The Locarno Film Festival, whose 79th edition takes place Aug. 5-15, always features world premieres from around the world by established and up-and-coming auteurs, new hidden gems and cinematic discoveries, along with highlights from the festival circuit.

But audiences can also expect the unexpected. After all, Locarno also features quirky, edgy and offbeat movies just waiting to unspool.

So, buckle up for a ride on the wilder and more unorthodox side of the cinematic spectrum as THR presents its look at some of the more unusual-sounding films at Locarno79.

Wandering Trees (Alberi erranti)
Director: Salvatore
Section: International competition

Once upon a time in Sardinia. Piero and his son Giuliano lived alone in a farmhouse filled with injured animals that they cared for. But the local notables wanted to drive them out because they lived like vagrants. One day, snow fell, and Piero disappeared, while the animals were killed. So, Giuliano had no choice but to search for his father. On his journey, he met Maddalena, and it was love at first sight.

Giuliano’s dreamlike search across a wounded landscape explores the wonder and special experience of childhood, a time in life that provides a possibility of resistance against the violence of the adult world.

The filmmaker puts it into magical images – and words. “To tell a love story, you mustn’t be afraid to open up emotionally,” says Mereu, who also wrote the script with Alberto Capitta, in a director’s note. “But to embark on a fairy tale, you need to risk something. When you accept its rules, you have to accept everything – even the unthinkable.”

Objet A
Director: Ann Oren
Section: International competition

Ready for a bold, playful and stylized excursion into fragile relationships between humans as well as humans and nature, intimacy, desire, identity – and kleptomania – that uses the body as the core of its cinematic language? Well, Objet A is ready to bend your mind and leave you unsettled!

“Ingeborg and Adam are visionary hand surgeons bound by love, control and irresistible fixations,” teases a synopsis. But there is more: “She is compelled to steal objects; he longs to become one. When an accident brings the enigmatic Gaia into their lives, unexpected desires begin to take shape, unsettling the careful balance that has long defined their relationship.”

Berlin-based visual artist and filmmaker Ann Oren (Piaffe) returns to Locarno to serve up a film, which she wrote with Geoffroy Grison, that features cinematography by Juan Sarmiento G. (The Voice of Hind Rajab, A Poet) and editing by Hansjörg Weißbrich (Rose, Late Shift). It stars Aenne Schwarz (All Is Well, Every You Every Me) as Ingeborg, Louis Hofmann (All the Light We Cannot See, The Forger, Dark), and Simone Bucio (Piaffe, The Ivy) as Gaia. “I’m interested in human desire and how it connects us to other species,” Oren says in a director’s note. “The human body is the starting point for my cinematic language: the more control we have over it, the more we separate ourselves from the natural world.”

Bloody Tennis
Director: Nikias Chryssos
Section: Out of competition

The world of elite sports is taken to disturbing new heights full of brutality and painful ambition in the new film from Nikias Chryssos (The Bunker, Rave On, A Pure Place). “Sophie joins a prestigious tennis academy where the brutality of competitive sports is taken to its extreme, and only the hungriest survive,” warns a synopsis.

Sandra Guldberg Kampp (Assassin’s Creed, Electric Child), Helena Zengel (News of the World, The Legend of Ochi, System Crasher) and others star in the movie, along with Elina Löwensohn (Schindler’s List), and Zlatko Burić (Triangle of Sadness), with an original score by Jim Williams (Titane, Raw).

If that’s not enough for you yet, the press notes also promise, or should that be: threaten, “blood-sucking leeches, hard-hitting serves and delicious nightmares.” Game on!

Bakma
Abdelhamid Bouchnak
Section: Out of competition

You have surely never seen Tunisia like this. And you likely haven’t seen a film from Tunisia like this before. What Bouchnak unleashes onto Locarno screens is an urban horror thriller, which he also wrote and edited, with cinematography by Chams Ghorab.

