Play / Ground (2019)

Small things of unquantifiable value

A police officer records an unusual deposition from a young woman: all her dreams have been stolen.

Staging Anna

A Theatre Company prepares for season previews under a manipulative Director, whose fanatical tactics blur the line between illusion and reality.

The Box Man

A man reacts with violence when a pair of eyes spy on him from inside a cardboard box.

Keep It for Yourself

Sophie comes to New York from France with the intention of joining a man she met a few months before. She finds herself alone in the apartment of the guy, who left town because he was scared stiff at the idea of seeing her. Originally commissioned as one third of an omnibus feature showcasing the Figaro, a Japan-only retro throwback car.

Only Pussies Screw

Make is 11 but wants to be a teen or better yet, an adult - anything but a child. Instead he's forced to look after his little brother Konsta.

Greetings from Florida!

Suzanne and Henry are a retired couple of snowbirds, who now with nothing more to do in life spend their nights smoking and drinking profusely. During the first hurricane of the season they attempt to brave the storm, ignoring the violent weather and bearing each other's company.

Under the Skin

The blue depths of the swimming pool is her home. Keesje is a passionate synchronised swimmer, and the big competition is just around the corner. However, when a fight erupts between the girls during the final rehearsal, everything changes.

Broken Bird

Birdie, growing up as the daughter of a Black American and a white woman, is Jewish, has unruly hair and must deal with the different identity offers that surround her. Highlighting the challenges of lived intersectionality, empowering and original.

The Monsters

A look inside the minds of two students who have been bullied to the extreme.

Carne

After a dreadful incident coupled with an ungovernable paroxysm of violence, a butcher will fall into a downward spiral that will burn to the ground whatever dignity still remained in him.

Sunset Cemetery

Joseph isn't particularly happy, even though he's good at hiding it. The day his brother dies, he becomes certain he'll miss out on his life. So that it doesn't slip away from him, one night he gives in to his desire.

Sweet Rabbit

Jeanet, an insecure middle-aged woman, discovers one day that rabbit ears are growing out of her head. Shocked and confused, she rushes to the doctor to get rid of her ailment. But the doctor turns out to be a poor listener. Jeanets relatives seem to have attention for her. Jeanet thinks she is on her own until she knocks on her husband's door.

Tea

While rehearsing asking out the girl of his dreams, a lonely and highly allergic Circuit-Shack employee gets stung in the throat by a hornet.

Mom's Celestial Robe of Feathers

"There are many things that I don't like. The traffic jam on the way to Naha, my debt-ridden father, my best friend's boyfriend, milk, and my hometown, Shioya-wan. Why did my beautiful mother marry my father?" Ruri tried to escape from these thoughts as she faced an uncertain future. Then, one day, she learns of her mother's past, but…

The Little Prince(ss)

When Gabriel, a 7-year-old Chinese kid who loves ballet, becomes friends with Rob, another Chinese kid from school, Rob’s dad gets suspicious about Gabriel's feminine behavior and decides to intervene.

All Is Not Lost

Calvin has early onset Alzheimers and plays by his own rules. With Claire his unorthodox caregiver, he navigates the friendships and antics in his Senior Living Community, while grappling with his own sense of loss.

Waves

Like the ebbs and flows of waves in the ocean, a woman rides out different stages of an anxiety attack and through memory and space regains control and relief.

Stay

Being young and in love. a short story about Miscommunication. we follow Charlie and Molly from 18 to 21 years of age, after a long time apart Molly is back from University and bumps into Charlie. they spend the night reconnecting with each other.

Nightshade

Tarik helps his father Elias transport illegal immigrants into the Netherlands. When an accident occurs, Tarik gains the acknowledgment from his father he has yearned for, but at a high price - the loss of his own innocence.

Debris

After a disastrous event on his construction site, Armando acts quickly to save his crew, but instead stumbles upon an unspeakable truth.

Headbutt

Headbutt portrays the desire of Tobias (15) to restore the old relationship he had with his brother Lucas (18). While they used to do everything together, Lucas now has no interest in his younger brother anymore. When Tobias fantasizes that Lucas will commit suicide, Tobias has no other option than to restore the relationship with his isolated brother.

nothing, except everything.

A graduating high schooler navigates a world of seemingly inevitable chaos by finding order in the number 7.

Survivor Type

A disgraced surgeon stranded on a deserted island with no food and only a handful of supplies must go to great lengths to stay alive for rescue that may never come.

Locks

A young man in Oakland, California, wakes with a heavy heart and decides to take a walk through the neighborhood to the local barbershop.

Stains

As Erin packs her old life into boxes, she overhears a violent attack in the apartment above that derails her night.

Kimchi Fried Dumplings

Carls the eldest of three brothers and is expected to be a role model for the family. He wants to show his family that he made the right choice to move away. However, youngest brother Adam's unexpected hostility reveals the problems with Carls choices.

