The tenth edition of Milano Film Festival focuses its attention on directors and films that depict difficult stories and situations, places of social and political injustice, hot issues that are often hidden, and which we instead believe must be shown and discussed. Therefore this year the festival promotes the United Nations “No Excuse 2015” Campaign, through the “motion&picture against poverty” special screenings. This event features international short and feature films representing issues linked with the development goals of the Millennium Campaign. Such complex and crucial issues, such troubling stories can not and must not leave us indifferent: “motion&picture against poverty” is a tour that leads us in a world where too many people are still living in suffering and injustice, but where there is also hope for a possible change.

Sat 17
Teatro Studio

10 am
A Cry for Madiom
by Erez T. Yanuv Barzilay, Canada, 2004, digital, 63’
A unique documentary. A powerful and dreadful experience. A rare insight into an isle of desperate hope in the ocean of misery called “South Sudan”. A testimony to the lives of some of the most unfortunate victims of Africa’s longest war and the few Westerners that came to their aid.
11 am
NGOs meet the festivalgoers

3 pm
Verlorene Kinder (Lost Children),
by Ali Samadi Ahadi, Oliver Stoltz, Germany 2005 miniDV 97’
For over 18 years a civil war in northern Uganda has dragged on almost completely unnoticed by the rest of the world. The rebels of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) are waging a bloody guerilla campaign. They abduct children and conscript them as soldiers, forcing them to kill their own people. The film documents the lives of four children, from 8 to 14 years old, who successfully escaped the LRA. They return home to be branded as killers. Will they ever forget? Will they be forgiven?

5 pm
L’enfant endormi,
by Yasmine Kassari, Morocco/Belgium, 2004, 35mm, 95’

8.30 pm
Safi, la petite mère (Safi, the little mother),
by Raso Ganemtore, Burkina Faso/Italy/France, 2004, 35mm, 26’
Safi, 8 years old, lives in a village in Burkina Faso, lost in the red dust of Sahel. One day her life changes tragically: her mother dies after giving birth to a son. The old tribal superstitions prevail, as traditionally the child must be banished in order to protect the people from the evil eye… These are rites that can not be overcome by good sense and humane pity. Safi, however, strong and innocent, succeeds in saving her brother and in flying to the city to seek refuge from the adults’ cruelty.
The Fever,
by Carlo Nero, Great Britain, 2004, 35mm, 83’
An English woman wakes up in a foreign city where a civil war is being fought. She has a fever and tries to remember why she has returned to this frightening country. She retraces her childhood and her adult existence as a professional woman who loved her family, friends and the arts. She also tries to find how the people she has met on that journey has changed her understanding of the world. She struggles with an unpleasant perception of her life, and in the end she understands her responsibility for the poverty and exploitation she sees in the world.

Sun 18
Teatro Studio

9.30 am
Running Dry,
by James Thebaut, USA, 2005, digiBeta, 80’
Running Dry is a compelling documentary that issues an urgent call to save millions of people around the world imperiled by the lack of access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. It explores the implications of a looming global water crisis for regions throughout South Asia, North China, the Middle East, Africa and the American Southwest. Thebaut interviewed various experts and world leaders who mention their concerns for the global water situation and the implications of water scarcity to human health and world peace.

11 am
Shipbreakers,
by Michael Kot, Canada, 2004, HDV, 73’
"A ship a day, a death a day," is a saying amongst the workers of Alang, India. When Western nations began regulating the hazardous work of shipbreaking, Indian entrepreneurs stepped in and entered the business of recycling. Huge hulls are beached in Alang where workers, paid as little as eight cents per hour, dismantle the ships. This documentary reveals the daily life of the workers, including their Hindu spirituality, through an eye-opening journey driven by local music.

3 pm
The Girl in the Cafè,
by David Yates, Great Britain, 2005, 35mm, 94’
Set and filmed in London and Iceland (where the fictional G8 Summit of the film takes place), The Girl in the Cafè follows the journey of Lawrence, a lonely bureaucrat working for the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, after he meets an enigmatic woman named Gina in a cafè. After a couple of dates, he takes a chance and invites her on a weekend trip to Reykjavik, where he'll be working the G8 conference. His team's hope is to push in the agenda the Millennium Goals agreed to at the 2000 G8, which if met will greatly decrease world poverty by 2015.

5 pm
Peace One Day,
by Jeremy Gilley, Great Britain, 2004, 35mm, 80’
Peace One Day is the story of one man’s attempts to persuade the global community via the United Nations to officially sanction a global ceasefire day; a day of non-violence; a day of Peace. This documentary charts the remarkable 6-year journey of the filmmaker as he meets heads of state, Nobel Peace Laureates, freedom fighters, media moguls, the innocent victims of war and, eventually, everyone who was anyone at the UN. An individual genuinely can make a difference: the UN International Day of Peace is now fixed in the calendar on 21st September annually.

8.30 pm
World of Blue, Land of O.,
by Bram Van Paesschen, Belgium, 2005, Dvcam, 52’
A creative documentary about Unité 309, a unit for infectious illnesses in the St-Pierre Hospital in Brussels. The story of three people affected by HIV, experiencing the same illness in different ways. Three human portraits drawn by the director with a gentle stroke.
Women of the Holy Kingdom, by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Canada, 2004, miniDV, 48’
In Saudi Arabia, women need permission from their male guardians to study, work and travel. They are also forbidden to drive and to get closer to men in public. Now, a growing number of Saudi women are challenging these traditions and are clamoring for more rights. With this film the director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy documents the emerging women's movement and interviews clerics and young women who denounce change and label the women's movement as immoral.

Fri 23
Teatro Strehler

11 am
Presentation of the United Nations “No Excuse 2015” Campaign
Speekers: Eveline Herfkens, Campaign Coordinatior, Filippo Penati, President of Provincia di Milano
2.30 pm
Sin Piedras,
di Quim Fuster and Pau Itarte, Spain, 2005, DvCam, 52’
This documentary, filmed in Palestine and Spain, depicts the lives of two young boys. The first image which comes to mind when we think of Palestine is often that of children throwing stones against Israeli soldiers. Sin Piedras is a set of mirrors through which two children – Yazan, living in Hebron, and Sergi, Barcelona – make us discover their everyday lives, their families and their games. Differences and similarities weave the canvas of these two portraits, bringing us back to one reality: childhood, a fragile stage in everyone’s life, in confrontation with the world of “grown-ups”, but rich in hope and vitality.

Fri 23
Borsa Democratica del Cinema - Fossato del Castello

5.30 pm
Round table: members of European festivals work on the creation of a network to promote the United Nations “No Excuse 2015” Campaign.