NARRATIVE SELECTION   |  MARCH 2022

Stateless (2021)

Director: Bastien Solignac

Country: France

Duration: 28:00

Synopsis: Etienne,18, tries to find his place within his family. The father, a former skinhead, can’t bear any longer his son’s behavior. He finds him indolent, lazy, dreamy, a night bird. Yet the young man is looking for his father’s admiration, while opposing him at the same time. This paradox, this identity crisis will bring Etienne to a point of no return one morning when his father asks him to come and help him dismantle a small camp of refugees just outside the village….

Colour Lens (2022)  

Director: Marc Jarny Jure

Country: Canada

Duration: 20:00

Synopsis: A teenage black girl must learn to overcome the insecurities that plague her self-image so that she can come to love herself and the others around her.

Two-Headed Calves (2022)

Director: Benjamin Kramme

Country: Germany

Duration: 29:00

Synopsis: Two-Headed Calves is Johannes’ and Marie’s wedding video. For Johannes the marriage is supposed to mark the start of a new life, and in the end it does, just differently than expected.     

THE OBSESSION (2022)

Director: Anastasia Gorodentseva

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 10:00

Synopsis: A young woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown shares her story of passionate but unhappy love, lasting more than twelve years, with the first stranger she meets.

Everything Will Be Fine (2021)

Director: Joachim Dejonghe

Country: Belgium

Duration: 21:00

Synopsis: A single mum, trying to make ends meet, is faced with a dilemma due to very peculiar job cuts at work.

Servus Karl (2021)

Director: Thomas Bischof

Country: Austria

Duration: 24:00

Synopsis: SERVUS KARL is an evil fictional reflection of a milieu in the face of its downfall. The observation of a world at a standstill, and of its characters that want to break out of it.  The film follows Karl, a retiree and ex-thug, on his way through the bars and brothels of Vienna. Through documentary scenes the viewers experience the standstill that rules his world. Besides, they observe the characters’ lack of prospects and how they are struggling through the night under the burden of misery well aware that there is no escape. In the midst of this standstill, Karl gets to realise the evanescence of things and his own mortality. As he takes drunken Leo to his favourite bar, the situation gets out of control. Leo gives the prostitute Julie a bloody nose and destroys her hopes of escape from her misery. Later, Karl’s night ends in a way that is surprising for every person involved. He commits a murder to avoid vanishing into oblivion.   

Premium Baby (2019)

Director: Jeanne Signé

Country: France

Duration: 12:07

Synopsis: In a near future, a couple enters a shop to buy a baby.

Sliced Bread (2022)

Director: Gulliver Moore

Country: United Kingdom

Duration: 03:00

Synopsis: Sliced Bread is a Comedy short film in which we imagine what a world would look like if Sliced Bread had never been invented – and what would happen in 21st Century society if suddenly it was.

Tundra (2021)

Director: José Luis Aparicio

Country: Cuba

Duration: 30:00

Synopsis: Walfrido Larduet, a lonely electrical inspector, dreams of the Red Woman, whose image persists and becomes an obsession. Something tells him she is near. Over the course of a day, Walfrido will follow her trail as he travels through the suburbs of an infested city.

For the Clean up (2022)

Director: Mohammad Moravej

Country: Iran, Islamic Republic of

Duration: 10:00

Synopsis: A fallen from grace old man trying to change things for good

Nightly Whispers (2021)

Director: Omid Abdollahi

Country: Iran, Islamic Republic of

Duration: 17:05

Synopsis: A man is worried about his teenage daughter’s relationship with a guy he doesn’t know. The daughter refuses to introduce her boyfriend. However, Once the boy unexpectedly goes to the father to reveal a secret about the girl.

Gallu (2021)

Director: Kasra Tirsahar

Country: Iran, Islamic Republic of

Duration: 30:00

Synopsis: A village man comes across a piece of meat by chance , after cooking and eating it realises the uncanny taste that is unknown to him . The search to find the same taste leads to a catastrophic turn of events…  

Keyboard (2022)

Director: yufeng wang

Country: China

Duration: 11:05

Synopsis: A nodoby depressed company staff named Xiaoli, venting his pressure by being a troll online. Accidently he got tons of views and supoort by bullying a gorgeous female streamer. From then on, he takes pleasure in spreading rumors about this lady. However, he has no idea the unknown danger is coming.

