Marguerite Abouet, Clément Oubrerie:

Aya of Yop City
(Aya de Yopougon)

France, 2013. 88 minutes.

The story takes place at the end of the 1970s in the Ivory Coast, city of Youpougon, in a working class neighborhood renamed Yop City, where a 19-year-old Aya lives. Aya is a serious young woman, who prefers to stay home studying instead of going out with her girlfriends. Aya divides her time between school, her family, and her two best friends Adjoua and Bintou. Things go awry when Adjoua becomes pregnant. The film is an adaptation of the French comic series carrying the same name, written by Marguerite Abouet and drawn by Clément Oubrerie.

The screening takes place at Turku Book Café, Vanha Suurtori 3

Time: Wed 24.8.2022 at 9.30 pm

Rating: Not rated

Category: Animation, drama, comedy

Please note that the spoken language in the film is French and the subtitles are in English.

Ben Spooner, Morgan Twiston Davies:

When We Fell

United Kingdom, 2021. 4 minutes.

Landscapes gave way, a bird flew by.

A rolling canvas and one-take animation explores the wafer thin line between freedom and obliteration. Nothing can be taken for granted in this life. Everything changes, falls. The lived experience of this truth is captured by the journey of a bird through ever-shifting landscapes, on paper that also crumbles and rips before our very eyes.

Through hard times there is hope. Through destruction, growth.

Camille Burles, Andréea Ciora, Lou Fraleu, Manon Lambert, Clara Mesplé, Chloé Viala:

Little Things

France, 2021. 5 minutes.

A curious cow gets carried away by a destructive giant.

Lynn Tomlinson:

Ten Degrees of Strange

United States, 2021. 4 minutes.

Trying to outrun anxiety, seeking joy and strength in landscape and movement.

Taking inspiration from The Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient story written on clay tablets, and responding to the strangeness of the global pandemic, this story of loss and hope in nature is told through colorful, shifting, changing, morphing clay on glass animation.

Caitlin Craggs:

Kinesthese

United States, 2022. 2 minutes.

Everything is motion. Don’t slow down.

Nicolas Diologent:

Vulcan and Aphrodite
(Vulcain et Aphrodite)

France, 2022. 6 minutes.

As if by magic the black and white piano keys dance. The phonotrope shows the animation as it is drawn! What a feeling of happiness for the improvised drawing.

Nigina Rakhmatulloyeva:

Komsomolsk — Boredom
(Комсомольск — Скука)

Kazakhstan, Russia, 2021. 3 minutes.

Have you ever been bored?

Boredom is the official music video for the Komsomolsk band and the Turbina Project, based on the Marshak children’s bookstore label. Within this project, contemporary indie musicians write songs to verses written by children.

Jia Ying Lim, Kris Ong:

Empty Train Waltz

Singapore, 2022. 4 minutes.

‘Empty Train Waltz’ was inspired by a dream of an old couple dancing in an empty train. Over the backdrop of various old landscape paintings from the public archive, this collaboration between Bennett Bay, Momo Film Co and Finding Pictures captures the essence of ‘Empty Train Waltz’ and brings it visually to life.

Oksana Kurmaz:

Without You I'm Nothing: OKEAN ELZY
(Без Тебе Мене Нема: ОКЕАН ЕЛЬЗИ)

Ukraine, 2021. 4 minutes.

Real feelings are nourished by sensitivity, attention and tenderness. In the race for stability and success, it is so easy to forget to feed this pet, to caress and scratch behind the ear. Easy to forget, but impossible to lose! Love is not so easy to scare away, it will shows the way and puts everything in its place. Maybe just a little nap is enough?

Elyse Kelly:

Be Aware

United States, 2021. 4 minutes.

If ever there was a time of the American Dream it was in the 1950s-1970s. A golden age for economic mobility, and with an ever-growing consciousness of the world around us, our prosperity was more acute than ever. Unfortunately for Americans, inequality slowly increased. Now, we don’t have to look outside of America to see hunger, poverty, disease. Pulled from the vaults, BE AWARE is an unreleased song from 1971, written for Barbara Streisand by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Although written in a different era, with a small shift in perspective we’ve reframed its message to resonate with a contemporary audience and time. You don’t have to look far to recognize that there are two Americas. This film acknowledges, honors, and confronts that. 50 years later, the song, and Barbara Streisand’s captivating performance, still resonate today.

