18e Festival international Signes de Nuit - Paris - October 1-5 / 22-25, 2020
9



SHORT FILM FESTIVAL SECTION





MAIN AWARD



Abisal

Esteban Santana
Chile / 2019 / 0:20:00


PARIS PREMIERE

Descending from the heights of Puerto, Celso, a done-for and miserable poet, submerges himself in the ruined streets of the city and comes across odd individuals hidden in the depths of a disused port.


 

Jury Statement:

Destruction is both personal and social. The film Abisal introduces us to this complex of dynamics through a very fine cinematography and acting, letting us feel the submergence of an individual within a larger picture of a city architecture and a crushing atmosphere.




SPECIAL MENTION



Bella

Thelyia Petraki
Greece / 2020 / 0:24:25

FRENCH PREMIERE

Greece 1986-1987, a little before the fall of State Socialism and just at the end of the Cold War. In front of Anthi’s eyes the country is changing, the world is changing and with them Christos seems to be changing too.


 

Jury Statement:

“Bella” evokes desire, intimacy, isolation and the internal uncertainty of a woman, on one side a single mother, on the other part of a Soviet Union falling apart. Inevitable attacked by the new free and uncertain world one was her teenage son and second the liberal world that arrived suddenly. The movie relies on real facts such as letters, pictures, home video, but recomposes these elements to set up an original story. “Bella” offers a sensitive look inside of a woman´s life being mother and a citizen in crisis.

Director Statement:

It seems like, despite these unprecedented times, films will always find the way to reach us! Kudos to Festival Signes de Nuit for continuing showcasing our films and many thanks for this Award.



SPECIAL MENTION




I'm Not Telling You Anything, Just Sayin

Sanja Milardocic
Croatia / 2020 / 0:17:41

WORLD PREMIERE


Zrinka arrives in her hometown for a few days to do some location scouting. She stays at her mother Tanja's place. Since Tanja's behaviour seems strange, Zrinka takes her location scouting in order to find out what is troubling her. Finally, Tanja's emotional breakdown brings the two closer together.



 

Jury Statement:

Special Mention for Sanja Milardović for developing a powerful story with humour attached, exploring the difficulty in shifting roles between mother and daughter. The focus falls on the child when needs to take on the role of a parent. The universality and the heaviness of the moment when everything changes instantly in one’s life relates to the audience.

Director Statement:

It is always rewarding to know that a film got to the audience, and even more rewarding to know that it made them laugh a bit while they were watching something that is actually quite heavy. I hope it made them want to take care of their loved ones and be more considerate, because now more than ever, the world is in a lack of those basic human skills.




SIGNS AWARD


The Signs Award honours films, which treat an important subject in an original and convincing way



The Present

Farah Nabulsi
Palestine / 2019 / 0:24:16



On his wedding anniversary, Yusef and his daughter, Yasmine, set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift. Between the soldiers, segregated roads and checkpoints, how easy would it be to go shopping?


 

Jury Statement:

For taking us on an emotionally loaded journey of an opressed man who is denied freedom of movement and for displaying the harsh reality in which Palestinian people lives.

Director Statement:

Thank you so much. Great news! I’m really glad the film resonated.





MENTION FOR THE SIGNS AWARD



The Physics of Sorrow

Physique de la tristesse
Theodore Ushev
/Canada / 2019 / 00:27:00



"The Physics of Sorrow" tracks an unknown man’s life as he sifts through memories of his youth in Bulgaria through to his increasingly rootless and melancholic adulthood in Canada.

 

Jury Statement:

Special Mention for Signes Award for a great movie adaptation based on biographical work, "The Physics of Sorrow", written by Georgi Gospodinov. In its philosophical attempt it goes down to the ancient Greek mythology in quest why children are missing, why did all the gods have eaten their children? This melancholic visual experience emphasises perhaps Gaustine’s words “There is only childhood and death. And nothing in between.” Theodore’s craft is also remarkable reinventing the wax painting on the screen. The result is like an ancient hand-painted-animated-audio-video-book, fully immersive. The music attached takes the viewer in a specific period of time and a drawn space, maybe to our own childhood or maybe somewhere else, somewhere recognisable.



MENTION FOR THE SIGNS AWARD



Ashmina

Dekel Berenson
Nepal / 2018 / 0:15:00


FRENCH PREMIERE


By assisting western skydiver tourists, Nepali teenager Ashmina provides for her family while her brothers get to go to school.

 

Jury Statement:

For reminding us in a very short time the complex nature of the human being that incorporates good and evil at the same time.






NIGHT AWARD

*
The Night Award honours films, which are able to balance ambiguity and complexity characterised by enigmatic mysteriousness and subtleness, which keeps mind and consideration moving




Electric Swan

Konstantina Kotzamani
France, Greece, Argentina / 2019 / 0:40:00


PARIS PREMIERE

Buildings are not supposed to move. But on Avenida Libertador 2050, a building moves and the ceiling shivers, causing a strange nausea.


