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Lucky Man: Beautifully shot glimpse of shepherd’s life

The Hungarian short Lucky Man is a beautifully filmed glimpse into a few days in the life of a shepherd and his family.

Mimicking the gentle nature of the shepherd and his work, the film is also very quiet and has little dialogue.

The shepherd and his son work and sleep on picturesque hilltops while the wife remains in the village. Every day she rides a pedal bike into the hills to take food to her men. And every day two sets of jealous eyes watch the pretty woman pass by. The film’s initial slow and quiet inertia makes the ending even more disturbing and surprising.

Yesterday, I think: Abstract and mad, but not for the faint-hearted

The gritty, violent, subtle, abstract, visually interesting animated madness of this film centres around a newborn baby that makes people hate and murder, especially his parents, who kill the doctors who delivered the child, the driver of the car they strike after leaving the hospital, and the Godfather, who is driven by the child’s hatred to bite him.

This nonsensical non-linear short is intertwined with scenes of an armless martyr sitting in a café, doing little else by staring killing the flower on his table.

It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s originality is worth the five minutes.

Lucid & Doll no.639: Get ready for unexpected endings

Two men’s lives are intertwined in Sam Friedlander’s short film Lucid. The two men are opposites. Drake drives a beat-up pick-up truck to the graveyard shift at a manufacturing plant. Case drives a BMW and is an executive of his own company.

What links the two men is that they both suffer from sleep disorders.

Psychiatrist Dr. Simon is attempting to cure Case of his problem. Part of his proposed cure involves lucid dreaming. There is a plot twist at the end, but it’s probably not the one you were expecting.

Doll no.639

The Hungarian short Doll No. 639 offers a bleak, but fascinating view of what the future might be like. The film showcases laptop computers that fit in a purse, a moving TV and sex dolls delivered on demand.

Things go wrong for the unnamed protagonist in this film when he can’t send back Doll No. 639. A female inspector then shows up at his flat to find out what happened to the doll.

The two characters display a sort of awkward affection for each other.

She tells him he must send the doll back before the other inspectors arrive.

What transpired at the end of this film left me scratching my head.

Moongirl :Great for both kids and adults

Moongirl was fantastic.

This computer-animated short features vivid colours, an imaginative story, a clever ending and memorable characters like Earl the Squirrel, a little boy called Leon, a giant cat and of course Moongirl.

When out on his boat with Earl one evening, Leon tosses his fishing line into the sky and catches a “star fish”.

The constellation takes the boy up into the sky, away from Earth and finally to the moon – or, rather, through the moon.

They crash through the moon wall and land in a strange place with a mysterious carousel, a friendly girl and mischievous ghost-like villains who will do anything to get inside.

All the while, Leon is trying to figure out what is going on. It’s a clever story worth watching with or without kids.

Azadi: Poignant story but not long enough!

Azadi is the story of a teacher/ carpet seller and his son who flee the harsh Taliban regime in Afghanistan to seek a better life in Australia.

The carpet seller has left behind his wife and two daughters in Afghanistan and is also trying to get them into the country. But instead of the promised land of freedom and dignity, they find a different kind of oppression after being housed in an asylum seeker’s detention camp.

When a riot, which breaks out in the camp, is brutally put down by police the boy is left with emotional scars. The story is a poignant glimpse of the faces behind the often skewed news stories we hear about asylum seekers.

The scope was there for a feature length documentary and the 25-minute running time does not quite do the material justice.

The Banker: Humorous and original: The

story of a sperm bank technician

A tightly-wound sperm bank lab technician is secretly replacing donated sperm with his own, which he deftly extracts while viewing a photograph of his love interest, the sperm bank’s receptionist.

He’s been at it for some time, it seems, as he spends a good part of the film stalking women with young children — presumably his — and photographing them from afar.

The piece comes together in his dank apartment, with his photographs and newspaper clippings covering the walls, where he circles faces and draws connecting lines between people in some bizarre system whereby his actions should lead to him and the receptionist both coming together.

The film is highly recommended for is originality and humour.

Today, 30 November: An engaging think-piece

Set in the backdrop of Iraq just before the U.S. invasion, the film introduces the protagonist writing a letter to whoever should find it about what he is to do on this his fateful day — November 30. His task can only happen on this day, and if he fails, he’ll have to wait till the same day the following year.

His journey eventually finds him on a small fishing boat that night, as he is about to jump into the water, but there is a dispute with the boat’s owner as to what to do with his ID card, and it is agreed that they should turn back and wrap it in a plastic bag so it’ll be readable when he’s pulled from the water.

We never find out exactly what his task is, but the movie concludes with our hero in his house boat writing yet another farewell letter on November 30 the following year. An engaging think-piece.[[In-content Ad]]

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