Snorrie (Mustachio) (2021)

Director: Victoria Warmerdam

Country: Netherlands

Duration: 11:35

Synopsis: Absurd tragicomedy about thirty-something Freek, who is reuniting with his imaginary friend from the past, who is looking for closure.

Twin Flame (2022)

Director: Saddiq Abubakar

Country: United States

Duration: 12:30

Synopsis: A disillusioned young woman scavenges the misty landscapes of northwestern America in search of her twin flame.

Flame (2022)

Director: Roman Igorevich Chervinin

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 05:16

Synopsis: The only thing that gives him strength has faded away…

Last day of love (2022)

Director: Светлана Большакова, Ирина Киреева

Country: Not Specified

Duration: 15:00

Synopsis: To stay or leave this world is a choice that Lena must make before the end of the day. At this moment, she meets the cheerful Kirill, who offers her to spend the perfect day together. This meeting can change not only Lena’s decision, but also Kirill’s whole life.

Creation (2022)

Director: Суҳроб Қодиров Феруза Турсунхўжаева

Country: Uzbekistan

Duration: 18:25

Synopsis: The protagonist of the film is a female artist, the events revolve around her. He is in the process of participating in an exhibition in Italy. But her husband did not allow her to go Italy due to her pregnancy. The woman secretly makes a plan to leave. Unfortunately, the women give birth ahead of time. When an artist embraces her baby, she realizes that all the works of art she has created so far are worthless and her baby is precious all of them!

The Parisian. (2022)

Director: Olga Boiko

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 16:16

Synopsis: Tolya, who recently moved to St. Petersburg, reluctantly attends the wedding of an old friend. Tolya hopes for a quick exit since he feels awkward around people he has lost touch with. Plus, Tolya is afraid his way home will soon be blocked once drawbridges open — it is the city’s biggest tourist attraction and merely an inconvenience for pragmatic Tolya.  But a chance meeting with a bride’s friend, light-hearted Parisian Nicole forces Tolya to stay, as her opposite perspectives on life revive something Tolya has long forgotten.

STUDENT SELECTION   |   MARCH 2022

Vlada Goes to London (2020)

Director: Arti Savchenko

Country: Israel

Duration: 21:54

Synopsis: Vlada is a pizza delivery girl who lives in Haifa and dreams of becoming a famous DJ. Within a five-hour shift, we get a glimpse into her world full of pressure where she’s willing to do whatever it takes to find the money for a flight to perform at a festival in London.

A Dawn at Minato City (2022)

Director: Sergey Vlasov

Country: Japan

Duration: 06:49

Synopsis: A usual morning for a usual married couple in a big city.    

Child’s Anthropology (2021)

Director: Anna Lysko

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 14:00

Synopsis: Nastya, a research assistant, comes home from a conference and decides to finish her long-abandoned PhD. Her husband Kirill doesn’t want her to be away in Yakutiya doing field research for a month. They have an argument, and Nastya ends up shutting herself inside a bathroom, triggering her to relive her childhood trauma. Kirill lets her out and comforts her, while she realizes that she’s in an abusive relationship.

Sammer (2021)

Director: Stelios Christoforou

Country: Greece

Duration: 25:00

Synopsis: A Drama that invades the life of two couples and examines all their secrets, their relationships, the toxic environment that exists and everyone can see it but no one talks about it.  Summer ends, and with that, every illusion of reality slowly fades away. What happens if you want to hold on to this illusion no matter what?  The characters of the film will have to face themselves for the first time. Full of secrets and lies they will get lost in a fight for the realisation of what is real and what is fake. A film about love, the exploration of sexuality, and friendship.   (For Festivals: Please note that there is a DCP of that film available and also a ProRes video file.)

