Film

A story of three men of different age-groups, who - to their surprise - find themselves on a poster promoting vasectomy and how this comedy of errors changes their lives. 

Umbartha - a tale of Sulabha's (protagonist) dream to seek and establish her identity in the patriarchial society even at the risk of alienation from her family - remains to date a very bold statement in the history of Marathi cinema.

This coming-of-age movie was an exploration of the father-son relationship which, in India, is more often than not underscored by violence and a generational trauma born out of delusion.  

Dil Chahta Hai explores the inner life of three young friends as they navigate through their inter-personal relationships. A deep sense of love and companionship keeps them together and makes men more human - with emotions, conflict and aspirations. 

A Film by ​Simon Verhoeven
You think we have already come far? Watch Männerherzen to be proven wrong
 

A Film by Patty Jenkins

You didn´t expect “Wonderwoman” to be on a recommendation list for masculinities? Well until men get used to playing the second fiddle next to a strong and smart woman, nothing is going to chance. So watch it again with your friends, your brothers, your colleagues, and again and again…
 
 

 A film by K.S.Ravikumar

Isn´t it interesting that the theme of “Mrs. Doubtfire” found its way into almost every film industry? The man who desperately wants to see his children after a bad divorce decides to disguise as a female nanny in order to do so. The crossdressing leads to great comical moments. But it also speaks about a father’s love for his children that knows no boundaries. 

A film by R. Balki

Did you know that every year women die due to lack of menstrual hygiene? Arunachalam Muruganantham, who will later become known as Pad Man, is too much in love with his wife to risk it. He therefore starts working on affordable hygiene products and has to realize that shame and social restrictions might be his biggest enemies.

A Film by Nitesh Tiwari

Only a son can become a father´s legacy? The wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat (played by Aamir Khan) proves this wrong by making his daughters Babita and Geeta world class wrestlers. For as it turns out, talent is not just inherited in the male line.

What to do if your father wants you to become a swimmer like him, but all you care about is admiring the other male swimmer?

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Aynabaji, is an iconic movie in Bangladesh's history of cinema. The central character widely represents masculinity through its multiple role-play – it’s a story of human chameleon serving as body doubles for convicted criminals - certainly an entertaining film to watch!  

A man rejects the introduction of TV in his village, as he sees images to endanger traditional values. A portrait of patriarchy and its tactile smashing with a TV – a witty portrait of Bangladeshi rural society.

This film is about a gender non-binary kid, Laure, who moves to a new neighborhood and uses it as an opportunity to explore their gender presentation. They introduce themselves to the rest of the neighborhood kids as a boy named Mickael. This movie deeply portrays the struggle with gender identity for the pre-pubescent child and the power struggle of masculinity with the neighborhood boys in order to simply fit in. It beautifully depicts the complex and conflicting thoughts that go through a child's mind when dealing with unchartered issues like self-identity, and romantic feelings.

A film by Robert Thalheim
Konrad, unconventional father of Käthe and Emma is a house-father, his wife Christine a career anaesthesiologist. The central figure in his kids’ lives, he holds the family together with imagination and energy. But familiar roles wobble when he gets the chance to return to his profession as a theater director.

A film by David Nawrath
Together with his removals team, furniture mover Walter, an aging former wrestler, has to evict tenants from an apartment. When the old building’s door opens, he thinks he recognises the young father there as the son he abandoned years ago. He undertakes a cautious rapprochement and, with it, a far-reaching attempt to rescue the young family from danger.

A film by Heiner Carow
Tanya and Philipp work together and are both dedicated teachers. They become close and move in together. Tanya is very much in love and gets pregnant. Things get complicated for Philipp when he meets Matthias, however, as they fall passionately in love. Philipp struggles with his identity and what to do; it is hard to overcome years of repressing his sexuality.

A film by Talal Derki
Syria, Lebanon. Talal Derki returns to his homeland Syria where he gained the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years. His camera focuses mainly on the children, providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up with a father whose only dream is to establish an Islamic Caliphate. Osama (13) and his brother Ayman (12) are in the center of the story. They both love and admire their father and obey his words, but while Osama seems to follow the path of Jihad, Ayman wants to go back to school.

A film by Valeska Grisebach
A group of German construction workers sets out for a large construction site in the Bulgarian province. The foreign country and the rough, little-developed landscape arouse the men's thirst for adventure; at the same time, they are confronted with their own prejudices and distrust of others. The film takes a look at (archetypal) ideas of masculinity with documentary precision.

A film by Maren Aderen
Alle Anderen tells the story of Gitti (Birgit Minichmayr) and Chris (Lars Eidinger), an unequal couple struggling through a vacation in secluded togetherness. Two people as they can only be when they are alone: Silliness, unfulfilled desires, power struggles, revealed and secret couple rituals. Triggered by a seemingly unimportant event, the relationship with its playful images of men and women is increasingly shaken …

(for children)
A film by Evi Goldbrunner, Joachim Dollhopf
A self-confident ten-year-old orphan boy accidentally bumps into his father, whom he does not know, but is disappointed to discover that he is small in stature and even slightly smaller than he is. The relationship between the two is painful and complicated, but turns out to be insightful and profitable, since friendship and respect form a solid foundation. A vital youth film with a nuanced young lead actor who credibly conveys the hardships and disappointments, but above all the hopes and longings. Overall, it lives from its impulsive directness, with which it approaches its anything but easy subject, sometimes dramatically, sometimes comically.

