Nine programme blocks to build a new decade of STIFF

Our selectors, Maša Drndić and Marta Ban, organised the best of the student cinema from all over the world into nine fabulously designed blocks that all but guarantee you to Escape into different film worlds. Take a look at the stories hidden in this year’s STIFF.

Carried Away

In their sincere search for meaning that gradually slides into chaos, the films of the Carried Away program boldly question the ideas of freedom, identity and dreams. In the Estonian animated film Swifts by Ada Napiórkowski, the swifts return to their haunted world, only to discover that their human neighbors have disappeared. In the British documentary Waiter, the Scientist and Jenny by Joe Snelling, we follow Marco Esposito, a once promising scientist who now lives as a waiter, facing the challenges of his own mind. Finally, the experimental film Antitutoriel by Canadian director Léonie Savard takes us on a surreal journey of self-exploration through Gille’s world, where she encounters various masks and her own reflection. Together, these films dive into the complex, intimate, but also provocative spheres of human emotions, inviting us to think about the multiplicity of identities and embrace the dreams that shape our existence.

Intermezzo

How do we fill the time of waiting, and what truly happens when nothing significant seems to occur? Intermezzo explores the special moments of connection and introspection that sneak in seamlessly in that time in between. Jonathan Brunner’s German documentary Waiting, Not Waiting provides a contemplative look at the lives of five people, revealing how waiting can be a space for reflection and a moment of presence. In the French feature film Hot by Franck Hourliac, an unplanned meeting between two young men, which begins as a casual chat on Grinder, turns into an unusually intimate evening. Finally, the feature film Strangers in the Night by Austrian director Matthias Krepp intertwines three stories on New Year’s Eve 2019, exploring the complexities of human relationships in a world on the brink of change.

Big appetites

The desire to stay in the game of life, whose pace increases daily, instinctively augments our capacities and appetites. The dynamic life of the market in the documentary film Neighborhood Fair by Ana Caroline Aliaga and Vitória Marques is a real street symphony whose crescendo and decrescendo of actions, characters and voices reveal art in the everyday, well-established mechanism of buying and selling. The food is equally rarely vivid and intense in Misje Overberg’s Sous vide, in which a chef is wary of a young and innovative colleague on the rise. Appetites also grow in the Croatian documentary film Core Business by Lucija Marčec, when, in the fight for every vote, political science students immerse themselves in university politics, practicing the roles of their future careers. At the same time, the animated Hervé’s case Luna Filippini reminds us that, with masks off, not every day is made for big wins.

Knots

Beneath the intricate circumstances of life lie equally complex truths about our desires and motives, which the authors of the Knots block untangle meticulously and present clearly. In the film The Taste of Pork Belly by Sophie Shui, the touching depiction of everyday life in a poor Thai village brings a simple child’s perspective, clouded by the actions of adults that are difficult to understand. Amit Chins’ Outside Noises bring unrest and discord into the home of a seemingly ordinary couple, pressed by the need to respond to complex and pressing social issues with deeds and actions. Katarina Lukec’s documentary Breadcrumb Trail finds its way through an unusually strong sense of home in the abandoned areas of Croatia, where human life is an almost endemic but very persistent species.

Boiling

Beneath the carefully arranged social masks, our insecure self is burdened by other people’s expectations and our own capabilities. Boiling questions how much we can bear without damaging the fragile construction of identity and that extremely slippery slope we tread on. Ambushes are real and, unfortunately, very much expected. The Slovenian documentary Juvies by Jure Štern opens the doors of a home for young people, where he reveals how neglected children and young people build their future on shaky foundations. In Behrouz Shamshiri’s simple yet extremely moving Iranian feature film Bench school, a vulnerable boy with the best wishes receives the worst treatment. Meanwhile, Szymon Wackowski’s tense Polish family drama The Joy of Living confronts us with the truth we are afraid to utter. But sometimes an unwanted encounter becomes a lucky finger of fate, as is the case in the Israeli feature film See You ‘Round the Block by Daniel Gat. This block closes with a story of an interruption in the Croatian animated Windows from the South by Eugen Bliankov encourages the idea that, in a state of boiling and loss, the power of our experiences is always a good pledge for the future.

Mellowing 

The growing up of an individual is a result of a complex set of circumstances, but the backbone is made by our loved ones, with whom we go through this process. Every story is unique, as is the person who lives it, and Mellowing brings together those that are particularly impressive. The animated film Stribor’s Forest by Ana Despot brings a modernized and witty reading of the classical Croatian fairy tale. Serbian feature film Ghosts You Draw on my back by Nikola Stojanović thematizes the personal grief of a teenage girl Sara at the intersection of family and socioeconomic changes. In the Croatian documentary Thank you mother, the author Izidor Bistrović tries to establish dialogue and understanding with the mother who devoted her life to religion, while the Elephant in the room in Sam Kuwa’s eponymous Japanese animated film seeks a way to stop being one.

Whispers

Personal confessions are easier to whisper, so that not everyone can hear. But it is precisely these quiet truths of individual experiences that have great value in collective strength because, ultimately, our thoughts – live in others too. So, listen carefully. In the Belgian animated film Freshwater Bees by Emma Kanouté, the return to the homeland brings back soft, gentle and carefully hidden memories of growing up. Quiet surrender to an unexpected moment of romance for the protagonist of the warm Chinese drama Wisdom Tooth by Yang Yixin brings an equally unexpected epilogue. María Camila Pulgarín and Manuela Giraldo’s tender documentary observation Dysphonias questions the relationship between a daughter and a father, faced with the loss of his voice. The grandmother gave a new voice to her identity in the strange and funny Croatian animated film in Russian language Babushka has a new boyfriend by Dean Hamer.

Out of the Shadow

Opposite the muted lights of the comfort zone, which lull the individual into safety, there is direct light from which there is no retreat. Outside the shadow there is no blending, hiding or suppression. How much will we expose ourselves? Woven from shadows and silhouettes, Aurora Muller Feunge’s French animated film The Cat, the Fox and the Wolf transforms the search into the meaning of the journey. The Icelandic documentary Love Chronicles by Simone Hart and Jón H. Geirfinnsson presents a portrait of a woman who stands firmly in the shadows, in devoted service to the art for which she has been living for more than ninety years. In the Lithuanian animation Plica polonica, Agata Tracevič, the protagonist struggles with knots in her hair and her life, and the impeccable stage performance of long-time partners in the Polish film A Cappella by Marcin Kluczykowski is called into question when one of the two wants to be seen together, outside the safe comfort of their home.

Thereafter

People and things change along the way, and ideas in practice rarely live up to what we imagined. Once we accept this, everything we encounter becomes a little easier to handle.  On a contemplative and accidental journey together in Tessa Kortmulder’s Whether I’d pass Lyon, two young travelers create a new friendship, testing their own and each other’s limits. In the documentary In Tranzit by Lucija Brkić, Tinka, a world traveler from Rijeka, makes sure that migrants in her home town have better life conditions and safe transit, while she herself struggles to find her own place in the sun there. In the Israeli animated film Your Place in Line by Eden Grosman, after being mistakenly declared dead, the protagonist is making an effort to prove to the authorities, and to herself, that she is alive, revealing s bizarre labyrinth of bureaucracy.

Just like every year, you can watch all of these films – for free!

STIFF — Student International Film Festival is supported by Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), City of Rijeka, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, Serbian National Council, and Goethe Institute Zagreb.