26th june
14h30
Casino
How to be a ghost in Bangkok? de Jing Zhao (THA, GBR)
After being ghosted by a romantic partner during a trip to Bangkok, the artist situates a contemporary act within a timeless SouthEast Asian cultural gesture, transforming personal heartbreak into a surreal exploration of ghosthood while reimagining its embodiment through ten playful yet haunting guidelines. Shifting between satire and introspection, the film contemplates the fragility of relationships and the futility and opacity of communication in the hyper-connected digital age.
Medical Field Guide or Rules of engagement with native e-girls de Andran Abramjan, Jan Hofman (CZ)
Through images shattered by point-cloud pellets, we dive into the consciousness of a drone pilot. On a peacekeeping mission in a deflowered landscape, he monitors strategic objects of desire, while psyop e-girls from lithium holes tempt him into an unauthorized descent into their huts. A preventive operation, however, triggers new ailments, and the inner healer must activate. Erotic geopolitics of the early 21st century. A large part of the film was shot with a depth camera.
I, Monster de Zofia Tomalska (POL)
The film "I Monster" touches on the issue of fear, which, through its rapper form, becomes a separate entity, attacking all the senses of an individual who is unable to free himself from the yoke of fear. Fear paralyzes and incapacitates, not allowing any action.
The male gaze recipe de Joey Arand, Alma Weber (GER)
The director dreams of making a 16mm masturbation film guided by her grandmother – according to an old recipe. With great displeasure she has to realize that her subconscious makes use of a male gaze and old gender roles.
The Land of Abandonment de Eliška Lubojatzká (CZ)
Voice, face, body and whip. In a tense monologue, a girl looks back at the long shadow cast by the act of rape, which has materialized in the surprising form of an all-too-vivid whip. Slowly receding, the camera zooms out to accompany the moment when she manages to unclench her fist, rid herself of the powerful instrument and speak in her own voice.
Totally Cooked de Dian Joy (GBR)
Inspired by the viral myth of Alexandria’s Genesis—a fictitious genetic condition originating in a 1998 Daria fan fiction—this fan fiction of a fan fiction follows Mary-Sue, an idealised online trope, and Anti-Sue, her flawed counterpart, as they stumble upon this obscure lore and find it infiltrating their lives.
The film delves into the chaotic life cycle of an internet myth, tracing its evolution and cultural impact. By blending cultural anecdotes, social media fragments, and web ephemera, it explores how digital folklore transforms into shared narratives, shaping communities through humour, anxiety, and perpetual reinvention.
Riga Crypto and Lapona Engiel de Vlad Cocieru (ROM)
An Adaptation of the poem „Riga Crypto și Lapona Enigel”
December rumbles de Ziyang Liu (CHN)
In suburban Beijing, four youngsters are having a tennis match after the abrupt dismantling of the "zero Covid" era. The tennis ball, which resembles vestiges from the past years, flies off the court. The four soon embark on a journey in search of it. Of daydream, contemplation, and disillusionment, pierces now and then.
Tooth & Nail de Francesca Roth (EUA)
In a tea room with misspelled signs and unfamiliar customs, Ryan and Violet interact with a robotic waiter, endure oppressive tunes from a nearby cellist and are watched by haunting, illusive doppelgängers.
Blinded by their self-deception and admiration for British culture, the women never understand the tea room is AI generated. They double down on fitting into the absurd culture, even forcing themselves to eat rubber pastries.
Meanwhile, the broken code rapidly learns from itself, accentuating AI’s flaws and biases: human fingers and eyeballs rest among the pastries, cultural figurines appear all over and eventually, the tea room becomes buried under its offerings of food and drink, covered with emblems and symbols that signify atrocities committed by British Imperialism.
All of its decadence closes in on the women as Ryan makes a failed attempt to escape and Violet regrets interacting with the doppelgängers. They vanish into the broken code, forever immersed in a replica of a civilization they longed to embody.
