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Ca' Foscari Short Film Festival · 2021

Ca' Foscari Short Film Festival 2021

International Competition

Programme

30 films · 30 reviews

Jump to a film

Aida

Review preview for Aida

The widescreen of Hanane Abi Khalil's camera manages an intimacy, one born of proximity.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A woman decides to get married. What is her story?

(Country: Lebanon; Year: 2021; Director: Hanane Abi Khalil)

Full review

The Balloon Catcher

Review preview for The Balloon Catcher

Kaneko writes/directs/animates, the brevity of this piece all the more effective for not a moment wasted.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Rejected and feared, will the axeman manage to use his peculiarity to find freedom?

(Country: Japan; Year: 2020; Director: Isaku Kaneko)

Full review

The Bitch (Narttu)

Review preview for The Bitch

This is not easy viewing, but beneath the gleam of staring eyes and the bloodied lips is something visceral.

Andrew Robertson · 2.5 out of 5
The fate of three brothers is tied up with that of a missing woman.

(Country: Estonia, Finland; Year: 2021; Director: Ville Niemi)

Full review

Black Holes (Les Trous Nous)

Review preview for Black Holes

Lazarus and co-writer Dorothee Levesque keep things minimal.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
When David mysteriously falls into a coma, his friends and family all try to deal with the trauma.

(Country: France; Year: 2020; Director: Pierre Lazarus; Writer: Pierre Lazarus, Dorothée Levesque; Stars: Cosme Castro, Kiara Havas, Gaëtan Lejeune, Obed Lotika, Stanislas Michon-Gentil, Sophie Mourousi, Zacharie Poquet, Noé Szerbojm, Veronika Varga, Constantin Vidal)

Full review

The Boy Who Walked Barefoot

Review preview for The Boy Who Walked Barefoot

There are kindnesses within the film, but stark ones.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
Zbyszek has a special connection with animals. One day a stranger man brings his restive horse to the stable. How much will Zbyszek sacrifice to become a man?

(Director: Gracjana Piechula)

Full review

Bungee To The Beyond (Bungee Al Mas Alla)

Review preview for Bungee To The Beyond

That this manages to be so heartwarming is down to an ensemble effort, the cast's chemistry convinces and so too decisions made behind the camera about what to show and what not to.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Friends help fulfill a dying wish, but they're not the only ones late to do so.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2020; Director: El Huitzo; Writer: El Huitzo; Stars: Emmanuel Giménez, Jonathan Marino, Edgar Ramos, Adrián Rojas)

Full review

By The Time I Fall Asleep (Zanim zasne)

Review preview for By The Time I Fall Asleep

Damian Kosowski's film is cold and claustrophobic, tight in shot and focus in the few scenes outdoors and distant and distressed even by the bath.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
About what happened one November night, in one of the apartments on the top floor of a block of flats.

(Year: 2021; Director: Damian Kosowski; Writer: Wiktoria Czeladka, Damian Kosowski; Stars: Helena Urbanska, Mateusz Trojanowski, Urszula Gryczewska, Katarzyna Bargielowska)

Full review

Chiffon

Review preview for Chiffon

There is much to admire here beyond the immediate perceptions, sensibilities too.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
Bijoli is serene until a mysterious visitor shows up in her small tailoring shop with a commission.

(Country: India; Year: 2021; Director: Roopkatha Purakayastha; Writer: Roopkatha Purakayastha)

Full review

Dayfly

Review preview for Dayfly

Yi Baoxingchen's film is as mixed media as a single thing like film can be, and all the stronger for it.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
Life is a ray of sunshine that breaks through darkness. In the vast universe, the life of human beings and of all the things in the world comes to an end, a short and wonderful experience which is at the same time evanescent, just like a dayfly.

(Country: China; Year: 2021; Director: Yi Baoxingchen; Writer: Yi Baoxingchen)

Full review

Days Lost

Review preview for Days Lost

Though it has subtleties aplenty its core confrontation lays it on a little too thick.

Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
Olja and Igor's sibling equilibrium is broken by his new girlfriend, and will be tested further by what they leave behind.

