LJUBLJANA INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2024, in collaboration with Europanorama and SloKinoBus, presents the latest European and international short films of various styles and approaches through genres such as fiction, animation, experimental, and documentary film from different countries (Slovenia, Japan, Belgium, Czech Republic, Croatia, Spain, Brazil, Germany, Estonia, Norway, Ukraine, Palestine, UK, Egypt, Algeria, USA, Spain, Austria, Turkey, South Africa, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Albania, Italy, Hungary, Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Netherlands, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, France, China, etc.). The festival received a large number of interesting and creative short films from 62 countries around the world!

6.6.2024 /20.30-22.30/

Berdyans'k

Dir. Tom Hopkins, Kateryna Paida, UKRAINE, 16min.

Lera, a young Ukrainian refugee who has recently reached Ireland, who, fearing the worst, uses dark-web séance software (The Orb) to discover that her sister Maryna has died in the conflict back home. 

 

In The Waiting Room

Dir. Moatasem Taha, EGYPT, 15min.

Hussien — a 30-year-old Palestinian Arab with Israeli citizenship after being evacuated in 1948 — escorts his freshly bereaved 70-year-old mother Rashida to her medical appointment in an Israeli hospital waiting area.

 

NYA

Dir. Imene Ayadi, ALGERIA, 16min.

Taking place in Algerian suburbia in 1994, the story revolves around Anya — a seven-year-old girl who blissfully experiences her childhood without being aware of the turmoil caused by the civil war engulfing her country. Her sole desire is for her father — a journalist away on an assignment — to come back in time for the Mouloud holiday.

 

Seeing Myself Through

Dir. Berta Saura, SPAIN, 17min.

Delia sails through the vast ocean of her memories. She finds herself lost in a maze of
thoughts and lived moments, unaware that she is getting closer and closer to her most
feared memory, the one she has tried to forget and avoid for so long. But, will she be able to
confront that moment that continues to condition her life?

 

Millions of Cats

Dir. Petya Andreeva, BULGARIA, 8min.

Mother and daughter share a lovely afternoon reading their favourite book. However, they find themselves in an unfamiliar location. Time moves in an unusual way and reveals the reason behind their presence in this extraordinary place.

 

The Bridge

Dir. Jakov Nola, CROATIA, 8min.

ALAN (46) is picking up his daughter VANJA (14).  Vanja's talking on her cell phone while entering the car, she greets her father and continues to talk on the cell phone. It is clear she's talking to her mother. After she hangs up, Alan tries to start a conversation by bringing up old memories and asking her about school and her mother. Vanja ignores him.  

 

Y

Dir. Matea Kovač, CROATIA, 7min.

An empty paper depicts a struggle between artistic composition and decomposition as the voice of the narrator-protagonist reminisces about her tumultuous relationship with a former girlfriend.

 

Republika

Dir. Antonia Begušić, CROATIA, 12min.

…” - Well, Adeimantus, has our state now grown to its full size?
- Perhaps.
- Then, where in it shall we find justice or injustice? If they have come in with one of the elements we have been considering, can you say with which one?
- I have no idea, Socrates; unless it be somewhere in peoples dealings with one another. “
(Republic, Plato)

 

Aleph

Dir. Slobodan Tomić, CROATIA, 7min.

The film is inspired by Borges' short story Aleph. Aleph represents a unique point through which we can see all events in space and time. The protagonist entangles in a world of simultaneous events. Passing through Aleph's portals, he experiences humanity's fears and sufferings. The accent is on continuous metamorphoses, as well as the atmosphere of anxiety complemented by noises. His character has constantly been changing.

 

Shahroor

Dir. Yafa Ezzat Shahroor, Mo'men Ghanim Hasanain, PALESTINE, 15min.

Shahroor is a short documentary about Yafa’s story, who was known for her passion for media since childhood. She had a clear plan to achieve her dream, with the support of her father Ezzat, the journalist, but one day all that vanished.

 

7.6.2024 /20.30-22.30/

Schallner

Dir. Jon Grandpierre, GERMANY, 8min.

Every great personality needs a personal serf. Especially as a double bass player, it is not only for practical reasons that a carrier of the unwieldy instrument is needed – real greats have their basses carried.
What begins as a normal evening in a Cologne jazz bar becomes in the moist warmth of the pub’s toilet, the decisive night in the life of a man who is not yet able to anticipate his fortune: He shall become the personal bass carrier of the great Schallner – “Schallner has chosen me.”

 

Common Desire

Dir. Tringa Gashi, Andita Shabanaj, KOSOVO, 11min.

