25th Madurai Film Festival 2023 : International Short Fiction

25th Madurai Film Festival 2023

Selected films ; International Short Fiction

Mera Daddu (My Grandpa)
Dir : Sri Mirajkar; 19.56 min; United States; Short Fiction 

MERA DADDU is a heart-warming story of a grandfather and his orphaned grandson, Aslam. Daddu eeks a meager living by foraging for recyclables from a landfill. They live in a slum, but Daddu has resolved to give Aslam a better future not infested with the rotting life that he has had to live.

2) From the Clinical Record
Dir : Maria Viktorova; 18.59 min; Russian Federation; Short Fiction 

People have been living in the hostel for many years, and during this time they have become a close family. When their house comes under resettlement, their life sparkles with new colours and new hopes.

3) Sleeping Beauty
Dir : Jana Nedzvetskaya; 15.58 min; Russian Federation; Short Fiction 

The childless royal couple expected a child for many years. They have got a real monster after the birth of their daughter. The young princess made life in the castle unbearable. The bullying of the governess, who turned out to be an evil sorceress, turned into a curse for the whole family.

4) Who’s By Your Side
Dir : Antonina Abramova; 5.57 min; Russian Federation; Short Fiction 

A couple is coming back from the countryside in the night. During the trip, one of the protagonists makes the decision that will forever change the lives of both.

5) Attraction
Dir : Radik Kudoyarov; 15 min; United Kingdom; Short Fiction

This film is a memoriam of the British military and their volunteer Dutch colleagues - the first victims on the paratroopers’ wall in Mauthausen. Their story is almost forgotten and was never filmed or screened.

6) Anna
Dir : Kristina Rushiti; 12.38 min; Albania; Short Fiction

Anna, a teenage girl with mental health issues, commits the murder of her own father. Anxiety, violence and depression dominate Anna's family.

7) Chlorine
Dir : Thanos Psichogios; 19.55; Greece; Short Fiction

It’s a bright summer day. A 9-year-old girl hides at the bottom of the swimming pool. Her father doesn’t know how to approach her.

8) The Bath-day
Dir : Maria Antonova; 13.44 min; Russian Federation; Short Fiction

A young girl Sasha is released from prison. Her father meets her and takes her to the village where Sasha spent his childhood.

9) The Cursed
Dir : Mukhtar Makhibekov; 20 min; Russian Federation; Short Fiction

A warrior returning home after a long wandering saves a beautiful girl who is in trouble in the middle of the forest, which becomes a fatal mistake.

10) The Old Young Crow
Dir : Liam LoPinto; 12 min; Japan; Short Fiction

An Iranian boy befriends an old Japanese woman at a graveyard in Tokyo.

11) Frolic at the Edge of Time
Dir : Mimi Garrad; 7.40 min; United States; Short Fiction

"Frolic at the Edge of Time" is a dance created for video that features the dancer Kate Jewett.

12) Get to the Wire
Dir : Jeffry Bird; 15 min; Australia; Short Fiction; Student film

In a dystopian future, an Australian-Iraqi woman held captive in a chaotic and brutal British immigration detention compound resorts to cutthroat measures to survive and save her estranged family.

13) Blood Sucker
Dir : Gleb Milyan, Pyotr Shumin; 19.59 min; Short Fiction; Russian Federation

How does authoritatian country work in times of new media? Anya makes a repost on social network with an appeal to go to the political rally. At night, she receives a call from an unknown person who introduced himself as an investigator.

14) Wheel and Desert
Dir : Reza Sabetpour; 11.10 min; Iran; Short Fiction 

When a man reaches his stall he notices a mess and finds a wounded man sheltering by a bush asking for some water and a bag next to him.

15) Day off
Dir: Liliya Duplinskaya; 14.36 min; Russian Federation; Short Fiction

The mother moves to live with her son with her daughter-in-law. But it seems that they do not need her care or attention. And life together turns into a test.

16. Get Home Safe
Dir : Tamara Denic; 13.16 min; Germany; Short Fiction 

The employee of a Way-Home-Phone service experiences the nightly horror of a young woman who is followed by a stranger on her way home.

17) Betty’s Burning
Dir : Camille Vigny; 15 min; Belgium; Short Fiction

To end a toxic and violent relationship, Betty set herself on fire. During the weeks following the tragedy, in the hospital burn unit, oscillating between fantasy and reality, she will rebuild her body and heal the terror that her companion had created in her.

18) Domar
Dir : Alcibiade Cohen; 14.26 min; France; Short Fiction 

Maria, a young argentinian woman, evolves in a men's world : rodeo. The day before qualifying for the famous "Jesus Maria" tournament, for the first time open to women, she must make a choice: speak or let fate decide for her...

19) T'embrasser sur le miel
Dir : Khalil Cherti; 19.40 min; France; Short Fiction

Siwan lives somewhere in Syria. Rawad live somewhere else in Syria. Despite the chaos, they decide to communicate with each other through videos.

20) Let’s Talk
Dir : Elad Mukades; 18.18 min; Israel; Short Fiction; Student film

When Ori picks up his soldier brother for a day at the the beach, he is horrified to see that his brother has become religious.

21) Oi
Dir : Reinhard Koller-Astleithner; 7 min; Austria; Short Fiction; Student film

Oi has been sent to another planet to search and research. While his space suit looks like the most intelligent life form on this planet, the details are lacking.

22) ZPR 359
Dir : Liam Brangan; 9.12 min; Australia; Short Fiction; Student film

Asylum seeker ZPR 359 sews his lips together and begins a hunger strike. As Z weakens he enters into a delirium where he imagines himself in Australia with his doctor.