90 mins | Recommended 18+

From deadlines to dead bodies, a selection of shorts that take a look at how we react under pressure.

PROGRAMME

AQUARIUM 
Dir. Aurélien Sallé | 13 mins | France 
Dolores, an actress, is booked for a voice over. But the recording turns out to be a complete nightmare. 

LESSONS 
Dir. Shawn Butcher | 13 mins | UK 
After a failed bank robbery, family bonds are tested as teenage runaways are forced to choose between loyalty and survival while on the run. 

PAPER CUTS 
Dir. Laura Clifford | 10 mins | UK 
A man struggling to deal with his mental health, his inconsiderate housemate and the state of the planet sets out on a mission to work out how he can look after the environment when he can barely look after himself. ‘Paper Cuts’ is an honest, moving and ultimately uplifting fictional short about the little things we can do to find hope in a time of personal and climate crisis. 

STANDSTILL 
Dir. Jacob Saul | 13 mins | UK 
Three teenagers desperately try to figure out where to go after reaching the end of the road. 

SHEEP 
Dir. Mehrdad Kabiri | 15 mins | Iran 
Amir is a student who is humiliated by the school administrator because of the situation he is in. This incident leads to his transformation… 

HELP YOURSELF 
Dir. Hedvig Andersson | 14 mins | UK 
Andie, a desperate writer, abandons her family to finish a script in a flat she borrows from her colleague Diane. But Andie keeps getting interrupted by bizarre and hostile strangers who all have unfinished business with Diane. Andie’s quiet evening turns into a surreal vortex of emotional experiences and revelations. 

FOREIGNERS  
Thady Macnamara | 13 mins | France 
Jim, 15, who lives in France, has asked his stepfather Abdel to adopt him. Neil, his dad, refuses to give up his rights and comes over to France. But isn’t it too late? Jim doesn’t even speak the same language as his dad… Isn’t Neil’s place in the past? 

VENUE: EXETER PHOENIX, Studio 74

*Subject to a £1.50 ticketing system charge. We don’t charge this to make a profit. Find out more >>