(Country: Serbia; Year: 2020; Director: Jovana Avramovic; Writer: Sara Djurovic; Stars: Predrag Bjelac, Jana Bjelica, Gordana Djurdjevic, Jovan Jovanovic, Alisa Lacko, Suncica Milanovic, Zoe Radovanovic, Tatjana Vencelovski)

Full review

En Rang Par Deux

Review preview for En Rang Par Deux

There is a rhythm to this, a catchy sense of improvisation.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Animation sees Afif, originally from Tunisia and Aliou, from Senegal, tell their different stories.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2020; Director: Elisabetta Bosco, Margherita Giusti, Viola Mancini; Writer: Margherita Giusti)

Full review

Europa

Review preview for Europa

Jose Lillo's performance as Pedro is of chiselled weariness, whisper, mutter, movement.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
A foreign worker in Switzerland has to take a cow to slaughter while his mother is dying in a Spanish hospital.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2021; Director: Lucas del Fresno; Stars: Angèle Colas, Magali Heu, José Lillo)

Full review

Gossipy (Novelara)

Review preview for Gossipy

Inventiveness with camera in what feels like location shooting rather than two-camera studio gives it a versimilitude that helps carry its comic elements.

Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
A woman watches every move in her neighbourhood.

(Year: 2021; Director: Willy Suárez; Writer: Willy Suárez; Stars: Lorenza Machín, Juani Rodríguez)

Full review

The Heart Of The Volcano

Review preview for The Heart Of The Volcano

Fee Strothman's camera is somewhere between the dreamlike and the documentary.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Their fate in the hands of a powerful sorcerer, by the next moon a daughter must save her father's soul.

(Country: Germany, Mexico; Year: 21; Director: Montserrat Cattaneo; Stars: Xochitl Galindres, Humberto Yanez, Miguel Cooper)

Full review

The Last Illusion (Poslednyaya illusia)

Review preview for The Last Illusion

Gorgeously shot, from from the candlelit parlours of the nouveau riche to the wet streets of a man on his differing uppers.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Russia. 1910. A once-famous magician has been reduced to a wandering circus artist. He prepares himself for his final performance…

(Country: Russia; Year: 2020; Director: Vladimir Feklenko; Writer: Vladimir Feklenko)

Full review

Little One (Malechka)

Review preview for Little One

As pleasant as this is, their performances might have been better highlighted in a tighter run-time.

Andrew Robertson · 2 out of 5
A couple of sisters stick together.

(Country: Macedonia; Year: 2020; Director: Ana Andonova)

Full review

Migrants

Review preview for Migrants

It's beautiful to look at, there is detail and delight in every stitch and stem.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Driven south by climate change, a family of polar bears tries to make a new life.

(Country: France; Year: 2020; Director: Hugo Caby, Zoé Devise, Antoine Dupriez; Writer: Lucas Lermytte)

Full review

The Next One (Ďalšia)

Review preview for The Next One

The camera in Dominik György's film is never still, tight within this small space to faces and hands, the tremble of finger and lip.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
A troubled young woman enters an abortion clinic and realises she has forgotten the socks that she must have with her in order that the procedure will be carried out.

(Country: Czech Republic; Year: 2020; Director: Dominik György; Writer: Dominik György, Pavlína Vítková; Stars: Hana Adámiková, Irena Erbenová, Lída Jakubuv, Jana Krajciová, Simona Prasková, Lesana Sovicová, Petr Urban)

Full review

The Other (Digari)

Review preview for The Other

The liberties taken with the work of a playwright famed for his contemporary analysis of the morays of fin-de-siecle Vienna are a triumph.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
A man becomes suspicious of his wife's faithfulness, more so when he sees another at her graveside.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2021; Director: Ako Zandkarimi, Saman Hosseinpour)

Full review

Pile Of Salt (Estatua de sal)

Review preview for Pile Of Salt

Marc Camardon's film, co-written with Jordi Tortosa, explores familiar themes with verve.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A diligent and faithful Catholic seminarist, experiences a crisis after meeting a fellow student.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2021; Director: Marc Camardons; Writer: Marc Camardons, Jordi Tortosa; Stars: Oriol Ramis, Gerard Clavell, Luis Anyó, Pau Bascompte, Joan Camardons, Pau Camps, Lourdes Cirera, Toni Farré, Gerard Larrondo, Andrés Montoya, Albert Muntanyola, Jan Zawisza)

Full review

Romantic Eggs

Review preview for Romantic Eggs

This is a delight, a chaotic collage of the dreamlike and the deliberate.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
After some insects warn a girl the Earth is under threat she sets out on a mission to save it.

