Shorts
Reviews, previews and highlights of features and shorts from the myDylarama team and guest writers.
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Q&A with Pierre Mouzannar, dir. An Arabian Night - Clermont 2020 award winner
9 March 2020, by Abla Kandalaft, Brasserie du Court team, Elise LoiseauSpending his last night as a civilian in his dream-like local tennis club, Michael, a young British soldier confronts a glimpse of the near future waiting for him on the other side of the night. Video interview to come... An Arabian Night is a dreamy huit-clos with an out-of-time quality reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch’s Night On Earth. Through the tale of this improbable encounter, much like in the Arabian Nights, the writer seeks to explore the reality of two worlds colliding, and the (...) -
Q&A with Mostafa Morad, dir. Henet Ward - Clermont 2020
24 February 2020, by Abla Kandalaft, Brasserie du Court teamHalima, a Sudanese woman living in Egypt, works as a henna painter. On a regular working day, she goes to one of Giza’s local areas to prepare a bride for her wedding. Her seven-year-old daughter Ward accompanies her and starts to wander around and discover the place. A well-structured narrative short and an impressive debut from Egyptian director Mostafa Morad, whose camera work and carefully selected intimate moments drop us straight into the chaos of the pre-wedding rituals and allow (...) -
Q&A with Shanawaz Nellikunnil, dir. 405 - Clermont 2020
21 February 2020, by Abla KandalaftFour-O-Five, the film, is about an un-named man in an un-named town, who has lost everything, including the love of an un-named girl because of an un-named sin committed by him at some point. Here’s our video interview with the director and actor Dhaananjay Talwade. There is a beautifully poetic quality to your film, and also a sense of loss and regret. What do you hope the audience will get out of it? Thanks for the compliment, I want the audience to know what freedom really is; (...) -
Q&A with Shady Srour, dir. Oslo - Clermont 2020
21 February 2020, by Abla KandalaftZiad, a Palestinian day labourer, is denied entry into Israel for work that day. Not wanting to return home empty handed after promising his daughter meat for dinner, he needs to get creative. Trump’s latest meddling in the region has effectively left many if not most Palestinians feeling hopeless. The title of this short is a nod to the Oslo Accords that ended up dispossessing them of more of their land and subduing much of their fight for rights and freedom. The recent US "deal" (...) -
Q&A with Hamza Bangash, dir. Stray Dogs Come Out At Night - Clermont 2020
18 February 2020, by Elise LoiseauKarachi, Pakistan. Iqbal, a migrant sex worker, cannot come to terms with his illness. He convinces his uncle to take a day trip to the beach, desperate for respite. The Arabian sea beckons. An original film about an oft-ignored demographic. Hamza handles the subject matter with sensitivity and respect, painting a complex, human portrait of a character that is too often faceless. Can you explain the title? What is the symbol or role of the dog? In the late of night, the streets of (...) -
Q&A with Sofia Alaoui, dir. Qu’importe si les bêtes meurent [So What if the Goats Die] - Clermont 2020
14 February 2020, by Abla KandalaftIn the heights of the Atlas mountains, Abdellah, a young shepherd, and his father are snowed in. As their animals start to starve, Abdellah goes in search of supplies in a village more than a day’s walk away. With his mule, he arrives in the village and discovers that it has been deserted because of a curious event that has left all the believers baffled. The product of a truly incredible mix of genres, this short is a mesmerising oddity shot amongst the stunning, other-worldly landscape (...) -
Q&A with Paul Howard Allen, dir. Mega Sexy Robot Dinosaur - Clermont 2020
12 February 2020, by Abla KandalaftINTERVIEW VIDEO TO COME A silly (in all the best ways) short very much made for fun that certainly made me laugh! Glad it made it into the Clermont competition. How much do you enjoy artistic experiments? Cinema audiences these days are incredibly smart and cinema literate so it’s really fun to be mischievous and play with people’s expectations. This is the beauty of short film, it allows you to explore your weirdest ideas without having to satisfy a commercial agenda. Why was the (...) -
Q&A with Ross McClean, dir. Hydebank - Clermont 2020
11 February 2020, by Abla Kandalaft, Clotilde CouturierForced onto the Northern Irish countryside, Hydebank Wood Facility currently houses 104 young male offenders. Four years into his sentence, Ryan is still coming to terms with the cause of his imprisonment. The unlikely catharsis to his inner demons? A flock of sheep living inside the prisons walls. Hydebank has certainly stood out in this year’s festival competitions for its particularly uplifting tone and heartwarming depiction of its subjects, human and animal. Director Ross McClean (...) -
Q&A with Baloji, dir. Zombies - Clermont 2020 PRIX FESTIVALS CONNEXION AUVERGNE-RHÔNE-ALPES
11 February 2020, by Clotilde CouturierThe film "Zombie" is a journey between hope and dystopia in a hallucinated Kinhsasa, from the culture of the hair salon to futuristic solitary clubbing, from the urban parade to the glory of a dictator in campaign (Papa Bollo) to modern western in the Takeshi Kitano style. In parallel, the film is based on the almost carnal relationship we have with our phones. The device becoming like an outgrowth of the hand and giving us the talent of digital ubiquity... Baloji is a multidisciplinary (...) -
Q&A with Aurélie Reinhorn, dir. Raout Pacha - Double winner - Prix du rire « Fernand Raynaud » & Canal+ Award for the National Competition - Clermont 2020 Grand Prize
10 February 2020, by Abla KandalaftTwo lost souls are required to undertake community service in a small town in Normandy. As it happens, the clean and tidy beach resort doens’t actually need any of the work they’ve been assigned and they start making up a series of absurd tasks to carry out. A proper laugh-out-loud short, Raout Pacha is also a damning indictment of the world of work. Reinhorn specifically questions the validity of this sort of compulsory unpaid work that ultimately benefits nobody. Her portrayal of the (...)