The Balkan Shorts programme is a curated selection from altcineAction! 2016 Film Festival, chosen based on audience’s votes, the 5C critics reviews and the specialised juries awards. This selection brings together some of the most exciting and emerging talents from the Balkan region, and showcases their recent work, ranging from Bulgarian animation to Slovenian fiction films. The screening is followed by a Q&A session with the 5C ambassadors, five emerging film critics, who will talk to the local audiences about the art of short films and the recent productions from the Balkans. The short film program is part of the 5C Project Cine-Caravan, organised by Balkan Cultural Centre and regional partners, with the support of Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and Croatian Audiovisual Centre.
The day of the bleeding gums (Bulgaria, 2014, 5’)
An experimental film, The day of the bleeding gums, contemplates the existential condition of the individual as artist through snapshots of animated storylines. Drawn in minimalist black and yellow on a Smartphone, the film presents the innovative solution found by a painter to sell his art.
Credits
Director: Dimitar Dimitrov
Producer: Neli Gacharova
Libelula (Romania, 2015, 15’)
A film about everyday people and their everyday lives, Libelula is the name of an ordinary tower block in post-communist Bucharest. Narrated through the perspective of the building’s caretaker, the film presents a journey into the tower block’s core, detailing the common life, the routine, the past, the present, perhaps the future.
Credits
Directors: Mihai Salajan, Adelina Bulibasa
Scriptwriter: Ioan Peter
Producer: Adelina Bulibasa
Cast: Gheorghe Salajan, Florin Didilescu, Bulibasa Elena, Vasile Leac, Iulian Teleoaca
Dayi/ The Uncle (Turkey, 2013, 11’)
A retired man, who lives alone, is concerned with preparations for his passing. Under the unsolicited opinion of a niece, and the silent observations of her son, this tragicomic story explores rituals of death, through the perspective of both consumerism and spirituality.
Credits
Directors: Mehmet Yamak, Muhammet Ateş
Scriptwriter: Yılmaz Yücel
Producer: Emirhan Bal
Cast: Sahir Tamer, Selma Bayraktargil, Talha Can
Working Day (Greece, 2014, 10’)
Kostas owes a lot of money. Desperate to find a solution to his accumulated debt, he decides to rob his best friend Vasilis, who transfers daily the money from the bank to the depository. During the ambush, the two friends confront each other and Kostas ends up unintentionally shooting Vasilis. In the car, with the wounded Vasilis by his side, he realizes he has made a wrong decision, once again.
Credits
Directors: Vangelis Karamarigos, Zacharias Mavroeidis
Producers: Vicky Miha, Iraklis Mavroeidis
Marko (Croatia, 2013, 10’)
The camera follows Marko, a young boy, walking the streets of Split, collecting empty bottles. He will sell them to a small shop for scant money, so that he can help his sick mother. But his day’s peripatetic adventures around town are marked by an encounter with an older boy.
Credits
Director: Igor Dropuljić
Scriptwriter: Igor Dropuljić
Producer: Tamara Bilankov
Cast: Franko Jakovčević, Toni Vrdoljak, Albert Kazi, Stipe Matas, Nikola Milanović, Lena Krstičević, Nada Kovačević, Snježana Novakovič
Censor (Turkey, 2015, 8’)
Sadik, a film editor working to censor foreign films to safeguard the morality of Turkish society, goes to visit a therapist, because he feels that his ‘morality is ruined’. Will he find the answers he seeks or will he leave the meeting more confused than before?
Credits
Director: Onur Kesapli
Producer: Onur Kesapli
Cast: Onur Bilge, Aysil Susuzlu
Darka/ The Dinner (Albania, 2014, 15’)
Diana, a 16yrs old girl, lives with her younger sister and their father. Their mother had died a few years before, and Diana, who closely resembles her, has taken over running the home and taking her of her younger sister… One day the father invites his brother and sister-in-law, as well as a young woman, to their home for dinner. But how will Diana react when faced this new presence?
Credits
Director: Suela Bako
Scriptwriter: Suela Bako
Cast: Erjeta Cufaj, Romir Zalla, Mehmet Xhelili, Eri Shuka, Kaltrin Zalla, Ermonela Alikaj
Kopanje/ Diving In (Slovenia, 2014, 15’)
A man, responsible for a tragedy that impacted his and his family’s lives, wants only one thing: that the people he cares about give him one last chance. After not seeing his two girls for a year, they are dropped at his home by his estranged wife – their mother. Leaving them with a warning to the husband to not leave the apartment, the girls are soon bored and ask to be taken swimming. Afraid to overstep the indications of their mother, but eager to please them, he finally caves. However, the mother will not be happy about his decision. Can the family finally find peace?
Credits
Director: Simon Intihar
Scriptwriter: Simon Intihar
Producer: Jožica Blatnik
Cast: Gaber K. Trseglav, Jana Zupančič, Juta Kremžar, Vita Kremžar, Matija Rupel
Pledge (Greece, 2014, 15’)
A man lives isolated on an island. His only companion is a young woman with whom he has made an unusual agreement: she pretends to be his deceased wife, dressing in her clothes and wearing a wig. But what happens between the two when the pledge is broken?
Credits
Director: Christos Gkotsis
Producer: Christos Gkotsis
Cast: Yannis Papaioannou, Despoina Giannouli
Manifesto to the Barbarians of Spirit and Thought on All Continents (Serbia, 2015, 6’)
A short experimental film based on a manifesto written by Ljubomir Micic. He is the founder of the Yugoslavian avant-garde movement from the 1920s, Zenitism, which sought an alternate, abstract expression, and that held anti-war, anti-bourgeois, and anti-nationalist perspectives.
Credits
Director: Sasa Peric
Cinematographer: Sasa Peric
Cast: Julie Rada
Der Kubelreiter (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2015, 10’)
During a snow storm, a man runs out of coal, and decides to visit the coal-dealer in order to beg for some, but once there, neither the coal-dealer nor his wife can understand what the man needs. Based on a story by Franz Kafka, this short experimental film highlights the difficulty of communicating and engaging with other people.
Credits
Director: Stefan Malešević
Scriptwriter: Stefan Malešević
Producer: Stefan Malešević
Cast: Đorđe Branković, Sunčica Fradelić, Dino Olivier
Balkan Cultural Centre 