Animalistic violence takes on a different meaning in this movie. Commissioner Ali and Khaled investigate the ritualistic murder of a young woman. So far, so horrible. But there is more, as a synopsis highlights: “Her limbs have been severed, her head is missing, and in its place, the killer has grotesquely sewn the head of a dog.”

Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, in unveiling this year’s festival lineup, highlighted said about Bakma: “It’s a film that, in a very specific way, addresses the political corruption in Tunis at the moment. It’s also a very bitter commentary on what’s left of the so-called Arab Spring that ignited the overthrow of some regimes – and, as you’ll remember, it originated in Tunis.”

Tomorrow a Long Time Ago (Morgen vor langer Zeit)
Director: Luise Donschen
Section: Filmmakers of the Present Competition

Not much dialogue is used, or needed, in the new film from Donschen (Casanovagen), which stars Gerti Drassl and Manuela Biedermann and others. After all, life and actions say more than words.

Amid German reunification in 1990, the 50-year-old Patty first loses her job and then her friend Jelena. “In a small East German town, she collects discarded objects and meets the younger Franz,” teases a synopsis. “When her flat becomes so full of belongings that she can no longer enter it, she sets out into a colorful forest. A journey through landscapes and history begins, carrying away more than just her.”

The movie has a personal dimension for the filmmaker who grew up in the GDR. “Inspired by my childhood experience of German reunification, the film captures the moment when the present splits into ‘before’ and ‘after’,” the moment when everything seems completely unseen and very familiar at the same time.”

Donkey Princess (Princesa Burro)
Directors: Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña
Section: International competition

Once upon a time… wait a second, isn’t that how we started this journey into the mind- and genre-bending films at Locarno79!? But wait, this one is different, although love plays a key role again.

Diana is the princess of an ancient kingdom. Her father, King Arthur, has forbidden love. So, when Diana falls in love with Lalo, the King banishes him. A synopsis teases where things go from here: “Using a magical bracelet, Diana travels to other worlds in search of her love. Discovering that her father manipulates her decisions, she must face her fears and change her destiny.”

The travels of the protagonist allow the director duo to play with the look and feel of the places she visits. “Diana travels through parallel worlds where each universe transforms the film’s genre,” León and Cociña explain. “The film brings this constant mutation of realities into live action, where fantasy reshapes everything.”

So, who’s ready for a cinematic trip!?

Jared Leto, the Oscar-winning star of Dallas Buyers Club and Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman, has been accused of unlawful sexual conduct by four women.

The BBC has released a new documentary, titled Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret, in which 10 women detailed their encounters with Leto between 2002 and 2016. Nine of the women were publicly recounting their experiences for the first time.

Leto’s representatives have been contacted by Deadline for comment. The Suicide Squad actor, now aged 54, did not respond to the BBC’s requests for comment. He has previously denied sexual impropriety following a 2025 report by Air Mail, the media outlet founded by former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter.

Isabel, a pseudonym used by the BBC, alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Leto in a Las Vegas motel bathroom in 2002, when she was 17. Isabel accused Leto, who was in his 30s, of grabbing her hand and using it to masturbate himself while he was in the shower.

“Alarms started going off in my head,” she said. “In that moment, I definitely realized I was not in a great situation.” Visibly emotional in the BBC documentary, she remembered recoiling and leaving the room.

Alex, a second woman, accused Leto of making a sexual threat after attending a Thirty Seconds to Mars concert at London’s O2 Arena in 2013. She was 19 at the time and recalled being encouraged to attend an after-party, but claimed she walked into a dark hotel room containing just Leto.

Alex felt unsafe, suggested she sleep on the chaise longue in the room, before Leto allegedly told her that she would wake up “with a dick in her ass.” Alex said she left the room and later texted a friend about her experience. “He was threatening sexual assault, you should report him,” her friend replied.

