWO LAB ASSISTANTS

2026, 22 min., Turkey, Germany, UK, Croatia, language - Turkish; short-length feature

Director: Burak Çevik

NEAR LIGHT

2026, 18 min., Russia, language - Russian; short-length feature

Director: Viktor Yuliev

AN ORDINARY DAY

2026, 14 min., China, language - Chinese; short-length feature

Director: Liang Zhaoye

THE WIND, ONE BRILLIANT DAY

2026, 7 min., China, UK, language - English; short-length feature

Director: Ben Rivers

A SOLIDÃO DOS LAGARTOS / LONELINESS OF LIZARDS

2025, 15 min., Portugal, Spain, language - Portuguese, French, English, Spanish; short-length feature

Director: Inês Nunes

ASSIS, PAS BOUGER! / SIT AND STAY!

2025, 22 min., France, language - French; short-length feature

Director: Camille Dumortier

Near Light

Genres: Feature, Short-length

Director: Viktor Yuliev

Operator: Viktor Yuliev

Screenwriter: Viktor Yuliev

Cast: Irina Yulieva, Semyon Khlopyanik

Producer: Viktor Yuliev

Year: 2026

Country: Russia

Duration: 18 min.

Languages: Russian

Description

World premiere

Divorced and out of work, a village schoolteacher tries to recover a lost sense of closeness with other people. She offers a former pupil a driving lesson. Their brief encounter will change how both of them see the world.

About the director:

Near Light

Viktor Yuliev

Director and photographer. Born in St. Petersburg in 1981. For many years he worked in documentary and art photography. His work has been shown in international exhibitions and contests in Russia and abroad, and published in Russian and foreign media. He was nominated for the Kandinsky Prize in 2010 and won the Hearst 8×10 photography contest in New York in 2011. In 2026 he graduated from the St. Petersburg School of New Cinema. Near Light is his debut film.

The Wind, One Brilliant Day

Genres: Feature, Short-length

Director: Ben Rivers

Operator: Ben Rivers

Cast: Tang Wei

Producer: Lawrence Xiao, Lynn Xun

Producer company : NOWNESS China, Urth Films; rights — Parallax Films

Year: 2026

Country: China-UK

Duration: 7 min.

Languages: English

Description

Russian premiere

A woman walks through an ancient garden, talking to the wind. Guided by a mysterious force, she finds herself in a secluded corner, not knowing what she is looking for or why she has come. The film is inspired by a poem by Antonio Machado.

About the director:

The Wind, One Brilliant Day

Ben Rivers

Artist and filmmaker, based in London. He has created around 40 short and feature films that blur the line between documentary and fiction. A prizewinner and regular at the world’s major festivals, he received the FIPRESCI Prize at Venice for Two Years at Sea (2011) and the Green Leopard at Locarno for Mare’s Nest (2025). His solo exhibitions have been held in Milan, Chicago, Hamburg, and London, and a complete retrospective of his work was presented at the Jeu de Paume in Paris. Rivers won the Silver Centaur at the 34th Message to Man for Bogancloch in 2024. A year later, the Festival showed a small retrospective of his work in the Sky Cinema programme, and the Russian premiere of Mare’s Nest.

City of Owls

Genres: Feature, Short-length

Director: Zhenia Kazankina

Operator: Luda Kuropyatnikova

Screenwriter: Zhenia Kazankina, Sofia Boteva, Andrea Gatopoulos

Cast: Vera Engalycheva, Lera Yacenko

Producer: Clémence Crépin Néel, Igor Courtecuisse, Pavel Karykhalin, Andrea Gatopoulos, Laura Catalano, Leone Balduzzi, Marco Mingolla, Stefano Schiavone

Year: 2026

Country: France-Italy-Germany

Duration: 13 min.

Languages: Russian

Description

Russian premiere

On the last evening before her departure, Vera is putting her small sister to bed. To hide the real reason for her leaving, she tells her a bedtime fairy tale instead. It’s the story of a city swallowed by an eternal night.

About the director:

City of Owls

Zhenia Kazankina

Director, screenwriter, and editor. Born in Moscow in 1996. A graduate of VGIK, she is currently based in Rome. Her work explores themes of adaptation, attachment, and the search for belonging, often through the lens of feminine characters and perspectives. Unfolding in a collective dimension, her stories are rooted in metaphorical concepts and personal experience, and touched with elements of mystery and fable. She has competed twice in the In Silico programme at Message to Man: in 2023 with Empty Rooms, and in 2024 with Three Secret Clues of Longing, which won her the Jury Diploma.