A film by Farha Khatun
Safia, a deeply religious Muslim woman from Bhopal in Central India, driven by her belief that because of the patriarchal mindset of the interpreters of ‘Sharia’, Muslim women are denied equality and justice in the community. She joins a program that trains women as Qazis, (Muslim clerics who interpret and administer the personal law), which is traditionally a male preserve. The film documents her journey as she struggles and negotiates through hitherto uncharted territory, exploring the tensions that arise when women try to change the status quo and take control of narratives that so deeply affect their lives.

The Chapal Bhaduri story, Performing the Goddess (1999), is an intimate video biography that brings you face to face with a unique individual, discussing what it means to become a woman night after night, talking for the first time of the woman inside his male body, of troubled sexuality, of a long domestic partnership with his older lover, of the essential loneliness of living as a human being on the edges of conventional society--and showing how he metamorphoses into the goddess in order to perform her story.

 “A Death in the Gunj,” a sharp, lively horror film that doubles as a biting portrait of the patriarchy. The film, opens with a corpse being placed in the trunk of a baby-blue Ambassador car. A sugary flute track plays during the scene. This is sweet, pastel horror, but it soon becomes something much more terrifying. Beneath these genre is a masterly depiction of how deep-rooted patriarchy can rot a family tree.

A film by Harjant Gill
Mardistan is an exploration of Indian manhood articulated through the voices of four men from different generations and backgrounds. A middle-aged writer trying to make sense of the physical and sexual abuse he witnessed studying in an elite military academy, a Sikh father of twin daughters resisting the pressure to produce a son, a young college student wanting a girlfriend with whom he can lose his virginity, and a working-class gay activist coming out to his wife after twenty years of marriage. Together their stories make up different dimensions of what it means to be a man in India, starting a conversation on urgent issues including patriarchy, son preference, sexual violence and homophobia in a nation increasingly defined by social inequalities.

(Der Geist ist ein einsamer Wanderer)
A film by Anup Singh
The Sikh Umber Singh feels cheated by history, because he lost his house and his land due to the partition of India in 1947. Above all, he feels cheated by fate, which has humbled him with four daughters, when only a male heir can ensure the family's survival. In a desperate attempt to reassure himself of his manhood and obtain an heir, Umber decides to raise his fourth daughter to manhood.

This docudrama tells the story of two adolescent girls (Zahra Naderi, Masume Naderi) in Iran who have been kept imprisoned by their father (Qorban Ali Naderi) in their home from the day they were born. Interacting with a social worker who was notified of the situation, the girls' father voices his conviction that allowing the girls out of the house would lead to their corruption by males and the vices of the outside world. The neglected girls, meanwhile, can barely walk or speak.

The Film explores Indian masculinity by mapping the emotional, spiritual and philosophical contribution Salman Khan makes to the lives of three men in small-town India, who find themselves increasingly disassociated with a changing country, its competitiveness and its new woman.

When four friends meet… they share with the camera their secrets… sex and girls; youthful dreams and failures; frustrations and triumphs. Bunty, Kamal, Sanjay and Sanju, best of friends and residents of Jehangirpuri, a working class colony on the outskirts of Delhi are young and trying to make their lives in an environment which is changing rapidly… girls seem to be very bold… stable jobs are not easy to come by… sex is a strange mix of guilt and pleasure… families are claustrophobic… and the blur of television the only sounding board.

SARI MEN - a poignant short film about the men behind the fabric. While women wear it, men play a large part in the process of making and selling the sari. From the weavers to shop assistants, this is a film about the beauty of the sari flowing through the gender gaps. Shot across Lucknow, Delhi, Kolkata and Benaras. Sari Men is a homage to the dedication and precision of the craft. A short documentary looks at gender fluidity, violence against women and the question of shifting identities for a greater understanding between the sexes.

National Award winning feature length documentary about sexual identity in the land of the Kamasutra, Love in India is a volatile story of confusion, dichotomy and revelation. A story of repressed moral values in a country with a timeless tradition of spiritual sexuality. A search for the root of romance and the eternal orgasm. Directed by Q, Love in India had its World Premiere at HotDocs, Toronto and travelled to several international film festivals like, Asiatica Film Mediale, Rome and Independent South Asian Film Festival, San Francisco.

In a grimy car-wash in Rawalpindi is a magnificent and unlikely image. Bubbli Mallik, a Khwaja-sira (transgender person) rides a motorcycle exhaling roses through this otherwise masculine space and affirms “Hum Hain Takhleeq-e-Khuda.” - “I am divine” A total reclamation of existence, particularly in Pakistan. Her hair is long but her face shows the gentle markings of stubble. Her hands are strong, but decorated in bangles. She wears no dupatta and rides on her big bike through the streets. Shot by Haya Fatima Iqbal and edited by Aarthi Parthasarathy of Falana Films.

A film by Deepa Mehta
The story of a fey Sri Lankan Tamil boy growing up in 1970s Colombo is a far cry from Fanny Brice’s ascent from the Lower East Side to the heights of show business. The title comes from the Sri Lankan-Canadian novelist Shyam Selvadurai’s 1994 novel, which is read and taught widely in Sri Lanka today. Though Arjie (Brandon Ingram), the film’s wide-eyed central figure, is more of a David Bowie fan, the title’s slight homage to the beloved diva seems apt. Especially when young Arjie steels himself from bullying by declaring, “don’t mess with the grand diva,” the faintest hint of Streisand rising from behind his red feather boa. Intimate and beautifully rendered, “Funny Boy” is a visually lush coming-of-age drama set amidst a vicious ethnic conflict that is regionally specific, but tragically universal.