Not the 80s (2022)

Director: Marleen Valien

Country: Germany

Duration: 17:00

Synopsis: Two people, one restaurant, some preconceptions and a bit of fish. 

Cranberry Juice (2022)

Director: Ani Novakovic

Country: Austria

Duration: 30:00

Synopsis: Suffering from unexplained vaginal pain, a frustrated acting student goes to a string of doctors, convinced that she is going to find a specialist who will figure out what’s wrong with her. 

What a wonderful prayer (2022)

Director: Kannosuke Enomoto

Country: Not Specified

Duration: 06:56

Synopsis: Who are you praying to and how are you praying to them? Just because you are alive, you are probably unconsciously praying for “life”. This work was created by considering the relationship between prayer and hand-clasping movements from various directions.

Camel Bells (2021)

Director: Yushi Zhang

Country: China

Duration: 19:00

Synopsis: Entrusted by his old friend, Lao Zhang starts on a journey to the pastoral area where he hadn’t been for a long time. On the bus, the people that he met and what happened in his life take turns in his dreams. Then, he decides to walk into Gobi again.

Think Outside The (2021)

Director: Zhuoer Chen

Country: China

Duration: 05:00

Synopsis: The phrase “think outside the box” refers to a type of thinking that is different than the conventional mindset. A man asks a box regarding what is inside the box. The box responds to him that the answer is not IN the box. Meanwhile, a writer initiates the same quest towards his typewriter. Can the two men find the answers to their self-explanatory questions? This five-minute short, Think Outside The, explores the theme of writer’s block through the philosophical lens of Schrödinger’s Cat.

A SCHOOL TEACHER (2022)

Director: Anastasia Chagochkina

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 11:50

Synopsis: Sonya is a literature teacher and a proper daughter. In their dilapidated house, everything froze: a sick father, dusty books, an argument about generations and an old cigarette case. But she found a way out.

INCORRECT (2021)

Director: Inessa Khachatryan

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 09:02

Synopsis: Nina is an atypical Dagestani woman with tattoos and piercings. The court gave her children to her ex-husband for the fact that Nina leads an “immoral lifestyle and is very much an amateur.” Masha is an Armenian and a blogger. She posts photos in underwear on Instagram, which her priest father doesn’t even know about.

blood (2021)

Director: saeid khajenoori

Country: Iran, Islamic Republic of

Duration: 14:47

Synopsis: The story of an old man who, after thirty years of living together, is doubted by his wife and has no evidence to prove his innocence.

THE RETURN (2022)

Director: Maria Repina

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 03:33

Synopsis: Night, a late train and two people – a man and a boy. The elder shouldn’t sleep, but his eyes close imperceptibly…. Waking up, he discovers the disappearance of his traveling companion. There’s only an empty train and night around.

Success (2022)

Director: Nika Khargiyanova

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 21:16

Synopsis: Provincial Theatre. A young, obsessed with his job actor Kolya Pogorelov gets his first big role. Kind and decent Kolya doesn’t understand the negative nature of his character. Premiere excitement is growing. At the same time, he meets his future mother-in-law. Fascinated by his role, Kolya appears as a notorious scoundrel. Seems like everything’s lost: the bride, reputation, future happiness. But Life offers its own scenario …

DOCUMENTARY SELECTION   |   MARCH 2022

Outsiders (2019)

Director: Almantas Petkunas

Country: Lithuania

Duration: 16:38

Synopsis: Outsiders is about young men looking for a place to belong. Kestutis is in a gang dealing drugs. Arni is struggling at home living with an alcoholic father. They both spend their days outside on a basketball court to escape their realities. This is where they meet Wyte – the father of streetball in Lithuania. They are inspired by the remarkable tricks he does with a basketball. Through streetball, Wyte creates a community where these young men can express themselves and grow together to overcome their obstacles.

Where our home: Vadim Keosyan (2022)

Director: Vladimir Nikolaevich Tarasov

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 12:19

Synopsis: Story of microsurgeon Vadim Keosyan known for his unique operations of returning a lost body parts. After more than 20 years of doing the impossible, he finds a new struggle – GPS swimming in cold Enisey river.

