Logbook – Monday 6th July

No break for ShorTS International Festival, with still more to offer, sun and moon, white and black, and in every variation possible.

We are in Piazza Verdi for our next shower of images, a refreshing shower that brings to together body and intellect.

Delicate yet hard hitting, the first short film introduces us to the devastating world of an ill boy, his relationship with his father who tells him stories of a made-up world, a perfect planet.

A story that contrasts the hospital wards and the pain with the strength found in fairy tales. Directed by Andres Walter and entitled HELIUM.

We continued, a few minutes after ten o’clock, with an Italian work by Pierpaolo Paganelli, LA VALIGIA, an animation about old age, with some parts reminiscent of the theatre work by Furio Bordon LE ULTIME LUNE.

With the sponsorship of the Polsky Institut, images of lakes and vegetation in LAS CIENI, where a manhunt in the woods serves as another warning against war. Director Andrezej Cichocki knew who to make both the actors and animals visually effective.

PINEAPPLE CALAMARI is a funny animated tale, illustrating the improbable relationship between a bewildering woman and her more than domesticated horse.

A surprise ending, well-orchestrated by director Kasia Nalewaika.

On we go with a production directed by Hallvar Witzo, a surreal procession of military veterans that soon becomes a multigenerational story, a look at diverse times and generations.

Then followed a typical work by NZFILM, WHISKER centred on a peculiar race between townspeople, for a tasty meat prize.

For the cinephiles amongst you, a clear tribute to the classic horror of John Landis UN LUPO MANNARO AMERICANO A LONDRA. Well done to the director Steven Saussey. The hour is late, perfect therefore for a glass of irony in Spanish sauce, provided without reserve by Rodrigo Canet in LITIO, a verbal game of ping pong between boy and girl.

Ana Blanco and Sasha Di Benedetto are the little stars of TIN E TINA, super blond and deathly pale like alien children in the old fantasy classic IL VILLAGGIO DEI DANNATI. Gothic and tragicomic scenes are evidently the expressive style of director Rubin Stein, truly sadistic are his little murders…

SNOWFLAKE, however, is an Italo-American production created by Francesco Roder, a dizzying romance between women who have to come to terms with the one of their deaths.

A strong and dramatic subject, followed by Dustin Loose’s ERLEDIGUNG EINER SACHE, where a son, looking for his father in a psychiatric hospital, experiences an upsetting interview.

The evening concludes with INSIDE THE BOX, directed by David-Martin Porras, an American production with an excellent climate of suspense. A proper police investigation, where maybe things are not exactly as they seem.

A piece with a social outlook, on the marginalisation of certain ill people.

Everyone yearning for a glass of fresh water with a ton of ice cubes to combat this boiling weather.

Waiting for some cooler weather, see you Tuesday evening.