Directed by: Jerry Carlsson
Sweden, 2014, 25 min

One day two arborists are hired to perform a seemingly ridiculous task: to cut down a perfectly healthy tree in a family’s backyard. What’s behind this urgent need to get rid of it as soon as possible? The answer to this question is hidden in the homeowners’ strange behavior and in their inability to talk about the real reason.

Directed by: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
Norway, 2015, 25 min

Just prior to his birthday, 25-year-old Benjamin faces a plethora of internal doubts. He is unsure of the arrival of his younger, more successful brother, and even his girlfriend deepens his insecurity by relating the story of her most erotic encounter ever – and it wasn’t with him.… A sensitive movie about a small life crisis that anyone might go through as a birthday approaches.

Directed by: Mátyás Szabó
Hungary, 2014, 24 min

For escaped prisoner Maydan freedom is limited to the small platform of a heavy handcar and to railroad tracks that lead who knows where. The young man is bound to his means of transport by a heavy chain, nevertheless he loses neither hope nor his sense of humor. The film’s inventive pictorial treatment emphasizes the claustrophobia of captivity.

Directed by: Patrick Vollrath
Austria, Germany, 2015, 30 min

It’s Friday and eight-year-old Lea is impatiently waiting for her daddy. As is common in many divorced families, he is to pick her up for the weekend. But her father is acting strangely and however hard he tries to hide his nervousness Lea soon realizes that there is something funny going on.…

Directed by: Martina Buchelová
Slovak Republic, 2014, 12 min

In the whirlwind of everyday cares there’s no time to think about nonsense. Looking after her son and elderly father so exhausts the woman that it’s difficult for her to squeeze a bit of fantasy into her daily routine. But isn’t it a shame to exclude something from her life that brings color into the drabness of the every day? All she has to do is listen to what her father and son say and start to believe that unusual things sometimes simply happen.

Directed by: Moïra Pitteloud
Switzerland, 2014, 14 min

What was originally an interesting offer to work for the intelligence service ends up raising many questions for a young man with Algerian-Swiss roots. Is it his abilities or his origins that make him a suitable candidate for the job? The Offer represents a small-scale attempt to cogently characterize certain issues about life in a multicultural society.

Directed by: Ondřej Hudeček
Czech Republic, 2015, 26 min

The childhood and youth of Ladislav Stroupežnický, legend of Czech realism, as told in three chapters that we may or may not have come across in our literature textbooks. Accented with its own brand of humor and formal playfulness, the filmmakers claim it’s got it all: suspense, humor, violence, hope, emotion, nudity, sex, and even a happy ending.

Directed by: Raphaël Crombez
Belgium, 2014, 25 min

A timeless place reminiscent of years long past. A barren landscape and a group whose exclusive stock-in-trade is violence and death. Although a member, it seems that Desmond still holds on to something of his humanity. Will he be able to turn perdition into redemption?

Directed by: James Fitzgerald
Ireland, 2014, 25 min

Nineteen-year-old Flick lives in harmony with a routine of days without work, whose rhythm is determined by the opening time of the local bar. From his father he inherited an inclination for the bottle, and change hardly seems on the horizon, given that it’s not what he’s looking for. Skunky Dog is a bleak tale with touches of low-key humor.

Directed by: Konstantina Kotzamani
Greece, 2014, 24 min

The mysterious term Washingtonia masks multiple meanings: it’s the name of the only palm tree not devoured by the red beetle, an alternate name for Athens, and the oppressive sadness brought on by the summer heat. But it is also an unusual film that, in the rhythm of a giraffe’s beating heart, combines beauty, sorrow, nostalgia, a longing for love, and an undetermined feeling of pain.