Games Human Plays

Eighteen films of this year’s International Competition comprise a trip around the world that suppresses the desire for closeness, frankness and naked violence towards the other; it’s an exercise in irony and self-deprecation; it’s political, but not politicized; it’s the essence of wholesome involvement and immersion into the world’s problems and dilemmas. It’s here and now. It is happening to them, but also to us.

IN THE COMPANY OF INSECTS

Duncan Cowles United Kingdom

11 min documentary 2020 Language of dialogues English

Prompted by the death of his grandfather, a filmmaker comes to terms with his feelings of loss by focussing on something smaller.
AUSTRAL FEVER

Thomas Woodroffe Chile

21 min fiction 2019 Language of dialogues Spanish

Amanda, a complaisant and lonely woman in her mid-fourties, lives with Daniel, her sixteen-year-old son, in the mountains of southern Chile. Octavio, a friend of Daniel, is accidentally injured while hunting in the forest. Amanda takes over the healing sessions, developing an intimate bond between them. They discover that the contact with the wound produces an addictive pleasure.
PLAYING

Lun Sevnik Czechia

22 min fiction 2019 Language of dialogues Czech

Boris and Hugo, 16 years old friends, bought a gun. They close themselves in Hugo's parents apartment and announce on Internet livestream video that in one hour they will commit suicide.
HOW TO DISAPPEAR

Leonhard Müllner, Robin Klengel Austria

20 min documentary 2020 Language of dialogues English

Is it possible to desert in a shooter game? Along this question, "How to Disappear" reflects on war and game, discipline and disobedience. For the history of defiance is as old as the history of war - and yet the act of desertion goes beyond the game's space of action.
TRADITION

Ioseb "Soso" Bliadze Germany, Georgia

23 min fiction 2019 Language of dialogues English, German, Georgian

Two German tourists, Christian and Daniel are visiting Georgia as a tourists. They are searching for a food in a village and suddenly they are invited on a Georgian wedding. Their real adventures starts here.