Films of 2017: Best Short Films of the Year

The Burden

Dir. Niki Lindroth von Bahr (Sweden, 13 min)

We’ve been fans of Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s anthropomorphised stop motion animals (think Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox but more deadpan) since her debut Tord and Tord graced the cover of our 2011 brochure. Foxes, rabbits, giraffes and fish have minor misunderstandings, bad days at work, body issues and relationship troubles just like the rest of us. But her latest work is colossally ambitious; an elegy of night time loneliness, a whole world portrayed in a single city block hurtling through space, and a brilliantly orchestrated and choreographed musical to boot. [Matt Lloyd]

The Door

Dir. Anisa Mukerjea Ganguli (India, 16min)

This vivid, wonderfully alive film from Anisa Mukerjea Ganguli begins with working mother Minu (Sonali Paswan) dragging an unwieldy object – an oblong wooden frame covered in a blue mesh – through the bustling streets of Calcutta to her cramped two room dwelling within a crowded slum. We’re then privy to this woman’s far from glamorous life: her cramped (but brightly coloured) quarters, her nagging mother-in-law, her over-excited kids. Ishaan Ghose’s roving, inquisitive camera keeps tight to Paswan, adding to the sense of her character’s burden. As the film nears its close it dawns on us what Minu was schlepping across town, and the film switches from slice-of-life to fist pumping feminist crowdpleaser, and it’s a joy to behold. [Jamie Dunn]

Everything

Dir. David OReilly (Ireland/USA, 11 min)

It’s debatable whether this even counts as a short film. Irish animator David OReilly, best known for designing the video games in Spike Jonze’s Her, as well as his own twisted satires Please Say Something and The External World, has created a game that allows the player to take on the role of literally anything – from a single molecule to a beetle, a blade of grass, an elephant, a skyscraper, an island, a galaxy – constantly shifting perspective and scale. This 11 minute ‘trailer’ (as OReilly calls it), featuring the thoughts of philosopher Alan Watts, is a sublime meditation on the interconnectedness of all things. [ML]

Flores

Dir. Jorge Jácome (Portugal, 27min)

The Azores re-imagined as the site of a natural disaster. The spread of hydrangeas across the islands becomes unmanageable, forcing an evacuation of the local population. From this fictional starting point, Jácome adopts the language of documentary to consider themes of identity, territorial belonging and commercial exploitation. This is an exceptionally beautiful film; its surreal images of hydrangeas stifling all signs of human activity are bathed in an intoxicating purple hue. And it presents its central fiction with such level-headedness that it had me Googling “Azores + hydrangeas + evacuation” against my better judgement. [ML]

Hairat

Dir. Jessica Beshir (Ethiopia/USA, 7min)

Stark and stylised visuals, immersive music, and an impressive yet non-intrusive closeness to its subject make Hairat a captivating mood piece, heightened by the contrast between the imminent threat and the tenderness of the interactions between man and animal. Poetry-as-voiceover tends to fail more than it succeeds, but here it feeds the atmosphere, drawing the viewer into a trance while witnessing this extraordinary and astonishing ritual. [Sanne Jehoul]

Kaiju Bunraku

Dirs. Jillian Mayer, Lucas Leyva (USA, 14 min)

A predictably unpredictable new work from two of the founders of Borscht, the Miami-based collective behind some of the wildest cinematic visions of recent years. It’s anyone’s guess why no one has previously thought of wedding the disparate Japanese traditions of Bunraku puppetry and monster movies. Mayer and Leyva do so not just for postmodern lolz but to explore the futility of self-expression under the shadow of greater forces, and to reflect on the collateral damage wreaked by warring titans. Is this Borscht’s Obama/drone movie? [ML]

The Rabbit Hunt

Dir. Patrick Bresnan (USA, 12min)

There’s a stranger-than-fiction feel that comes with the incredible level of access we get in The Rabbit Hunt, while also portraying its subject as something relatively common in this Muck City community, where the practice is both a rite of passage and an additional source of income. Bresnan’s vérité doc offers a sympathetic, matter-of-fact depiction of the young hunters, offsetting the brutal act of smacking rabbits to death, which is shown as both something of a game and a necessity. A fun fact: these communities have spawned a disproportionately large number of top NFL players, who developed their speed not through conventional training, but through chasing rabbits to help provide for their families. [SJ]

