NARRATIVE SELECTION   |  SEPTEMBER 2021

Lucky guy (2021)

Director: Лика Крылаева

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 15:43

Synopsis: A man’s wife leaves him, he drinks a lot. And God comes to him, who offers to fulfill one person’s desire. But then several more gods appear with the same intentions. There is confusion, which leads to unpredictable results.

Best Shot (2021)  

Director: Евгений Александрович Клейменов

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 24:00

Synopsis: Waking up in the evening with a headache at home, war photographer realizes that he does not remember yesterday. He is very surprised, because next to with him in bed is a dressed strange girl who interests the photographer with his behavior and unusual beauty. The man invites her to stay and do the best photo session for her. And for in order for the girl to loosen up, he takes out a box of powder, which is used by South American Indians in their rituals. The photographer could not imagine that the next few days would turn him upside down. life. The main role in this will be played by a photograph of a dead girl who he did 2 months ago after he entered the the city destroyed by the war.

Masque-19 (2021)

Director: Marko Roth

Country: Germany

Duration: 05:03

Synopsis: This film is based on true events. Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the numbers of domestic abuse cases went through the roof. When France imposed an extremely strict lock-down, the victims were trapped at home with their abusers 23 hours a day. They were only allowed out for one hour to go to a pharmacy or a grocery store. French pharmacists came up with a way victims could secretly ask for help: The code word “Masque-19”.   The short film “Masque-19” shows the psychological horror most victims are experiencing while trying to leave their partner. And how the code word offered a way out.   We wanted to offer support to anyone in the world who might see this film and consider leaving an abusive partner. But although domestic abuse is a worldwide problem, awareness campaigns and helplines are local. So we created a new website thebeginning.info where the helpline number for any country in the whole world can be found in a matter of seconds. So no matter where you are, you can get help.    

Distance (2021)

Director: Kristina Luninskaia

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 20:00

Synopsis: Three years of their marriage. Romance turned to everyday life, they got used to each other. Boring, always the same, took it by granted. each of them is fighting in its own way. or just pretending. Until HE decides to take control into his own hands.

Tamouzi (2021)

Director: Ali Dekmak

Country: Lebanon

Duration: 13:17

Synopsis: Ali, a 10 year old boy who is obsessed with ninja turtles, is on the road from Beirut to the south with his sisters. Upon arrival, the bombing starts and Ali realizes that he forgot his Sega console at home. This leads him to take the utmost risk and go back to get his game.

Pandemic (2021)

Director: Tom Madar

Country: Israel

Duration: 20:00

Synopsis: Tel Aviv, the near future. A resolute young woman attempts to hold onto her sanity while isolated in her home due to a deadly pandemic. While she waits for her child, who was taken by the Pandemic Guard Corps, she cares for her sick husband, who she’s hidden on the balcony for fear that he, too, will be taken away from her. After an unexpected visit, she begins to question whether the true pandemic is the virus or the lies she’s been fed by the regime.

Moscow slide (2021)  

Director: Radda Novikova

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 12:51

Synopsis: Only very responsible and loving parents, the uncommon ones, go for a walk in winter time with their children. Most parents are happy to rely on nannies, grandmothers and older children in such situations. But our main characters Olga and Igor are not like that. They are honestly involved with their children on the slide, playing, freezing, still carrying out their duty. But to be honest, they are really bored. Like it or not, they both begin to look over each other, gradually drawing their own image of each other in their heads. They are already about to to start communicating, but their upbringing, stereotypes, and a made-up story about a vis-a-vis prevents them from taking the first step. It makes them sad, because they really liked each other. Suddenly, the children loudly reveal family secrets: it turns out that Igor is not a father, but a brother! While Olga is not a mother, but a grandmother! A young and beautiful grandmother! And both are free… Our characters immediately begin to get closer, their wit pleases each other, they have a similar sense of humor and world view. It seems that a serious relationship between two beautiful people is being formed on the Moscow slide!  Nearby, two gentlemen look at all these human joys. Suddenly they turned out to be angels who unintentionally told the children how to bring the characters together…        

Yamaa (2021)

Director: Marjan Safabakhsh

Country: Iran, Islamic Republic of

Duration: 20:09

Synopsis: An Afghan immigrant family living in Iran who face difficult challenges after losing their father.

CATARINA (2021)

Director: Pierre AMSTUTZ ROCH

Country: France

Duration: 16:17

Synopsis: Ruined and left by his wife, Francis is ready to try everything he can. With the help of his friend Simon, he decides to kidnap the wife of the man who conned him, Alex. That guy is crazy about Catarina and keeps telling he would do anything for her.  The duo of good-for-nothing somehow manages to kidnap the young woman. The problem is Catarina is actually a Maltese dog, and they just kidnapped Marie, the dogsitter.

