Enforced measures of lockdown and social distancing, as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, have brought about new modes of cultural activity, new ways of creating and consuming culture. At the same time, such unprecedented circumstances have reframed notions of togetherness, alienation, distance and embodiment. We have suddenly found ourselves before an abundance of virtual events, exhibitions, festivals, and performances, which reframe the social and physical foundations of culture, while all the same highlighting their significance.

In Short Europe, an initiative of EUNIC London, was first organised on Brexit day as a celebration of European cinema and our shared values and culture with the UK. Its second edition follows prolonged periods of uncertainty, fatigue and despair of the lives lost and the time spent in isolation and distanced from the people we love and the things we love to do, such as attending a music concert or a theatre performance, or simply going to the cinema on a Sunday evening. The way out is still obscure and saturated by layers of medical, scientific, political and economic discourse.

And, yet, cinema is still alive on the small screens of our quotidian devices; a refuge of hope, reminiscing the time before, visualising the time after. Escapism has invariably constituted the essence of cinema, as the medium par excellence that provides audiences with images and sounds of a utopian feel, of hope.

The second edition of In Short Europe embraces the theme ESCAPE, offering our audience an online collection of short films that negotiate the concept through their form, themes and style. Through a variety of genres and styles, fifteen shorts from all over Europe feature characters and images that appear and disappear, following physical or mental journeys, reaching points of arrival or points of departure, always on the move, seeking an escape that may or may not come.

Text by Marios Psaras, Cultural Counsellor Cyprus High Commission

Register to attend HERE. Once you have registered, you will receive a link with a password via e-mail on the start date of the festival.

PROGRAMME:

Austria: Excuse Me, I’m Looking for the Ping-pong Room and My Girlfriend, directed by Bernhard Wenger
2017 | 23’| German with English subtitles| fiction

Cyprus: Wax and Feathers, directed by Marios Lizides| 2018| 15’| Greek with English subtitles| documentary

Czech Republic: Home Sleep Home, directed by Adam Koloman Rybansky| 2018| 23’| Czech with English subtitles| fiction

Estonia: A poem about Love, directed by Nora Särak and Dominik Krutský| 2018| 20’| Estonian with English subtitles| documentary

Finland: The Irresistible Smile, directed by Ami Lindholm| 2016| 06’21| no dialogue| animation

Germany: Ties, directed by Dina Velikovskaya| 2019| 07’35| no dialogue| Germany, Russia| animation

Greece: The distance between us and the sky, directed by Vasilis Kekatos| 2019| 9’| Greek with English subtitles| fiction

Hungary: Last Call, directed by Hajni Kis| 2018| 28’| Hungarian with English subtitles| fiction

Ireland: Departure, directed byAoife Doyle| 2018| 9’21| no dialogue| animation

Lithuania: The Juggler, directed by Skirmanta Jakaitė| 2018| 11’| no dialogue| animation

Poland: Acid Rain, directed by Tomasz Popakul| 2019 |28’ |Polish with English subtitles| animation

Portugal: Friends After Dark, directed by Rita Barbosa| 2016| 24’| Portuguese with English subtitles | fiction

Romania: Outdoors In Isolation, directed by Matei Branea| 2020| 3’| no dialogue| animation

Slovenia: The Paradise, directed by Sonja Posenc, co-director Mitja Ličen| 2019| 26’| Slovenian with English subtitles| fiction

Spain: Selfie, directed by Nayra Sanz Fuentes| 2019| 9’| English | documentary