Encounters 27 · Bristol
149 films from 42 countries are recorded in the archive for this edition, with 8 award winners.
The festival returned for a second online edition, this time available throughout September, with programmes spanning 45 countries. Sameh Alaa's I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face, Bastien Dubois' Souvenir Souvenir, and Joanna Quinn's Affairs of the Art headlined the competition alongside work from Naïla Guiguet, Annie St-Pierre, and Urška Djukić. A new Reflective Encounters strand commissioned written critical responses to each competition film, adding a layer of curation that continued into subsequent editions. The themed programmes ranged from Far From Home and Acts of Resistance to Comedy and Late Lounge.
The presumed drowning of a boy leads Lucie (5) to question the boundaries between life and death.
A man, a woman and a meat grinder. Love is messy.
Lea begins a summer job as a cashier in a large supermarket chain.
Docu-drama spotlighting strength of community, in a neighbourhood united when faced with eviction.
Through snakey dildos, and a journey through a mind bending forest, we follow Siro's quest for self discovery.
A dog gets abandoned on the side of the road. Attached to a street light, he stays alone until the day he meets a young astronaut wannabe and a professional cyclist who keeps on trying to beat her highest score.
A filmmaker tries to mend her relationship with her father. But is it already beyond repair?
A woman from the city has a brief but life-changing connection with a hill farmer and the landscape.
On an ordinary night, a man transforming himself into the woman's food.
In 1893, a 13-year-old girl came to work for French painter Paul Gauguin in Paris as his maid and model. They called her Annah la Javanaise. This is a reimagining of her story.
This film is about a magical creature from the ideal world. It's about how she was caught and eaten, and how she became a symbol for people.
Tom forgot to take his son Sam to his guitar class. Quickly, he starts the car and ran over something.
Animation turns old home movies into a nostalgic dream about growing up.
A hand-drawn abstract animation set to 'Catgot' by ISAN, utilising a psychedelic and hypnotising array of colours, exploding and expanding in fountains of shapes.
Nigel's on his way to meet his partner's child for the first time & hopes to make a big impression.
Jeijay begins where most romantic movies end. The film is about two people who try to repress the slow but inevitable decay of their relationship. Feeling isolated in their own little home, more and more of the happy facade of their love life comes.
A white bird living in a black world encounters a black cat living in a white world. The moment they meet, their backgrounds literally collide.
The mother cares for seniors in their homes, where the ticking clock counts down the working day, between the frightening sounds of the heavy breathing that increase the fear of emptiness…
A ladyboy secret agent is assigned a mission to spy on a student activist.
The presumed drowning of a boy leads Lucie (5) to question the boundaries between life and death.
The film deals with different interpretations of the mythological tale and tells the story of an artificially created figure, that frees herself from her predestination.
Trapped in Damascus, surrounded by war, a lonely man becomes increasingly lost in his fantasies of fleeing and the inner dialogues with his dog.
Flaccid noses, stock images, and a bike come together to tell a story about memory and dissociation.
A question of what it means to love as a God-fearing queer.
One Christmas Day, Günter, a pudgy family pug falls in love with an inanimate object.
There is a strong connection between parents and their child. A young woman leaves the parental home to see the world. But the world of her parents is so tightly connected with her that by leaving, she puts it at risk.
Sabine is looking for the missing image of an over-mediatised event of which she has no memory.
Bartholomew Whisper went to the doctor today. There he met administrators keen on experimental surgery, and lonely MRI machines. At least the growing hole in his head was becoming quite beautiful.
A young production manager on a film set is tasked to carry out a tradition.
In an abandoned warehouse, a crowd is dancing as one on 145 BPM techno music.
After being separated for 82 days, Adam travels down a rough road to be reunited with the one he loves.
Love grows in unexpected places.
Humans might have left the planet, but their legacy still resides on material and immaterial aspects of life on earth. Relics and reminiscences of humanity interact, fall in love and become creators in a very questionable high-resolution simulation.
Short Abstract hand drawn animation. Animated to a sound track composed by the director.
A man dealing with grief re-edits memories of his girlfriend to create a new meaning to the past.
A woman's voicemail to her mom spirals out of control.
An arranged marriage in cotton-farming village in Sudan. Does 15-year-old Nafisa have a choice?
A young beautician gives into her restrained interest in a deliveryman one night in Phnom Penh.
After the fall of the Wall, Anna plunges into her exciting youth in Berlin until events from the past catch up with her. The film is about family secrets and the resulting silence.
