Greece/Austria 2021, 26 min – Greek with English subtitles

On his 40th birthday, Nikos is waiting in his pickup truck near a remote beach. Like every year, his mother calls and tells him about his birth. The weather is rough; at last, Nikos can see Christos coming from a distance, his old boyfriend from his days in the army. It’s their first reunion after many years. Today, Christos will fulfill a dangerous wish of Nikos. In a minimalist, yet all the more powerful visual composition, 5pm Seaside vibrates with intensity and beauty. For a deliberate collision of life and death, two people approach each other from a great isolation, from a self-chosen shelter. Between violence and absolute tenderness, an all-redefining moment of liberation ignites. Simply being there. That is otherwise hardly possible.

Airhostess-737 – by Thanasis Neofotistos

Greece 2022, 16 min – Greek with English subtitles

On a Boeing-737, Vanina, a 39-year-old flight attendant, struggles to hide her obvious discomfort. Everyone seems genuinely worried about her, while she goes on complaining about her new braces. She blames her mother for not taking care of her teeth, when she should have. However, her colleagues know: this plane carries her mother’s dead body to her hometown. When the turbulence becomes threatening, Vanina faces an urgent need to see her mother in what proves to be the last chance for reconciliation.