BFI Flare Film Festival 2021: My Recommendations

This year all of the selected short films for BFI Flare Film Festival were online via the BFI Player. It was a good chance to catch some pioneering and captivating short films for free.

There were seven strands, across fiction and non-fiction, and each strand ended with a Q&A with the filmmakers hosted by the programmer. It was an opportunity not to be missed.

LGBTQ+ films tend to be about homophobia or about coming out, so it was refreshing to watch stories that made their mark. For example, setting a love story in the final few hours of the world ending (Escaping the Fragile Planet; Tsimpinis, 2020), in the charged atmosphere of an Israel soldier listening to a Palestinian couple (Listening In; Sterenberg, 2019), or set across two time periods (Wings; Weston, 2020).

Here are my favourite short films from this year’s official line-up. The festival has now finished but keep your eyes peeled for these works online or follow these talented directors/writers/producers.

Girls Shouldn’t Walk Alone at Night (2000) written and directed by Katerine Martineau, runs for 17-minutes but you wouldn’t know it. It’s an absorbing and unfolding account of two friends who are stranded in the countryside, after rejecting a male ‘friend’, they have to get home by themselves. From this moment in the film, the landscape feels as if it belongs to the two women and it’s filmed exquisitely. There is a bit of improvised laughter, which I personally find never comes across, but it delivers an experience you find not wanting to end.

The Night Train (Nattåget) written and directed by Jerry Carlsson. The Night Train is about a young man on a long night train who meets a fellow passenger. For a 15-minute film, it’s paced well, making you wonder what will happen next for the whole film. Carlsson gets a great performance from both young actors, and so much is communicated by looks, silences, and non-diegetic sounds.

As mentioned above, Listening in (HaMaazin) is set in an interesting situation: a young soldier in an intelligence unit questions himself while spying on a Palestinian couple. The narrative surprises you and the central performance is compelling for someone who is listening to conversations. The production design is great, but the real beauty is in the simplicity of the structure and the voice-actors. Written and directed by Omer Sterenberg.

Dustin (2020), written and directed by Naïla Guiguet, is a find. For the use of incorporating in the story a massive rave and for a collection of naturalistic performances by the leads. It’s about the highs and lows of a Parisian party queen as she continues to party with friends long after they are ejected from the rave. The performances and the realness to this make it worth a watch.

Victoria (2020) is about a florist who receives a surprise visit from her ex-wife who is uncomfortable with her coming out. The hints of what has gone on before between this couple are naturalistically conveyed as the film unfolds. The dialogue flies back and forth, each sentence delivers a blow to the characters and for the viewer to involve themselves to understand the meaning behind the words. It’s a great script and expert direction by Daniel Toledo Saura.

Do check out the filmmakers past work and BFI Flare Film Festival next year — where, hopefully, we are watching more glorious short films in the comfort of the Southbank cinemas.