Excerpts from the BMAG collection are cropped, re-sequenced and bound by their commonalities, revealing connections between the past and the present and opening passages through time and space.
She sees her spots, hears her voice and feels her.
While stuck in traffic, emotions escalate when a driver doesn't give a "thank you wave" to a couple.
Inside a lab, a robot is created. Like a newborn, it analyses its surroundings with the primitive senses and limited knowledge it has.
Encountering the father of the boy who assaulted her teenage daughter tests Maggie to her limit.
A refugee from east Germany crosses the Baltic Sea in a folding boat. Years later he finds a new home in a burgeoning nationalist movement.
A dog gets abandoned on the side of the road. Attached to a street light, he stays alone until the day he meets a young astronaut wannabe and a professional cyclist who keeps on trying to beat her highest score.
Two polar bears are driven into exile due to global warming. They will encounter brown bears along their journey, with whom they will try to cohabitate.
A tender story about finding love even amid utter decay.
The son wrote a comic book about his childhood. He sent it to his father who's been living elsewhere.
A woman from the city has a brief but life-changing connection with a hill farmer and the landscape.
A digital drag king strikes out to get their job back on stage while a second lockdown threatens.
How is misinformation disintegrating trust and confidence in science and how is the rapid spread or migration of this misinformation causing real world crisis such as scepticism in medicine, vaccines or climate science?
In her psychedelic animated film, Pia Graf addresses media overstimulation and excessive media consumption. The figure at the centre is a glittering everyday hero in the midst of a chaotic, virtual world.
Standing still gets you nowhere.
This stop-motion short follows Tulip, a tiny child who is born from a flower, on her adventures as she explores the garden outside her home in search of where she truly belongs.
All Don wants is a quiet life in the Highlands. Unfortunately the universe has other plans.
A filmmaker tries to mend her relationship with her father. But is it already beyond repair?
A filmmaker embarks on a digital quest to track down an old friend who disappeared years ago.
Nuevo Rico is a bold venture in creating Latinx-Futurism. The narrative aims to spotlight contemporary issues facing Puerto Rico; the effects of commercialization and its current colonial status.
The name of the film is taken from the book "Liquid Love" by the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. The film investigates the tension and the pendulum swing between freedom and belonging in the context of relationships.
After her return to India, Anita is pushed to question whether her life in America is any better.
Tired of her boring life a tidal wave of change and chance meetings with new people show Fern how to view the world in a new way - revealing the joy that she had missed before.
A young child finds magic and adventure when searching for a mysterious gyroscope in his grandparents' home. Created for Olovson, the new solo project by Grammy Award winning musician Jacob Olofsson.
Ping, a school teacher, become able to see her dead grandpa in the old house awaiting demolished. Refl ective Encounters "In Asian Brass, Ma Guyuan marries a ghost story with a subtle critique of China's persistent urban redevelopment plans. Stuck in an inconclusive relationship with a married man, Ping and her colleague have sex at their usual spot: the derelict house of the woman's deceased grandfather. Awaiting imminent demolishment, this place stands frozen in limbo: too old to be granted extended life, too dear to Ping's memories to be abandoned. But someone else seems to finditdifficult to say goodbye. Occasionally, the grandfather's ghost visits and we're left wondering if it's the house he misses or the last chance to be near his troubled granddaughter. In Ma's composite film, Ping's nuanced character study is central. As a teacher, she's drawn to a troublesome teenager who has it easier in life - not only he's a boy but also son to a rich businessman, which allows him a certain degree of freedom, especially at school. Ping, on the contrary, is unable to escape her unfulfilling job as well as her stifled relationship. Ma captures the woman's loneliness through pensive close-ups and mellow editing while the dramatically empty and unsympathetic urban spaces stand in stark contrast with the warm and yet collapsing environment of Ping's grandfather's place. Among mementos of the old man's existence, past and present continue to dance together." - Ren Scateni
Hiding death doesn't make it disappear. A young girl suffers from the adults' silences and feels dispossessed of her right to mourn.
If luck is a lady, grief is a bitch. A young woman loses her mother and finds herself.
The disappearance of a loved one is devastating for their family. Many families of missing migrants will never find out how or where they died, even if a body has been recovered and identified.
A mother and her child navigate the complexities of gender identity.
Bad Seeds takes us to a bizarre world populated by carnivorous plants that can change shapes the way a chameleon changes colours. Growth is connected with rivalry and evolution with competition, crafting an increasingly shocking duel peppered with allusions to the western, the Cold War, board games, and much more.