MusArt (2022)

Director: Kevin Hanzlik

Country: United States

Duration: 12:00

Synopsis: Musician and painter, Randall Vemer, has once again expanded his talent pool; this time into filmmaking.  In a nearly 12-minute biographical documentary, Vemer reveals what happened when his ability to play his beloved viola was taken away.  The film is filled with striking portraits of the people and instruments by which he’s been surrounded for much of his life. And always the educator, the hauntingly lovely music is scored and timed, not only to enhance the viewer’s enjoyment of Vemer’s classical style images but also to point out which instrument is highlighted within the rich and ethereal paintings.  Randall Vemer’s musical bio-doc is a moving tribute to the creativity, discipline, and heart of this incredibly talented man.  If you need a pick-me-up, a gentle nudge in “the feels”, or just a good old-fashioned American success story, you MUST watch this film.

The Cauldron (2022)

Director: Alexey Romanov

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 07:59

ANIMATION SELECTION   |   MARCH 2022

Monsieur Sachet (2021)

Director: Mathieu Girard

Country: Canada

Duration: 09:39

Synopsis: Monsieur Sachet is a wicked escalation of tragicomic anecdotes happening in a colorful, crazy and completely absurd atmosphere.

GONZO (2020)

Director: Masha Stepunina

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 05:00

Synopsis: A super-soldier whose name is Yosi gets a task to get a secret weapon of the enemy. He successfully copes with the task, but it turns out that the secret weapon is not what it seems to be.

Tempête je t’aime (2022)

Director: Flore Montmory

Country: France

Duration: 04:21

Synopsis: A couple leads a passionate love-life; their stormy relationship is sustained by violent rants and slow reconciliations.

        

Ventanas (2021)

Director: Mireia Matilla, Emanuel Espinoza, Mar Cebrián, Al Serrano, Lidia Rodríguez, Oriol Pérez

Country: Spain

Duration: 04:43

Synopsis: A shy, serious boy comes up against his explosive polar opposite when he moves house. Will the boys be able to find a way to live side by side?     

EXPERIMENTAL SELECTION   |   MARCH 2022

Fictitious Part (2022)

Director: mike sens

Country: France

Duration: 26:55

Synopsis: A psychic spy // A soul trafficking in the world of theatre // He himself will be bewitched       

Blue Delusion (2022)

Director: Fang Guan

Country: China

Duration: 14:57

Synopsis: Novalis’s unfinished novel Heinrich Vonnegut Von Ofterdingen expresses the longing for a meaning in life, which arises from the experience of mysterious meaning and is capable of overcoming death. The longing is seen as blue because it is associated with remoteness, just like loyalty. The color of blue is mysterious, romantic, and it is presented by the illusionary and lost Neptune, as depicted in Plato’s ideal state that symbolizes the unattainable ideal.

Who We Were (2021)

Director: Ryan Spahn

Country: United States

Duration: 06:00

Synopsis: Sam and Sadie fell in love. And then out. Like we all did.

Through the Particles of Void to the Frequencies of Waves (2022)

Director: Vladimir Tobolchenko

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 21:26

Synopsis: The shadow side of the pyramid.

The Night Garden (2022)

Director: Tom Pearson, Daria Karpova, Anastasia Nesterova, Renata Zhigulina, Marissa Nielsen-Pincus

Country: United States

Duration: 28:04

Synopsis: The Night Garden is an experimental, movement-based short film, shot entirely on smart phones.  Through a cartography of associations, imagery, and poetry, its surrealist episodes offer a harvest of ideas, images, and meditations for the dream feast.   The series of seven vignettes rendered from dreams and the unconscious conjures an array of characters and scenarios including: Chekhov in an existential crisis with Picasso’s Lover of Absinthe;  a film noir that follows the dreams and waking trances of a man, a woman, and a herd of tiny cattle; a kaleidoscopic vision of a woman’s interactions with an imaginary friend and a ghost; a caterpillar woman’s transformation and foray into a garden of fountains and marble statues; three mythological creatures who unleash the contents of a jewel box; and a family confronting their heritage and communing with each other throughout the city and forest.  Co-created by Daria Karpova, Anastasia Nesterova, Marissa Nielsen-Pincus, Tom Pearson, and Renata Zhigulina, the episodes interweave characters, objects, and imagery that thread together a short film which follows a nightly dream sequence.  The work is built through a practice of dream-sharing and associations. Filmed on location in St. Petersburg, Russia, The Night Garden is shot exclusively on smart phones (primarily iPhone 6).

