We are delighted to announce that the 10th edition of the ArteKino Festival – first establish in 2016 – will take place throughout the entire month of December, from the very first day of the month until the very last day of the year. This gives you plenty of time to enjoy the 12 films carefully selected exclusively for you. This is the seventh year that DMovies has teamed up with ArteKino in order to promote and bring to you the dirtiest gems of European cinema (up from 10 films in some of the previous years).
The online Festival is aimed at cinephiles from all over Europe who seek original, innovative, thought-provoking, and downright filthy European productions from countries as far apart as Ukraine and Spain (and yet with a common vision: cinema has the power to open hearts). You can watch films on ArteKino’s dedicated website. Subtitles are available in various different languages.
ArteKino is supported by the Creative Europe Media Programme of the European Union. Below is a list of the 2025 selection, listed alphabetically. You can also read the 12 film reviews and exclusive interviews by clicking here.
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1. Arthur & Diana (Sara Summa, 2023):
Arthur & Diana skirts between reality and fiction, given that the triumvirate are a family of two siblings and a son/nephew. Diana (played by director Sara Summa) and Arthur (Robin Summa) bid auf wiedershen to the child’s father Patrick (Benjamin Schwimm) before voyaging onwards. While driving, the duo realise as much about one another as they do regarding the world around them. As a story, Arthur & Diana is more Inside Llewelyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2014) than Homer’s Odyssey, as the intrinsic hurdles are more difficult to overcome than the exteriors. Many of their foibles are led back to their parents, characters nominally responsible for their children’s faults.
Sara Summa acts, directs and edits the motion picture, piecing together an aesthetic cut from the 1990s. Tinged with a dream-like undercurrent, Arthur & Diana carries on, presenting a focus on the dialogue shared between brother and sister. Diana is envious of her sibling’s penchant for relaxation, querying her predelictions for mediocrity. The voice-overs mesh into one another, and occasionally it’s difficult to tell one person apart. This is a stylistic choice, and works for the feature.
Click here in order to watch Arthur & Diana now.
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2. Cidade Rabat (Susana Nobre, 2023):
Portuguese director Susana Nobre finds a certain serenity in the calamity of midlife crises. Helena’s story isn’t one of family trauma or more typical mourning, but instead of someone who is struggling with a lack of purpose. She’s divorced, her daughter is independent, and now, without her mother to care for, there’s no predetermined societal standard she needs to live up to. Cidade Rabat watches patiently as this new stage in life creates a simultaneous crushing lethargy and a clumsy ambition for something new.
Cidade Rabat marks a departure for Nobre as a writer-director as she’s more familiar with documentary shorts or character docs like 2021’s No Táxi do Jack. Nobre carries over the delicate and empathetic approach to this fictional drama where she narrows in on Helena’s every relationship dynamic with gentle precision. Nobre’s direction is restrained; there’s no attempt at surrealism, yet she manages to reveal plenty of awkward absurdity hidden within moments of boredom and wordless grief.
Click here in order to watch Cidade Rabat now.
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3. Frewaka (Aislinn Clarke, 2024):
This Irish folk horror revolves around Siubhán Ni Bhroin, known as Shoo (Clare Monnelly), a primary care worker charged with caring for elderly stroke survivor Peig (Bríd Ní Neachtain). To Shoo’s surprise, she learns that Peig is beginning to show signs of dementia and suffers from delusions and paranoia. Shoo is also carrying the weight of her own emotional baggage, primarily the death of her mother, with who she shared a difficult relationship.
Catholicism is woven into Clarke’s cinema. Her feature debut, The Devil’s Doorway (2018), set in Ireland in 1960, follows two priests who are despatched by the Vatican to investigate a miraculous incident in a Magdalene Laundry. There’s a passing mention of these institutions, also known as houses for fallen women in Fréwaka. These represent a dark chapter in the Catholic church’s history, where young and vulnerable women were abused by the nuns that supervised their day-to-day running.
Click here in order to watch Frewaka now.
