By Siavash Minoukadeh, Entertainment Sub-Editor
The 2019 London Film Festival celebrated a range of superb short films by directors who aren't afraid to push boundaries, with productions ranging all the way from Bristol to Iran.
Whilst this year’s London Film Festival was another extravagant celebration of international blockbusters, there was a much more independent and experimental side to the festival too, especially in the short film competition.
Away from the red carpet and celebrities, the screenings drew a smaller crowd, which is a shame as most short films never receive a broad distribution deal so it’s unlikely they’ll be seen again in the UK anytime soon.
With the format being so ripe for experimentation, and with filmmakers facing none of the traditional pressures to succeed at the box office, there was a far broader range of styles and concepts present amongst the twelve competing shorts.
From a hip-hop music video about social media’s influence on politics from Senegal to an East-London set teenage drama that turned incredibly gory very quickly, the two screenings of six shorts each took the audience on a whistlestop tour around the world of film.
A special mention goes out to In Vitro (2019) which was produced in collaboration with the Bristol-based arts institution Spike Island. Splitting the screen vertically into two separate frames, the video art piece, shot in black and white, was a gorgeously captured meditation on the nature of memory and the past.
With each short being such an enjoyable dip into a new world, it was easy to forget that all of these films were in competition with each other for the BFI London Film Festival Short Film Award.
Ultimately, the winner was Fault Line (2018) produced somewhere ever so slightly less local than Spike Island - Iran. The jury picked out director Soheil Amirsharifi’s ability to create such a complex plot and ‘sophisticated layering of story’ that unfolds over just fifteen minutes.
This high-school drama set in an Iranian girls’ school serves as a concise encapsulation of what has made Iranian cinema so popular. Shot in an unpretentious fly-on-the wall style we follow Nahal, a young student, as her school is running an earthquake drill - hence the film’s title.
There was a far broader range of styles and concepts present amongst the twelve competing shorts
Her personal drama and the consequences of it, lead to her hatching a plan to absolve herself of any potential guilt. It is rare for a short to create such a strong draw based on the plot alone, but Fault Line manages to keep the viewer hooked with nothing more.
The production is sparse, emotions are restricted - both at least in part due to the harsh hand of the Iranian state’s censor - and there is none of the glamour of an American teen drama like Veronica Mars (2004-2019) or Riverdale (2017-) but Fault Line captures the same sense of high drama, as a small action spirals into something much bigger in a tight 15 minutes.
This high-school drama set in an Iranian girls’ school serves as a concise encapsulation of what has made Iranian cinema so popular
Though I was gripped by Fault Line, the sheer quality of the other eleven shorts, alongside the diversity in content and style in each one made the whole experience of watching the short film programme a wonderfully eye-opening one.
I had been expecting to see hurried glimpses of stories, with no filmmaker being able to invest the viewer into their world in such a short time. Instead, I found each short to be its own complete cinematic world, giving the opportunity to watch twelve completely different plots, characters and styles play out over the course of just a few hours.
Featured - Getty Images / Iranian Youth Cinema Society
What are some of your favourite short films? Let us know!
