Many of this year’s selection of shorts in the International Competition at the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival (7-17 August) explore the ironies inherent in the impermanence of memory in a world saturated with images and reminders of the past. Often with an oneiric quality, the shorts reflect a world that is being held back by the past and is finding the future difficult to negotiate.

Icebergs by Carlos Pereira (Germany) is an affecting examination of loneliness as an older man is forced to confront his emotions after a difficult night. A film of stillness and quiet, the story explores masculinity and the repression of emotion that is still expected amongst men, especially those of an older generation. With some remarkably controlled performances, this is a delicate and moving piece of work.

Bolder is Thelyia Petraki’s 400 Cassettes, in which the relationship between two friends is framed amongst discussions about the cosmos and memories found on analogue. It’s a paean to both friendship and love, but also a lament of the moments that fade with time. It’s an often-beautiful piece of work – eschewing the gloss of digital for the graininess of film stock and video cameras, which gives everything a wonderfully tactile quality – that takes well-explored themes and looks at them afresh. Also exploring young love is the latest work from Greek filmmaker Konstantina Kotzamani, What Mary Didn’t Know (France/Germany/Sweden), which is perhaps remarkable for its ordinariness. While previous works such as Electric Swan revelled in the strange and surreal, here Kotzamani provides a much straighter narrative as she follows young Mary, who – while travelling on a cruise with her parents and surrounded by mostly elderly couples rekindling their love – experiences love for the first time. Again, Kotzamani manages to take some age-old themes but imbue them with fresh meaning, as she both plays with and reinforces genre (and historical) clichés. It’s a very worthwhile addition to her canon, but at 54 minutes long, it might be hard for the film to find a deserved place on the circuit.

Defiantly surreal is Hymn of the Plague (Germany/Russia) from Atak51, a collective of displaced Russian filmmakers whose film is centred on an orchestra recording “A Feast in Time of Plague”. But the space around them ripples with the ghosts of the past, present and future. However, they seem to pass by unrecognised. With a continual air of disquiet – think Edgar Allan Poe meets David Lynch – the film speaks of people unaware of massive change going on around them and disappearing under the weight of the present. Ludwig (Power Inferno) by Anton Bialas (France) also explores the past and its tenuous relationship with what the future may hold in a highly stylised way – though its central motif may prove too much for some.

Eagerly anticipated is Mother Is a Natural Sinner (Germany) by filmmakers Boris Hadžija and Hoda Taher. The third part in a loose trilogy of shorts (also comprising 2022’s Mother Prays All Day Long and 2023’s As If Mother Cried That Night), the film is another exploration of sexuality, family, gender and politics that – in blurring the lines of reality – straddles low-key and provocative territory.

On the Impossibility of an Homage by Xandra Popescu (Romania/Germany) is a wonderful documentary that explores the career of Iom Tugearu, one of the great Romanian ballet dancers. While the film is enthralling thanks to Tugearu himself – imbued with a mixture of genius and arrogance – it also poses questions about those ultimately responsible for the success of a piece of art: is it the subject or the director?

Animations this year include On Weary Wings Go By (Estonia/Lithuania), the newest film by Estonian animator Anu-Laura Tuttelberg, a stunningly poetic exploration of Nordic nature, and Ashen Sun, a visceral look at human indolence and global warming. Dull Spots of Greenish Colours by Savish Svirsky (Germany) goes for all-out insanity, an assault on the senses as real war envelops the world.

The list of international shorts screening in competition at Locarno is as follows:

400 Cassettes - Thelyia Petraki (Greece/Germany)
B(l)ind the Sacrifice - Nakhane Mahlakahlaka (South Africa)
On the Impossibility of an Homage – Xandra Popescu (Romania/Germany)
Dull Spots of Greenish Colours - Sasha Svirsky (Germany)
Freak - Claire Barnett (USA)
Gender Reveal - Mo Matton (Canada)
Hymn of the Plague - Atak51 (Germany/Russia)
Icebergs - Carlos Pereira (Germany)
On Weary Wings Go By - Anu-Laura Tuttelberg (Estonia/Lithuania)
Ludwig (Power Inferno) - Anton Bialas (France)
Mother Is a Natural Sinner - Boris Hadžija, Hoda Taher (Germany/Iran)
Punter - Jason Adam Maselle (South Africa/USA)
May It Go Beautifully for You, Rico - Joel Alfonso Vargas (UK/USA)
Razeh-del - Maryam Takafory (Iran/UK/Italy)
Ashen Sun - Camille Monnier (France/Belgium)
The Cavalry - Alina Orlov (Canada/USA/Israel)
The Form - Melika Pazouki (Iran)
The Nature of Dogs - Pom Bunsermvicha (Thailand/USA/Singapore/Hong Kong)
WAShhh - Mickey Lai (Malaysia/Ireland)
What Mary Didn't Know - Konstantina Kotzamani (France/Greece/Sweden)