 

Jury Statement:

The Night Award goes to "Electric Swan" for its cinematic depiction of social class with its inequalities and hierarchical structure. The story evolves unexpectedly from realism to magical realism and surrealism. The characters are enigmatic and mysterious. With an artistic vision writer-director Konstantina Kotzamani brings into discussion themes such as fesr, class anxiety and socio-economic inequalities by using allegory as a literary device to symbolise much larger ideas.



MENTION FOR THE NIGHT AWARD




Accompany

Haeseong Jeong
South Korea / 2019 / 0:24:33


PARIS PREMIERE


Chased by loan sharks, a man takes desperate measures. He kidnaps a child. But the child has been abandoned by her own parents.



 

Jury Statement:

Reminding the Stockholm syndrome “Accompany“ presents a kidnapped girl and a kidnapped villain. The silent film gradually reveals the loneliness and melancholic disposition of both of them, without needing to explain their backgrounds. A pointless journey becomes lingering like a road movie. The connection between a loser guy, a little girl and a stray dog, as we all know, can’t evolve without the pain of being seperated. “Accompany” conveys this very special almost beautiful moment.




MENTION FOR THE NIGHT AWARD




A Swimming Lesson From Dad

Biró Melinda Ildikó
Hungary / 2020 / 0:14:06


WORLD PREMIERE

A bitter-sweet story, about the begging of a friendship between a 9-year-old daredevil Mario and an eccentric gay young man, challenged by the fear and the prejudices of Mario's parents, in a remote Macedonian small town.




 

Jury Statement:

For the sensitivity of the director in uncovering a child’s fear from the loss of a parent, together with fine child actress directing.



EDWARD SNOWDEN AWARD

The Edward Snowden Award honours films, which offer sensitive (mostly) unknown information, facts and phenomenons of eminent importance, for which the festival wishes a wide proliferation in the future.

War of Perception

Bo Choy
Hong Kong / 2020 / 0:19:47


FRENCH PREMIERE

The film follows the journey of a spirit medium through the streets of Hong Kong. In a society where lies and rumours abound, she is on a quest to search for the truth, by collecting messages from the spirits. Weaving through political events that occurred in Hong Kong in 2019/20 with cityscapes, the personal and domestic everyday, War of Perception is a cinematic poetry that reflects on the relationship between the city’s colonial past and present.

 

 

Jury Statement:

This visual meditation through the streets of Hong Kong, following a lady dressed in mirrors has a strong socio-political orientation. The film is awarded with the Edward Snowden Award for rethinking the experience of colonial societies reporting sensitive information about political events that occurred in Hong Kong in 2019/20. The aesthetics of the film where Eastern folklore traditions and rituals is in contrast with the technological modern life, make reality look like a dream, but where identity is lost. Tradition and trauma are both inherited to future generations.





MENTION FOR THE EDWARD SNOWDEN AWARD

How to Disappear

Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner and Michael Stumpf
Austria / 2019 / 0:21:00


Is it possible to desert in a shooter game? Along this question, "How to Disappear" reflects on war and game, discipline and disobedience. For the history of defiance is as old as the history of war - and yet the act of desertion goes beyond the game's space of action. Shot in the martial yet picturesque war landscapes of the online shooter "Battlefield V", the hyperreal graphics become the backdrop for an essay-like narrative. The narrator's voice creates a crack through which physical-real realities penetrate the depoliticized fun stage of the game. Using performances and interventions in the digital battlefield, "How to Disappear" explores the scope and limits of the audiovisual entertainment machine.

 

 

Jury Statement:

We may question whether it is a movie or not, because “How to disappear” is composed of game footage. But the question is asked by the movie itself: Is gaming a decision on the base of free will? Does free will really exist? De facto we can’t choose freely to disappear. We appear to be slaves of the rules. Rules that keep repeating telling us to choose freely, but submitted to the game’s rules. Inside the game deserters can’t be understood because their existence is not offered as an option. The player's free will is nothing but an illusion. So also movie making is reduced to limited possibilities directed by the “rules of the movie’s game” as the film directors prove to remember.








JURY AWARD



Mamaville

Irmak Karasu
Turkey / 2019 / 0:20:00


FRENCH PREMIERE

In a small port town, fifteen year-old Ferah is spending the summer at her grandmother’s beach house. The grandmother indulges in watching dating reality shows, while the granddaughter craves her own sexual release. Pressure is palpable, desire doesn't still, and the summer wind blows strong through every opening.

 

 

Jury Statement:

We are invited to the daily life of a distant grandmother and her grandchild in midsummer somewhere in a small seaside town. The camera captures marginal moments such as grandma watching TV, eating fruit, small talks, peoples´ passing by, to depict the atmosphere of a place, a city. These small things compose the silent rhythm of these two women, the beautiful rhythm surrounding the young girl quietly discovering of her sexuality in her tiny room. Life does not happen with major events, but is composed by the wind, the sun, television programs, porn books, the sea and small drops of summer.


Director Statement:

I wanted to express my gratitude to you for including our film in your program and to the jury for awarding our film with the Jury Award. What a great honour to be awarded in company with some of my favourite short films of the year! Me and the team of Mamaville are delighted to hear such great news.