Desperate to escape her reality, a young woman discovers a program that immerses her in her own subconscious through a myriad of virtual personas.
The story of a young woman's struggle to separate from her religious upbringing.
A young artist ventures to the big city to find her place in the world.
A young girl immigrated. Having to function in a new environment is slowly transforming into a routine, and herself, into a modern Frankenstein's creation. The new approach and behaviour no longer match the old habits and patrimonial stereotypes.
There is an unusual garden in a dark cave cultivated by a lonely man. One day, while he is pruning the plants he finds a little boy in a pot. The child's nails are just as long as the offshoots of a plant.
An amusing film about anorexia and butts.
This philosophical parable about a couple eating cakes in a cafe touches upon fundamental issues that are close to everyone – the elusiveness of happiness, the fact that we are not always able to perceive it.
A suit, a hat, a briefcase. The international attire of the corporate businessman. But what's in his briefcase? One day, he opens it, and finds his sense of self fracturing in multiplicity.
Absurd adventures of three people inhabitating small town by the sea.
The protagonist's harmless fantasy transforms into a completely altered reality.
A documentary story from the borderlands of realism and fairy tale.
Debbie, a young woman, struggles with the feeling of being disconnected from the people around her. Until she meets Sofie with whom she bonds (too) strongly.
A girl awakens in the middle of a forest and begins to follow someone in the distance.
In this lesson, Kayla teaches you Tagalog, the language of her homeland.
Isolated in the midst of pandemic, Saša and Filip finally have time to reflect on their feelings.
What does the hangman think about when he goes home at night from work?
Following a break-up, Wen sinks into melancholy. She talks to herself a lot. By understanding that it is not the love she has lost but her confidence, she will be able to reconcile with herself.
Kiko is a nightmare for all the animals. He bullies them all the time, even the smallest mouse can't escape from him! How could the animals stand out and make him understand that they are just like him, capable of emotions, love, and deserve respect?
Julie can't fit into her school. The arrival of Emile, an autistic child, will change the game…
The return of three Anglicizied [sic] natives people to their county, or the beginning of a meeting with the modern world that will destroy them.
Geetha finally has sex with Vehd one afternoon but things quickly turn messy when period blood stains her pristine couch and a fight erupts mid-coitus, causing her pent-up feelings spill over.
For ten years, I've pretended to make a movie out of my grandfather's Algerian war souvenirs. Today, I'm not sure I want to hear what he has to say.
Gabrielle finds herself stuck near Death Valley, between two parents who no longer speak to each other. The situation seems impossible, until an unexpected event comes to unravel everything…
A man comes home and wants to go to bed. A bunch of noisy roommates. A crowded city in southern China.
Through snakey dildos, and a journey through a mind bending forest, we follow Siro's quest for self discovery.
Living things, artificial things, geometry shapes, and lines. When these different things encounter.
Even as Shaista's love for Benazir is palpable, the choices he must make have profound consequences.
The children are having frolic with the insects on the lawn. The inspiration comes from the memory of chasing locust in my childhood. It reveals the terror, repression and conflict between children and insects, which were concealed in the frolic.
An unusual assignment for a young man paid to honour other people's dead.
Christmas 1983. Denis is anxious at the idea of picking up his children at his ex-in-laws.
On the North Yorkshire Moors, Abel, Head Gamekeeper, discovers the thing that is eating his grouse.
The film conveys the different journeys, and accompanying emotions, women go on with their breasts; from pride and embarrassment as their breasts develop, to their breasts attracting attention from others, to breastfeeding.
Sara experiences another woman's orgasm and gets a new view on life.
Ingbert, the sock, applies for a position as double bass player at the Vienna State Orchestra.
Marisa discovers one of the greatest mysteries in the history of mankind: road traffic.
A broken man attempts to disappear into the warm comfort of his long-gone past.
Peregrine is an experimental animated film about obsession, instinct, and innate darkness. It explores the elegance and majesty of nature, but also its unavoidable cruelty. Inspired by the autobiographical The Peregrine, written by A.J. Baker.
Natural selection says that only those who adapt will survive. What if humans have become stupid?
From the 17th floor of an office building, Pierre is staring out the window: down below, a colleague who was dismissed that morning has been sitting on a bench for hours, alone in the cold. Why won't he go home?
Lea begins a summer job as a cashier in a large supermarket chain.
