Shorts 3: Moody Salvation
75 min. | Dialogue Language: English
Once upon a time ... Films from all over the world came together on a glorious battlefield. Victory would be for one of them. But there would be no losers, because talent and art are there to be celebrated, to be loved, to be remembered and to be devoured by you ... the audience. The battle would forever be known as Kaboom's International Short Film Competition. And we are honoured to organise that competition year in year out. In 2023, a large number of short films battle it out for our coveted awards!
Bird in the Peninsula
Seemingly a sly commentary on manhood standards and gender roles, Japanese director Atsushi Wada's latest short dips into a sort of ritual mysticism. Children dance to music under the supervision of their teacher. A young girl attends the scene and comes to disturb their ritual. Bird in the Peninsula received a Special Mention at the 2022 Berlinale.
Empty Little People
On an empty little rock in an empty black sea lived empty little people ... with a compulsive thirst for tea. And tea is running out on Halloween night ... Protect your tea from these little rascals!!!
The Devil is Dancing
Two young sisters see their pink-medieval-world-harmony disturbed when a pretty sword appears in their life, revealing a dark vice in the heart of one of them. A surprising student work dipped in dark-ish pink paint.
Please Let Me In
The inimitable Peter Millard strikes again with a humorous short in his own characteristic style. This one is again laugh-out-loud silly and features a man who desperately wants to get in a house.
A Dog Under a Bridge
"I'm a dog who lives in the park under a bridge. Awoooooooo!" A Dog Under a Bridge started with filmmaker Rehoo Tang walking under a bridge in China. Here was a quiet, deserted, and wild park with people who seemed abandoned by society and who tried to eliminate the loneliness in their lives. To fit in, he imagined himself as a stray dog living alone. Rehoo Tang ended up winning the Jury Award for Best Graduation Film in Annecy.
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I Gotta Cry
In three funky minutes, two thieves realise that if you love something, you gotta set it free. Francesca Colombara's animated music video for German artist Klaus Layer tells the story of two weird-looking thieves who steal the Flying Mushrooms and escape across the desert, riding a giant camel. "I usually think about the weirdest things and then I bring them to life", dixit Colombara. Oh, how we love that attitude!
Garrano
Inspired by the forest fires in Portugal in 2018 and the resilience of the Garrano horse, Vasco Sá and David Doutel made their fourth short film together. Garrano is the inexorable and moody story of the loss of innocence of a young boy. In iconographic painterly animation a Garrano horse is forced to pull a heavy load under a blazing sun while the young boy discovers a man who is about to set a forest on fire. An intense and disheartening tale set in a majestic place where tragedy strikes.
How Many
Mathieu is weighed down by many questions which put him in a heavy state. But as he gives in to his sadness, the rain becomes tears and his tears become rain. He becomes one with his sadness. It's his time to dance, and the tears accompany him. This beautiful symbiosis of music and visuals is a music video for a song by French singer-songwriter Mathieu Boogaerts. It was achieved through the cyanotype photographic printing process, giving the short film very soft textures and a wonderful analog look and feel.
Salvation Has No Name
A troupe of clowns gather to perform a story about a priest and a refugee in this cut-out animation with puppets. As their misguided tale unfolds, the boundaries between fiction and reality begin to fray. A bewitching and theatrical Sakespearean tale to remind us that our xenophobia and our upheld moral superiority affects real people, who have the right to reclaim the narrative.