24/05/2023 - CANNES 2023: Cineuropa previews some of the short films in the Official Competition, which run the gamut of different genres and styles

While many shorts deal with specific incidents related to major preoccupations of the time – such as immigration, conflict, gender and sexual identity, and politics – the Cannes selection of shorts in the 2023 Official Competition are more general than that. Across the gamut of different genres and styles, the films show us a world tinged with an air of unease and malaise, a sense that modern living – whether it be in a first- or a third-world country – is somehow broken. With realist tropes clashing with an underlying sense of the surreal, this year’s competition explores how a new generation of filmmakers is attempting to make sense of the world.

As It Was by Anastasia Solonevych and Damian Kocur (Poland/Ukraine) follows a young girl who heads back to Kyiv after living in Berlin since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Waiting for her family to arrive, she spends the day with a friend. What’s remarkable about this tender and evocative piece of work is its restraint. While the spectre of the war hangs over everything – air-raid sirens blare, and there are moments of waiting in bomb shelters – there’s also a palpable sense of the everyday. While it’s an exploration of how the war has torn many things and lives apart, it’s also an examination of the universal feelings of the fear of change and a gradual realisation that things can never stay in stasis.

Sexuality is explored in a number of films. The gloriously and bluntly titled Tits by Eivind Landsvik (Norway) unpicks the possible beginning of a friendship between two teenagers after a rocky beginning. Landsvik deftly navigates the clichés of the coming-of-age genre to create an understated and affecting work dealing with body image and growing up. Growing up and sexuality are also touched upon in the animation La Perra by Carla Melo Gampert (Colombia/France), in which an age-old story – the difficult relationship between a mother and daughter – is given a striking anthropomorphic sheen. Melo Gampert plays with a subject that would normally be suited to a social-realist drama, and her approach makes the story fresh and – ironically – human. The main character in Flóra Anna Buda’s 27 (Hungary/France) has ostensibly grown up, hitting the film’s titular age. But still living at home, she finds herself in the strange liminal space of childhood and adulthood. This is a frank and clever exploration of sexuality and womanhood, which is typified by some excellent and seductive animation. A more playful sexual exploration occurs in the animation Le sexe de ma mère by Francis Canitrot (France), in which a middle-aged man who is caring for his ailing mother is encouraged by her to seek sexual fulfilment with a neighbour. While it trades in some moments of awkward familial relationship and unfiltered sexuality, the puppet animation is ultimately a sweet and endearing paean to love and happiness.

Filmed with a shaky urgency, Aunque es de noche by Guillermo García López (Spain/France) is the story of two teens who live in Europe’s largest slum. The rawness and despair are balanced out by a vein of genuine tenderness in this evocation of friendship and the need to escape. The same goes for Nada de todo esto by Patricio Martínez and Francisco Canton (Argentina/Spain/USA), in which a mother and daughter find themselves accidentally visiting a well-to-do suburban house. An often-tense piece of work – though tempered by an undertone of satire – the film is a clever exploration of societal inequality and human jealousy. More societal introspection occurs in Fár by Gunnur Martinsdóttir Schlüter (Iceland), in which a woman attending a business meeting at a coffee shop is shaken by an outside event. Told with an almost dreamlike subtlety, the picture is a perfect use of the short form, exploring those seemingly insignificant moments which have huge repercussions on our lives.

More surreal is the Marianne Faithful-narrated Wild Summon by Karni Arieli and Saul Freed (UK), in which the life cycle of a salmon is re-imagined in human form. While in and of itself the film is a technically brilliant piece of animation – creating a world that is both familiar yet uncanny – it’s also a treatise on our approach to the environment and how we empathise with the natural world.

The full list of titles playing in the Cannes Short Film Official Competition is as follows:

27 – Flóra Anna Buda (Hungary/France)
As It Was – Anastasia Solonevych, Damian Kocur (Poland/Ukraine)
Aunque es de noche – Guillermo García López (Spain/France)
Basri & Salma in a Never-ending Comedy – Khozy Rizal (Indonesia)
Fár – Gunnur Martinsdóttir Schlüter (Iceland)
La perra – Carla Melo Gampert (Colombia/France)
Le sexe de ma mère – Francis Canitrot (France)
Nada de todo esto – Patricio Martínez, Francisco Canton (Argentina/Spain)
Poof – Margaret Miller (USA)
Tits – Eivind Landsvik (Norway)
Wild Summon – Karni Arieli, Saul Freed (UK)