An absolute downpour over Trieste, the much longed for rain arrives and with unprecendented violence. A quick change of location, meaning our short films were to be hosted at Cinema Ariston. Also worth a mention, the wonderful debut of the SweeTS4Kids section that took place in the auditorium of Museo Revoltella, bringing together a colourful crowd of young viewers.
“And you will hear a voice, a voice behind you. That voice that tells you: You will never be this young again…” DAPHNE DU MAURIER, I’LL NEVER BE YOUNG AGAIN.
And Daphne Du Maurier was right to underline the preciousness of the most innocent part of life, when utopian dreams and reality chase eachother in a flamboyant waltz.
Naturally youth also means fantasy, energetic movement, audacity and an open outlook on the world.
Naturalmente giovinezza vuol dire anche fantasia, energia in movimento, audacia e sguardo spalancato sul mondo.
This year of ShorTS International Film Festival can count of the present of a very special artistic director: Tommaso, only ten years old and already enviable cinematic competence.
Exceedling pleasant, polite and spontaneous, he curated the selection of short films for the SWEETS4KIDS section.
A new initiative for the festival which allows even our smallest residents their say on film.
Someone suspects that Tommaso, in a different guise, would have already published eight books and participated in at least fifteen symposiums on the latest tendances of Inuit film and Russian formalists.
We’re joking obviously, but if a good beginning bodes well…
We won’t bore you anymore with weather complaints, we’ve arrived now at a point of no return.
An evening of good, even great film, in Piazza Verdi with an Italian work, L’IMPRESA by Davide Labanti about losing work, battles too important to keep quiet about, dignity, everything that unfortunately is a part of our everyday lives.
Great work by the actors, in the roles of old and young forced to exacerbated reactions. like in LA CLASSE OPERAIA VA IN PARADISO by Elio Petri, master piece of 1971
Have you ever seen that terrifying Dutch film about a murderous life, L’ASCENSORE (THE LIFT by Dick Maas, 1983)?
Avete mai visto quel terrificante film olandese su di un ascensore assassino, L’ASCENSORE appunto (THE LIFT di Dick Maas , 1983)?
There the plot was metaphysical, in the short film featured this evening LA NOCHE DEL ASCENSOR we are on different ground, but it isn’t lacking fear, guaranteed by director Antonio Such.
Locked in an out-of-control lift, the young protagonist has an unusual communicative experience, we could even say a psychoanalytical horror.
Truly original the four minutes of WRAPPED, a production created by the six hands of Wittman, Kalin and paeper, of great visual value, a visual feast well put together.
Distruction, construction and aeriel views of Planet Earth and her marvels.
An English production but with Italian direction, THE CAUSE by Marco De Luca proposes again the theme of closed space, but this time in a bunker, where the free judge is pulverised and the human debate is made ruthlessly sincere.
The events unfold in the future, a mother and son of twenty-five years spied on with infrared cameras, until a big final twist.
The Polish director Marta Prus gives us POZEGNANIE, only three minutes of a prison visit between a man and woman, enough to sketch out a world of feelings, where maybe despite an imminent divorce, not everything has been lost.
The magic mirror spoke against the witch of Snow white and how it was right…. take into account the directing pair Bosnjak and Johnson for the film SIMULACRA, where real and imaginary play at canasta with the viewer.
We are faced with a short animation of the theme of doubling.
Surprising with its twists: pictures born in the mind of Marcel Becker-Neu in ITALIAN STANDOFF, a strange story of theft and dramatic twists…
Black humour, however, in the company of an elementary class in Cody Blue Snider’s short American film FOOL’S DAY, which shows what happens when a game gets out of hand. An, to say the least, explosive coffee is at the centre of the plot.
Also Miriam Bliese, a senstive director, discusses romantic relationships, on those interpersonal webs, so difficult to untie… in her AN DER TUR.
Then arrives the invasive gypsy protagonist ‘on the road’ by David Bonneville
A short French film which greatly explores the psychological aspect of its characters.
MEANWHILE by Stephen McNally is an Anglo-Irish cartoon coproduction, in which the on point graphic workmanship creates a gentle affection for the characters.
Demanding, truly on a screenplay level, HATATZPITANIT recounts the creation of a fantasy parallel world from the eyes of a girl restricted to a livid wartime reality.
Directed by Noa Gusakov, this time again the audience’s attention was completely captured.
Truly beautiful and poetic, however, was the chain of events uniting the past and present of a woman, simply through the means of purchasing a broken vase. Created by Martin-Christopher Bode.
After this rich evening of film, there is nothing left to do but dream of a vase, but this time full of tamarind and ice. We’ll see you Wednesday evening, all the best!
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.
Giorgio Albertazzi, undisputed master of Italian theatre, often loves to say that every artistic experience is tackled with “childlike wonder”, maintaining an innocent ecstasy…
The above theory is fully supported by these evenings full of moments connected to the world of the youth, moments on which we will reflect in the next logbooks.
