South East European Festival 2019 Roundup 2: Sci-Fi Shorts

The 14th edition of the South East European Film Festival showcased a unique sci-fi shorts program that displayed an impressive variety of themes and styles. They took us to odd yet intriguing places in time and space, with some places being frighteningly familiar. Portraying loss and loneliness in dystopian and post-apocalyptic worlds, these group of four short films illustrate the cold reality that things don’t always in fact, get better with time. But despite how things end, sometimes the risks that are involved are worth taking.

In Her Image (Nikoloz Kevkishvili – Georgia)

I couldn’t help but to think of Stranger Things towards the end of this film. It seems as though contact with another realm entails lots of nose bleeds. But all fun left aside, In Her Image was a great opening short in the sci-fi shorts program that glimmered with familiar styles and tales.

This Georgian film by Nikoloz Kevkishvili tells the tale of risk, loss, and love within the depths of virtual reality. The story follows Maia (Ia Sukhitashvili), who risks everything to search for her son, Zura (Zaal Chikobava) – the first AI. Against the wishes of her colleague, Maia takes a pill that navigates her into a convoluted virtual world that Zura dwells in. While it’s not for certain she’ll make it back to reality, she takes the plunge to try and get him back.

With its premise emulating a cool concept for a video game, the film’s VR world is set up quite like one where the scenes and settings change rapidly. The walls quickly dissipate and disappear, as we run alongside Maia trying to find the right doors and taking sacrifices to get to her beloved. It’s a riddle and race against time.

This was an entertaining short that painted a unique picture of motherly love in a vast yet limited universe. It carries a simple narrative, allowing visual effects and music to take you alongside Maia’s story. The simplicity actually helps in coming to terms with how the story concludes, making for a satisfying film.

Cinematographer Sandro Wysocki creates a depressing yet empathetic world. The cold hues of grey and blues mix perfectly in Maia’s world of risk and loss. There are also scenes where contrasting bright red and orange thrive in conjunction with mirror shots that further establish the story in a dystopian world. They often remind us of the ways Nicolas Winding Refn and Gaspar Noe utilize color to add to the rather grim worlds of their protagonists.

Kevkishvili also incorporates a good score to his short story, utilizing music by Zviad Mgebry. Mgebry’s strings, that are ethereal yet dreary at times, mesh well with the film, navigated by movement, time, and space. The score reflects the hope and risk that Maia takes despite the consequences that are involved. It sews everything together, making the film feel whole regardless of its character’s fate.

FlimFlam (Marko Belić – Croatia)

This abstract animation took us to an unknown time and place with unknown characters. I didn’t really know who or what I was looking at, but it was quite a charming, pleasant, and unique film that reflected a bold achievement.

FilmFlam features wondrous sketches of a surreal and imaginary world. It explores an encounter between two abstract characters. A puppeteer longs for company on his unknown planet. When a guest finally arrives, he expresses happiness, but it quickly dissipates, turning into sinister plans.

This was a beautifully drawn out animation from director Marko Belić. His sketches are soft with circular shapes and soft textures. They move softly and carry soft brown hues that definitely exuded otherworldly vibes. Belić’s film oddly reminded me of Arrival. Not only did the puppeteer remind me of the aliens in Denis Villeneuve’s film, but the deep pulsing beats that they expressed.

Visually, it was an awe-worthy experience. We don’t really know what we are seeing, but it doesn’t matter. FlimFlam is about taking us to another space in which abstract creatures, no matter how they look, feel as we do.

It was the sense of loneliness and emptiness his characters felt that seeped through the screen. It all felt too familiar which was one of the fine beauties of his work – building and achieving a sense of metaphysical space and time that we could still feel a connection with.

Third Kind (Yorgos Zois – Greece)

This one was the standout short film in this category. Yorgos Zois’ story follows three archaeologists from the future who return to abandoned Earth to investigate a mysterious five-tone signal. As archaeologists who travel to the past and collect memories, they are on this fantastical journey as much as we are.

The film features excellent set designs that truly seep fear and wonder under our skin. Each scene carries a terrifying sense of newness, wonder, and loneliness. As we’re taken through this post-apocalyptic world, we’re not sure whether to be calm or tense through it all. But through the fear, there’s also a paradoxical sense of warmth that comes with it. We then realize that this deserted Earth is essentially from a time that we are currently living in now.

The film does a great job creating a universe that feels distant, yet ever so prevalent to us. The story is one that takes us forward through sound, silence, and visuals. With very minimal dialogue, Third Kind prompts us to decipher the narrative by our senses. It also makes us wonder how the ways in which we live our lives today, will be interpreted in the future.

I couldn’t get over the amount of dreaded fear that this film brewed without evoking any sort of immediacy. Zois expertly constructs emotion solely through his production design. The post-apocalyptic world that he creates is truly otherworldly that cripples fear, yet it fleshes out wonder and curiosity that keeps us glued to the screen. We’re given a different perspective on the place that we call home today and how it might change in the (hopefully not near) future.

The Last Well (Filip Filkovic Philatz – Croatia)

This was probably my least favorite out of the bunch. This film felt that it was keeping too much from us to really know what was going on in the film. Or perhaps it didn’t know how to display certain narrative elements that it left us feeling lost.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where clean water is scarce, this film by director Filip Filkovic Philatz follows a man (Alen Liverić) who is the owner of the last natural well in Croatia. When one of his transactions turns into a bloodshed, he becomes a substitute husband and father. Thus, the film primarily follows a trio of characters – the man, a woman (Mia Biondić), and her daughter (Ida Rogić) – as they navigate their new lives together along with looking after the most precious resource on Earth.

Carrying a bit of Western and satirical vibes, The Last Well is a silent film. We get a general idea of what is happening, but there are certain events that leave us a bit confused. Perhaps stylistically, the nearly dialogue-free script was a way to add on to the post-apocalyptic sense of loss and fear, but I felt that it only tarnished the narrative.

As characters who are brought together through tragedy, the trio lacked depth necessary to push the narrative forward. I wish we would’ve gotten more of a sense of who our protagonist was to help make the story feel whole. Yes, he is someone determined to protect his well, but how does that change when he brings two new guests into his home? And perhaps for the mother (Mia Biondić) and daughter (Ida Rogić), I wish we would’ve seen how being newly housed beside the last well changed their lives for better or worse.

There was a lot of potential in terms of character dynamics when observing the plot line, but the film failed to stop and tune the necessary notes. As a result, we couldn’t get a real sense of what their challenges and journeys were. Perhaps with more character tuning, it would have better helped us understand their world and consequences.

Conclusion: A Rare and Impressive Category

Overall, the SEEFest presented an eclectic group of sci-fi shorts. From animation to live action, each film carried its own sense of time and place that made it an intriguing ride. It’s also quite rare that a festival carries a sci-fi shorts program, so this one was a treat. The films displayed imaginative concepts that evoked feelings of timelessness.

What are some of your favorite sci-fi films? Please share by commenting below.

The South East European Film Festival took place in Los Angeles from May 1st through 8th. This sci-fi shorts program was screened at the Laemmle Music Hall.