Official Selection of Short Films – Philosophical Film Festival

4/6 (Sunday)
21.00
Open-air Cinema: “A Quiet Summer”
free screening

FIRST NIGHT

SPECIAL SCREENING: FOCUS GODARD

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In the Darkness of Timе (2002)
Jean-Luc Godard, FR, 10’ | 2023: Focus Godard

Godard's "In the Darkness of Time” (Dans le noir du temps) is part of the collective film project "Ten Minutes Older: The Cello" in which, together with a group of prominent film authors, they create a unique collage of different visuals. reflections on the essence of time at the end of the millennium. By recontextualizing and remixing images from some of his most famous films, Godard's experimental form culminates in a dark evocation of historical time and a requiem for all that is now doomed to disappear: youth, memory, love, and film. Visually fierce and shocking in its representation of the excesses of the 20th century, this ten-minute cinematic-philosophical treatise by Godard provokes deep reflection on human temporal existence and distills a powerful human emotion that remains burning in the darkness of time.

COMPETITIVE PROGRAMME (123’)

Same Old (2022)

Über Wasser ( 2021)

The Blanket (Lakana, 2022)

Bergie (Bergie, 2022)

About me (Over Mij, 2022)

An Avocado Pit (Um Caroço de Abacate, 2022)

2nd Person (2022)

Luz Nocturna (2022)

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Same Old (2022)
Lloyd Lee Choi , US/CA, 15’

Lu, a Chinese immigrant, delivers food through the streets of Manhattan on his electric bicycle. One night, his e-bike is stolen and he is forced to embark on a desperate journey to protect his fragile livelihood. The film premiered in official competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and had its North American premiere at the renowned Toronto International Film Festival, where it received a Special Jury Award for Best Short Film.
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Über Wasser ( 2021)
Jela Hasler, CH, 12'

It's summer in Zurich. Ellie starts the day with a morning swim in the canal, but the coolness doesn't last long. The midday heat engulfs the city, and the everyday, trivial inconveniences of urban congestion become increasingly unbearable and irritating. Ellie tries to escape the city's invasive, dynamic collapse, but she keeps encountering small acts of aggression that build her anger.

The film has been shown at several important world festivals, such as those in Cannes, Berlin, Locarno and many others.
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The Blanket (Lakana, 2022)
Teppo Airaksinen, FI, 15’

Winter, 1939, Finland. From her home on a small island near Helsinki, ten-year-old Marja walks across a large ice-covered lake to fetch milk for her little brother. But thin ice isn't nearly the most dangerous thing she'll face along the way.

A touching story about the cruelty of human destructive nature, but also about the surprising strength and warm solidarity towards others, told from a child's perspective through the impressive acting of the young and talented Elina Patrakka.
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Bergie (Bergie, 2022)
Dian Weys, SA, 7’

The term "bergie" is of South African origin and refers to the "homeless" who in the past sought shelter on the slopes of Table Mountain. Today, Cape Town's 14,000 homeless people are 11 times more likely to be arrested than the average South African. When in “Bergie”, a police officer has to remove people sleeping on the sidewalk to make way for a recreational 10-kilometer race, he must navigate normative as well as moral judgment and personal responsibility when faced with the dignity of those who are powerless in the eyes of society. Unfortunately, it seems that one of the ways you'll know a homeless person has died is when he or she is in your driveway.

The film was selected for the official competition program of the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France in 2023.

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About me (Over Mij, 2022)
Ali Asgari, NL, 15’

Young Fatima keeps a secret within herself that can change her destiny. When her father takes her for a medical examination, she will feel that she is forced to reveal the secret, but also that here she could perhaps ask for help, trust and a little understanding, confronting the doctor with a difficult moral decision: to stick to the principles of medical ethics or to intervene in her family's cultural tradition.

The film had its world premiere at the 2022 Warsaw International Film Festival.
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An Avocado Pit (Um Caroço de Abacate, 2022)
Ary Zara, PT, 19'

One night, on the streets of Lisbon, two people who come from different socio-cultural and gender-identity realities meet by chance. Larissa's exuberant, irresistible and captivating personality challenges Claudio on a free, aimless wandering in the night, a journey that oscillates from mild emotional confrontation, to outbursts of genuine joy and laughter. A powerful and encouraging story that breaks down standardized interpersonal stereotypes, free from violence and filled with tenderness, warmth and hope for a closer and more empathetic interpersonal understanding.

