FF40: Madness

The screening of a series of short films will take place as part of the FAMUFEST 40.

A nutter, a madcap, a moron, a clown, a fool, a lunatic, a freak, a nutcase, a mess… do you answer to any of these? So what! Don't be ashamed of being crazy about something, don't be afraid to say what drives you insane. It's boring, always watching yourself, come on, go mad for a while. Are you hesitant about whether this is right for you? Don't be crazy. You're in for quite a show. After all, even the classic says: The most beautiful is the crazy one.

The Chronicle – Martin Hub / Šimon Fridrich / 5 min / original language: CZ / subtitles: EN – A legendary Czech stuntman Martin Hub, who starred in cult classics like Titanic, Troy, Saving Private Ryan and more, opens up to us through humor and exaggeration. The film is a grotesque portrait, emphasizing Martin’s personality.

EO DE ME / Viktorie Štěpánová / 5 min / original language: no dialog – Subjective emotional walk, where the direction is dictated by emotions, not steps. Feelings create the space, music sets the rhythm, tones are translated into colors. EO DE ME is an experimental film emphasizing the synthesis of what is seen, heard, and felt. A catharsis of everyday life as visualization of music.

Trigger warning: This film can cause epileptic seizures in more sensitive individuals.

Liminal / Tamara Avakyan / 14 min / original language: EN / subtitles: CZ – The film takes place inside Emma, the protagonist, who lives in a constant state of anxiety. Emma finds herself in a liminal space between the past and the future, haunted by her fear of adulthood and uncertainty about what’s yet to come. The film captures her inner conflict and effort to find a way to deal with such intense emotions. We witness a journey deep inside a human psyche and observe the process of self-acceptance.

Trigger warning: This film can cause epileptic seizures in more sensitive individuals.

In Memory of / Haichao Gu / 5 min / original language: no dialog – While the artist tries to record the faces that have been erased, an invisible force is constantly stopping her. It seems that all resistance and persistence are futile when ordinary people are under the grip of that force, but it also seems that some new language has been spawned. Even though that language is so absurd and impotent, the expression can never be stopped.

Babydoll / Iyanah Bativala / 12 min / original language: CZ / subtitles: EN – A documentary news-story on a group of people that collect Reborn Dolls, realistic-looking babies. Film connects the group of collectors and the doll production itself.

Blindness / Victoriia Kralko / 3 min / original language: CZ / subtitles: EN – Glasses are designed to help us see better. But sometimes we put them on so we don't have to see through them at all. They're like a coating that keeps us on the surface and we never penetrate deeper. It's up to us whether we choose to remain blind or take off our glasses. And if we take them off, we might see something more than just a black and white portrait of Josef Čapek turned to the left.

Kočičina / Věra Chytilová / 11 minut / original language: CZ / subtitles: EN – A Kafkaesque motif in the life of a cat suffering from an identity crisis. Mr. and Mrs. Ka's cat observes the life of its seemingly normal owners, who hide dark secrets. While the cat sees the closed world as a safe prison, Mr. and Mrs. Ka develop their vision of a better life in their apartment, which becomes dangerous for them. The house cat describes the strange behavior of his masters with the help of a fable about a mouse that is inexorably heading into a trap.

Sprouting / Ivana Vogrinc Vidali / 9 minut / original language: CZ / subtitles: EN – The most sacred thing in the isolated world of Josefina's consumerist family is food, and the most important activity is debauchery. The cold family relationships cause Josefina anxiety, prompting her to dive into her own inner world, a quiet winter peach orchard, where she searches for her inner voice and a way towards change.

Trigger warning: eating disorders

Bury me! / Vojta Kunc / 21 min / original language: CZ / subtitles: EN – Jirka is a shy boy, haunted by the voice of his late father, cultivating feelings of uncertainty and distrust towards his own family. The funeral is Jirka's last opportunity to settle his father's wrongdoings, but his relatives just decided to pay him a visit.

Total screening time: 84 min.