Shorts Live-Action Competition 4

The world still feels small. Even though many of us are moving into some sort of normality – whatever ‘normal’ is nowadays – the endless stretches of isolation and distancing have conspired to make life seem more constrained and fragile. Yet cinema – and the films in the PÖFF Shorts International Competition – reminds us that there is still a whole community of humanity out on a big planet full of wonder. That there are people who – even if we have differences – we share a connection with and whose stories show us that any isolation is ultimately temporary.

While the pandemic is touched upon in the programme, the films here remind us that the everyday struggles of humanity still go on. There are loves to be found and hearts to be broken. There are corporations to fight and death to confront. There are mysteries to solve and joy and laughter to be had.

With a range of styles and genres, from dark drama to fun comedy with a little detour into the realms of magical realism, all the filmmakers in the International Competition not only astound with their talent but become a constant source of reminding us that we are still together, even if we have felt far apart.

Laurence Boyce and Tara Karajica

The Letter Room

When a kind-hearted prison officer (Oscar Isaac) is transferred to the letter room, he soon gets involved in an inmate's personal affairs...

Heartless

Young couple Anna and Gunnar are deeply in love but they live in a society where people are assigned a new spouse by lottery every seven years. As their final day together approaches, they grapple with the nightmare of being torn apart and facing life with another partner.

The Colonel Cries for The Red-Haired Woman

Is the police an institution to fight oblivion? A dreamlike meditation on the relationship of memory and faces, this film poem is about a remote police station, where all the young policemen want to find the lost love of the old Colonel before he forgets her completely.

Sunrise in My Mind

A young woman working late at night at a beauty salon gives into her restrained interest in a young man who spends his evenings driving Phnom Penh's streets by motorbike as a delivery man.

Shark

Completing the trilogy of wickedly dark comedy shorts that began with Spider and Bear, Nash Edgerton finds a perfect match in Rose Byrne as Sofie, a woman who loves pranks just as much as Jack, Edgerton’s onscreen alter ego. Alas, the couple’s quest to outdo each other may lead to the most outrageous calamity of all.