III EDITION
The Knight of the Nettle
Director: Roman Baranov
Russian Federation, 21’
Moscow Film School
SYNOPSIS: A 30-year-old guy returns to his home with the intention of selling it and here he meets a forgotten imaginary friend – a brave Knight. The Knight is not ready to put up with the adult that his friend has become.
PROFILE: Roman Baranov was born in 1992 in Chelyabinsk, Russia. In 2022 he graduated from the Moscow Film School. He currently works as a creative screenwriter for DT group video production.
Dreamy fragrance of spring blossoms
Directors: Hera Khanmirzaei, Amirhosein Saqafi
Islamic Republic of Iran, 12’48”
Tehran University of Art
SYNOPSIS: A family has been living in a house for a long time. A mother, a father, and a son. War has taken the son away, the heart of this family.
PROFILES: Hera Khanmirzaei is an Iranian film student at Tehran University of Art. Her main interest is filmmaking, and she works as a screenwriter, director, and editor. So far, she has directed short films and documentaries. Amirhosein Saqafi was born in 1994 in Tehran and he has been studying and practicing acting since 2013, and worked in movies presented in world film festivals. He is active in cinema production and editing.
Sea salt
Director: Leila Basma
Lebanon/Czech Republic, 18’
Famu
SYNOPSIS: The summer is coming to an end, and Nayla, a Lebanese teenager savouring her first taste of independence, has life-changing decisions to make.
PROFILE: Leila Basma is a Lebanese filmmaker and photographer currently living between Beirut and Prague, where she is about to finish her MFA in Film Directing at FAMU. Her second-year short documentary The Adam Basma Project was short-listed to be presented at the 48th annual Student Academy Awards (the Student Oscars) after touring various international documentary film festivals.
Hare patte ke rang ki patrangi aur kahin kho gaya naam ka ladka – A Flight of the Lost Dreamy Bird
Director: Chaman Ramesh Kishan
India, 12’57”
Pandit Lakhmi Chand State University
SYNOPSIS: Set in the 1990s in Northern India, a young man returns to his native village and recalls his childhood through memories of a conversation he had had with his mother. During this process, the young man discovers how once a silent village, distant from the hustle and bustle of city life, is gradually transforming into an urban reality.
PROFILE: Chaman Ramesh Kishan comes from Delhi. He obtained his BSc in Life Sciences from Hans Raj College, Delhi University, and is currently a film student at Pandit Lakhmi Chand State University of Performing and Visual Arts in Rohtak, Haryana, India.
Tańcząca chmura – Dancing Cloud
Director: Platon Ogarev
Poland, 16’31”
Łódź Film School
SYNOPSIS: Aniela visits her sister in Berlin. On his way back to Poland, he gets off the train at one of Berlin’s stations. For teenage Aniela, a night journey through colorful, dangerous and fascinating Berlin will prove to be a lesson to grow up.
PROFILE: A fifth-year student at the Department of Cinematography of PWSFTviT, he has extensive experience working as a cinematographer on various projects, including feature films, documentaries and advertisements. Additionally, he has directed and shot seven short films. The documentary Crew (2020) has been showcased at festivals both in Poland and internationally. He has also worked as a cinematographer for a documentary project in Berlin. The insights and experiences gained during this project served as a significant source of inspiration for his short feature film Dancing Cloud.
Anemone
Director: Alicia Hernanpérez Hidalgo
Spain, 14’
Ecam
SYNOPSIS: Samantha and David are in the car looking at the sea. They are going to scatter their mother’s ashes on the beach of their childhood, but nothing goes as planned. Sister and brother will face their respective truths about that mother figure.
PROFILE: Graduated in Journalism and Audiovisual Communication at Rey Juan Carlos University and recently graduated in Film Direction at ECAM. She has directed the short film Anemone, which is about to be distributed. She also directed several short films such as The Farewell and Oneiro. She often composes the soundtracks of her own projects.
Xiàzhì qiántiān – A Bright Sunny Day
Director: Yupeng He
China/USA, 20’
Columbia University in the City of New York
SYNOPSIS: The appearance of a girl on a bright sunny day gently changes the life of a young man.
PROFILE: Yupeng He was born in Guangzhou, China in 1995. He graduated with a BA in University of California, Irvine. After his undergraduate degree, he decided to go to the Columbia University School of the Arts to continue exploring his film journey. In 2021, He started directing his first short film Love me tender, which was presented at various film festivals, including Durban International Film Festival, Scottish Queer International Film Festival, Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival, International Short Film Festival Canton. In 2023, his short film A Bright Sunny Day was selected for La Cinef at the 76th Cannes Film Festival.
Aaina
Director: Sarangi Smitha Krishnakumar
India, 18’16”
Whistling Woods International
SYNOPSIS: When Naina’s daughter goes missing after a night out, she sets out looking for her and with the intention of finding the girl, with nightmarish fears which eventually lead her into another reality that she did not expect.
PROFILE: Born in Kerala, moved with her family to Saudi Arabia at the age of two months; Sarangi grew up getting multi-cultural exposure right from her childhood. Subsequent cultural exploration through movies and fictional novels kindled a profound interest in storytelling, which eventually made her decide to pursue a career in filmmaking. Sarangi has graduated with a triple major Bachelor’s degree from Christ College, Bangalore and holds a Master’s degree in Film Direction from Whistling Woods International, Mumbai. She has made three short films.
