Short films: Block IV. We Need To Talk


Set of films
dir. Brandán Cerviño („The Communion of My Cousin Andrea”); Christer Wahlberg („You Are Always 20”); Jakob Werner, Thea Sparmeier, Pauline Cremer („Happytrail”); Pegah Ahangarani („I Am Trying to Remember”); Catarina Diehl („Cheating Is Good for You”); Smilla Khonsari („Tapes – Tell Me Everything”) / 2021 - “Komunia kuzynki Andrei”; 2020 - „Zawsze będziesz miał 20 lat”; 2021 - „Ścieżka szczęścia”; 2021 - „Nigdy cię nie zapomnę”; 2021 - „Zdrada ci pomoże”; 2021 - „Taśmy rodzinne” / Spain („The Communion of My Cousin Andrea”); Sweden („You Are Always 20”); Germany („Happytrail”); („I Am Trying to Remember”); Finland („Cheating Is Good for You”); Denmark („Tapes – Tell Me Everything”) / 76 min
Can infidelity be good for a relationship? What are the stages of grief? How to liberate your body from society’s expectations? Films from this block address both these and other questions related to our relationships with others and with ourselves.
The Communion of My Cousin Andrea
duration: 13 min
country/year: Spain/2021
director: Brandán Cerviño
cinematography: Brandán Cerviño
production: Sabrina Zimmermann, Brandán Cerviño / Filmes de Pedra
selected festivals and awards: 2021 – IDFA Amsterdam
Will hip-hop background music, glued colorful flower frames, a huge pile of money and a Ferrari help to answer Andrea's question, does God exist?

Andrea has made her first communion. However, the ceremony lacks glamour. For Andrea, things without sparkles are not things. Also, there is another problem: does God exist?

You Are Always 20
duration: 15 min
country/year: Sweden/2020
director: Christer Wahlberg
cinematography: Emma Järvenpää
production: Christer Wahlberg / Intermundos
selected festivals and awards: 2022 – London Short FF, 2021 – Euregion FF
In a film from the early 2000s, Christer finds his 19-year-old self. In the film, which has the fattest sound effects and the title Drugs, he and his best friend play adult versions of themselves

In a film from the early 2000s, Christer finds his 19-year-old self. In the film, which has the fattest sound effects and the title Drugs, he and his best friend play adult versions of themselves.

One winter evening, everything changes. Grand visions of the future are shattered and the film becomes a melancholy memory of immortal youth and a friendship that has been lost forever.

Happytrail
duration: 5 min
country/year: Germany/2021
director: Jakob Werner, Thea Sparmeier, Pauline Cremer
cinematography: Hannes Schulze
production: Jakob Werner
selected festivals and awards: 2021 - DOK Leipzig
Depilation hurts and doesn’t feel right. But is there another alternative accepted by the society?

Hair on women’s bodies – a topic that inevitably occupies a woman as soon as the first hairs sprout.

Franka had a lot of hair on her legs, armpits and belly – like many women. Depilation hurts and doesn’t feel right. But is there another alternative accepted by the society? Franka tells about her experience and her decision to let her body hair grow freely.

I Am Trying to Remember
duration: 16 min
country/year: Czech Republic, Iran/2021
director: Pegah Ahangarani
cinematography: Pegah Ahangarani
production: Kaveh Farnam / Europe Media Nest
selected festivals and awards: 2021 - IDFA: Short Documentary Competition
A short story of the Iranian revolution told through the lens of Pegah – the film’s director – collecting memories of her family’s friend Gholam

Pegah talks about Gholam, a man who’s not like her father, mother, uncles, or aunts, even though he’s always present at family gatherings. Gholam films these everyday scenes with his own camera.

At the time, Pegah can’t imagine what the purpose of these films might be, but she’s happy to pose before the lens of this family friend, who she’s certainly very fond of. It is as if Pegah, the film’s director and chief protagonist, is reading from a children’s book; as if we are looking over her shoulder at Gholam’s films of the family and the old photos.

The large family radiates great warmth as we see them shoveling snow or just sitting around at home. But then comes the chapter about Gholam and the Iranian revolution, heralding a plot twist in the story that comes to symbolize thousands of Pegahs and Gholams inside and outside Iran.

Cheating Is Good For You
duration: 11 min
country/year: Finland/2021
director: Catarina Diehl
cinematography: Tommi Seitajoki
production: Tommi Seitajoki / Impressio Films
selected festivals and awards: 2021 – Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival
The film in a collage-like aesthetic shows the complexity of relationships and dynamics

This intimate film combining photography and animated drawing puts on screen the confessions of a middle-class woman, whose family life – with the always absent truck driver husband and children growing more and more distant – consists of moments of solitude. She attempts to overcome them via an extramarital affair. The leading role is played by the famous Finnish actress Kati Outinen, known from Aki Kaurismäki movies. 

Tapes - Tell Me Everything
duration: 16 min
country/year: Denmark/2021
director: Smilla Khonsari
cinematography: Shila Sloth
production: Smilla Khonsari
selected festivals and awards: 2021 – CPH:DOX
Smilla’s mother died when Smilla was little. Today, Smilla returns to the tragic loss

Smilla’s mother died when Smilla was little. Her father took care of her with love and affection.

Today, she returns to the tragic loss to understand who her mother was and how her father experienced being abandoned by her. Old video and audio recordings from the 1990s bring back shared memories and strengthen the bond between father and daughter in a moving but warm and funny film about an exceptional relationship. Her father’s story of how he met Smilla’s mother is almost an entire film in itself, told with a twinkle in the eye by an incredibly likeable man.

The Communion of My Cousin Andrea
The Communion of My Cousin Andrea
dir. Brandán Cerviño, Spain 2021, 13 min
You Are Always 20
You Are Always 20
dir. Christer Wahlberg, Sweden 2020, 15 min
Happytrail
Happytrail
dir. Jakob Werner, Thea Sparmeier, Pauline Cremer, Germany 2021, 5 min
I Am Trying to Remember
I Am Trying to Remember
dir. Pegah Ahangarani, Czech Republic, Iran 2021, 16 min
Cheating Is Good For You
Cheating Is Good for You
dir. Catarina Diehl, Finland 2021, 11 min
Tapes - Tell Me Everything
Tapes – Tell Me Everything
dir. Smilla Khonsari, Denmark 2021, 16 min

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