Shorts Competition. Block 1

Neighbour Abdi
The Netherlands, 2022, 29 min
Directed by: Douwe Dijkstra
Cinematography by: Douwe Dijkstra
Produkcja: Richard Valk
Selected festivals and awards: 2022 – Jihlava IFF, 2022 – Locarno IFF: Pardino d’argento SRG SSR Award

How can you understand a violent past? Somali-born Abdi is furniture designer and support worker. He reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbor and filmmaker Douwe.

How can you understand a violent past? Somali-born Abdi is furniture designer and support worker. He reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbor and filmmaker Douwe. By means of playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, Abdi and Douwe embark on a candid and investigative journey through a painful history, focusing on the creative process throughout.

Will You Look at Me
China, 2022, 20 min
Directed by: Shuli Huang
Cinematography by: Shuli Huang
Production: Shuli Huang / Exposed Pictures
Selected festivals and awards: 2022 – IDFA Amsterdam, 2022 – Cannes IFF: Queer Palm Award

After spending some time in New York, filmmaker Shuli Huang returns to his hometown of Wenzhou. Huang’s mother can’t accept that her  son is gay, and begs him to lead a “normal” life.

After spending some time in New York, filmmaker Shuli Huang returns to his hometown of Wenzhou. Without his lover, who is about to start studying in Belgium, he is alone with his family. Huang’s mother can’t accept that her  son is gay, and begs him to lead a “normal” life. We hear their conversations in the form of a voice-over, as they run the gamut from self-reproach and wailing to emotional blackmail. Motherly love and social conventions collide painfully time after time, without any resolution. Huang edited the conversations to Super8 material filmed during his visit home, of a city through fogged-up glasses, loving shots of his mother, flashes of his father, and the filmmaker himself: a shadow, waving to the camera but never truly in view. This intimate and gorgeously composed film won the director a Queer Palm at Semaine de la Critique in Cannes.

Say Daddy
Poland, Ukraine, 2023, 6 min
Directed by: Andrii Shostak
Cinematography by: Andrii Shostak
Production: Maciej Ślesicki / Warsaw Film School
Editing: Jakub Broda
Selected festivals and awards: 2023 – Millennium Docs Against Gravity: World Premiere

Eight-month-old Lew lives with his mother in Poland, where they had to flee from the war in Ukraine. His dad can't hug him or see him take his first steps.

Eight-month-old Lew lives with his mother in Poland, where they had to flee from the war in Ukraine. His dad can't hug him or see him take his first steps or say his first words.

Kiosk
Poland, 2023, 40 min
Directed by: Daniel Stopa
Cinematography by: Józefina Gocman, Paweł Chorzępa, Stanisław Cuske
Production: Małgorzata Staroń / Staron-Film
Editing: Rolando Garduño
Selected festivals and awards: 2023 – Millennium Docs Against Gravity: World Premiere

A story of a friendship between Ania and Lidka, her mother-in-law. Ania is strong-minded and determined. Lidka is her opposite: shy and reserved, she just left her abusive husband.

A story of a friendship between Ania and Lidka, her mother-in-law. Ania is strong-minded and determined. Lidka is her opposite: shy and reserved, she just left her abusive husband. As they meet inside a newsstand kiosk run by Ania, the two women work on a divorce petition that would enable Lidka to begin a new life, free of fear and violence. Despite many harsh words and continuing challenges, they slowly form a bond that gives them courage and strength.