In a post-apocalyptic Spain, different tribes survive, struggling to gain control.
Footsteps on the Wind follows the plight of Noor and her little brother, Josef as they journey far away from home, orphaned from a devastating earthquake. The story highlights the tragic stories of unaccompanied child refugees.
At the age of four, Lisa lost all her hair to alopecia. In an effort to protect Lisa, Mom cuts her hair and makes wigs out of it. Growing up, Lisa tries to escape from the world of her mother's hair, which has become too tight.
A weather-tormented man who just wants to dry his underwear is forced to use the local laundromat each evening instead of his garden washing line. But another customer is watching him from afar.
A burlesque and satirical action musical tragi-comedy.
A car breaks down in an anonymous town.
A man, a woman and a meat grinder. Love is messy.
How do you stage a miracle healing?
Actress arrives to the film set for her first lead role and confronts an unpleasant surprise.
Her body transforms, her breasts develop. What will she do with strange paper boobs?
Structured like the human mind, the film is akin to a diary filled with fragments of feelings and experiences of an old man attempting to reconstruct his identity due to memory loss caused by illness.
Ada goes swimming in the Icelandic sea and reflects on raising a child in a country that feels nothing like home. As she enters the freezing water, she relives her traumatic pregnancy. Soon her swimming eases. Facing her fears is helping her heal.
If 'frizzy' is just a word, why do I hate it so much?
"A limitless array of hands gestures, forming geometric shapes and abstract patterns, all combining to create a surreal journey, set to 'Sekktortjek Ft. Tone' by Mads Lindgren.
A father is the victim of an incident that suddenly shakes up his fragile reconstruction.
A young man tries to save a cow from slaughter, whilst two boys trawl through treacherous and desolate terrain, escaping an invisible threat.
A group of naked people sits in a sauna and sweats. And then there is the sauna masters.
A jet-black dramedy about love, loss and the complexities of mental health.
Tormented by the hair on her head, a woman grapples with her own mortality.
After years of prosecuting and torturing innocent women, Hopkins (the self-proclaimed Witch Hunter General) is about to get his just desserts at the hands – or rather the magical finger – of Winny.
A young soldier trying to escape the horrors of war, finds an abandoned house and within its walls the stories of what might have been.
A woman's morning jog takes a dark turn.
Factory worker Beryl is totally obsessed with drawing. Apart from husband Ifor, Beryl's loud and proud personality has kept her going ever since. The quick wit of this unlikely heroine has paved the way for stories full of introspection, strikingly honest portrayals of womanhood and windows into family peculiarities. Paired with Quinn's flair for capturing movement with the ferocity of her distinctive drawn line style, Affairs of the Art is a brilliant insight into passion and obsession.
A trip into grandma's intimate life shows the status of Slovenian women in the first half of '900.
In high school Cas and Naomi spend their days together. But their future seems to drive them apart.
An uninspiring character decides to visit his uninspired author.
Docu-drama spotlighting strength of community, in a neighbourhood united when faced with eviction.
A grieving mother journeys into the mountains to end her own life is saved by a strange postwoman.
A tree begins to question whether it may actually be a man tripping on hallucinogens.
Two brothers play hide and seek. As one counts, the other hides in a small cabinet. Seconds pass, then minutes, years. A heartrending and prescient story about family and disconnect, in a world that is increasingly fragmented and unrecognizable.
Rosa is sunbathing in her garden on a hot summer afternoon.
A shy teenage misfit uses drag to find the confidence she needs to show her family who she truly is.
Ellie, a nine-year-old Asian Australian girl is trapped in the weekend care of her strange and lonely Uncle Donnie. Throughout the evening, her surreal nightmares about a bizarre sushi-making kitchen appliance materialise into reality around her.
Finnish lakeside, blowtorch and Pepsi-bikinis.
When a power cut ruins Ruby's bedtime routine, she finds herself haunted by some unwanted visitors.
Two ex-lovers bump into each other at a train station.
The shooting of a sex scene triggers a conflict between an intimacy coordinator and a director.
An intimate documentary about a transgender boy, getting his first gender-affirming haircut.
Summer of 2008, an 8 years old boy visits his father in Hong Kong, applying for permanent ID.
A young millennial just wants to eat his avocado on toast in peace.
15 y/o Mattie has dreamlike premonitions which she is encouraged to ignore by her older brother.
Inspired by "The Book of the City of Ladies" by C. de Pizan, the film explores today's hopes.