Aghil Hosseinian:

Moosa Koo Taqi

Islamic Republic of Iran, 2022. 4 minutes.

Moosa-Koo-Taghi is a name or colloquial moniker given to a common type of urban dove or pigeon in many parts of Iran. The name actually derives from the phrase “Moosa Koo Taghi?” which in Persian means, “Moosa, where is Taghi?” The phrase has a very similar sound to the birdsong of this particular dove.

One of these myths is about three brothers called Moosa, Taghi and Karim. One day they leave home to go out and play, but after a while, Taghi goes missing. His brothers start looking for him, searching around the city, but they can’t find him. Moosa continues searching the streets and allies, while Karim wishes that he could become bird so that he could soar above the city and see everything below. Karim’s wish comes true and he’s turned into a dove. He flies over the city and beckon’s to Moosa, from above, “where is Taghi?” They never find Taghi and Karim remains as a dove, perpetually in search of his brother in the skies above the city.

Bianca Scali:

How Many

Germany, 2021. 3 minutes.

Mathieu is weighed down by many questions which put him in a heavy state. But as he gives in to his sadness, the rain becomes tears and his tears become rain. He becomes one with his sadness. It’s his time to dance, and the tears accompany him.

Ineke Goes:

Walking with Lucy

Netherlands, 2021. 4 minutes.

Late night walks were magical moments for Lucy. Every day she pulled her owner up the hill, into the mysterious darkness, where adventure among shadows and wandering spirits beckoned.

Noa Pisačić:

Katarza

Croatia, 2021. 3 minutes.

Something strange happens during a bizarre basketball game.

Julianna Romero:

The Otter Popz - Workin' on Myself

United States, 2021. 3 minutes.

A 90s boy band comprised of otters performs a song where they apologize for their toxic behaviors in a relationship after counseling.

Yi-Yu Tsai:

Ganbatene
(甘吧爹ㄋㄟ)

Taiwan, 2021. 6 minutes.

To the dearest all who always get messed up in life, no matter by your own self or by the others. Whisper to your heart, even at the most desperate moment: GANBATE (Keep going on)!

Pernille Kjaer, Adrian Dexter:

Terra Incognita

France, 2022. 20 minutes.

Terra Incognita follows life on a mysterious island, inhabited by immortal beings that live in an unbroken chain of eternity, but eternity is a simple illusion broken only by death, nothing changes until….it does.

Damien Tran:

Onfim

France, 2022. 4 minutes.

Two lovers are walking along a river. They look at flowers on the shore.

This film is a tribute to the drawings of a child (Onfim) dating from the Middle Ages. These are both simple and powerful, beautiful and awkward.This ambivalence resonates with that of the love story told in this film, absurd and poetic.

Ülo Pikkov:

Til We Meet Again

Estonia, 2021. 14 minutes.

Animation short “‘Til We Meet Again” talks about the tragic history of a small Ruhnu Island. Fearing for their lives, its entire population abandoned their homes while escaping the war in 1944. Decades later they had a chance to finally return, only to find out that strangers had settled in. In addition to the twists and turns of the history, “‘Til We Meet Again” looks deeper into the meaning of home – is it merely a location or a place that gives one a peace of mind.

Subarna D:

Amayi

India, 2021. 5 minutes.

Amayi is a story of a woman who is haunted by nightmares of her past and her possible future of becoming the next village circumciser. When she is asked to take up the job and circumcise her daughter, she realizes she can’t conform to the traditions and the customs of her community, and she must fight back.

Paulina Ziółkowska:

3 geNARRATIONS
(3 geNARRACJE)

Poland, 2021. 9 minutes.

Three generations, three narrations, three different points of view. A dance of generations.

AmirHoushang Moein:

The Wet Mirror

Iran, 2021. 7 minutes.

“The Wet Mirror” is a story of an old painter who falls in love with a young girl. An old man who had been painting love stories for many years – today is his turn to be pictured.

Marta Pajek:

Impossible Figures and other stories I

Poland, 2021. 16 minutes.

After a huge explosion, only an old couple remains in an abandoned city. An old woman wanders tediously through empty streets. She passes by the statues of some now completely irrelevant and long-forgotten victories. In the shop windows, she sees some abandoned and dead mannequins. In short flashback, we get to see those, who will never return to the city. Marta Pajek’s film is a post-apocalyptic portrait of the world where the human being and its existence means no more than a split second. The film is the missing part of the trilogy “Impossible Figures and other stories”.