SHORTCUTS - Views From the Four Nations (SHORTCUTS - Vues des 4 Nations)

Programmed by Dinard Festival of British Film, a French film festival celebrating British cinema, whose collaboration with EIFF adds a distinct dimension to our endeavours to present not only excellent short films, but to further the understanding of the complexities of British society.

Bound / Joe Carter / UK / 2020 / 13 min / English

Two young people navigating the ultimate walk of shame. In Leith, Edinburgh, Kelsey gets Martin drunk. They wake up very hungover. This short film follows them over the course of one morning, trying to return to their normal lives.

Verisimilitude / David Proud / UK / 2020 / 13 min / English

An unemployed disabled actress watches all the disabled acting jobs go to able bodied actors. She is engaged as an advisor to a spoilt up and coming British film star, showing him how to be disabled for his latest role.

Allowed / Zillah Bowes / UK / 2021 / 3 min / English

An animated lockdown walk through Cardiff during the first Covid-19 wave. With green spaces uncut, plants and flowers were allowed to grow wild. Allowed re-examines our relationship with urban plant life in the urgent context of biodiversity loss and climate crisis.

Opal / Kirsty McLean / UK / 2020 / 13 min / English

A teenage boxer tries to fill her idolised and abusive father’s space in the family, after his sudden passing. Packing a raw punch for a first short film.

Stop Nineteen / Danielle Swindells / UK / 2019 / 8 min / English

‘Dark tourism’ to places associated with death or tragedy is booming in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This new phenomena of tourism to the working class streets of the city where the majority of the conflict took place during The Troubles (1968-1998).

SHAGBANDS / Luna Carmoon / UK / 2020 / 18 min / English

In the summer heatwave of 2006, a gang of teenage girls in South London face strange sexual awakenings and a discovery of violence.

One for the Road / Eileen Tracey / UK / 2021 / 16 min / English, Welsh

Inspired by true events: Ceri has to pack up her whole deeply rooted life in the seaside town of Penporth to meet the evacuation date set by the government, as the coastal defences crumble under ever-rising sea levels.

Rough / Adam Patterson, Declan Lawn / UK / 2020 / 13 min / English with subtitles

Post-conflict paramilitaries, in Northern Ireland, enforce brutal street justice “punishment” attacks. But when they pass a death sentence on a local dog, they bite off more than they can handle

Keith Water / Izzy Gibbs / UK / 2020 / 5 min / English

A mesmerising stop-motion story about a small river, which runs by the film maker’s house, made from found materials, mostly wood, from the river itself, during the 2020 lockdown.

The Shift / Laura Carreira / Portugal, UK / 2020 / 9 min / English

An agency worker takes her dog for a morning walk to do her shopping. As she approaches the checkout her agency calls; she has lost her shift, revealing the consequences of precarious employment, poverty, and insecurity.

Jambo Cinema / Dawinder Bansal, Anthony Davies / UK / 2019 / 10 min / English

A short film about a video rental shop in 1980s Wolverhampton, bringing a lost world back to life. It’s a story of family, migration, love, loss and video piracy set in a working class South Asian family.

SUPPORTED BY