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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 JULY 2019 FILM FILM THE Kinemastik Short Film Festival marking its fifteenth edition this year serves as some- thing of a landmark, if only be- cause the event has been a con- sistent breath of fresh air in the Maltese cultural scene. Way be- fore public funding for the arts began to be dished out as demo- cratically as it is today, Kinemas- tik – largely made up of an as- semblage of Malta-based expats – created an alterative enclave of art cinema, music and general hedonism that constrasted to the more staid and conversative fair we had come to expect from both local cinemas and cultural offerings in general. Returning to one of their old- er venues at the Msida Bastion Garden this year – the festival had made the Herbert Ganado Gardens in Floriana its home more recently – the event ap- pears to be leaning even closer into the 'party' atmosphere that was always an integral part of its experience: the selected lo- cal shorts are music videos, three DJs are lined up for each of the nights and visitors are be- ing lured in with the promise of 'sunset cocktails' upon entry on each of the festival's three nights. And while they may skew to- wards the more introspective or psychedelic aspect of any kind of 'party' atmosphere, the selec- tion from scheduled Kinemas- tik shorts sent to this reviewer certainly fall into an overall at- mosphere of summer languor, mined for varying resonances. All Inclusive (dir. Corina Schwingruber Ilic, Switzerland) and The Golden Legend (dirs. Chema Gracia Lbarra and Ian de Sosa, Spain) both explore summertime leisure activities engaged in by the masses, al- beit on entirely opposite sides of the economic spectrum. Also the more straightforward of the two, All Inclusive shows us ju- diciously pruned footage taken at a high seas cruise, whose un- blinking directorial eye eschews any real embeddedness or sense of participation, allowing for the latent absurdities of the kitschy entertainment to be displayed openly as such. Ilic's icy direc- torial hand comes to a fever pitch when the noise subsides and we're left with crisp, sym- metrical shots of the ship being tended to, and ripping a foam- ing swathe across the ocean in its wake. Grimier and more in- volved in more ways than one, The Golden Legend pushes through the doors of a commu- nal pool in the Spanish village of Montánchez. What starts as an empathic and quietly beguiling snapshot of a community en- joying its Sunday outing quickly devolves into a series of art- house tics, however, by the end racking up little more than a series of barely-there vignettes, at one point having an elderly pool patron crooning a religious folk song while another visitor chows down on junk food… a cringe-inducing affectation. Thankfully, Past Perfect (dir. Jorge Jacome, Portugal) offers a more genuine and naturally flowing take on the arthouse medium. Narrated as a dia- logue through subtitles with no accompanying voiceover, all layered over a hypnotic blend of images and ambient mu- sic, Jacome's 22-minute short is an impressive feat of psy- chedelic grandiosity. Two un- named, unspecified entities talk through colour-coded subtitles, and one of them appears to be an immortal, omniscient di- ety of some kind. Their subject of conversation is nostalgia, and the philosophising at hand somehow manages to sit on the right side of ramblingly preten- tious. Describing the effects of art as being akin to the effects of mind-altering drugs is a tired and rarely deserved trope… but Jacome legitimately succeeds in crafting a hypnotic crescendo that certainly made this review- er feel high. On the other hand, Water- melon Juice (dir. Irene Moray, Spain) remains resolutely down to earth, offering a candid and delicate peek into a young cou- ple's attempts at tackling sexual discomfort while on holiday. This comes with an affecting performance from Elena Martín as Bàrbara, whose inability to experience an orgasm appears to be tied to an unsavoury inci- dent in her past – revealed both to us and the group of friends she's holidaying with during an exchange that deftly distills the tensions of the #metoo era. Its climactic 'solution' may come across as just slightly too twee for some, but the sensitive- though-lighthearted mood of the short is carried off nicely, and certainly continues along the balmy summer vibe that Kinemastik is adamant to or- chestrate. The Kinemastik Short Film Festival turns fifteen next weekend. Ahead of its takeover of Msida Bastion Garden, we take a peek at four short films forming part of this year's programme All of the above films will be screened as part of the Kin- emastik Film Festival, taking place at the Msida Bastion Garden from June 25 to 27, from 7pm onwards. More information: http://www. kinemastik.org Teodor Reljic All Inclusive (dir. Corina Schwingruber Ilic, Switzerland) Past Perfect (dir. Jorge Jacome, Portugal) The Golden Legend (dirs. Chema Gracia Lbarra and Ian de Sosa, Spain) Watermelon Juice (dir. Irene Moray, Spain) For all your ambivalent and trippy summer needs