Suburban tale (2021)

Director: Péter Goretic

Country: Hungary

Duration: 22:09

Synopsis: In a peaceful neighbourhood, somewhere in the suburbs lives Patrik Kévés and his pregnant wife Mariann. Just like every other night, Mariann looks forward to see his public safety officer husband after his duty. But this night turns out to be much different to every other. Patrik tells his wife, he is going to leave her. The woman loses her temper and hit her husband in the head with a frozen catfish. Patrik drops to the ground, and our story takes a few other interesting turns…

The Woes of Angele // Les maux d’Angèle (2020)

Director: François Zaïdi

Country: France

Duration: 23:04

Synopsis: The 8 years old Angèle lives alone with her uncle Tom, after the tragic loss of her father, while her mother’s health declines. As he also struggles with his own demons, the girl tries to mend her failing speech, helped by female figures that remind her of her mother, soon to be gone.

Спасти котика (2021)

Director: Анжелина Викторовна Карелина

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 10:40

Synopsis: Актриса приходит на встречу с продюсером, но неожиданно он делает ей недвусмысленное предложение…

Iskra (2021)

Director: Adrian Replanski

Country: France

Duration: 11:30

Synopsis: As a strange plague tightens its grip on an isolated rural village, a young woman’s contact with the outside world breeds unrest amongst a superstitious townspeople.

Fredda Meyer (2021)

Director: Julia Roesler

Country: Germany

Duration: 19:40

Synopsis: The clinic clown Fredda meets Moritz, who is suffering from cancer, in the hospital. She visits him weekly, even when he begins to say goodbye.

Mary’s Room (2021)

Director: Christopher Mitchell

Country: Australia

Duration: 19:00

Synopsis: To middle aged company man Ken, the young and beautiful  Mary appears little more than an object whose sole purpose is to satisfy his sexual and domestic needs.  She lives trapped like a goldfish in his inner-city Seoul apartment. Through its windows she observes the city outside turn from day to night in an endless loop of detached servitude.  That is until the day Ken returns home with another woman and the truth about their complicated relationship is revealed.

Anita (2020)

Director: Sushma Khadepaun

Country: India

Duration: 17:34

Synopsis: While attending her sister’s wedding in India, Anita is pushed to question whether her life in America is any better than those in her hometown.   

Martin fell from a roof (2019)

Director: Liyan FAN

Country: France

Duration: 15:00

Synopsis: While working on a construction site, Martin falls from a roof. His right leg and arm in a cast, Martin can not work anymore but his boss refuses to compensate him after the incident. His pregnant wife, Jeanne, decides to solve this situation in her own way.

The Diver (2019)

Director: Michael Leonard,  Jamie Helmer

Country: Australia

Duration: 12:00

Synopsis: Rage, chaos and confusion consume Callan’s mind, creating a destructive environment for all those around him. Only the solitude of the underwater world is capable of soothing his volatility. But when his base instincts are left unchecked, the violence he is capable of displays its full potential.

STUDENT SELECTION   |   SEPTEMBER 2021

Climate Change Is Going to Kill Us All (2021)

Director: Anatoly Koblov

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 13:50

Synopsis: Magical girl Asya used magic to help her friend with her mental health issues but made it worse. Now, bringing the friend back going to be as easy as stopping сlimate сhange.

Bird (2019)

Director: Wu-Ching Chang

Country: Taiwan

Duration: 04:35

Synopsis: The girl suffers from a feeling of great discomfort that comes without warning, like an uncontrollable disaster. When the panic is accompanied by a flapping of wings, a chaotic, dissociated journey into her unconsciousness begins.  The film is based on concepts of panic attack and ornithophobia. Through materializing the feelings of people who suffer from panic attack and ornithophobia, the director aim to discuss the core issues of fear, life and death.  The film is a collaborative project with the Wellcome Collection. The Wellcome Collection is a famous museum based in London, where displays a mixture of medical artefacts and original artworks exploring ideas about medicine and art.   The animation techniques in the film contain computer animation, object animation, stop motion animation, and multiple experimental artistic practice, such like cotton, beads, acrylic, and celluloid.  IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10435166/?ref_=nm_knf_i1

The market man (2020)

Director: Paola Cireddu

Country: Italy

Duration: 19:15

Synopsis: Mario collects crates from the fruit and vegetable market to sell on for a few cents. He carries them on his back, ten at time, well fastened with a rope. All his co-workers have the advantage of having a means of transport, even though this kind of work is tricky at the best of times. It’s very competitive and scarce , and carrying the crates on foot becomes increasingly harder. And so on his path fraught with obstacles on his lonely and alienated search for crates Mario hopes that maybe a benefactor will come forward and provide him with a secondhand 3 wheeler vehicle. Amongst his intimidators in his neighbourhood and with the generosity of a small time boss nearby he might just find a way to redemption.   