A super crowded venue this Sunday evening, which doesn’t loosen the grip that the heat has: evidently love for film is an excellent antidote to the oppressive weather.
Without further ado, we prepare ourselves for a rich evening full of screenings, from all over the world;
A savage fight between two boys almost turns to tragedy when one of them ends up in a coma because of the blows suffered, in some way the arrogance of the ‘green years’ is put into the past and the we see the first glimpse of adult awareness. The work of Wess Pelinenburg entitled COWBOYS JANKEN OOK.
What would you think, citizens of our crazy world, is there existed a society where those who did not earn anything were “demolished” through a sort of sponsored euthanasia?
FIRME USTED AQUI by Rodrigo Zarza Rioja introduces us to a grotesque place where someone is already promoting such a project.
Friendship, love, so many confusions generate human relationships, when there you want to keep grudges and vulgarities…HJONABANDSSAELA by Jorundur Ragnarsson features two elderly bachelors struggling with a female compagnion and themselves, with their unresolved doubts had since they were little.
Forward again with JOSE’ directed by Alexandre Bouchet, that once again illustrates the best and worst of the male character, and does that all the way keeping his own personal style.
Stupendous, then, the animated parable of a girl that yearns to change identity, to go from human to animal, adopted and beloved by a pack of coyotes.
Beautiful visual ideas, applause therefore to the directing duo Gerbeaud – De Panafieu and their film ORIPEAUX.
Based on a true story, on what happened to a telegraphist in 1944, the compact short film THE WEATHER REPORT by Paul Murphy, that only on the end credits is written that the protagonist was the reason for the postponing of the Normandy landings.
War, a threat that infests our reality and our dreams, comes again in the two minutes of MELODY NIGHT directed by Kayhan Anwar, a very refined cartoon.
FUMER TUE arrived from France, created by Denise Powers and ironised that which we Italians would call the vice of the “chat up”, in a verbal twist which was very pleasing.
Continual tension was palpable in the sequence of events of SKINSHIP by Nichola Wong, which demanded attention: here speaking of sexuality and human relations, things that concern everyone.
Senile dementia, the illness and the invalidity are themes which make the heart shake, not to be taken lightly, like in PFLEGESTUFE by the German director Julia Peters, a terrible recount of distruction and threating morals.
If behind the video camera there is a woman, and it has been said many times, very often we can count on ecsquisite and innovative directive and character points of view, like in Mirna Dizdarevc’s ISKUPLIENJE.
And we are on the homestetch, whilst a timely breeze cut throught the red sky, rolled the images of DOMOJ by Simona Feldman, follwed by TOBACCO BURN by Justin Liberman, where screeplay and actors provided their effective contribution to a narrative of violence, no other definition being apt.
Do you have your fan ready? For now, everyone to bed, but we will start again Monday evening.
Once again Piazza Verdi was filled with ever attentive spectators. Starting the night off was the aesthetic satire of “Bold” by Davide Gentile, which alludes in a kindly irreverent way to those who are not really gifted with a full head of hair.
The great tradition of fantastic film anticipated as always the meeting between human protagonist and the beast.
“Bang bang!” by Julien Bisaro descends into the depths of ancestral traditions, a scarlet red stain in a grey smokey context, a girl who flees her father, distress and discovery.
We return to the dear old trick of funeral satire, an irresistible mix of the macabre and the jolly with “Le doigt d’honneur” by Malika Pellicioli, that above all admirably directs this cynical, profiteering family.
Then we participants in the piano lessons of a ten year old boy, not gifted with what Beethoven called perfect pitch: unreserved congratulations to Tommaso Pitta, who literally shook the piazza with laughs. His work entitled ‘How I didn’t become a piano player’.
Sweet, vulnerable, an iris petal floating on water: how could you not love the “Lady with Flower-Hair” created by Sarah Tabibzade: a warm honey cake.
Cinema on the road, chaotic, for “Taxistop” by Marie Enthoven, where everyone taught everyone and an irresistible blonde girl achieved her biggest dream: to stay in the company of her bespectacled daddy.
Winner, however, of melancholy and dramatics was conveyed in the claustrophobic world of illness, suffering, discomfort that can belong to anyone: “Tzniut” by David Formentin was a real recounting of this.
Ezra Pound spoke of old age as a season to learn about the knife and velvet; who knows if the director of “Arroz y fosoros”, short animation with an old man at the door of his fantasies, identifies with this.
Youth, a frightening time, small light moments, and pesky clinging shadows: a difficult relationship with their mother is at the centre of the daily life of the protagonist of “The Sound of Crickets” by Justine Klaiber.
