Stephanie Joalland’s Tides and Rani Messias’s Steel Rivers are among the 20 projects selected for Green Narratives, the eco-conscious development workshop from TorinoFilmLab (TFL).
TFL Next Green Narratives looks to develop feature film projects that ‘authentically integrate inclusive, environmentally conscious storytelling’, according to TFL.
Scroll down for the full list of projects
Set in Brittany in 2055, Joalland’s Tides follows a mysterious British woman who meets a grieving French coastal guide, who takes her to a remote beach where they develop a bond while recording the sound of humpback whales.
Sean McConville is producing the project for his and Joalland’s UK company Frenzy Films, which has credits including 2014 thriller The Quiet Hour and 2009’s Deadline.
Brazilian filmmaker Messias is participating with Steel Rivers. Set in a near-future Amazon savannah, it follows a former scientist who joins an underground resistance to revive a dead river, while evading the corporate militia hunting her.
As well as supporting the 20 filmmakers with incorporating climate themes, social inclusion and/or sustainability into their treatment-phase feature film projects, the workshop will also train three story editors with the skills to assist writers in integrating climate-conscious themes. Cecilia Gragnani, Dubravka Turic and Nadia Attaia are the selected story editing trainees.
Green Narratives will take place across three online modules, from June 9-13; from June 30-July 4; and from September 1-5. The workshop is headed up by TFL head of studies Eva Svenstedt Ward
The workshop is presented in collaboration with Climate Spring, an international organisation founded in 2022 to support screen stories around climate change.
Green Narratives is one of several development and workshop programmes run by TFL, alongside its FeatureLab scheme and comedy development programme.
TFL Next Green Narratives 2025 selection
Synopses provided by TFL
A Touch Of Paradise (Tun)
Houcem Slouli (Writer/Director), Sarra Ben Hassen (Producer)
Slim and Cyrine, a young couple living in Gabès, a once-lush Tunisian oasis now plagued by industrial pollution. Their lives mirror a city struggling to preserve its fertility and memory.
Behind The Ice Wall (Swe)
Andrea Eckerbom (Writer/Director), Vittoria Røkke Passalacqua (Producer)
The collapse of the Antarctic Ice Wall reveals a hidden land beyond. Two brothers flee their violent home in search of hope, guided only by childhood imagination.
Chronicles Of Nature And City (It)
Fabiana Balsamo (Producer), Aurora Ovan (Writer/Director)
Nature and City are in conflict. On both sides, everyone is convinced that they cannot coexist peacefully. Luna wants to prove otherwise.
Cuerpo Cerrado (Pan)
Maria Burnes (Director), Nayita Adames (Producer)
A tsunami devastated the region centuries ago, leaving scars that still linger. Returning home to bury her mother’s ashes, Nicole uncovers a deeper threat—her grandmother’s strange affliction and a mining project erasing the past.
Dirt And Water (Chile)
Irene Mercadal (Writer/Director), Fran Zayas (Producer)
An ambitious conservationist travels to a remote town in the south of Chile to save its endangered wetlands. As she becomes entangled with the local townsfolk and stalked by mysterious aquatic beings called the Sumpal, she questions whether she’s there to save the wildlife or be an accessory to their destruction.
Elsewhere (Swe)
Issraa Elkogali Häggström (Writer/Director)
A riveting tale of coming into one’s own through remembrance at a time of war and loss.
Encosta (Bra)
Victor Ribeiro (Director), Gisele Mirabai (Screenwriter)
Camilla wants to escape the countryside where she spends the summer with her aunts, but stays to defend the last green land amidst the coffee monoculture that they plan to set on fire.
Flood (Lith)
Jorūnė Greičiūtė (Writer/Director), Rūta Petronytė (Producer)
During their vacation on a secluded island, the couple hears a rumour about an upcoming flood. As fear and unease grip the woman’s heart, it becomes increasingly difficult to connect with her partner.
Ghost Of The Currents (Tai)
Patiparn Boontarig (Writer/Director), Kalil Pitsuwan (Co-Director/Writer)
After a devastating flood, a man returns to his Mekong riverside village, where the villagers blame a vengeful “River Ghost” for the disaster, but when he encounters the spirit of his lost lover, he learns that the true force haunting the river is something far greater.
Lagoon Blues (Lith)
Dovydas Draksas (Writer/Director)
In a tranquil Lithuanian lagoon resort, an ambitious real estate developer finds himself increasingly isolated as both nature and locals quietly resist his grand illusions of progress.
Made In Mud (Sp)
Sergio Grobas (Producer)
At 12, Èlia returns to her childhood hometown to spend the summer with her friend Juna, only to find it lost to tourism.
Midnight Rambler (UK)
Fred Rowson (Writer / Director)
A detective in a wildfire-ravaged town must wrap her head around the impossible truth that a series of murders may have been committed by a Sasquatch.
No Roots (Bra)
Joana Oliveira (Writer / Director), Luana Melgaço (Producer)
A little tree enters the lives of three women trying to survive in an intolerant Brazil. As they look for a place to plant it, the seedling grows into a large tree but society doesn’t want anything green.
Soviet Western (Germany)
Samaya Hillenbrand (Writer, Producer), Daniel Guliyev (Director)
On windswept steppes of the 1980s Soviet Union, two officers stationed at a nuclear missile silo face a moral crisis when a call from the center forces them to launch a strike to a potential danger. After a violent confrontation, the young, idealistic officer hunts her mentor across the vast landscape, only to encounter a world that shatters her beliefs.
Steel Rivers (Bra)
Rani Messias (Writer / Director)
In a near-future Amazon savannah, a former scientist with the rare gift of finding water joins an underground resistance to revive a dead river - while evading the corporate militia that hunts her kind.
Terra! (It)
Paolo Marchione (Author and Director)
A journalist investigates an extraterrestrial landing in a small village in the Italian hinterland. He will discover a community of aliens—people living in complete harmony with the planet.
The Catch (India)
Rishi Chandna (Writer / Director)
Convinced his fortunes are about to change, a struggling fisherman pins his hopes on a rare, valuable catch, little knowing that an ironic discovery will soon make his prize utterly worthless.
The Seer (UK)
Bettine Mackenzie (Writer)
In a remote rain-soaked town in Scotland, two lonely outsiders unite to protect a cursed Celtic stone said to hold back a destructive flood. But as modern bureaucracy collides with ancient folklore, they also find themselves quietly transformed by the stone’s strange enchantment.
Tides (Fr-UK)
Stéphanie Joalland (Writer / Director), Sean McConville (Producer)
Brittany, 2055. A mysterious British woman meets a grieving French coastal guide, who will escort her to a remote beach to record the sound of humpback whales and a strong bond develops between them. Only she happens to be an astronaut about to leave Earth for a long mission to Mars.
Valvas (Peru)
Andrea Hoyos Valderrama (Writer / Director), Juan Daniel Fernández Molero (Producer and Editor)
Nature does not distinguish; it knows only heat.
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