İki Laborantın Yorgun Saatleri / The Weary Hours of Two Lab Assistants

Genres: Feature, Short-length

Director: Burak Çevik

Operator: Gregory Oke

Screenwriter: Burak Çevik

Cast: Nalan Kuruçim, Bahar Çevik, Didar Püren Erbek

Producer: Burak Çevik

Year: 2026

Country: Turkey-Germany-UK-Croatia

Duration: 22 min.

Languages: Turkish

Description

Russian premiere

At midnight, two lab assistants study an unknown substance using machines and procedures that are unclear to us. They pursue knowledge through the strict logic of the laboratory. As exhaustion settles in, one of the assistants brews Turkish coffee for the other, and the night shifts. The process becomes a fortune-telling, and the scientific gaze gives way to intuition. Moving from analysis to foresight, the two women imagine another method of knowing; a space where rational inquiry and intuitive perception coexist.

About the director:

İki Laborantın Yorgun Saatleri / The Weary Hours of Two Lab Assistants

Burak Çevik

Filmmaker and producer, founder of Fol Films, and curator of experimental and arthouse screenings. From 2018 to 2020 he taught at Istanbul Bilgi University. His films The Pillar of Salt (2018), Belonging (2019), and Forms of Forgetting (2023) premiered at the Berlinale and went on to screen at New Directors/New Films, FIDMarseille, and Cinéma du Réel. His 30-minute video A Topography of Memory (2019) was screened at major festivals including Locarno, Toronto, and the New York Film Festival. In 2024, he served on the International Competition jury of the 34th Message to Man.

An Ordinary Day

Genres: Feature, Short-length

Director: Liang Zhaoye

Screenwriter: Liang Zhaoye

Producer: Gan Tian

Year: 2026

Country: China

Duration: 14 min.

Languages: Chinese

Description

World premiere

In northern China, seawater intrusion caused by heavy metal mining has submerged countless villages. Xiaoyong and his father are awaiting relocation. As the New Year arrives, an unexpected visit from his mother and younger brother breaks the usual silence. This brief family reunion becomes Xiaoyong’s final memory of his mother and younger brother.

About the director:

An Ordinary Day

Liang Zhaoye

Director and screenwriter. A graduate of the Shanghai Film Academy. His earlier works have been selected for the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Golden Horse Film Festival, among others. An Ordinary Day is his graduation film.

A Solidão dos Lagartos / Loneliness of Lizards

Genres: Feature, Short-length

Director: Inês Nunes

Operator: Leonardo Simões

Screenwriter: Inês Nunes

Cast: Candela Varas, Luis Gonçalves, José Alexandre, Carlos Pires, Inoa Henning

Producer: Inês Nunes, Maura Carneiro

Year: 2025

Country: Portugal-Spain

Duration: 15 min.

Languages: Portuguese, French, English, Spanish

Description

Russian premiere

In a spa surrounded by mountains of salt, guests relax and sunbathe, while workers collect the glowing crystals under the sun. Children run off, escaping the watchful eyes of adults, and a woman drifts through this landscape in a haze, detached from reality. As night falls, the space transforms, shaped by the desires of those who pass through.

About the director:

A Solidão dos Lagartos / Loneliness of Lizards

Inês Nunes

In a spa surrounded by mountains of salt, guests relax and sunbathe, while workers collect the glowing crystals under the sun. Children run off, escaping the watchful eyes of adults, and a woman drifts through this landscape in a haze, detached from reality. As night falls, the space transforms, shaped by the desires of those who pass through.

Assis, pas bouger! / Sit and Stay!

Genres: Feature, Short-length

Director: Camille Dumortier

Operator: Erwan Dean

Screenwriter: Camille Dumortier

Composer: Simon Avérous

Cast: Romane Gallet-Strecker, Lucia Sanchez, Barbara Carlotti

Producer: Marie Lesay, Vera Mechid-Huin

Year: 2025

Country: France

Duration: 22 min.

Languages: French

Description

Russian premiere

This summer, 7-year-old Zoe ; spends her days in the apartment with her mother, who is there but not really. Zoe’s father died recently. There’s Gouache, her dog, whom she’d love to train. Then there’s Betty, her neighbor, whom she likes.

About the director:

Assis, pas bouger! / Sit and Stay!

Camille Dumortier

Director and screenwriter. She is a self-taught filmmaker. In 2019 she made her first short film, Les pieds sur terre. The fiction short Ivory Tower (2023) was featured in the International Competition at the 33rd Message to Man IFF. She is currently working on her first feature.