Britain's Weirdest Phobias

The Scent of Fear

May 2021 •German

The film is a journey around the world where we meet people who are frozen in fear, people who search for them, who find them, who love them. Along the way we meet experts in neuroscience, psychology and politics who show us how society is controlled by messages of fear. The film analyzes the universal question of what fear is and why we are so afraid of it.

We're All Going to Die

October 2024 •English

Ben is worried. Overwhelmed by the world's encroaching crises, he travels from Brandenburg to London to Kansas to the Yucatan peninsula and many places in between, to find out how to cope with social and ecological collapse.

The Fear Inside

August 1992 •English

An agoraphobic children's book illustrator is trapped inside her home by two young psychos-in-love, who terrorize her. It is only when her young son is threatened that she manages to overcome her paralyzing fears and attempt to leave her home to save him...

Fear

May 2009 •Dutch

In Fear, documentary filmmaker Michiel van Erp creates a collage of inhabitants of the city of Amsterdam who struggle with various anxiety disorders. Today, more patients with anxiety disorders seek professional help than those who suffer from depression, making anxiety the number one mental illness in the Netherlands. This film will show how a small number of those patients attempt to overcome their fears, in order to get on with their lives in the crowded cosmopolitan city that Amsterdam is today.

20 Seconds of Joy

January 2018 •German

Traces the story of an extreme athlete, past and present; but also explores the psychology behind life, death, risk and the confrontation of fear.

La Meilleure Façon de tracer

January 2010 •French

Silent Witness

October 1985 •English

The marriage of a young working-class woman is jeopardized when she witnesses her brother-in-law's participation in a gang rape of an intoxicated woman in a neighborhood bar.

Bitter Lake

January 2015 •English

An experimental documentary that explores Saudi Arabia's relationship with the U.S. and the role this has played in the war in Afghanistan.

The Strange and Deadly Occurrence

September 1974 •English

A family moves into a new home in an isolated area, and soon realizes that someone--or something--doesn't want them there.

The Lie Detector

January 2023 •English

In the first decades of the 20th century, when life was being transformed by scientific innovations, researchers made a thrilling new claim: they could tell whether someone was lying by using a machine. Popularly known as the “lie detector,” the device transformed police work, seized headlines and was extolled in movies, TV and comics as an infallible crime-fighting tool. Husbands and wives tested each other’s fidelity. Corporations routinely tested employees’ honesty and government workers were tested for loyalty and “morals.” But the promise of the polygraph turned dark, and the lie detector too often became an apparatus of fear and intimidation. Written and directed by Rob Rapley and executive produced by Cameo George, The Lie Detector is a tale of good intentions, twisted morals and unintended consequences.

No Surrender

March 2011 •English

Amelia's blog empowering women not to tolerate violent relationships has brought her fame, fortune and now someone is out to kill her. Is it the new man in her life, her now paroled ex who inspired the blog, or a deranged fan? Just as she has put the pieces of her life back together, Amelia must figure out who is behind the bizarre string of attacks and stop them before her own life comes to an ironic and violent end.

Firesite

May 1969 •Polish

A potter putting up a fireplace tells a story of a man, who decided to build a house at an infamous fire site.

Abducted

March 2007 •English

Melanie is married to Tom, a controlling, cold and self-centered man who happens to be a prison warden. He finds her to be a liability to his career aspirations and secretly plans to have her kidnapped and killed, by Jack, a dangerous inmate.

End of the World

April 2015 •Polish

The Mayan doomsday prophecy looms over a dark night in Poland. A late-night radio host takes in calls from citizens expressing their concerns, predictions and speculations on what may happen when—or even if—the sun comes up. Simultaneously, a crisis centre dispatcher fields panicked calls from people experiencing real-life traumatic situations in need of immediate attention. The voices of these callers are interwoven with an intimate therapy session and a wandering taxicab to build a profile of a place where citizens want to be heard. Never showing the callers on the other end of the line, the film creates an aural overview of a darkened city. As the night progresses, the calls continue coming in, revealing the various struggles people are experiencing in dealing with conceptual fears and current woes—all in a world that soon may be over.

Shadowlands

January 2016 •Swedish

Shadowlands is an animated short film about darkness that won't let go. About the constant fear that something terrible might happen. It describes a journey into the inner world and psyche of a young person in distress, a world far from "normal".

The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers

September 1984 •English

An intelligent, fearless boy living in a superstitious Transylvanian village goes out into the world to figure out what everyone else is afraid of, "the shivers." A king hires him to rid his castle of ghosts and evil spirits, expecting him to die like all who have tried before him, but the boy is more fearless than he could have known.

Rockabye

January 1986 •English

A young woman, striking out on her own after having left her husband in California, has her young son snatched from her moments after getting off the bus in New York City on her way to Vermont, and reluctantly accepts the help of a hard-nosed reporter in tracking him down after being given the runaround from the police.

Trumphobia: What Both Sides Fear

October 2020 •English

Donald J. Trump's fervent supporters and scared opponents were affected by Trump's rhetoric and the media's interpretation, increasing a dangerous political division. Now, It's time for them to stop and listen to each other or push harder until they crash America's democracy.

Wrong Swipe

February 2016 •English

When Anna has a difficult time getting close to people, her sister creates a dating profile for her online. Anna starts to message a handsome man until she starts getting disturbing messages that a match is close by.

Shoot Me

September 2013 •English

The Iranian filmmaker Narges Kalhor, daughter of a former advisor of Ahmadinejad's, has been living in exile in Germany for four years. When she hears that the fellow Iranian rapper Shahin Najafi, who is also living in exile in Germany, faces death threats and has to hide because of one of his songs, she doesn't hesitate and has to find him. On her search she encounters fear everywhere. Narges Kalhor has to face her inconvenient memories of suppression, hatred and anger for her past in Iran.