A E T H E R (2022)

Director: Pinja Seppälä

Country: Finland

Duration: 09:53

Synopsis: Inspired by the four classical elements: earth, water, air and fire. How do the elements affect the movement, the feeling, the way of going forward?  Exploring these elements combining various circus disciplines and dance.  “I am who I am – I choose my way – I create my own path. It is about the journey, not the destination.”

Things never told (2022)

Director: Juntai He

Country: China

Duration: 04:05

Synopsis: It’s about different ages of generation talking about the things they regretted in their lifes.

Ashen Glow (2022)

Director: Eta Dahlia

Country: United Kingdom

Duration: 10:00

Synopsis: A bilingual haibun that explores the obscure attributes of an ever-fleeting protagonist. The videopoem blends minimalist poetry with inquisitive prose and juxtaposes them with the different visual tempo. Can you tell who the protagonist is?

AAMRAS (2022)

Director: Mayank Pushpam Singh

Country: India

Duration: 20:58

Synopsis: A household conflicted between values and desires ,realises through a chain of comedic incidents that much less is under their control then what they would like to believe.

MUSIC VIDEO SELECTION  |   MARCH 2022

Niletto – Someone like you (2021)

Director: Vladimir Besedin

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 03:55

Synopsis: There are films about the formation of a hero in the Superhero Cinematic Universe called origin stories. This music video became the milestone in the development of the NILETTO hero and his universe. The story revolves around the internal contradictions of the hero who sacrificed everything for love. He is tormented by memories but however he must follow his destiny.

Tempête je t’aime (2022)

Director: Flore Montmory

Country: France

Duration: 04:21

Synopsis: A couple leads a passionate love-life; their stormy relationship is sustained by violent rants and slow reconciliations.

The moment of youth (2021)

Director: ARTUR AGADZHANYAN

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 01:00

Баллада мёртвых  (Ballad the dead ) (2021)

Director: Юсупова Анастасия Якупбаевна

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 04:40

Synopsis: Группа ТАКНАДИУМ представляет видеоклип на песню “Баллада мёртвых”. По существу он был мёртв, так как потерял смысл жизни. Сердце стало абсолютно безжизненным. И нужен был кто-то, чтобы заставить его биться снова…Это история о том, что нужно оставаться целым и ценить жизнь, даже если потерял смысл, не стоит поддаваться унынию, нужно уметь отпускать ситуацию и продолжать дышать, не задвигать свои таланты, а если упал, то встать и привести в гармонию тело, ум, душу и пространство вокруг себя. Быть творцом жизни, идти только вперёд и не оглядываться назад.  Режиссер: Дарья Гордеева Камера: Стас Николаев, Никита Баранов Грим: Ольга Иолшина, Алина Айвазян, Марина Миронова Обложка клипа: Дарья Гордеева   TAKNADIUM group presents a video clip for the song “Ballad the Dead”. In essence, he was dead, as he had lost the meaning of life. The heart became completely lifeless. And it needed someone to make it beat  again …This is a story about that you need to remain whole and appreciate life, even if you have lost its meaning, you should not succumb to espondency, you need to be able to let go of the situation and continue to breathe, not to push your talents, and if you fell, then get up and bring your body into harmony, mind, soul and space around you. Be the creator of life, go only forward and not look back.   Director: Daria Gordeeva Camera: Stas Nikolaev, Nikita Baranov Make-up: Olga Iolshina, Alina Ayvazyan, Marina Mironova Clip cover: Daria Gordeeva

sculpture (2021)

Director: Ramin Hosseinpour

Country: Iran, Islamic Republic of

Duration: 05:19