Call me impatient,
but I prefer short films over feature-length ones. So for the second time, I went
to the Prague SHORT Film Festival – and though the group of movies presented
weren’t as good as the ones last year (from what I remember), it was still an
event comparable to a roller-coaster ride of emotions. In combination with
being part of an audience who is then to choose the top 3 movies of the
competition film series, it was an exciting evening as well.
The evening began
with the Icelandic short film “Whale Valley”, which depicted an older brother’s
depression through the eyes of the younger one. The vast landscape shown was
beautiful, yet created a feeling of emptiness and the camera’s focus on the
brothers and their relationship that solidifies thanks to the climax together
formed a moving picture. The touched audience was then transferred into the
garbage-filled Pakistani landscape and the life of a glue-sniffing gang.
Honestly, I had expectations for this movie, but somehow it simply did not work
for me. There were instances of lively music, yet the poor computer effect of a
flying dollar note and an animated fox were simply bad. The Swedish short that
followed also disappointed me; what I hoped would be a grin-provoker turned
into a psychological torment. Imagine a long scene where an innocent pet mouth
runs around a rat trap, nibbling the cheese cube bit by bit until,- snap! A
long scene of it slowly dying follows. There were several uncomfortable scenes
like this; one of them ended with an older woman’s voice breaking through the
crowd’s unison “Ah!” with the words “They’re kidding right?” This whole film
was a joke, but a bad one. The Canadian short that followed was too serious and
I dare say it seemed unfinished – maybe it was some artsy thing to have long black-outs
with echoes of a conversation or a teenage school band, but for me, the
25-minute film was just lousy and long.
(Image credits: Festival krátkého filmu)
The evening was saved
by the final two movies: a Czech production “Strach” that was thought-provoking
as it discussed the mediatised story of a Czech youth who lied about being
attacked by Roma and “Julian”, a witty film about the eponymous fourth-grader
after which one left the small Světozor cinema hall with a smile. After the
preceding movies that were either HD and had no story or were poorly edited and
shot, they both definitely increased my faith in the evening.
So once we were out,
my companions and I wondered what movies to put on the top 3 ranks. On my list,
I put “Julian” on the first line and my love for melancholy placed “Whale
Valley” on the second and “Strach” went on the last one. Days later, the
results came out: “Julian” won the audience award and hopefully next year’s
SHORT Festival will include more films of this one’s quality.
-
Anna Hupcejová
