Shorts

• Q&A with Tatevik Vardanyan, director of District 16, 16 Floors, 16 People
  21 May, by Abla Kandalaft
  “16 District, 16 Floors, 16 People”, is a short film featuring a district in Yerevan, Armenia, where the legacy of the Soviet Union still occupies the minds and daily lives of the residents living in these huge unfinished monolithic structures built to write the letters CCCP. The film highlights the communities everyday issues and concerns, linking the past and present with all its changes and difficulties of the people once living in a superpower that’s become a decaying empire. WATCH (...)
• Q&A with Rob Summons - director of Skewwhiff
  25 April, by Abla Kandalaft, Elise Loiseau
  An elderly man insists on granting his wife’s wish of taking their car through a drive-thru car wash. Could you explain the title? The title Skewwhiff meant a couple of things to me. On one level, Bill’s shirt collar becomes “skewwhiff” or askew at one point and Rae adjusts it for him. This felt like a worthy moment to use as a title as we get the sense Rae has spent her life caring for Bill, which is bittersweet as the roles are beginning to reverse. More broadly, the couple’s world of (...)
• Q&A with Johanna Pyykkö - director of The Manila Lover
  25 April, by Abla Kandalaft
  During a trip to the Philippines, middle-aged, Norwegian Lars has met Abigail - the Filipina he wants to share his life with, but does she share his plans? I’m so pleased to finally be able to share this interview that we carried out at the Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival 2020. The Manila Lover, which premiered at Semaine de la Critique, was one of my favourite shorts, a nuanced and sweet film with some excellent character development. The character of Abigail is sadly still (...)
• Short Of The Week: Denis Villeneuve’s Next Floor
  24 March, by Abla Kandalaft
  What better time to unearth this early short by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve? In the midst of the supermarket hording that is quickly characterising these end times, Netflix is showing Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s The Platform, whose obscene and opulent gorging sequences are starkly reminiscent of Villeneuve’s Next Floor, which sees privileged diners nauseatingly stuffing their faces with exquisitely prepared meats. Much like The Platform, it is a dark and satirical, purposely over the (...)
• Q&A with Gabrielle Stemmer, dir. Clean With Me (After Dark)
  7 February, by Abla Kandalaft
  Through a very clever and revealing video montage, Gabrielle Stemmer not only sheds light on somewhat depressing phenomenon of cleaning videos on YouTube but silently and subtly unearths the loneliness and neuroses that often underpin it, in a society in which women are homemakers and the home is their gilded cage. How did you discover the “world” of YouTube? I’ve been a heavy YouTube user for seven or eight years now – it’s TV for me. I’d say that from the beginning I’ve been watching stuff (...)
• Short of the Week: Ahmed’s Song, dir. Foued Mansour
  24 January, by Elise Loiseau
  One day Ahmed, employed at the public baths and nearing retirement, encounters Mike, a teenager adrift. Between the bath house walls, in a place on the point of disappearing, a strange relationship will develop between these two fractured souls. A lovely, heart-warming short subtly exploring a growing relationship between the central characters and finding the beauty in the mundane. Available thanks to Univers Cine until 28 January! Here’s our interview with director Fouad Mansour from (...)
• Court de la semaine : Nocturnes de Matthieu Bareyre
  5 décembre 2019, par Elise Loiseau
  Avant de réaliser le long métrage documentaire L’époque (2018), Matthieu Bareyre a posé sa caméra à l’hippodrome de Vincennes. Loin des représentations de Degas et Manet, l’hippodrome est devenu un lieu devenu anonyme, voué à la fabrication et à la diffusion d’images. Sous les lumières blafardes et au milieu des chaises en plastique, Mehdi, Jimmy, Safir et Kader réalisent leurs pulsions par procuration : derrière une large fenêtre en verre, à distance de la course, ils font corps avec les chevaux et leur (...)
• Short of the Week: Nightmare of Gaza by Farah Nabulsi
  29 November 2019, by Abla Kandalaft
  "Gaza is unfortunately not a nightmare. Gaza is a horrifying reality. Farah Nabulsi’s short film, Nightmare of Gaza, presents that reality in an artistic way and reminds all of us of the ongoing tragedy." Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist. A haunting, abstract and experimental narrative of a woman in the streets of Gaza surrounded by the devastation after the bombs have stopped. She has been helping others, but revelations show it is she who now needs help. Our short of the week has just (...)
• Short of the Week: Baghdad Messi
  22 November 2019, by Mydylarama team
  Iraq 2009. Ten-year-old Hamoudi has only one leg, but is totally obsessed with football. He and his friends - like the rest of the world - are looking forward to the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester (Messi versus Ronaldo). But then Hamoudi’s television breaks down! Kurdish-Belgian director Sahim Omar Kalifa’s award-winning short is ruthlessly heart-braking, with a beautifully moving central performance by Ali Raad Al-Zaidawy. Baghdad Messi was amongst the 10 short (...)
• Short of the Week: Carnal Orient by Mila Zuo
  9 August 2019, by carrie
  A cook serves exotic dishes to his hungry, impatient guests. Suddenly the arrival of a mysterious Asian woman re-ignites their insatiable appetite. Mila Zuo’s atmospheric short is incredibly rich in symbolism and references, conscious or not - from Lynch to Fruit Chan’s dumplings. This short is brought to us by the fab horror film platform @WatchALTER. There’s a whole treasure trove on their Youtube (...)

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