Berlinale Shorts 2021 program of the Berlin International Film Festival will showcase 20 short films from 16 countries featuring different languages and ranging from fictional formats to experimental films, animations, hybrid and documentary forms
“Art, and film in particular, allows us to see the world through different eyes. It helps us to experience reality through someone else’s perception, to rethink it and to find our place within it,” says Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck, section head of Berlinale Shorts. “At the same time, it requires a sounding board, an audience, so that what is said can find its echo and continue to reverberate.”
Each of the 20 films in Berlinale Shorts 2021 takes its own approach to reality: some look into colonial history and find new ways to interpret it (Al motociclista no le cabe la felicidad en el traje, Strange Object, One Hundred Steps). Others oppose political violence (International Dawn Chorus Day) and right-wing terror to prevent us from forgetting (Deine Strasse). They confront trauma in individual bodies and families to find answers (A Love Song in Spanish, Nanu Tudor). They must process our society (Vadim na progulke, Das Glitzern im Barbieblut, One Thousand and One Attempts to Be an Ocean) or challenge its institutions (Rehearsal). There is a great longing to understand (Zonder Meer) and to be understood (Easter Eggs, Si t’as un coeur, Xia Wu Guo Qu Le Yi Ban, Les Attendants, More Happiness). It is possible to imagine a new togetherness (Luz de Presença, Blastogenese X); the windows to the future are wide open (Ventana).
Films in Berlinale Shorts 2021
Al motociclista no le cabe la felicidad en el traje (Motorcyclist’s Happiness Won’t Fit Into His Suit)
Mexico, 10’
by Gabriel Herrera
with David Illiescas, Ángel Morales, Lisandro Robles, Ulises Robles, Estefanía Guerrero, Joel Ramirez
*World premiere
Les Attendants (The Men Who Wait)
France / Singapore, 15’
by Truong Minh Quý
with Gérard Thomas, Jean-François Geneste, Souleymane Sanogo
*World premiere
Blastogenese X (Blastogenesis X)
Germany, 27’
by Conrad Veit, Charlotte Maria Kätzl
with Charlotte Maria Kätzl, Conrad Veit, Juraj Černák
*World premiere
Deine Strasse (Your Street)
Switzerland, 7’
by Güzin Kar
with Sibylle Berg
*International premiere
Easter Eggs
Belgium / France / Netherlands, 15’
by Nicolas Keppens
*International premiere
Das Glitzern im Barbieblut (Glittering Barbieblood)
Germany, 27’
by Ulu Braun
with Gina-Lisa Maiwald, Mietze Maiwald, Dietlind Sommer, Milan Braun
*World premiere
International Dawn Chorus Day
Canada, 15’
by John Greyson
with Shady Habash, Sarah Hegazi
*World premiere
A Love Song in Spanish
France / Panama, 24’
by Ana Elena Tejera
with Yolanda Mathieu, Candido Ríos
*World premiere
Luz de Presença (A Present Light)
Portugal, 19’
by Diogo Costa Amarante
with Diana Neves Silva, João Castro, Gustavo Sumpta, Luís Miguel Cintra, Fernando Soares
*World premiere
More Happiness
USA, 13’
by Livia Huang
with Tina Wonglu, Joyce Keokham, Rui Ying Lu
*World premiere
Nanu Tudor (My Uncle Tudor)
Belgium / Portugal / Hungary, 20’
by Olga Lucovnicova
*World premiere
One Hundred Steps
France / Germany 29’
by Bárbara Wagner, Benjamin de Burca
with Eabha Bourke, Mona Boutchebak, Malachy Bourke, Bob Quinn, Hakim Hamadouche
*International premiere
One Thousand and One Attempts to Be an Ocean
France, 11’
by Wang Yuyan
*World premiere
Rehearsal
Nigeria, 14’
by Michael Omonua
with Ruby Akubueze, Brutus Richard, Amanda Oruh, Chimezie Imo
*World premiere
Si t’as un coeur (Young Hearts)
France, 22’
by Émilie Vandenameele
with Artus Antonini, Mathilde Le Borgne, Arthur Velten, Lucie Vincentelli
*World premiere
Strange Object
United Kingdom, 15’
by Miranda Pennell
*International premiere
Vadim na progulke (Vadim on a Walk)
Russian Federation, 8’
by Sasha Svirsky
*World premiere
Ventana (Window)
USA, 11’
by Edgar Jorge Baralt
with Edgar Jorge Baralt, Christina C Nguyen
*World premiere
Xia Wu Guo Qu Le Yi Ban (Day Is Done)
People’s Republic of China, 24’
by Zhang Dalei
with Kong Weiyi, Zhang Chen, Guo Yanyun, Zhao Hua, Hao Mengfu, Li Xuejian
*World premiere
Zonder Meer
Belgium, 14’
by Meltse Van Coillie
with Lucie Wyns, Jeroom Smeyers, Lone Genar, Eva Binon, Patrick Vervueren
*International premiere