My brother Artyom (2021)

Director: Roman Trofimov

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 24:59

Synopsis: Nikita is twelve. And he is bullied by school hooligans and an overbearing mother. He patiently suffers and accumulates offense.  It all lasts until his half-brother Artyom returns from the correctional boarding school. He involuntarily pushes the boy to a terrible way of solving his problems.

Being a Ghost (2021)

Director: Sebastian Friedmann

Country: Switzerland

Duration: 18:30

Synopsis: An encounter between two ghosts in a spa. Serge realizes what has happened to him. Martial disapproves of this young rebel who’s disrupting his normal routine. Will they be able to get along?

Silt (2021)

Director: Мария Кашлачева

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 24:00

Synopsis: A young doctor Mikhail lives and works in a small Russian village. His life looks quite ordinary, but there is one strange circumstance: a real mermaid lives in his bath. Everything is going well, but one day his parents come to visit Mikhail. They are very surprised by the choice of their son.

Industrial (2021)

Director: Фёдор Кириллович Королёв

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 04:20

Synopsis: Short Film (Branded Content) filmed at Moscow Film School for Norilsk Nickel

AN ESSAY ON… (2021)

Director: Svetlana Makarova

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 22:00

Synopsis: A lot happens to Ilya this day. He is admitted to a university, gets a job, and meets the girl of his dreams. Traveling around Moscow, young people play the game Good Deed, as a result of which Ilya faces a real danger and has to make his choice.

Second wind (2021)

Director: Lucas Renault

Country: France

Duration: 17:10

Synopsis: Antoine, 20 years, lives under a threaten of a second stroke. His entourage considers him as an handicaped. He does not accept it. In the back of his parents and with the help of his sister, he signs up to a race.

SOMETHING HAS DIED IN THE FOREST (2020)

Director: Eva Justine Torkkola

Country: Australia

Duration: 24:57

Synopsis: A Ukrainian woman, recently migrated to Australia post WW2, struggles to come to terms with her pregnancy as she relives the trauma of losing her first child.

DOCUMENTARY SELECTION   |   SEPTEMBER 2021

NUMDI OODI true history (2021)

Director: Angel Galmes Sureda

Country: Spain

Duration: 29:52

Synopsis: According to a news story that has gone around the world, the last two speakers of a language have been fighting. A journalist wants to experience it up close. Through the eyes of Dani Fuster and his technicians we will see the nuances of this story.     

Long Live the Panda (2021)

Director: Bo van der Meer , Roswitha de Boer

Country: Netherlands

Duration: 14:46

Synopsis: The old Fiat Panda has been in existence for 40 years and has been taken out of production. The model will one day become extinct. In the south of Italy they are still immensely popular and the streets cannot yet be imagined without them. Rusty or just shiny and refurbished, in all colors of the rainbow, loved by young and old. In ‘Lunga Vita alla Panda’ the touching stories of the Panda owners in Amantea are told. They give us a heartwarming glimpse into the colorful lives of the Amanteanï.      

Zenerù (2021)

Director: Andrea Grasselli

Country: Italy

Duration: 30:00

Synopsis: The poetic relationship, between the ancient ritual of Zenerù and the life of the hermit shepherd Flaminio, makes us reflect on the border between domestic and wild, between known and unknown.  At the end of the winter, Flaminio, a resistant shepherd, prepares materially and spiritually for the arrival of the spring through daily rituals, using the tools he built for himself: he moves and sows the ground, shears the sheep and makes a woolen suit for the new season. The communities of the valley chase the winter away with cowbells and bonfires through the ritual of Scasada dol Zenerù, which is inserted into the story of the shepherd’s life as a dreamlike element that draws on an ancestral memory. Flaminio’s sensitivity, strongly connected to Nature, allows him to perceive when it is time to call the community to act, starting the ritual.  

Every Sunday (2021)

Director: Keti Papadema

Country: Cyprus

Duration: 23:38

Synopsis: A group of Filipino domestic workers in Cyprus prepare for a beauty pageant organised by their community, while a case of a serial killer targeting foreign female workers comes to the surface.

