Parvaneh
This short tells the story of a young Afghani girl, named Parvaneh, working in the Swiss Alps as an undocumented laborer in order to earn money for her family back home. She journeys into the city in search of a post office where she could mail her earnings home. Unfortunately, she is without a valid ID and is swiftly denied by the postal workers. She asks a local Swiss girl on the street to help mail the money for her and it is here where the film casts its primary lenses on, as various events unfold and an unlikely bond between the two girls seamlessly emerge. Writer and director Taklhon Hamzavi poignantly, and not too sentimentally, portrays these two young souls as different and the same. They’re both forced to live in an environment of high expectations and are surrounded by parasites seeking to denigrate and objectify them. Over the course of a day, two girls from vastly different areas of the planet form a friendship that makes each of them stronger and ready to face the world that so readily puts them down.

La Lampe Au Beurre De Yak (Butter Lamp)
The premise here is a simple one: an out-of-town photographer and his assistant take photographs of a Tibetan tribe amidst various painted backgrounds. Using a slightly experimental but minimalist approach and casting real Tibetan nomads, filmmaker Wei Hu powerfully discovers for us in the span of fifteen minutes the beauty and subtle grace of this rarely depicted beautiful culture and the somber inevitability of industrialization and globalization that will soon overtake it. Wei Hu doesn’t need to give us a plot. The stories, tribulations, and history can be seen in the hardened eyes and energy of these various families, quietly striving to preserve a way of life that is being swallowed up by time and “civilization.”

Boogaloo and Grahm
Set during the eerie “Troubles” era of Belfast in 1978, the story follows two young boys who have been given two chickens by their father to take care of. The backdrop of soldiers and wired fences provide an unsettling contrast to the simple, everyday life of this Irish family, who are just trying to raise their children to be pragmatic and tough in a time of nationalistic conflict, terrorism, and war. Who can blame them for being so concerned given the eerie militarization that lurk the surroundings? But from the unsettling images of gun-totting soldiers, armored vehicles, and sketchy runaways, these young lads learn to love and cherish all life in spite of what life itself may shockingly throw at them.

The Phone Call
This is another simplistic short film, rhythmically paced without unnecessary rush by director Mat Kirby; the story basically revolves around an emotional phone call between a depressed man, played (or perhaps, voiced) by Jim Broadbent, and a help-center clerk, played by Sally Hawkins. Though it may sound like a vapid situational melodrama, the film’s intentionally modest premise evokes a somber but optimistic message about the life-changing lessons one can learn by simply just listening and being there for someone else, even if that someone else is an unseen stranger. Thus, we do not ever see Broadbent’s character. That’s because we don’t have to; like Hawkin’s character, we can feel his suffering through his shaky stuttered voice and can effortlessly imagine a bright and lively existence he once had before his wife had passed. Though not much is given about Hawkin’s character as well, she carries herself with vulnerable grace, caringly trying to assuage our unseen caller; she is filled with genuine-goodwill and youthful naiveté that makes her quite admirable and strong in her own way. The end of it leaves us left with a polarizing concoction of sadness, regret, happiness, and hope.

Aya
We start off at the airport. A young woman named Aya is waiting for…someone. All around, there are couples passionately embracing, families joyfully reuniting, strangers arriving by the dozens; nobody she recognizes in particular has shown up. The loudspeaker announces that a service car has been parked in a tow-away zone and it is soon asked of Aya to hold on to a sign for the driver until he comes back, to which she very reluctantly agrees. Eventually, the passenger, a well-dressed middle-aged business-looking man approaches her, thinking that she is his driver. Thus, our fateful encounter escalates as two strangers take a trip together. Through this trip, an unlikely but platonic connection begins to build between these two individuals and we learn, just as this unknowing passenger does, more about Aya. This is a story that is essentially about loneliness entombed in the heart, and that such an emotion is not just defined by the external. Aya doesn’t quite understand why she feels or does the things that she does, though it fulfills something subconscious, a yearning deep down that is indescribable and even at a first glance unusual.

The Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action will play in New York City at the IFC Center and will be available on VOD in February. For tickets and more click here.