The Coin | Siqi Song | 7' | CHN
At Chinese New Year, finding the coin hidden inside of the traditional local dumplings signifies a blessed year ahead. This story, however, begins as a young woman loses a jar on her journey to a new country. This object has enormous sentimental value; it contains all the lucky coins she has collected since she was a child. Her new life begins with a quest to find the coins. The Coin explores the place of heritage when forging one’s own path, with an emphasis on food as a vessel for cultural traditions.
Acid Rain | Tomek Popakul | 25' | POL
Somewhere in Eastern Europe, a young woman runs away from her bleak hometown. Her early enthusiasm about hitchhiking falls apart when she finds herself in the city outskirts in the middle of the night. At a nearby bridge she sees a figure balancing unsafely on the guardrail. That’s how she meets Skinny – an unstable drifter. Skinny lives in a camper van, which he uses to run his not-so-legal job errands. Along with him, she sets on a journey with no destination. As the ride continues in this short by Tomek Popakul, a kind of affection grows between the pair.
(In)dividual | Beatriz Bagulho | 5' | PRT
In Beatriz Bagulho’s animated short a young woman dreams she is inside her mind during a medical examination. Guided (or dragged) by her antagonist and proponent of her apprehensions, she explores the different sections of her personality. Among unusual spaces full of surreal metaphors, the girl is constantly shocked and unsettled when navigating her own subconscious. Faced with delirium, the protagonist is the only one who can find the way out of that dream labyrinth. Only when she stops questioning who she is, can she realize that the cause of her misfortune has always been right in front of her.
Why Slugs Have No Legs | Aline Höchli | 11' | CHE
Everyone wants security and space within society. In general, the easiest way to search for these things is through work. But what happens when passions become mere capitalist impulses? In this story, slugs have difficulty keeping up with the pace of life in the bustling and competitive city of insects. After a major financial crisis occurs, the bees in the industry see only one solution. Through the imagined world of insects, animator Aline Höchli proposes reflections on the way we live in our human world.
Daughter | Daria Kashcheeva | 15' | CZE
Daughter is a film by polish illustrator Daria Kashcheeva and focuses on the relationship between a father and a daughter. To draw viewers into a world of memories, the film was made with a hand-held camera feel, big close-ups, low depth of field, and plenty of motion, lending an authentic immediacy and a para-documentary style. To show the characters’ emotions, Kashcheeva paints the eyes directly on the puppets’ faces, giving them a lot of life and intense expressions. Here, our protagonist will have to choose whether to understand and forgive before it’s too late or to simply move on.
Story | Jolanta Bankowska | 5' | POL
Story is a reflection about the modern man in an age of omnipresent technology. Looking through stories - a popular function in many social media platforms - we see people who are lonely, lost, or already indifferent about the reality surrounding them. Where does the screen end and the outside world begin? Passengers in the metro fixated on their smartphones, a pianist playing a virtual instrument, a lonely restaurant patron surrounded by people typing away on their laptops. Through a series of eminently relatable everyday scenes, animator Jola Bańkowska comments on how our lives are shaped by digital technology.