Short films from Latvia, the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Kazakhstan consider the relationship between memory and space.
In the past hugely challenging year, architecture has played a vital role in our lives, as so many of us were confined to homes. Some of us returned to the houses we grew up in, an act that solidifies the bond between our experiences and the spaces we inhabit.
These five diverse, often very beautiful shorts, including dramas, a documentary and an animated film - explore the relationship between memories, sometimes nostalgic, sometimes traumatic, and personal spaces from the past, in a post-communist and post-Soviet context.
This Cinema On Demand film includes a recorded ScreenTalk about the films’ themes.
Barbican Cinema has been supported by the Culture Recovery Fund for Independent Cinemas in England which is administered by the BFI, as part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund supporting arts and cultural organisations in England affected by the impact of Covid-19. #HereForCulture.
Programme
Still Life
Elīna returns to the summer house of her childhood to show it to buyers. The spiritual presence of her dead grandmother forces her to reflect on the legacy of failing familial relations.
Latvia 2020 Dir Anna Ansone 23 min
Spaces
The personal true story of the filmmaker’s brother’s brain tumour diagnosis and subsequent memory loss is told through this potent animated documentary.
Czech Republic 2019 Dir Nora Štrbová 8 min
B4
After 26 years, Bosnian director Alen Šimić returns to the town of his childhood and learns for the first time about the night when he lost his parents and was saved from near-certain death by a neighbour.
Bosnia and Herzegovina 2020 Dir Alen Šimić 13 min
Slova
Slobodan meets his father Nenad for the first time in 25 years to discuss the transfer of the deeds to a house. Their relationship is strained because Nenad left Croatia during the war in the 1990s.
Croatia 2019 Dir Bojan Radanović 12 min
End of Season
At the end of summer, Rosa arrives at her husband’s resort – a small hotel in the vast dry steppe - to check on staff and collect the accounts. An unexpected encounter interrupts the routine of her stay and awakens her former passion for swimming.
Kazakhstan/UK 2018 Dir Zhannat Alshanova 23 min
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