Common Desire explores what it is that drives people’s pursuit for material status as well as how a population’s desires are materialized within a free market economy. The film is a delirious portrait of the rapidly-changing socio-economic environment of Kosovo, observing several different small businesses and shops in Prizren, and how they generate dreamlike images of prosperity and social-mobility.

 

Sails of Sorrow

Dir. Artemisia Refle, AUSTRIA, 11min.

A small group of family members has gathered for a funeral reception to bid a final farewell to Heinzi, the departed patriarch of the family. Expectations and worldviews of family members collide, leading to exchanges of trivialities and moments of rudeness, gradually thinning the table. Where has everyone disappeared to? A reflection on the wordlessness that accompanies grief.

 

New Idea

Dir. Marko Bosanac, SERBIA, 12min.

The “NEW IDEA” is a short animated movie about the inner struggle of a creative mind. Pensilio, Loopito, and Lensio are the characters who represent creativity, research, and production, and they are on a journey to find a new idea. Every scene describes a particular obstacle in the developing process stage of the mind. In the final scene, it will revealed that everything was happening in the head of a teenage girl.

 

Flower of the Partisan

Dir. Charles Badenhorst, SOUTH AFRICA, 11min.

During the assassin Tsafendas’ years of solitary, it becomes clear that he is suffering for a futile act. Killing the "Architect" of apartheid did not lead to its end but its affirmation. But then a difficult maths problem distracts him. He remembers stories and music. He starts to live for the imaginary.

 

PANE

Dir. Odveig Klyve, NORWAY, 7min.

The film follows a baker through the entire process from flour to finished bread. He bakes the bread in a 250-year-old stone oven, and uses no machines when making the dough. The film shows the beauty and creativity of a craft process that is threatened by efficiency and mass production.

 

Leylet Europa

Dir. Ronida Alsino, Léo Beaudoin, GERMANY, 15min.

Four individuals decide to flee to Europe, each starting their journeys separately. As they face various challenges, their unique experiences merge into a collective story, allowing them to bond without getting lost in the crowd of "refugees".

 

Ana Morphose

Dir.  Joao Rodrigues, PORTUGAL, 10min.

A little girl reads herself to sleep. As she dozes off, the physical world starts melting into an alternate reality where the contents of a book rule over the laws of physics.
Ana has to escape being swallowed by the overwhelming accumulation of printed knowledge and find her own space in a world where nothing is what it seems.

 

Light

Dir. Matic Valentan, SLOVENIA, 10min.

A couple experiences unusual events on a night out.

 

Demi-Goddesses

Dir. Martin Gerigk, GERMANY, 8min.

‘Demi-Goddesses’ is the second essay about still dominant dark aspects of our modern society. It is conceived as a surreal anti-patriarchal thought experiment and raises important questions about gender, power, and social change, prompting us to reflect on how historical patterns of discrimination and oppression might be either repeated or overcome in a reversed gendered world. It challenges the viewer to confront their own assumptions and biases, and to consider the possibilities of a more equitable society.

 

YUGO MANCHESTER

Dir. Daniel Rodrigues Correia, SLOVENIA, 13min.

"MARIBOR, YUGO MANCHESTER" is a captivating dance short-film that takes the audience on an immersive journey through the evolution of the city's industry, rise, and fall in Maribor (Slovenia) during the 20th century. Through mesmerizing choreography and powerful storytelling, the film unravels the transformation of Maribor from an industrial powerhouse to a cultural gem.

 

8.6.2024 /20.30-22.30/

Forbidden

Dir. Charlotte Vacková, CZECHIA, 14min.

A coming-of-age short surrealist drama about a girl stuck between order and passion.In a pure, ideal world full of rules, one schoolgirl is tempted to get a forbidden kiss and then faces the consequences of her behaviour.

 

A Home on Every Floor

Dir. Signe Rosenlund-Hauglid, NORWAY, 11min.

Poet Hanna Asefaw grew up in a municipal flat in Oslo with her Eritrean family in the late 90s. Through an electrifying spoken word performance, she visits her childhood universe reimagined in miniature, and reflects on community, diversity and belonging - and the political indifference that broke it apart.

 

PERIPETEIA

Dir. Merve Gezen, TURKEY, 15min.

An ordinary day in the life of 9 years old Adem who helps support his family by collecting from the garbage papers and plastics to sell.

 

Nursery Rhymes

Dir. Michael Kam, SINGAPORE, 10min.

Drawing inspiration from memories of his grandmothers, a Singapore filmmaker imagines their childhood spent under different imperialist rule.

 

One blue heart

Dir. Bahar Elif Akyuz, BELGIUM, 21min.