Dungarees

Transgender Blake and cisgender Cane hang out, play video games and grapple with their insecurities. This is their love story.

A Walk with Johnny Guitar

Lord knows where João de Deus has been. He's come home wounded in the head. He's got a bit of the soundtrack to Johnny Guitar in his head. Strangely enough, there is no sign of the hole in his head. Day breaks over the city. Further strolls are in sight. It is said that Mr. Monteiro, the alter ego of João de Deus, occasionally goes out with Nicholas Ray. At least, they've been seen together.

Liar

Due to drug abuse, a 13-year-old boy is placed into a detention center for young offenders. After a week, the judge will decide if he must stay there or go back home. Confronted with the adults, the judge, the psychologist and the social workers, the boy uses his most effective power to rebel against them all: lying.

Visas and Virtue

Europe, 1940. For thousands of Jews, a Japanese diplomat and his wife defy Tokyo and the Nazis, and offer visas, for life.

Ghost

Benjamin is "ghosted" by his lover.

Ladyboy

Kristian, who is a transvestite, still lives at home with his mother Emma, because she loves him just the way he is. Life as a transvestite offers many humiliations from the outside world, but with his mom, Kristian feels that he can be himself. Until one day when Emma meets the alcoholic Søren, who does not have the same tolerance...

Six Shooter

Overwhelmed by grief following the death of his wife, Donnelly shares a train carriage home with a troubled young man identified only as the 'Kid'. As the Kid becomes more agitated and foul-mouthed, the journey takes on a violent and dangerous hue – for the bereaved Donnelly and for other hapless passengers on the train. Academy Award Winner: Best Live Action Short Film – 2005

Under Your Fingers

The day of the cremation of her grand mother, Emilie, a young mixed-race Asian girl, buries herself into her grandmother memories. She discovers the Indochina of Hoa, her romantic encounter with Jacques (a French colon), the birth of Linh (Emilie's mother) and her tragic departure to France in 1956. She relives with Linh the arrival into the camp of Sainte-Livrade, the exploitation of the Indochinese women by the market gardeners of Lot-et-Garonne. Between memories, dance, anger and traditional rituals, Emilie learns to accept this heritage.

Anu

When a recent widow moves to New Zealand from India, she's forced to confront her grief by completing an ordinary ritual in an extraordinary circumstance: quarantine.

Dead Man Walking

Alex and her boyfriend, Henry, struggle to connect in their secluded home in the woods after the recent death of Alex's father. However, following a trip to the market and a recent outbreak, Henry is attacked by a presumably homeless person forcing the couple to realize how much they truly mean to one another. As the film progresses the couple's newfound connection is met with even greater strife.

Echo of the Past

José Alberto seems condemned to wander through the countryside like a lost soul since the moment of his beloved's untimely death. Until one day, nature conspires to remind him of his torturous past. It takes strength to uncover the mystery that resides within him, and perhaps, to finally break free from living chained to melancholy.

Job Interview

When Lisa applies for a job everything seems to be turning out pretty well. Until the boss, Marie, starts asking strange questions and the job interview turns out to be a little different than expected.

Coup

Hamburg, Germany, summer 1988. A young bank employee embezzles a large amount of money using an ingenious technique and flees to Australia, from where he phones his girlfriend to tell her what he has done so easily; but her reaction is not what he naively expected.

About a Father

Sixty-year old Jindřich is waiting for a heart transplant. His wife, in an effort to protect him from a heart attack, has moved with him and their teenage daughter to their cottage in the countryside, so that he would have an absolutely peaceful life. But their son David comes for a holiday and he is not alone. He would like to discuss his life situation with his father but his mother intervenes as she is afraid that it would upset his father. Is, however, the worry about his health the real reason why she is making her children lie to their father?

True

While he's receiving an enigmatic phone call from his girlfriend Francine, Thomas remembers the milestones of their relationship, from the very moment they met in a really strange way. A segment of “Paris, je t'aime” (2006).

My Brother Juan

Ana is a 6-year-old girl who goes to therapy. Through games and drawings, she tells the psychologist about her family, specially about her older brother, Juan. She describes what he is like, how he feels about her, how they play together. But soon, it will be revealed that things are not always exactly what they seem.

Guaxuma

Tayra and I grew up on a beach in the north east of Brazil. We were inseparable. The sea breeze brings me back happy memories.

Victim or Hero

"Victim or Hero" is a short film about the battle between fate and willpower. Do we accept the role of the world’s victim, or take control as the hero of our own story?

Balcony

Tina doesn’t know much about the schoolgirl in the Hijab. She might come from Egypt or Iraq – but what does it matter? She would like to be there for her neighbour, to protect her from her tough life at home and in the neighbourhood. But how come Tina thinks she knows so much about this foreign girl? Prejudice and tentative advances collide head-on in the block.