The action in Milky Way (r. Vasilis Kekatos, Greece, 2023) takes place in a mountain town where residents oscillate between frustration and the desire to escape. The protagonist is Maria, a high school student with aspirations of becoming a dancer, whose plans are thwarted when she becomes pregnant.
Renars, a rebellious young man trying to escape the strict rules of late 1970s communist Latvia, gets a job as a costume designer in a theater troupe and falls in love with a Finnish director. His adventure truly begins after he comes under the scrutiny of authorities, who commit him to an asylum. There, he starts an illegal jeans factory. Appropriately, the series is called Soviet Jeans (r. Stanislas Tokalovs, Teodora Markova, Latvia, 2024).
Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calo are two of the most well-known Spanish actors, and together they have created successful series. Their latest, The Messiah (La mesías, Spain, 2023), is the story of two brothers trying to overcome the traumas left by their upbringing under their fanatically religious mother.
All and Eva (r. Johanna Runevad, Sweden, 2024) is a delightful romantic comedy about a 40-year-old woman who has never grown up in love but desires a child. After choosing a sperm donor, she fears he might be a psychopath, but discovers that the truth is quite the opposite.
All and Eva is screened at TIFF.23 with the support of the Embassy of Sweden in Romania.