Tofifest announces the list of films qualified for Shortcut competition
33 films, selected from among 2,000 entries from several dozen countries from all around the world will compete in the Shortcut short film competition at Tofifest 2014. The starters in this race will include films awarded at film festivals in Annecy, Clermont-Ferrand, Cannes, and Sundance, as well as premieres from Poland and other parts of Europe. We will have a chance to see films from Poland, Romania, Portugal, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Israel, France, Belgium, Ukraine, Georgia, USA, Bulgaria, Russia, Croatia, Switzerland, Great Britain, Slovakia, and Iran.
The most prominent theme in the Shortcut competition is an attempt to describe the modern man and problems they have to face. Filmmakers approach such problems in the global scale, trying to come to terms with Nazism or attitude towards ethnic minorities, or in the scale of our own private micro-universes, trying to explore family dramas, people’s dreams, or the tough reality of working in corporations.
Such issues are analysed in two short fiction films included in the competition, although each of them takes a different angle. Arena is the work of Piotr Bernas, who is a war photographer working for Gazeta Wyborcza. Based on his personal experiences, he uses the film to ask a question about the sources of motivation for a man, who chooses to live a life of never-ending struggle, hurting one’s own body, and risking health. As for Fragmenty by Aga Woszczynska, this film is a completely opposite world. The film was screened during Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes IFF – it is a collection of loosely connected scenes that demonstrate the breaking up of a relationship and the collapsing of the world to which the main heroine is hanging on so tightly.
Some of the films to be presented at Tofifest will have their Polish or European premieres. For example Fallen leaves (Lystopad) from Ukraine, which will have its Polish premiere. The film was directed by Maria Kondakova and it is a story about two ordinary people, whose night spent together on making love ends up in a murder case. Austria has two contestants that take part in the Shortcut competition. Inbetween (Daheim und Dazwischen) by Jannis Lenz (Polish premiere) discusses the strength of youthful memories, while In The Still Of The Night (In der Stille der Nacht) by Erich Steiner (Polish premiere) is a family drama set on the Christmas Eve. Similarly, Israel has two contestants in the Shortcut race. Deserted by Yoav Hornung (Polish premiere) has been awarded at Rome Independent FF and ÉCU European IFF. The film will take us amidst the ranks of women in the Israeli army. I Think This is the Closest to How the Footage Looked by Yuval Hameiri (Polish premiere) has won the prestigious Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival. This is a story about a man, who is struggling to reconstruct lost memories.
A Summer (Un Été) by Clémence Marcadier will have its international premiere. It is an interesting parable about a 16-year-old David, who is bored to death while on vacation, and the only thing to wake him up from this monotony is... a plain microwave. The other contestant from France is Thunderbirds (Les Oiseaux-tonnerre) by Léa Mysius (Polish premiere). The film was screened in Cannes and it is a story about Antonin and Leonor hunting… a lark. Belgium will have two premieres during the Shortcut competition. Orgy (Partouze) by Matthieu Donck (Polish premiere) demonstrates a somewhat „peculiar” presentation of products of a certain brand prepared by a pair of sales representatives. Foreign Bodies (Les corps étrangers) by Laura Wandel (Polish premiere) has already become recognisable, thanks to the official short cut selection for Cannes IFF 2014. The film takes us on a journey into the world of traumatic memories of a war photographer.
The Shortcut competition will also include two short fiction films from the USA. Gregory Go Boom by Janicza Bravo (Polish premiere) has been awarded at the Sundance IFF and it is a story about a paraplegic man, who is trying to start a life on his own and find a partner. It turns out to be quite difficult. Sequence by Carles Torrens has won LA Shorts Fest and has been awarded in Clermont-Ferrand. It is a story about Billy, a boy just like any other, whose life is turned upside down overnight, when he wakes up one morning and realises that the entire world has dreamt about him.
Many of the films presented during the Shortcut competitions deal with the problems tormenting modern families. The Lighthouse Woman (Jenata ot fara) by Ana Kitanova from Bulgaria is a story about Eddie, who finds out that he was adopted. He is also investigating the circumstances surrounding the mysterious death of his mother, who committed suicide, and soon becomes suspicious that she was in fact murdered. Family Issues (Probleme de Familie) by Ruxandra Ghitescu from Romania introduces us to the life of a divorced father, who must face a situation that requires a tactful handling: his 18-year-old daughter has not come home, after a night spent with a boy. Black Mulberry (Shavi Tuta) by Gabriel Razmadze from Georgia has been screened during the Sundance IFF and it analyses an affection being born between two teenagers, who are divided by giant social differences.