ANIMATION SELECTION   |   SEPTEMBER 2021

Why Do Butchers Close So Early? (2021)

Director: Inez Skilling

Country: United Kingdom

Duration: 03:52

Synopsis: Why Do Butchers Close So Early is a film written by Geronimo Bennington-Poulter and directed by Inez Skilling. Told through 2D Animation, it is the story of a butcher consumed by the horror of his trade. Yet, through the sinister monologue, can a different, perhaps even more unsettling tale be unpicked?

Восхождение (2021)

Director: Денвер Джексон, Джереми Ганс, Скотт Тёрнер

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 19:27

Synopsis: A depressed, drunk, and damaged Voznesensky thinks his lost dog has returned to save him from his bleak life in Far East Russia, only to realize that he’s been tricked by a magical, shapeshifting wolverine determined to keep him in a hole from which there may be no escape.   

Step into the river (2020)

Director: MA Weijia

Country: France

Duration: 14:50

Synopsis: Lu and Wei are two young girls living in a village nestled on the banks of a river. As the one-child policy has led some families to drown baby girls, they both have a special relationship with this river, which looks like a cradle of tragic stories.

EXPERIMENTAL SELECTION   |   SEPTEMBER 2021

FLESH (2021)

Director: Veronika Gurina, Anna Ponomarenko

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 10:33

Synopsis: A short film by the NITI experimental theatre.  “Flesh is one of the two substances of human nature. On the one hand, the flesh is understood as a human body which participates together with the soul in exploits. On the other hand, the flesh is understood as the totality of passions nesting in a person.”  The film is a video experiment at the intersection of genres. This is a visual story in which an imaginative film language is intertwined with performance capture and documentary filmed monologues of the heroines, who were invited to express their taboo feelings one-on-one with the camera without witnesses and in the absence of sound recording. Such an experiment allowed us to reach a new level of honesty with ourselves and the audience.  The documentary part of the work that is deeply personal represents the study and observation of the almost intimate process of trying to connect with oneself, to get out of oneself, to express through speech or body movements what worries and haunts. Not surprisingly this experience of self-honesty sometimes turns into torture. It is not so easy to look into unlit corners of your thoughts and feelings. In the film you can see the non-verbal parts of the heroines’ stories, connected into a single stream. Uncontrollable powerful changeable forces of nature is a full-fledged hero here that represents the image of a feminine, natural, deep, bodily principle. They increase tension and they also bring relief.  In the inextricably linked second part of the work, the study of feminine nature continues through an appeal to the depths of the collective unconscious. There is an immersion in archetypal images, their reflection in performance, connection with the elements, cyclicality of nature and cycle of life-death-life and finally transformation of attitude to one’s flesh, rebirth and acceptance.       

Her (2019)

Director: Stefano Cau

Country: Italy

Duration: 14:39

Synopsis: A small isolated village of the countryside is dying since no babies have been born in a long time. A man doesn’t give up, and places a few speakers to play the sound of “extinct things”: by the dry river we hear water sound, by the still bells you hear the tolling, by the stuffed animals you hear their call. The only hope of the village, whose inhabitants are just a dozen of elders, is a pregnant girl. She feels the weight of the responsibility and wants to run away. One day she tried to escape, but her run is interrupt by her labor. The elderly inhabitants will force her to give birth in the village square, a sacrifice that recalls a fertility ceremony.  

INNER (2021)

Director: Funda Erzade

Country: Belgium

Duration: 02:44

Synopsis: A short dance journey of a inner dialogue. The movements are driven by emotions from the past, present and the future.

CROWD (2021)

Director: Recep Akar

Country: Turkey

Duration: 05:21

Synopsis: We construct our existence inside the void of space, surrounded by objects. Atoms, our bodies and the universe exist within this same construct. Both equally crowded and bare. “Crowd” is a single channel video that aims to perform the crowd with the void in the frame of this contrast.

Bobs (2021)

Director: Laurent Lavigne

Country: United States

Duration: 03:15

Synopsis: A man embraces his repressed selves and becomes whole.

MUSIC VIDEO SELECTION  |   SEPTEMBER 2021

Nothing Else Matters JOROCKPO cover (2021)

Director: Hildemaro Potenza, Wilson Vargas, Jeziel Andrades, Humberto Martínez

Country: Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of

Duration: 03:02

Staying longer (2021)

Director: Masha Korneva

Country: Russian Federation

Duration: 03:52