(Country: China; Year: 2021; Director: Sun Xiangping)

Full review

Round 0

Review preview for Round 0

Sonia Ladida Schiavone's film, with Rosario Cammarot's cinematography, has the sense of something born of the stage, but transformed by cinema.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
Kolbeinn and his friends are young boxers from Iceland and they are training for the Nordic Championship. A serious accident risks copromising their future.

(Director: Sonia Ladidà Schiavone)

Full review

The Solace Of Ruins (O Conforto Das Ruinas)

Review preview for The Solace Of Ruins

Gabriela Lourenzato's film takes us along and at the close makes the allegorical actual.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
Madu and her small assistant investigate the case of a woman who suddenly disappeared.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2020; Director: Gabriela Lourenzato; Writer: Gabriela Lourenzato; Stars: Ellen Silva, Tamirys Rodrigues, Cyda Baú, Rodrigo Mercadante, Rosane Alecrim, Aneide Amorim, Maciel Araújo, Keli Assunção, Baixinho, Karoline Barros, Bela Bastos, Murilo Bastos, Lídia Borges, Grazielly Brito, Maicon Brito)

Full review

The Sugar Grocer (Seker Gida)

Review preview for The Sugar Grocer

Ferman Narin's camera creeps along with the grocer, through doors, up stairs, and further as things escalate.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
Salih is a neighborhood grocery living alone in a monotonous life. One day with an order coming while Salih is sitting at the grocery store, he will come out of this monotony and experience the most traumatic day of his life.

(Country: Turkey; Year: 2020; Director: Ferman Narin; Writer: Kendal Ozturk, Ferman Narin; Stars: Tolga Manyer, Salih Yildirim, Ayfer Sen, Mehmet Leblebici, Aynur Saçkesen, Pelin Gören, Bülent Kizil)

Full review

Termites (Ghunn)

Review preview for Termites

Shot through with a rightness, every frame a photograph, every unstill moment a miracle.

Andrew Robertson · 5 out of 5
The voice reminds the city that all art is banned, but when a young girl discover's one man's secret he cannot remain silent.

(Country: India; Year: 2020; Director: Jayabrata Das; Writer: Jayabrata Das, Banibrata Adak; Stars: Raja Chakraborty, Mouli Saha, Debaditya Naha, Manab Saha)

Full review

A Toy In The River (Kawatan Sa Salog)

Review preview for A Toy In The River

Though dressed in the detritus of the modern era, it is a tale sufficiently plastic that its flotsam and jetsam could be substituted for any cargo discarded.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A boy steals a toy dinosaur and runs away from home... and into trouble.

(Country: Philippines; Year: 2020; Director: Alphie Velasco; Writer: Alphie Velasco; Stars: Marc Felix, Kyle Kaizer, Lui Manansala, Rob Roberto, Atanacio Rodavia)

Full review

Vegetarians (Vegetariani)

Review preview for Vegetarians

Able direction, crisp production and a convincing cast in something that has clear aims and hits its target.

Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
Hunting with his father, a son's first shot will have a lasting impact.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2021; Director: Marco Mazzone)

Full review

Weightlessness (Nevesomost)

Review preview for Weightlessness

Alexey Lyubimov's performance is rooted in the physical, the palpable.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A young ballet dancer tries to cope with trauma and faces a creative crisis.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2021; Director: Lyubov Knyazeva)

Full review

Where The Leaves Fall

Review preview for Where The Leaves Fall

You Guolin's cinematography is crisp, a combination of lens and grading that feels old without feeling tired.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Giacomo, a young second-generation Italian-Chinese student, travels to the Chinese county of Wencheng to bring back the ashes of his late father.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2020; Director: Xin Alessandro Zheng; Writer: Xin Alessandro Zheng; Stars: Giulio Cai, Wuyi Zheng)

Full review

Yard Kings

Review preview for Yard Kings

This is grain as grit, the fuzziness of focus the grip of grime across everything we see.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
The film follows the story of Ellie, a young girl from a violent home, who decides to confront the situation.

(Country: UK; Year: 2020; Director: Vasco Alexandre; Writer: Vasco Alexandre, Billy King, Justin Scher-Smith; Stars: David Price, Elle Atkinson, Caroline Lazarus, Jermaine Ricketts)

Full review