This is the end. Or is it the beginning? The films in this programme deal with send-offs, farewells, curtain-closings, and apocalypses of every kind. The title of the surreal It’s Raining Frogs Outside says it all – WTF? Leave logic behind, embrace the catastrophe (and kiss the frog). In Neptune’s Plan, it’s just water flooding but it leaves two survivors in a battle of wits and jests. Both Steady Flow and Not the 80s conjure a sense of doom and loss in the seemingly innocuous context of a romantic comedy. Capuchinhos is another funny farewell, this time to patriarchy (and to a stable internet connection). And finally, the sole Ukrainian title in the international competition, Liturgy of Anti-Tank Obstacles, is a tale of resistance under the current state of war. It’s a powerful demonstration that, to quote Federico Fellini, “There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life”.

Foreword by the programme curator: Six ways of ending the world on many different levels, underlined by the desperate optimism to start over again.