A third woman, identified as Clara in the BBC documentary, described how in 2006 she had sex with the actor at his home in California when she was 17, which would be classified as statutory rape in the state. Leto was aged 34 at the time. Clara recalled having a conversation about the age of consent, but claimed Leto “kind of shrugged it off, like it wasn’t a huge concern for him.”

A fourth woman alleged that she received sexual phone calls from Leto when she was aged 16 after meeting the Requiem for a Dream star at a Los Angeles modelling agency in 2014. Identified as Etta by the BBC, the woman said she was later asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement by Leto. She refused but showed the relevant document to the BBC.

Allegations about Leto first emerged last year when LA DJ Allie Teilz posted on Instagram saying she had been assaulted by the actor when she was 17. The post was a screenshot of a Facebook status update she published in 2012, in which she said: “Youre [sic] not really in LA until Jared Leto tries to force himself on you backstage at an M83 show.. In a Kilt.. And a snow hat.”

The post prompted a flurry of replies from other women, who alleged that they had similar experiences. This led to Air Mail’s report last year, in which nine women accused Leto of engaging in inappropriate behavior. At the time, Leto’s rep “expressly denied” the women’s accusations, including Teilz’s, which was said to be “demonstrably false.”

Leto is repped by WME. He most recently featured in Masters of the Universe as Skeletor. Upcoming projects include Soviet spacecraft story Lunik Heist for Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures.

EXCLUSIVE: Tinge Krishnan’s Michelle Yeoh EP’d action picture Nak Muay – starring Muay Thai boxing stars Suablack, Buakaw and Saenchai – will begin shooting in Thailand next week.

Disruptive Element Films – Krishnan’s UK and Thailand-based joint company with Colin Pons – has announced an August 2 start for principal photography, with filming due to take place on location in Bangkok and the rural district of Pranburi. 

It is the third feature for medic-turned director Krishnan, who broke out with Bafta-winning short Showscan, and has since taken directing credits on TV shows such as  A Thousand Blows, The Mosquito Coast, Industry,WeCrashed as well as features Been So Long and Junkhearts.

Tapping into the culture and world of Thailand’s traditional martial art and national sport Muay Thai, the film co-stars Buakaw as Magic Lotus, a revered fighter with a legendary deadly touch in the ring, alongside Saenchai as Tongchai, Magic Lotus’ longtime friend and partner in crime, who hides his fighting skill behind the persona of a buffoonish farmer.

When Magic Lotus becomes secretly depressed after another death in the ring at his hands, Tongchai supports his exile into nature from the boxing world. Together they reignite their passion for Muay Thai when they decide to train young fighter Yod, played by Sua Black (aka Natthaphum Kaeowatthanameth).

Yod is also hiding a secret. As Thailand’s undefeated Muay Thai champion, he is a national icon, the face of global brands, and a fixture in Bangkok’s elite circles. But behind the flashbulbs and footwork, he’s cracking under the weight of guilt. Years ago, a brutal match left his childhood best friend Krit with irreversible brain damage. Now Krit is dying, and Yod is spiralling.

“As a director with roots in sci-fi, fantasy, and martial arts, this film is the chance to make the film I’ve always wanted to make as a woman and a martial arts practitioner,” said Krishnan, who also takes writer and executive producer credits on the production.

“Nak Muay wrestles with that desire, centring on Yod. His transformative relationship with the strong women around him is interwoven with his journey as a Muay Thai fighter grappling with his craft’s meaning and his own moral compass after a devastating breakdown.”

The film is produced by BAFTA award-winning Dominic Buchanan (Gimme the Loot, The End of the F***ing World) with four-time Emmy award winning consultant producer Scott Hornbacher (Boots, Mad Men, The Sopranos). Cinematography will be by Gavin Kelly (American Horror Story).

Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) is also on board as an executive producer alongside Pons, Krishnan and David Ismalone.

The film is being shot and produced entirely in Thailand with support from the Thai government and the UK Global Screen Fund.