The last escape
The last day of 11th STIFF marks the end of our journey through films exploring this year’s theme of escape. Every shot and every story explores interhuman relations, inner struggles, and moments where we have to choose to change, or face the inevitable. Every screening brings a unique insight into those life moments when we search for freedom, understanding, and maturity through the challenges we face.
The day starts with Mellowing and the animated Stribor’s Forest by Ana Despot, which takes us to a quiet forest where a mother and her son live as one with nature, until a mysterious snake seduces the son, and the mother needs to look for help from the forest god Stribor. Next up is the fiction film The Ghosts You Draw on my Back by Nikola Stojanović, wherein Sara confronts her fears while travelling to a small town for her granny’s funeral, meeting a kind construction worker on the way. Documentary film Thank you, Mother by Izidor Bistrović explores the relationship between the author and his mother, who devoted her life to religion. This programme block ends with Shape of the Elephant where the author, Sam Kuwa, takes us to see what’s it like growing up with an elephant avoided by grown-ups, while he grows and comes to age.
After that, we move on to Whispers, films that explore personal truths and confront us with emotions that create collective consciousness. In the animated Freshwater Bees by Emma Kanouté, Louise returns to her childhood home in France, reliving nostalgia of her first loves. In the fiction Wisdom Tooth by Yang Yixin, Qiu Lujuan, a woman that has not been in any romantic relationship for almost 40 years, finds happiness in a meeting with a kind dentist. Documentary film Dysphonias by María Camila Pulgarín and Manuela Giraldo follows a daughter that tries to rediscover her father who has lost his voice after a premonition of an unusual bird. Finally, animated Babushka has a New Boyfriend by Dean Hamer offers a funny display of family dynamics when a granny shocks her family with a tale of her new partner, an animated skeleton.
After a short break, we are back Out of the Shadow, where there is no escape, and no turning back. The animated Cat, Fox and the Wolf by Aurora Muller Feuga follows a group of friends looking for a vagabond, along the way discovering people putting together his story. Documentary film Torn by Simone Hart and Jón H. Geirfinnsson introduces Inga Birgitta Spur, a 90-year-old artist who is the head of a museum in Reykjavik. Animated Plica polonica by Agata Tracevič tells a story about a girl with tangled hair looking for a remedy from the legendary Baba Yaga. This programme block closes with A Cappella by Marcin Kluczykowski, wherein Karol and Henryk, a couple leading a quiet life, get a call that shatters their carefully hidden routine.
Thereafter, every step becomes an opportunity for a change, and thus this last programme block takes us to stories where Escape is a new beginning. In fiction film Whether I’d Pass Lyon by Tessa Kortmulder, Juun and Lucas accidentally meet at a train station and decide to travel together to the Alps in wintertime. Documentary film In Tranzit by Lucija Brkić follows a group of migrants travelling through Rijeka looking for a new life. We end with the animated Your Place in Line by Eden Grosman, Daphna goes to battle with bureaucracy to prove she is alive.
Don’t forget to vote for your favourite film, because your vote might just be the one to decide the winner of the Audience Award!
STIFF — Student International Film Festival is supported by Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC), City of Rijeka, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Serbian National Council, and Goethe Institute Zagreb. The festival takes place in Art-kino Croatia.
