The Discoveries section is the restless heart of LEFFEST, where new visions and languages emerge. Eight films from America, Europe, Africa and Asia closely observe the movements and desires of those trying to build a future in a world in constant flux.
The journey begins in the West. In Lucky Lu, a Chinese migrant newly arrived in New York is thrown into a desperate chase through the city after his bicycle, his only means of livelihood, is stolen. The apartment he rented, waiting for his wife and daughter to join him, becomes a fragile promise. The same tension pulses through Urchin, the feature debut of actor Harris Dickinson, where Mike, a young homeless man, struggles to reinvent himself in a raw and absurd London. Frank Dillane, one of the most anticipated guests of this year’s festival, was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actor Un Certain Regard at Cannes for his performance.
The gaze shifts northward. In Yunan, a Syrian writer in exile lives in a remote refuge on Germany’s Hallig islands, where silence and solitude give way to small gestures of kindness shared with Valeska and her son. In another corner of Europe, DJ Ahmet follows Ahmet, a young shepherd in North Macedonia, who stumbles upon a secret party and discovers, through music and vertigo, the possibility of another life far from his family’s harsh routine and sacrifices.
Africa comes into focus with My Father’s Shadow, set in Lagos during the turbulent 1993 Nigerian electoral crisis. Based on personal memories, the film follows a father separated from his young children, trying to return home in a country in turmoil.
Asia brings three distinctive perspectives. In Homebound, India’s Oscar 2026 submission, two childhood friends prepare for the police entrance exams, a symbol of social ascent, while wrestling with ambition and loyalty. Shadowbox, set in the dusty suburbs of Kolkata, portrays the wounds of a family marked by violence and exclusion when a former soldier reappears as a murder suspect.
The selection closes with China’s Living the Land, winner of the Silver Bear for Best Direction at the Berlin Film Festival. Through the story of a rural family torn between tradition and progress, this intimate saga spans four generations beginning in 1991, when migration to cities radically changed the country.
At LEFFEST, these Discoveries are more than just premieres. They are living signs of our time, stories of escape and reunion, loss and persistence. On the margins, cinema remains the place where humanity reveals itself with rare clarity.