The film was selected in the official competition program of the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France in 2023, and has extensive festival promotion worldwide.
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2nd Person (2022)
Rita Barbosa, PT, 16'

Among the tower blocks that glow under the quiet sun, a series of strangers look alienated and hazy in the shadows of their flats. But they all seem to be part of the same web, like giant concrete colonies of poisonous mushrooms lost in the big, faceless city. The soft and mesmerizing narration plunges us into the deepest subtle and intimate fragments of personal memory, and the deep breathing and hoarse voice allow us to savor every word. Between dark and eerie representations and reflections that suggest hope, this visually acoustic poem offers us an alienated but, at the same time, empathetic view of our world.
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Luz Nocturna (2022)
Kim Torres, CR, 14'

Ale is a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in the interior of rural Costa Rica with her two younger siblings. The impressive naturalistic landscapes of their landscape cover the dark, thick, and heavy vapors of the painful reality as they indulge in a dreamy drift steeped in silence, bitterness, and brief moments of joy. A warm story about brothers and sisters trying to create a small core of warmth and light that will protect them from the unspoken, burning truth: their mother has left them and is not coming back.

The film premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival as part of the Official Short Film Selection.

5/6 (Monday)
21.00
Open-air Cinema: “A Quiet Summer”
free scrееning

SECOND NIGHT (122’)

COMPETITIVE PROGRAMME

Before After (2022)

Alba Vulva (2022)

Please Make It Work (2022)

The Silent Whistle (Feng Zeng, 2022)

Craze (Hajszálrepedés, 2022)

Graveyard of Horses (2022)

On Xerxes' Throne (2022)

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Before After (2022)

Filip Bojarski, PL, 20’

The student film project of the young Polish director, screenwriter and philosopher Filip Bojarski explores a collection of portraits of characters going through an existential crisis. Trying to face their own disappointment in life, they indulge in the intimate conversations of the "tired" soul with itself. But the dynamic of internal dialogue with one's own, well-known, repetitive thoughts, while often seeming like a desperate turn in a vicious circle, may also offer a comforting, healing outlet.
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Alba Vulva (2022)
Dorka Vermes, HU, 16'

Based on Canadian writer Nancy Jo Cullen's short story, "Valerie's Bush," "Alba Vulva" tells the story of Edina, a middle-aged intellectual who lives a withdrawn life, still deeply hurt by the recent breakup of a long-term relationship. In the beauty salon, during a painful cosmetic treatment, forced to come into direct contact with her body, she confronts her repressed memories and her inner sadness.

The film premiered at the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2022, as well as at the international film festival "Black Nights" in Tallinn.
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Please Make It Work (2022)
Daniel Soares, CH/PT, 14’

In a single shot, the Portuguese director Daniel Soares depicts the strong contrast between the sublime beauty of the breathtaking Swiss Alps the insignificance of a small human drama. The film tells the story of Claudia, a Portuguese immigrant who has to deal not only with the weight of her daily responsibilities but also with the gap that is created between her and her teenage daughter.

The film premieres at the Locarno Film Festival in 2022.
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The Silent Whistle (Feng Zeng, 2022)
Yingtong Li, CN, 18’

After arriving in the big city, far from her native island, 19-year-old Ming lives quietly, lonely, and distant in the small apartment, working only the night shift as a saleswoman in the nearby market. One day, before the start of the Spring Festival, her neighbor Rui invites her to a "special" dinner, and she agrees. The presence of the dinner and the conversations around the table will awaken in her a deeply suppressed trauma and an unspeakable sadness. The film premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
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Craze (Hajszálrepedés, 2022)
Bianka Szelestey, HU, 22'

Quite unexpectedly, just before the start of the family dinner, Aaron tells Lenke that he is leaving; after eight years of living together, he no longer feels anything for her. Although Lenke is the one who visibly manifests weakness and despair to the point of self-mutilation, the banality of the dinner argument exposes a mutual exchange of subtle aggression and a need for quiet dominance that exposes the weaknesses of both. They can no longer see what they once saw in each other. The film premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
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Graveyard of Horses (2022)
Xiaoxuan Jiang, US, 17’

Cold winter in the Mongolian steppe. A sudden snowstorm complicates the living conditions of a pregnant farmer and her 8-year-old daughter; a missing flock of sheep, an unborn child, an absent husband, and the tracks of wolves confront them with extreme existential uncertainty. Against the numerous stories of the heroism of male warriors present in the Mongolian cultural tradition, the young director Xiaoxuan Jiang in her warm and touching family drama "Graveyards of Horses" shows us the female face of the community and its strength, skilfully interweaving the motif of femininity and motherhood with the philosophical-religious views on life, nature, and spirituality present in Eastern and North Asian mysticism.
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On Xerxes' Throne (2022)
Evi Kalogiropoulou, GR, 15'

The Greek shipyard of Perma near Athens is a dystopian landscape of tightly controlled and stagnant repression. The long-standing ban on physical contact between workers reshapes human interactions into alienated simulations of repressed sensuality; limited to the human-machine axis; the visual-corporeal completely suppresses the emotional. The arrival of two new employees at the shipyard unsettles the group, but may also herald new hope.

In this lucid, hypnotically seductive, poetic and political essay, Evi Kalogiropoulos chooses to speak, rethink and criticize important aspects of human contemporary existence. The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022.

In the Darkness of Timе (2002)