A collection of freshly-commissioned non-fiction films showcasing those fearless outsiders whose journeys across borders, conflict and time offer inspiring and thought-provoking stories of acceptance, reconciliation and love. Each film will be having its world premiere at EIFF, and we are delighted to once again be working with Bridging the Gap, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

Scottish Documentary Institute

Films in running order (c. 95 min):

The Sound of the Wind Maria Pankova / United Kingdom / 2023 / 18 min

On 24 February 2022, chef Yulia loses her former life and becomes a refugee, along with her two adopted daughters, fleeing the war in Ukraine. She now works as a butcher in Scotland and her husband is in one of the most dangerous spots on the front lines. The fear and connection to war doesn't leave her even when she is thousands of miles away. She is fighting for her children's future, and she fears losing her husband.

Friends on the Outside Annabel Moodie / United Kingdom / 2023 / 10 min

Friends on the Outside is an experimental short documentary that tells the story of Jamie, exploring how foraging for weeds and caring for birds has helped him recover from mental illness and the chronic stress of incarceration. It questions why the UK prison system is currently in its biggest expansion in more than a century, exposing the naturalising language used around this expansion.

Big Moves Sarah Grant / United Kingdom / 2023 / 14 min

After a lifetime of being told that she, as a fat person, could not dance (and believing it), Glasgow filmmaker Sarah Grant was very surprised to learn when doing dance classes over zoom in the pandemic (with the camera off, of course), that this was a big fat lie. Big Moves is an exploration of the mythology surrounding dance and dancers’ bodies, and how its cultural depiction of perfection has unintentionally fed Sarah's lifelong struggle with perfectionism.

A Border Between Us Riad Arfin / United Kingdom / 2023 / 14 min

When a Bangladeshi man moves across the world to be with his partner in the UK, they discover the unforeseen costs of following your heart. In A Border Between Us Director Riad Arfin explores his personal experience of being in an interracial relationship and trying to settle in a culture very different from his own; between visa rules and cultural norms, is it possible to find a place to call home that works for them both? In a challenge to the idea that all you need is love to make you whole, when faced with the impact of loneliness and discrimination on his mental health, is love really enough? When the sacrifices feel one sided, what does it take to make it work?

Never Mind Walnut Street Marta Dyczkowska / United Kingdom / 2023 / 13 min

Never Mind Walnut Street is Polish artist Marta Dyczkowka’s homage to her adopted city of Belfast. Set to the loud and wild soundtrack of Belfast’s own Runnin' Riot, we meet lead singer Colin McQuillan in his kitchen turned make shift bar, where he and Marta become fast friends. After helping her make the move to Belfast, Marta experience the full extent of punk life in Belfast and Walnut Street becomes the home away from home that she had been searching for. Never Mind Walnut Street pays tribute to the punks and city that once shaped Marta’s life, with the very fabric of her landscape changing around her, mirroring her own emotional journey of loss and change.

Fitting Caitlin McMullan / United Kingdom / 2023 / 11 min

Fitting explores the relationship between the director, an amputee, and her prosthetist, by their contrasting experiences during the making of a prosthetic leg. It asks what it means for to create an extension to someone else’s body, and the impact this has on both maker and amputee. The film demystifies this unfamiliar space and experience for the viewer, and questioning stereotyping and prejudice widely seen within our society's consideration of body image.

Pembe Ay (Pink Moon) Meray Diner / United Kingdom / 2023 / 15 min

As a family from a politically and physically divided island, Meray and her father developed extremely opposite views to each other. She travels from Scotland back to her childhood home - to the garden where she once had nightmares of the conflict. Now it's blossoming with fruit trees that her father grows, acting as the conversational middle ground for the deeper problems of the relationship. As the debates about power dynamics in the house and on the island grow in parallel, she needs to understand her father's experiences and find the courage to tell him that she always sought his validation. Meray felt oppressed by her father and the state in north Cyprus, and finally wants to express herself within her family, and the Cyprus that she once escaped.