05/09/2024 - VENICE 2024: The allure of the past and the shock of the new create conflict in many of the titles vying for the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film at this year’s edition

This year’s selection of short films that will vie for the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film as part of the 81st Venice Film Festival showcases an eclectic selection of filmmaking talent and genres, giving the audience a taste of talents to watch out for and new works from some established names.

2024 is proving to be a busy year for Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson. After his feature When the Light Breaks [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rúnar Rúnarsson
film profile] screened in this year’s Un Certain Regard at Cannes, he now comes to Venice to introduce his latest short, O. Shot in stark black and white, the film is the story of a man who must avoid falling into his old ways in order to discharge an important familial duty. While there’s an often-bleak tone to the film, which speaks of human fragility, there is also an air of the poetic which – buoyed by an amazing central performance from stalwart Icelandic actor Ingvar Sigurdsson – makes for a deeply human and moving piece of work.

Also emotional is the Irish short Three Keenings, following a struggling actor who supplements his meagre income by working as a “professional mourner” in rural Ireland. Exploring the gaps between tradition and modernity alongside societal attitudes towards grief and death, director Oliver McGoldrick creates a potent drama that has an undercurrent of humour cutting through the dark subject matter.

Tradition and modernity also clash in Joe Weiland and Finn Constantine’s Marion (UK), a drama centring on the title character, who is the only female “bull jumper” in Spain. On the night when she is due to perform in a packed arena, Marion’s personal life begins to intercede. This is a dynamic affair – the grandiose spectacle of a packed arena contrasted with the intimate and personal – as the film examines how people are caught between the desire to follow tradition and also to evolve and do things anew.

Also dynamic is Cansu Baydar’s Almost Certainly False, in which Hanna – who has fled the war in Syria with her youngest brother, Nader – attempts to adjust to life in a run-down area of Istanbul. The film is a heartfelt examination of trying to define one’s identity when removed not only from familiar surroundings, but also from traditional familial roles. It’s a work that – amongst moments of sadness – oozes a life and vitality that speak of the human ability to adapt under extreme circumstances.

Outwardly playful is the documentary René Goes to War by Luca Ferri, Morgan Menegazzo and Mariachiara Perinsa, in which the lead protagonist – the young boy of the title – plays various games of war, carving guns out of sticks and playing in bunkers left over from World War II. Despite the idyll of child’s play, the film has a dark centre, reminding us of how the nature of war is consistently brought to the level of a game and also asking whether notions of “war” are innate within human nature.

The European offerings amongst the shorts are rounded off by two animations. The first is the documentary Shadows by Rand Beiruty, in which a young girl travelling through an airport for the first time turns into a metaphor for said girl being forced into becoming a child bride and fathering a child at a young age. Based on the real-life testimony of the film’s protagonist, the film juxtaposes the beautiful and the abstract with the realities of a harsh life. The second animation is Roberto Catani’s Il burattino e la balena, which is a gloriously twisted take on the Pinocchio myth, in which the beats of the fairy tale of old are shot through with the realities of the modern age, and our protagonist’s journey to become a real boy becomes infinitely more impossible.

The full list of short films screening in competition in Orizzonti is as follows:

Almost Certainly False – Cansu Baydar (Turkey)
Shadows – Rand Beiruty (France/Joran)
Il burattino e la balena – Roberto Catani (France/Italy)
The Poison Cat – Tian Guan (China)
Ajar – Atefeh Jalali (Iran)
Three Keenings – Oliver McGoldrick (UK/Ireland/USA)
My Mother Is a Cow – Moara Passoni (Brazil)
René Goes to War – Luca Ferri, Mariachiara Pernisa, Morgan Menegazzo (Italy/Slovenia)
James – Andrés Rodríguez (Guatemala/Mexico)
O – Rúnar Rúnarsson (Iceland/Sweden)
Who Loves the Sun – Arshia Shakiba (Canada)
Moon Lake – Jeannie Sui Wonders (USA)
Marion – Joe Weiland, Finn Constantine (France/UK)