As for Provincia by György Mór Kárpáti from Hungary, it is a film about a discovery that will change the life of a boy working in a grocery store in Budapest. The film was presented at Cannes (Cinéfondation section). Democracy (Democracia) by Borja Cobeaga from Spain is a modern story about the corporate mentality. This is the newest production of the filmmaker nominated for Academy Awards and Goya Awards.
The two contestants from Russia have been directed by filmmakers from Italy and India, both are documents, and both of them portray the fascination of these two women from warm countries with the Russian winter. Winter by Cristina Picchi is a documentary “portrait” of the winter in Siberia. It is a journey through frost and the feelings and thoughts of the people who must struggle with one of the harshest climates in the world. The film received special mention of the jury at the Clermont-Ferrand FF and Thessaloniki Documentary FF. The other Russian contestant in the race for Golden Angel is Love. Love. Love by Sandhya Daisy Sundaram. This film has been applauded at the Sundance IFF (Special Award of the Jury) and Nashville FF. The film is set against the background of breath-taking landscapes of snow-capped Russia and it tells the story of a typical woman from Russia and her great love.
The next four films in the contest deal with racism and the impact of war on our lives analysed from the global perspective. Namo by Salah Salehi from Iran has received a special mention of the jury at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. The storyline will take us to the border zone between Iran and Kurdistan, where a police officer and a soldier are trying to bury the corpse of an unknown suicide. The problem is that the local people are not that fond of the idea. Padre (Father) by Santiago ‘Bou’ Grasso from Argentina (Polish premiere) takes us back to 1983. We are in Argentina ruled by a military junta, where a woman is trying to take care of her bed-ridden father, who happens to be a military man. The film won the Jury and Audience Awards at the Animpact Animation Festival.
Croatia is represented by Thresholds (Pragovi). Dijana Mlađenović set the film in 1992, right in the middle of the war raging in Croatia. The government is carrying out forced evictions and for Ivan and Vesna such an eviction means that they will find themselves on two opposite sides on the conflict, quite unexpectedly. Gypsy (Cigano) from Portugal analyses the attitude towards Gypsies in wealthy Europe. David Bonneville, who directed the film, is the closest collaborator of the outstanding filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira. Sein Kampf by Jakob Zapf from Germany is a strong attempt to settle accounts with the ghosts of Nazism. The film has been recognised at the film festival in Kolkata and it is a story about a 15-year-old Boris, who wants to become a real skinhead. To this end, he will take part in a school meeting with an old Jew, who has survived Auschwitz.
Experimental films and animations constitute a separate group in the Shortcut competition.
Coda by Alan Holly from Ireland presents a meeting of a lost soul with Death, who discloses a whole lot of different things to the soul. The film won awards at the SICAF Animated Film Festival and Edinburgh Short Film Festival. Death for a Unicorn from Switzerland was included in the official selection at the Venice Film Festival and it a story about the meeting between Little Billy and the spirit of Myrtle – a little girl, who is stuck between the world of the living and the dead.
Foreign Bodies (Corps étrangers) by Nicolas Brault from Canada is a phenomenon in itself – the film won the prestigious Annecy International Animated Film Festival. Foreign Bodies was made using painting based on video lamps and modern medical imaging (CT, MRI, and cryosection).
Greece is represented by Washingtonia by Konstantin Kotzamani – it is an animation that will have its Polish premiere. The film was included in the official selection at Berlinale and it takes us to a fictitious “Washingtonia”, which an incarnation of Athens submerged in imagination. Eye in Tuna Care by John Walter Lustig from the USA (Polish premiere) has won the ASIFA-East Animated Film Festival in New York and the Trés Court IFF in Paris. The film presents a dentist, whose professional experience is put to a test, when a unique patient enters his office. A Blue Room by Tomasz Siwinski – a Polish and French coproduction – has been screened at this year’s International Critics’ Week at Cannes IFF. It is an allegoric animation about a man, who wakes up entrapped in a blue room, and the only connection he has with the outside world is a window that presents the reality in a distorted way. The Obvious Child by Stephen Irwin from Great Britain has won the Silver Dragon at the Krakow Film Festival. It is a story about complicated relations between a rabbit and its worried owner, a young girl. The last contestant in the race is Snow (Sneh) by Ivana Šebestova from Slovakia, which was awarded at the Cinanima IAFF. It is a short and poetic story about a man and a woman waiting for love.
The winner of the Golden Angel in the Shortcut category will be announced on 24th October 2014, during the Closing Ceremony of the Tofifest International Film Festival.
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