13/11/2002

It is always a challenge to explore the huge panorama of short films. There’s simply so much material, ideas and stories to tell. The 18th edition of Interfilm, the international short film festival directed by Heinz Hermanns that took place in Berlin from 5 – 10 November, tried to bring some well-needed order.
The programme included a competition with over 100 films on themes ranging from animation to digital technology, political commitment (with a memorable short from Belgium’s Bouli Lanners entitled Muno; a breathtaking report about a tragic episode of racism in the Belgian provinces), to the documentary (true or false?) right up to rather more “traditional” short films made of little stories with surprise finales. Fortunately, comedy is still a factor of some short films but it no longer dominates the genre.
This year’s winners included Holland’s Sytse Kok with The Chinese Wall ( a film about solitude and the misunderstandings that occur when we trust our first impressions), Germany’s Oliver Held with Jump (where DV portrays that what reality alone cannot) and an Australian film by Christopher Jones, entitled The Heisenberg Principle.
Interfilm is much more than just a competition. This year’s edition looked at what is being produced where, especially in Israel, France, eastern Europe, Poland, Romania and the Czech Rebublic. Each country has well developed active film industries, with which the rest of Europe will soon have to contend when the EU increases its membership. This will inevitably result in cultural cross-pollination of ideas, issues and production methods.
Interfilm also focused on Italy with a selection of films made with the help of the Italian Institute of Culture in Germany and curated by Claudia Tommasini (with the collaboration of Alessandro Maresca), a regular at Interfilm since, for the last five years, she has worked at showcasing the most Italian productions.
13 films, made using a variety of techniques from animation - Little Numba by Daniele Lunghi and Diego Zuelli, to Il Mare di Sotto an adaptation of a famous Neapolitan legend about Colapesce, that was directed in pure neorealistic style by Sandro Dionisio. The director just wrapped his first feature film, La volpe a tre zampe. And what about the surreal satire of Bbobbolone and I paladini della Santa Provvidenza directed by Gianluca Sodaro, another recent feature debutante with Cuore Scatenato.

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