Real Gods Require Blood

Dir. Moin Hussain (UK, 20min)

Horror films rarely venture into the lives of working class people (probably because they’re too busy trying to make next month’s rent to worry about that mysterious noise in the attic), but this gut-twisting chamber piece brings terror into a kitchen-sink milieu of an ordinary Manchester terrace house, making it seem as mysterious and labyrinthian as a gothic castle. The film concerns a young woman who unwittingly finds herself left babysitting the neighbour’s kids, two tykes in need of a proper feed and some TLC, although it’s soon apparent they are no innocents.

This is a film drenched in dread. Director Moin Hussain and cinematographer Nick Cooke make the commonplace uncanny, the quotidian macabre. There may be a chip-eating monster lurking in that ominous chest, but Real Gods Require Blood doesn’t forget that the dangers of street life – drugs, poverty, violence – remain just as terrifying. [JD]

Rubber Coated Steel

Dir. Lawrence Abu Hamdan (Lebanon / Germany, 22min)

In May 2014 in the West Bank, two unarmed Palestinian teenagers were shot dead by Israeli soldiers. Audio analyst and artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan conducted an audio analysis of the shooting to verify which bullets were used – rubber ones, as the soldiers claimed, or live ones? Simulating a shooting range that pulls up images representing the audio of the event, he guides us through a court hearing. Instead of an obvious graphic or dramatic treatment, Hamdan uses an almost clinical, stark approach to conduct his own investigation through this film, which makes it all the more effective and shocking. [SJ]

Wild Horses

Dir. Rory Alexander Stewart (UK, 26min)

Edinburgh filmmaker Rory Alexander Stewart makes his most affecting and imaginative short yet. Wild Horses centres on Joan (Emma Curtis), a teenage girl with chronic fatigue syndrome who’s pretty much housebound, but her inner life is far from restrained. She’s been writing surreal short stories about horses, both lifesize and miniature. Her homeschool teacher (played by animator Ainslie Henderson, who’s been a wry presence in several of Stewart’s films) is encouraging her to examine her equine obsession, which in turn sees her breaking free of her controlling mother (Emma Cater). In his short career so far, Stewart has shown a real knack for working with actors, and he gets wonderfully openhearted performances from Cater and Curtis, whose spiky mother-daughter relationship ground this moving and whimsical picture. [JD]

For more info on Glasgow Short Film Festival: glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-short-film-festival

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Individual picks (alphabetical order)

Matt Lloyd – Glasgow Short Film Festival director
The Burden (Niki Lindroth von Bahr – Sweden, 13 min)
Everything (David OReilly – Ireland/USA, 11 min)
Final Stage (Nicolaas Schmidt – Germany, 32min)
Flores (Jorge Jácome, Portugal, 27min)
Kaiju Bunraku (Jillian Mayer, Lucas Leyva – USA, 14min)

Sanne Jehoul – Glasgow Short Film Festival coordinator and programmer
The Burden (Niki Lindroth von Bahr – Sweden, 13 min)
A Brief History of Princess X (Gabriel Abrantes – France/Portugal/UK, 7 minutes)
Hairat (Jessica Beshir – Ethiopia/USA, 7min)
The Rabbit Hunt (Patrick Bresnan – USA, 12min)
Rubber Coated Steel (Lawrence Abu Hamdan – Lebanon/Germany, 22min))

Jamie Dunn – The Skinny’s film editor
The Door (Anisa Mukerjea Ganguli – India, 16min)
The Hunchback (Gabriel Abrantes, Ben Rivers – Portugal, 29min)
Real Gods Require Blood Man (Moin Hussain – UK, 20min)
Slap Happy (Dusty Mancinelli, Madeleine Sims-Fewer – Canada, 11min)
Wild Horses (Rory Alexander Stewart – UK, 26min)