An elegant animation like the rest, “Le Vélo de l’éléphant” by Olesya Shchukina. Morally, we side with the aspiring pachyderm that doesn’t ask from life the realisation of it’s only dream.
How would you feel if you were given a child that you knew wasn’t your own. There are other hidden truths, that some would call skeletons in the closet, in “Père” by Lotfi Achour.
After many small pieces of lives, the last work on the bill for this evening was a scientific contest where the destiny of men is at stake; growing tensions for this visual work that gives a fundamental value to acting.
At this point, saturday evening became saturday night, a good night to all and tomorrow let the screenings continue!
Riccardo Visinitin
Imagine reading a book (a good book, naturally) and arriving at page 16. We are, therefore, still at the beginning of the adventure, when the vase on the windowsill of life must produce better flowers. Sixteen is the number of this year’s ShorTS International Film Festival, and it’s breathing young air, very young air, as we will see. Classicism and modernity were already working together during the press conference in the luxurious rooms of Teatro Verdi. Then, it was still reasonably cool, but now on the first of July, the temperature is making our thermometers crack. And so we abandon ourselves to watching short films on the big screen.
After the customary presentation by Chiara Valenti Omero – who rightly underlined the difficulties experienced when putting together any event, together with all the energy required – and after the always agreeable presence of Zita Fusco, there was only really space for pictures.
A dramatic impact was made by the Italian short Child K from the De Feo, Palumbo duo: starting off with a verbal disagreement between two young people on the eve of the birth of their first child; shortly afterwards the story turned into a harsh critique of the horrors and abuse of human beings perpetrated by Nazis; such a captivating work that it left the audience in silence.
Equally drammatic was the English-Irish coproduction Here by C. Eastwood, which revolved around the insuppressable need to have closure on the past, although blood and guilt were seen in the public accusations; undoubtedly the author recalls the subtle atmosphere loved by the likes of Peter Wier.
Giovanni Macelli with Juan y la nube chose to tell a gripping story and in his own surreal way benefits from using cartoons as a figurative mirror; undoubtedly the young Juan has taken his place amongst little heroes. The first clouds contrasted with a sky that, on the other hand, seemed to uphold the proverb “red sky at night…”, however, not much time had passed before it began to rain. Chiara Valenti Omero was not afraid to tell the audience to stay put and in fact, the weather listened to her.
The evening advanced with the agitated Neko Od Nas by Anja Kavic, where verbal, and then physical, weapons gleamed threateningly: an excellent close pyschological examination of the characters.
Then we arrived at a director who knows very well the difficult art of joining cinematic entertainment with historical context, reproducing a summer in the 60s, what happened, what was hidden… credit goes to The Landing by Josh Tainer.
It would have been difficult not to have be struck with the enthusiasm of human fondness, when faced with two young brothers, aspiring businessmen, at the doors of an adult world, featuring both clients and police investigators. In the final moments, the smaller of the two brothers, showed that perhaps he had indeed learnt some commendable entreprenurial skills. And so went Tormus by Sari Bisharat.
Our Francesco Calabrese, however, played with the technicolour apartments and settings in Beverly Hills, for the grotesque ‘pochade’ The Shift; almost a throwback tribute to the feminine world and warning of when women transformed themselves from sex kittens to viragos.
Ex.Amen by Yury Sukhodolskiy, did not follow an expected path, thanks to an extraordinary male character that continually went back and forth between his own past and present; almost citing Fellini and his “Otto e mezzo”, where Marcello Mastroianni embraced a girlfriend sporting his mother’s face… a danse macabre with the Nordic weather, like Ibsen or Strindberg.
Luckily, film still moves us, as we shed sincere tears, we can only declare: Hurrah to the art of cinema! All of this to honour the beautiful Cuerdas by P.S. Garcia, where an adorable, animated girl, took care of boy much less fortunate than herself; a beautiful parable of friendship, and of support given without reserve.
The most ‘musical’ amongst you will remember the surreal videoclip of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Two Tribes, where two figures dressed as the presidents of the USA and USSR beat eachother up; nothing compared to what happens in Berlin Trokia by A. Gontcharov, where constrictions within the political world, descend into an explosive scene.
Particularly tasty was the colourful situation put forward by Hu Wei with La lampe au beurre de yak: an endless photography session with nomadic tibetan characters or assorted ages, always with different backgrounds, a guise to conduct a bitting analysis of the world of pictures.
The rich evening closed with Polish director M. Wojciechowski’s Under_Construction, reminding us through the tricks of film animation, of our daily relationship with time: almost a waltz of the synchronicity of human days.
It’s still hot, very hot, and maybe even the stars tonight have had a shower: that’s what happens when you go to the cinema with ShorTS. Until Friday evening.
Riccardo Visinitin
Associazione Maremetraggio
c/o Casa del Cinema, piazza Duca degli Abruzzi 3, 34132 Trieste (TS)
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