International Shorts 1

Taiwan, 1980s. A hot summer day, watermelon juice, and teenage girl Ming's sexual awakening with her celluloid fantasies. Shot on 16mm.

In 2015, the Basateen al-Razi district of Damascus was razed to the ground as punishment for the population's uprising against Bashar al-Assad's regime. This area is set to be replaced by Marota City, a modern and connected district featuring 80 skyscrapers. Ten years on, two former residents talk about their neighborhood, where their homes and the oldest orchards in Damascus once stood. Having lost everything, two former residents recall their neighborhood, where their homes and the city's oldest orchards once stood. Through their testimonies and the repurposing of regime-produced 3D animations, memory is awakened and resists this deliberate erasure.

After being evicted by the local gangsters, an old carpenter goes on a futile search for his missing cat. As he meanders through the forgotten people and places, he is forced to confront the incurable decay of the town.

“Sappho” is an animated short film, openly inspired by both the process of creating animated films, and by fragments of poems by Sappho (Island of Lesbos, 600 BC), the first female author known to the Western World.

Franz and Milena – between them a distance, her husband and loads of letters – it is love that fills Kafka’s life with light and hope and at the same time illuminates the fears and darkness in him. Inspired by Franz Kafka’s Letters to Milena Jesenská, “Kafka. In Love” explores the multidimensional experience of falling in love.

The autobiography of Koki, an immortal parrot, loyal comrade of Marshal Tito, leader of Yugoslavia for 35 years. 
Made over 4 years with Koki responding to previously unseen archives, this biopic relives the caged memories of this 68 year speaking bird, who had the honour of meeting Hollywood stars, and bloodthirsty dictators.