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4. Have You Seen This Woman? (Matija Gluscevic and Dusan Zoric, 2022):
The film opens with a sombre news reporter discussing the disappearance of Draginja (Ksenija Marinković) years ago. There is no body, no trace of violence, and still no idea as to what happened. We then see Draginja in various narratives – as a vacuum cleaner salesperson who ends up blissed out at a rave after discovering a dead body. Next, she is shown as a nurse with red hair who hires an actor (Boris Isakovic) to pose as her husband for a Zoom call with her son who lives abroad. Finally, we see a more feral version of Draginja, reunited with her parents as she seeks answers.
It’s a movie that seems to flout definition, presenting images and themes that only seem to be relevant in the moment, before being shed as our protagonist seeks another avenue of escape. It is jarring and unsettling for the most part, but the portrait comes through the abstract visuals. Through comedy, tragedy, and absurdity we explore the desperate search for connection. This is easier to see in the first story, where a high Draginja strokes an irate, arguing couple in a public bathroom.
Click here in order to watch Have You Seen This Woman? now.
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5. I Have Already Died Three Times (Maxence Vassilyevitch, 2025):
Rich in tiny detail, Maxence Vassilyevitch’s documentary follows the mighty talent in the most intimate of spaces: his own home. Squashed between chairs, tables and cutlery, the mighty actor looks positively diminutive by contrast. Vassilyevitch is keen to emphasis the little details in life, pivoting from cigarette fumes to the tap water ringing and running in the backdrop. Another director might cut away sooner, but it’s important for the psychology of the movie to showcase how the hum-drum of life can entertain someone bereft of pleasure. Nolot ruminates to himself what a life post incarceration might entail: “because when you get out of prison, what else is there to do?”.
Click here in order to watch I Have Already Died Three Times now.
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6. Light as Feathers (Rosanne Pel, 2018):
Family dynamics vary. In the case of 15-year-old Eryk (Eryk Walny), his life revolves around a gaggle of women working on a goose farm. He faces verbal abuse on a daily basis, prompting him to treat 13-year-old neighbour Klaudia shabbily. Born into a background that lacks respect, Eryk is nevertheless forced to answer for the sexual abuse he inflicts on a minor in this probing work.
Light as Feathers was released in 2018, roughly one year after the Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey allegations. This Polish movie scans differently viewed in that light. Director Rosanne Pel makes us empathise with the central character. As with every tragedy, the psychology of the assailant needs to be taken into consideration.
Click here in order to watch Light as Feathers now.
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7. Maoussi (Charlotte Schioler, 2022):
Babette is a scatter-brained Danish dancer stumbling her way through life in Paris, and her awkward interactions with friends and colleagues. When her instructor and friend asks her to accommodate a visiting Congolese musician, she’s initially hesitant to take on one more potential disruption. Despite some light-hearted cultural faux pas, the two eventually find their lives intertwined when taking care of an escaped lab mouse.
The film is largely kept within the boundaries of a cautiously accessible cross-cultural romcom. The humour is easily digestible and finds itself in familiar territory for this type of crowd-pleasing French cinema, with jokes based on mispronunciations, silly scenarios and incredibly localised Parisian banter.
Click here in order to watch Maoussi now.
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8. Notes on a Summer (Diego Llorente, 2023):
Katia Borlado plays Marta, a young woman who recently left her home in the Asturias coastal community in Spain for the country’s bustling capital of Madrid. A committed academic, she lives in happy domesticity with her doting new boyfriend Leo (Antonio Araque). Feeling torn about her direction in life, she takes a break from responsibility by returning home for a wedding. Reconnecting with family and friends, she also runs into Pablo (Álvaro Quintana), her rough-and-ready ex whom she never quite got over. The pair rekindle their romance, adding to Marta’s uncertainty about where her life is heading. This grows greater when Leo shows up unannounced.
What the film does very elegantly is portray the crossroads in life many young adults face. The push and pull between what you feel you should be doing in life and the sometimes irrational whims of our heart. In Marta’s case, that is personified in a tale of two places, and two men.