In a family torn apart by gender-based violence, Pelin is looking for her grandmother's attention, she especially wants to spend a single night in her arms. But the grandmother remains cold towards Pelin despite her lung cancer condition. Both women must learn how to reconnect to each other again in order to correct the mistakes of the past…

 

Gift

Dir. Yuichiro Nakada, JAPAN, 25min.

The ex-Syrian refugee and a food deliverer, Yasser meets Eita, a solitary Japanese boy in the city park, and they grow a family-like bond as they play soccer and cook together after Yasser’s bike gets stolen.

 

Epidermal

Dir. Océane Wannaz, SWITZERLAND, 25min.

Victoire and Alizée got to know each other in the water, and it is in that same water that the two teenagers' friendship starts drifting apart. As they evolve through the competitive world of artistic swimming, Victoire notices that her friend's body is transforming. Alizée, sublimated by a new aura, bewitching and intangible, moves away from Victoire. Jealousy sets in, devouring and destructive.

 

9.6.2024 /20.30-22.30/

Reflection

Dir. Sanna de Vries, NETHERLANDS, 4min.

Mirrors cover every inch of Fiep's little house. As she stares at her own reflection, Fiep focuses on her flaws so intensely that they literally grow gigantic... and turns her into some kind of mutation of all her imperfections. Overwhelmed with this sight of herself, Fiep fights her way through the door, into the ferocious winter landscape that surrounds her home - running away as far as possible...

 

"Without Stratos"

Dir. Nikos Katsos, GREECE, 6min.

...a while ago they lived together... now it's different...

 

The Cleanse

Dir. Džana Pinjo, BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA, 15min.

Mila and Dina have ninety minutes for themselves, the length of a football game which occupies the attention of men in their lives. Fed up with the monotony of the everyday, Mila leaves her apartment to cut the hair of a man who is not her husband, and Dina, a victim of domestic violence, enters Mila's apartment to clean it but ends up finally resting. When Mila returns, they lay together, breathing and gathering force for what life will bring next.

 

Hedgedog

Dir. D. Mitry, USA, 17min.

As the war starts in Ukraine, six years old Nina is sent to her grandma’s remote village. In the shack outside, Nina discovers a badly wounded Russian soldier.

 

Guguto Memeto

Dir. Branislav Stosic Jeza, BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA, 18min.

In a village on the edge of reason, when you get a piece of paper with your name on it, it means only one thing: you die. When Moca gets his piece of paper, it will force him to face the past he's been running from for a long time.

 

The Eye Begins In The Hand

Dir.  Yehuda Sharim, USA, 16min.

El Ojo Comienza En La Mano is a tribute to campesino histories in rural CA through the artwork of an artist largely absent from critical conversations on Chicanx art, Ruben A. Sanchez, as well as an unsentimental reckoning with the fate of many cultural workers that struggle between paying rent and/or creative endeavors.

 

The Dive

Dir. Benjamin Mélot, FRANCe, 16min.

Chloé, 28 years old, is taking part in the European 10-meter diving championships. On the eve of the event, she takes selfies with her fans, watches her training videos, gives an interview to a television channel ... But everything takes an unusual turn because it's her last competition and a new one. Emptiness then presents itself under his feet, unknown and frightening.

 

13 Strokes...

Dir. Ioulia Lymperopoulou, GREECE, 8min.

To write and create the short art experimental film “13 Strokes…” i was inspired by my short story “Thirteen Strokes” [Dark Traces (Collective), Publishing House Iliaxtida, Athens, September 2022], concentrating on the heart of the narrative, the uncured trauma that keeps on taking up space in the thoughts and ends up consuming vital energy. Sometimes by appearing in the dreams in different or repetitive forms, even in an evolving way, in time. Time was an essential element in my short film.

 

The foam and the lion

Dir. Cláudio Jordão, PORTUGAL, 19min.

On July 6th, 1808, the "Bom Sucesso" caique and 18fishermen left Olhão, in Portugal, towards Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), taking with them the good news that Portugal was finally free of Napoleon's enemy troops. But in the midst of a great storm, men lose their bearings and faith. The "Bom Sucesso" caique enters an enchanted realm, where a fantastic Marine Creature falls in love with him and will try to save him from a tenebrous Monster in the service of the enemy.

 

At a Glance

Dir. Ruud Satijn, NETHERLANDS, 17min.

During his evening shift, pizza delivery guy Izem suspects domestic violence is taking place behind the doors of a wealthy customer. Do the police believe his warning?
At a Glance is about a quest for connection by people from various social backgrounds, who are challenged to shake off their prejudices. For Izem and his customers, this is not without risk.