Reality is, of course, a construct, and there’s no better tool than cinema to lay it out, tear it apart, and rebuild it with a twist. Each filmmaker in this programme builds a small world with its own perspective to share with viewers. Handbook is a chilling testimony of how police violence was applied against demonstrators in Belarus in 2020 by deconstructing and reconstructing state violence in one’s bedroom. Listen to the secret rhythm of the world, accessed through animation in Misaligned. Explore family secrets and dynamics in D OCean and Killing Ourselves. Have some wicked fun in the Michel-Gondry-inspired The Saboteur, and, finally, through the depiction of casual racism in Sylwan, remember that the world is definitely a stage.

Foreword by the programme curator: Films as manuals for building home-made universes – whether they are political, personal, or humorous they are all, in the end, full of possibilities.