Click here in order to watch Notes on a Summer now.
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9. Off the Beaten Track (Paulo MilHomens and Hugo Vieira da Silva, 2024):
Based on his real-life writings, Off The Beaten Track follows Victor Segalen (Antoine de Foucauld), a doctor and poet who leaves France and heads for Hiva Oa – an island in French Polynesia that is home to painter Paul Gauguin – in the hopes of meeting him and collecting personal items for auction. Upon arrival, he learns that the artist has died. Exploring his former haunts, Victor pieces together a picture of the man he admires, by speaking to former friends and reading his personal writing. Through this, he learns the complicated legacy of a notorious life.
Off the Beaten Track is also pictured at the top of this article.
Click here in order to watch Off the Beaten Track now.
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10. Remember to Blink (Austėja Urbaitė, 2022):
This provocative psychological drama learns to settle into its own skin very early on, and then slowly begins to build exquisite tension in preparation for a potentially show-stopping finale. This film explores some important moral dilemmas from both sides of the coin, while being anchored by a terrific international cast that consists of a mix between experienced professionals and wide-eyed newbies. It is an anxious watch at times, but one that also delights the senses with a wide array of technical prowess, and yet, its shining light might just be the film’s very vital content – a conversation starter if there ever was one, and we’ve all got an opinion on a matter such as this.
Set in the French countryside, a secluded couple, Jacqueline and Leon (Anne Azoulay and Arthur Igual) have just completed the adoption process of Karolina and Rytis (Inesa Sionova and Ajus Antanavicius), a sister and brother from Lithuania who had been abandoned by their mother. To help ease the children in with a smooth transition, the couple hire bilingual Lithuanian student Gabrielė (Dovile Kundrotaite) to act as the bridge between the two parties by translating for one another.
Click here in order to watch Remember to Blink now.
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11. The Night She Moves (Dani Casellas and Laia Vidal , 2018):
The story begins with Max (Dani Casellas) and Emma (Laia Vidal), best friends who live together and never quite explore their close bond. Emma breaks it to Max that she is moving out the following morning in order to live with her lover, sending him into a flurry of emotions he can’t express. Heading out on the pretence of picking up ice cream, Max embarks on a solo night of adventure where he becomes part of many strangers’ stories, while trying to figure out the next chapter of his own.
Set against the backdrop of lamplit Spanish streets, director Sara Gutiérrez Galve catches the unpredictability and excitement of a night out. Max doesn’t binge on alcohol, but on human connection, as he has intense conversations with fast food workers; has a potential romantic hook-up; and seeks out the owner of a lost sketchbook. The surprising twists and heart-breaking dead ends will feel authentic for anyone who has had a lost night, walking into the darkness looking for answers in all the wrong places.
Click here in order to watch The Night She Moves now.
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12. Who If Not Us? (Nicole Medvecka, 2023):
Who If Not Us? is a brief, mostly non-narrative portrait of young artistic adults in the eastern part of Ukraine, about 60 kilometres from the front line. On the second intertitle, a few minutes into the film, there is an easy-to-spot grammatical error in a line describing the new context for the DJs after the start of the war: “Some of their homes are under russian occupation since then.” The word “Russian” should be capitalised as it is a proper noun. This is not playing grammar police or lambasting a team of small filmmakers whose first language is not English. This “error” is a representative testament to the incredibly personal and homey documentary that follows. And at home, it is okay to make mistakes. Perhaps not coincidentally, “SHUM” is all capitalised.
Director Medvecka began shooting before the war with different intentions, but the context changed with the new Russian aggression and the story became clearer. The people she talks to have one commonality: they are young. They have a future of possibilities; the collective sum of her choice of interview subjects can be summarised. The most interesting voices are the SHUM Rave DJs who wax philosophically on the meaning of art during war. Their raves – an incredibly modern sonic and visual phenomenon – contradict the VHS footage they are captured on.
Click here in order to watch Who If Not Us? now.
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