On Friday, January 30th, Rotterdam became the setting for stories that moved their audience from laughter to tears, and standing ovations. Beyond the emotional response they provoked, these films offered an urgent glimpse into the harsh realities of displacement and migration.
Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett attended the International Film Festival Rotterdam to launch the second edition of the Displacement Film Fund, in partnership with IFFR. The event marked the world premiere of five short films supported by the fund, which IBCoMagazine had the opportunity to attend.
First introduced at the 54th edition of IFFR, the Displacement Film Fund was initiated under Blanchett’s impulse as a long-time advocate for migrants’ rights and a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. The fund aims to finance and promote filmmakers whose work addresses displacement from within affected communities themselves. IFFR Managing Director Clare Stewart expressed her gratitude for hosting the initiative for a second consecutive year, welcoming its continued success at the festival.
Blanchett’s presence on stage was deliberately understated, reinforcing the evening’s central focus: allowing displaced voices to take precedence over celebrity. The five films, each supported by a €100.000 grant, were screened to a packed Oude Luxor Theater. Their narratives resonated deeply with the audience. The night concluded with a Q&A bringing together the directors and Blanchett, extending the conversation beyond the screen and grounding the celebration in dialogue.
Rotation, Maryna Er Gorbach
Rotation, directed by Maryna Er Gorbach, opened the world premiere and set the tone for the evening. The award-winning Ukrainian filmmaker explores post-traumatic therapy among civilians turned soldiers in the context of the war. During the Q&A, Er Gorbach explained that the idea for the film emerged as she returned to Ukraine while shooting, where she first learned about these coping techniques. Running twelve minutes, Rotation stands out for its careful camerawork, partially shot on 32mm film, creating an immersive and unsettling cinematic experience.
Super Afghan Gym, Shahrbanoo Sadat
Super Afghan Gym, directed by Shahrbanoo Sadat, shifted the tone with a comical glimpse into the lives of Afghan women exercising during the single hour of the day they are permitted to do so. Through humorous dialogue — which kept the audience giggling throughout — the film exposes the patriarchal systems controlling women’s bodies and public presence. What first appears as a warm moment of feminine bonding gradually reveals itself to be tightly constrained by the regime’s repressive policies. During the Q&A, Sadat shared how her own experiences of racism and misogyny during a childhood marked by displacement shaped her relationship to body image.
Allies in Exile, Hasan Kattan
Concluding the first set of films, Allies in Exile left the audience visibly shaken. The nearly hour-long documentary follows filmmaker Hasan Kattan as he flees the war in Syria and seeks asylum in the UK. Separated from his family, Kattan waits for a final decision from the Home Office alongside his lifelong friend and co-director. Combining handheld iPhone footage, archival material, and raw testimonies, the film prompted an emotional response that culminated in a five-minute standing ovation, establishing it as one of the night’s most impactful works. During the Q&A, Kattan appeared visibly overwhelmed by the reception of such a deeply personal chapter of his life.
Whispers of a Burning Scent, Mo Harawe
This was followed by Whispers of a Burning Scent, an exquisitely shot film by Somali director Mo Harawe, which follows a man whose marriage becomes the subject of a legal dispute over its legitimacy. With minimal dialogue, the film relies on precise composition and photography, highlighting both the talent of the crew and the importance of funds such as this one in supporting underrepresented quality cinema. Harawe shared that the movie was based on the story of a man he met while shooting his previous work in Somalia, which deeply touched and inspired him — adding a further sense of concreteness for the audience.
Sense of Water, Mohammad Rasoulof
Finally, Sense of Water concluded the night’s screenings with a powerful and timely glimpse into the life of an Iranian expat navigating a new language and way of life in Germany after fleeing oppression. Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, who has long challenged authority through his art, has himself suffered under the regime and was sentenced to six years in prison, an experience he said directly inspired the film presented at IFFR. Set against the backdrop of ongoing violence in Iran, the film deeply moved the audience, and Rasoulof’s closing intervention transformed the final moment of the evening into a call for action and resistance against authoritarian regimes.
As Blanchett emphasized in her closing remarks, the Fund ultimately demonstrated that no matter the displacement, repression, or suffering people endure, creative minds – directors, artists, and filmmakers – carry with them an irrepressible ability to create and to be heard. On Friday, the five films moved the audience through awe, grief, and often rage, transforming injustices too often reduced to statistics into powerful stories. Yet beyond these five narratives lies the reality of millions of displaced people worldwide, whose lives equally demand attention and support. It is this broader urgency that the Fund brings to the forefront, and that the filmmakers, each in their own way, impress upon the audience as a call not only to witness, but to act.