International Film Festival Rotterdam has revealed its Cinema Regained program, which showcases restored classics, documentaries on cinema and works by filmmaking masters.
This year’s Cinema Regained selection shines a light on filmmakers whose contributions have shaped cinema history, both celebrated and overlooked.
After a 30-year hiatus, Burkinabé director Drissa Touré makes his return with the world premiere of “Mousso Fariman,” co-directed with Stéphane Mbanga, which explores the contradictions in Burkina Faso’s society, focusing on the resilience of women in daily life.
The legacy of Sergei Parajanov is honored with the world premiere of “The Lilac Wind of Paradjanov,” 37 years after his first visit to the festival. Filmmaker Ali Khamraev, accompanied by cinematographer Yuri Klimenko, delved into the archives and traveled to Armenia and Georgia to honor Parajanov.
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“The Jester” by José Álvaro Morais, which screened at IFFR in 1988, returns in a restored version, blending theater and cinema in a poetic adaptation of Alexandre Herculano’s 1842 novel on Portuguese independence. Thai cinema takes center stage with Khom Akadet’s “I Am With a Monk,” a tale of survival and redemption starring Thai screen icons Sombat Methanee and Sorapong Chatree.
Cinema Regained has twice presented Korean public broadcaster KBS’s documentary television series “Modern Korea,” which critically examines the nation’s history through the prism of KBS’s own production. The latest instalment, which has its international premiere at IFFR, from filmmaker Lee Taewoong is “Korean Dream: The Nama-jinheung Mixtape,” a documentary built from fragments of films by the now-defunct Nama-jinheung studio to capture the inner landscape of Koreans during the Cold War.
“Bomba Bernal” is IFFR-regular Khavn’s AI-driven homage to the Filipino bomba genre and also has its world premiere at IFFR. Another IFFR-favourite, Saeed Nouri, presents “Tehran, An Unfinished History” exploring pre-1979 Iranian cinema’s unexplored history. Meanwhile, Sami van Ingen returns with “Cast of Shadows,” an intimate archival essay unravelling the stories of women behind Robert Flaherty’s legacy.
Women are central to the Cinema Regained program. Indian filmmaker Sai Paranjpye’s “Katha” brings wit and charm to the classic hare-and-tortoise fable, while the world premiere of Vani Subramanian’s “Cinema Pe Cinema: The Theatres. The Movies. And Us” explores the legacy of India’s single-screen cinemas, weaving the memories of these theaters with the social and political shifts of the nation over the past century.
Gujarati filmmaker Chetna Vora is honored with a screening of her first film “Oyoyo,” an investigation into the life of foreign students in the German Democratic Republic, where Vora studied film, exploring themes of cultural identity, music, and community. Her second film, “Frauen in Berlin,” screens in the program Focus: Hold Video in Your Hands: a collection of stories and impressions from the perspective of women. Additionally, Christiane Büchner’s “Erzählungen eines Kinogehers” paints a portrait of cinephilia through conversations with Werner Dütsch, a pioneer of German television’s engagement with film culture.
The program also dives into historical narratives left untold. The world premiere of Hafiz Rancajale’s “Bachtiar” revisits the silenced legacy of Indonesian filmmaker Bachtiar Siagian, whose career was cut short during the 1965 anti-Communist purge. Most of his work was either neglected or destroyed under Suharto’s regime. This film serves as a powerful counter-narrative, challenging the distorted portrayal of his legacy in official historiography. Bachtiar’s recently rediscovered masterpiece “Turang” (1957) screens in Focus: Through Cinema We Shall Rise!
The Cinema Regained program also highlights several pre-1970s works, each offering particular storytelling perspectives. These include a retrospective of the Ukrainian filmmaker in Focus: Sergii Masloboishchykov. There is also an exploration of Ukrainian exile cinema in the U.S. in the 1930s “Cossacks in Exile” (1939), a joint endeavor between filmmaker Edgar Georg Ulmer and dancer-choreographer Vasilʹ Avramenko, telling the story of Ukrainians who refuse to submit to Russian authorities, and are then driven from their country.
Gustaf Molander’s “There’s a Fire Burning” (1943) explores wartime tensions through an unraveling love story, recently honored with a retrospective at Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato. Tengiz Abuladze’s “Someone Else’s Children” (1958) presents a tender tale of two siblings seeking a maternal figure, while Vatroslav Mimica’s “Kaja, I’ll Kill You!” (1967) is a bold, fragmented exploration of oppression.
The spirit of cinematic community is celebrated in “Todo parecía possible” by Ramón Rivera Moret. The film revisits Puerto Rico’s utopian moment through the lens of rural filmmaking in the 1950s and 60s. Accompanying the film is the short program A Better Tomorrow for Puerto Rico, featuring three titles tracing the beginnings of filmmaking in Puerto Rico, including “Las manos del hombre” (1952), by Jack Delano.
Olaf Möller, the strand’s programmer, said: “It’s a space to deepen curiosities and acts as connective tissue for the wider festival, weaving together diverse narratives and expanding on our Focus programs. It’s an opportunity to reflect on cinema’s cultural and political legacies across time and marvel at some of the greatest filmmakers that history has produced, those celebrated and those forgotten.”
The full lineup of feature films that will be screened as part of Cinema Regained are:
“¡Homofobia!” (European Premiere)
dir. Goyo Anchou
Argentina, 2024
“Bachtiar” (World Premiere)
dir. Hafiz Rancajale
Indonesia, 2025
“Bomba Bernal” (World Premiere)
dir. Khavn
Philippines, 2025
“Cast of Shadows” (World Premiere)
dir. Sami van Ingen
Finland, 2025
“Cinema Pe Cinema: The Theatres. The Movies. And Us” (European Premiere)
dir. Vani Subramanian
India, 2025
“Cossacks in Exile”
dir. Edgar G. Ulmer
United States, 1939
“Erzählungen eines Kinogehers” (World Premiere)
dir. Christiane Büchner
Germany, 2025
“I Am With a Monk”
dir. Khom Akadet
Thailand, 1984
“Kaja, I’ll Kill You!” dir. Vatroslav Mimica
Croatia, Yugoslavia, 1967
“Katha” dir. Sai Paranjpye
India, 1983
“Korean Dream: The Nama-jinheung Mixtape” (International Premiere)
dir. Lee Taewoong
South Korea, 2024
“Mousso fariman” (World Premiere)
dir. Drissa Touré, Stephane Mbanga
Burkina Faso, 2025
“Negligence”
dir. Ali Kasmaie
Iran, 1953
“No Magic for Socialists” (World Premiere)
dir. Htoo Lwin Myo
Myanmar, 2025
“Someone Else’s Children”
dir. Tengiz Abuladze
Georgia, 1958
“Tehran, An Unfinished History” (World Premiere)
dir. Saeed Nouri
Iran, 2025
“The Grey Machine” (World Premiere)
dir. Péter Lichter
Hungary, Estonia, 2025
“The Jester”
dir. José Álvaro Morais
Portugal, 1987
“The Lilac Wind of Paradjanov” (World Premiere)
dir. Ali Khamraev
Armenia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Italy, 2025
“The Red Badge of Courage”
dir. John Huston
United States, 1951
“The Wide World of Mystery: House and the Brain”
dir. Gloria Monty
United States, 1973
“There’s a Fire Burning”
dir. Gustaf Molander
Sweden, 1943
“Todo parecía possible” (World Premiere)
dir. Ramón Rivera Moret
United States, Puerto Rico, 2025