Languages on Screen – Cinema Speaks Europe

What happens when Europe’s languages meet on the big screen?

Languages on Screen – Cinema Speaks Europe brings together cinema, languages and people for three open-air evenings in Nicosia, celebrating the European Day of Languages through stories from across Europe.

From 22 to 24 September, Nicosia becomes a meeting place for European cinema, with films in different languages, voices, cultures and perspectives lighting up the screen under the open sky. From thought-provoking stories to lighter, unexpected encounters, the programme invites audiences to travel across Europe without leaving Nicosia.

And there is something new to celebrate: Languages on Screen – Cinema Speaks Europe marks Nicosia’s first multilingual short film festival, bringing together films and voices from across the continent in a celebration of the extraordinary linguistic and cultural diversity that makes Europe what it is.

Stories of love and loss, childhood and youth, friendship and belonging, home and housing, the environment, human connection - and even the eloquence of silence - are just some of the themes that will unfold on screen. Sometimes moving, sometimes playful, sometimes unexpected, the films move from the deeply personal to the distinctly European, opening different windows onto the experiences, questions and emotions that connect us across languages, cultures, generations and borders.

Because cinema has always spoken more than one language. And, behind every story that travels, lies the work of translation and subtitling, opening films to new audiences and allowing voices to be heard far beyond the places where they were first created.

The initiative has brought together an impressive European network: EU institutions, embassies, cultural and language institutes, organisations and independent filmmakers, all contributing to turn three September evenings into a vibrant meeting point for cinema, languages and cultures in the heart of Nicosia.

Three evenings. Nine European languages. Fifteen stories. One open-air screen bringing Europe closer together.

Film Selection for 24 September*

1. Greece — 9BED(s) — 9 min
Director / filmmaker: Ismene Daskarolis
French, German, Finnish, English, Russian and a touch of Swedish meet in a playful portrait of couples from across Europe and beyond. Set around the most universal of domestic spaces — a bed — the film moves between romance, loneliness, humour and cynicism, suggesting that beneath our different languages and backgrounds, we may understand more of one another than we think.

Will include a short video message from director Ismene Daskarolis.

2. Germany — Sky Like Silk. Full of Oranges — 10 min
Director / filmmaker: Betina Kuntzsch
An animated documentary recalling the experience of East Germans discovering the freedom to travel after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Through memories of Mallorca in the spring of 1990, the film captures the exhilaration, strangeness and longing of encountering a world that had previously seemed beyond reach.

3. France — Carpinchos — 10 min
Director / filmmaker: Alfredo Soderguit

Hunting season has begun, and a family of capybaras seeks refuge in a chicken coop. The chickens are suspicious of the newcomers — until the curiosity of the young begins to undo the boundaries between them. A simple, vivid story about fear of the 'other', trust and the unexpected possibilities of coexistence.
 

4. Romania — Pană de vulpe (Fox Feather) — 22 min
Director / filmmaker: Vlad Popa
Local officials are preparing to unveil a monument when a workplace accident derails the ceremony and creates an unexpected new 'hero'. What follows is a darkly comic look at power, public ritual and the manufacture of official narratives — and at the uneasy moment when a real human event becomes something to be managed, framed and communicated.

5. Poland — Education — 20 min
Director / filmmaker: Emi Buchwald

At an elementary school, children are asked to memorise a poem by Julian Tuwim. What begins as homework turns into a witty exploration of words, metaphors and interpretation, as parents discover that language rarely yields a single, unambiguous meaning. A warm, intelligent film about how we learn to understand words — and one another.

6. Spain — Tumbas vecinas (Neighbouring Graves) — 16 min
Director / filmmaker: José Antonio Gutiérrez Bustos

Lola faithfully tends her late husband’s grave and takes pride in keeping it beautifully decorated. Then Antonio, another widower, begins tending the neighbouring grave — and an increasingly elaborate rivalry in flowers and rituals begins. What looks like competition slowly reveals itself as courtship: a warm comedy about grief, companionship and affection communicated through gestures rather than words.
 

*All films will be screened with English subtitles

Organisers:

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation (DGT) in partnership with the Representation of the European Commission in Cyprus, the Center for Social Innovation (CSI) and the Film Festival on Diversity (FFD).