Official Selection of Short Films

15 April (Sunday), 18:30
Cinematheque of Macedonia
THE END OF TIME (Крајот на времето, 2017)
dir. Milcho Manchevski (US/CU), 5’

THE END OF TIME is an impressive minimalist phenomenology of time, consciousness and selfhood. Subtle art stratification of the awareness of the duration of a multitude of timelines within a film frame and the distillation of a pure emotion. A sunny Cuban afternoon on a street in San Antonio de los Baños, the fictitious mise-en-scène gradually breaks down, fragmenting into a crystalline pictorial structure with a disrhythmic duration of the whole, a micro-image archipelago with unequal deceleration of the parts. The quest for a fixed point hypnotizes and displaces the normal conditions of the perception of time. THE END OF TIME, a winner of the prestigious Ellen Award at one of the most renowned short film festivals in Aspen, as well as the award at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival in Czech Republic, is incredibly attractive cinematic and artistic playfulness, an experimental transcendental journey to something we are very familiar with, but in the same time remains very difficult to grasp, to those rare and timeless moments when we feel truly ourselves, truly 𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒.

15 April (Sunday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
SUB TERRAE (2017), dir. Nayra Sanz Fuentes (ES), 7’

Hypnotic trip through a disturbingly colorful and figurative topography characterized by terror; a graveyard labyrinth akin to a giant sake. Yet the shadows aren’t always to be found underground, and the morbid mise-en-scene could be just an overture.

15 April (Sunday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
9023 (2017), dir. Sotiris Petridis & Tania Nanavraki (GR), 8’

Dystopian event based on an extreme situation: cannibalism. Allegorical and sarcastic commentary on the current economical situation in Greece.

15 April (Sunday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
NOWNESS (Оlevik, 2017), dir. Kristiina Tang (EE), 9’

Visual poem about a farewell to a childhood and a beloved grandfather. The prosaically white scenery is interrupted by the question: When the bird will grab someone next between its beak and swallow?

15 April (Sunday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
EXPLOSIONS IN THE HEART (2016), dir. Yenni Lee (NO), 17’

Intimate and almost etheric view of the symbiotic relationship between two twin sisters and the consequences of one traumatic event. A deconstruction of the human soul which had lost an essential part of itself.

15 April (Sunday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
THE SILENCE (Il Silenzio, 2016)
dir. Ali Asgari & Farnoosh Samadi (IT), 15’

Fatma and her mother are Kurdish refugees in Italy. During a visit to the doctor, Fatma is translating for her mother, but an existential fear makes her silent. The film was running for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016.

15 April (Sunday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
GOD HATES FINLAND (2016), dir. Johan Karrento (FI), 10’

A black comedy about the fear of the unknown giving birth to a wild and uncontrollable imagination. A film in which the growing intercultural exclusivity of today’s world is shown in all its stupidity and absurd.

15 April (Sunday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
AFTER (Posle, 2016), dir. Hanna Jalali (UA/IR), 20’

A sudden and unexpected death heralds a new story together, yet the chaos which it leaves behind opens a deep and intimate confrontation which threatens it.

15 April (Sunday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
FIFO (2017), dir. Sacha Ferbus & Jeremy Puffet (BE), 13’

First in first out (FIFO) is a shelving technique used in supermarkets. But the system regulating the rules about brand image protection goes against the idea of solidarity. Stephan will be forced to make a choice.

15 April (Sunday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
14.15 (2016), dir. Kenan Subaşı (TR), 9’

Apathetic and indifferent, socially autistic, the travelers on the ferry ignore the 12-year-old girl playing the accordion. At the end, someone finally “hears" her music.

15 April (Sunday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
BAKYT (2017), dir. Meerim Dogdurbekova (KG), 13’

Bakyt is graciously galloping on his horse through the Kyrgyz steppes, but the night before the traditional race, his horse is stolen. A warm story of little Bakyt and his endless love for his horse.

15 April (Sunday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
The WOODPECKERS OF ROTHA (Dadyaa, 2016)
dir. Pooja Gurung & Bibhusan Basnet (NP/FR), 16’

Winner of the Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and nominated for Best Short Film at the Venice Film Festival in 2016, The Woodpeckers of Rotha is an impressive visual portrait of the last residents in the plateaus of far-away Nepal and their dilemma: to stay with their memories, or to leave (like the others), and leave the memories behind.

16 April (Monday), 18:30
Cinematheque of Macedonia
THE SADNESS WILL NOT LAST FOREVER (Het verdriet zal niet eeuwig duren, 2016), dir. Alexei Dmitriev (RU/NL), 8’

A film essay about sadness and hope inspired by the last words Vincent van Gogh said to his brother Theo “The sadness will last forever”.

16 April (Monday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
P (2017), dir. Marcus Hanisch (DE), 19’

Two beings, one identity. In order to easen the sense of guilt, the scientist “P” transfers his own traumatic memory to an android girl. A Sci-fi drama about the quest for the answer to one of the oldest philosophical questions – Who am I?

16 April (Monday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
GALATEA, (2017), dir. Cam Thys (BE), 5’

A poetic reflection lost in a country, in a world, where it doesn’t belong. A story about an artist and his efforts to give home to his unique experience.

16 April (Monday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
BEFORE (Zanim, 2017), dir. Michał Biegański (PL), 20’

Asha is a young girl who finds out she’s pregnant, but the reaction of those close to her faces her with the complexity of choice. A gentle, meditative sinking into a nauseous period in which Asha has to face her decision, before...

16 April (Monday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
MUM, I'M BACK (Μαμά, γύρισα, 2017)
dir. Dimitris Katsimiris (GR), 5’

A simple yet powerful film, with a clear and energetic twist, concerning the sensitive topic of the possibilities of authentic self-realization in the middle of a conservative society.

16 April (Monday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
THE FEAR INSTALLATION (A instalação do medo, 2016)
dir. Ricardo Leite (PT), 15’

A short film about human fear inhibiting and eating up existence, and what happens when the pyramid power will get inverted and the domination roles get swapped.

16 April (Monday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
REFLECTION (2017), dir. Batuhan Ibrahim (MK), 8’

A subtle visual self-portrait, intimate journey through imaginary dialogue, diving inside on a quest for one's own metaphysical basis.

16 April (Monday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
EVERYTHING'S OK (Já Passou, 2016)
dir. Sebastião Salgado & Pedro Patrocínio (PT), 16’

Inspired by the short story by Soeiro Pereira Gomes –“A case without particular significance”, written during the Salazar dictatorship, the film tells the story of poverty-stricken Joao struggling to save his sick son. At the same time, a clear illustration that, even seventy years later, the same indifference and social disparity are prevalent in Portugal.

16 April (Monday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
WORDS FLY AWAY (Söz Uçar, 2017), dir. Tufan Taştan (TR), 4’

A humorous film etude in honor of “Those who blossomed from books...”– for many a symbol of civil disobedience in Turkey.

16 April (Monday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
ABRAXAS (2016), dir. Lior Nadjar (FR), 17’

Lucia lives far away from the illusion of the world around her and refuses to integrate. Her nocturnal activities are ecstatic journeys and a kind of obsessive quest for knowledge that sets free. The film is inspired by the 'Seven sermons to the Dead' by Carl Gustav Jung.

16 April (Monday)
Cinematheque of Macedonia
MODERNE KUNST (2017), dir. Marko Šantić (SI), 17’

With its form, energy and symbolism, a new exhibition starts shaking up Bojan’s “harmonious” marriage. A comic story about a marital crisis told through the prism of contemporary art.