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Festival Program 2026Shorts 7: MANIFESTO

SHORTS

Shorts 7: MANIFESTO

From manifestations to manifestos, these six films celebrate the power of the will, of tenderness and poetry, of first times and a seemingly endless search… the power of self-representation. As the protagonist in Zagêro rages about disabling systems in an ableist society, the film asks back: How to “present” that rage? In Unfortunately_Wonderful_Difficult, an ascetic studio makes space for routines and rituals, slowly giving way for queer desires, ancestral grievances, and buried anger. Poetry offers release, as does performance: In Floraison, Wes dives into his first ballroom night, discovering a community where he is truly seen for the first time. (Untitled)2025 explores acts of colonial violence and genocide through a lyrical script, haunting soundscapes and innovative visuals. In Cairo Streets, the protagonist is searching for Omar… and keeps on searching, wandering the streets of the Egyptian capital. Taxi Moto is a work of creative resistance, as the director, prevented from making his film, reinvents its images elsewhere.

Babylon Kreuzberg

30.05.2026 – 20:30

ZAGÊRO

It’s so normal to be normal, isn’t it?

Director: Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli
Writer: Victor Di Marco
Country: Brazil, 2024
Language: Portuguese
Subtitle: English
Duration:  15 min

Unfortunately Wonderful Difficult

A modestly furnished apartment becomes overcrowded with its inhabitant’s emotional life: feelings of inadequacy take over the kitchen, quieted anger spreads all across the walls and moments of performed healing find their way within the living room space.

Unfortunately_Wonderful_Difficult follows O in his perpetual attempts of mapping out the various unpredictable actions he instigates inside his ascetic living and studio space. Through this elaborate and ambiguous process, pieces of green tape become the score for a never-ending series of routines and commonplace rituals, slowly revealing the ceremonial patterns behind his everyday life. A cartography of queer desire, ancestral grievances and buried rage is slowly taking over the entire apartment and remodels O’s solitude into a restorative routine of dramatic intentions.

Director: Kumar Muniandy and Mădălina Zaharia
Writer: அவ்ரீனா Avrina, Kumar Muniandy, Mădălina Zaharia
Country: Germany, United Kingdom, 2025
Language: English
Subtitle: English
Duration:  17 minutes 23 seconds min

Floraison

Together with his partner Mireille, Wes dives into his first ballroom night—and discovers a community where he is truly seen for the first time.

Director: Les Lónsu
Writer: Les Lónsu
Country: Germany, 2025
Language: German, English
Subtitle: English
Duration: 8 min

(UNTITLED)2025

(UNTITLED)2025 is an incantation to our Indigenous ancestors from the Global Majority who experienced enforced binary genders, colonialism and the theft of land and resources. Campbell X explores these acts of violence and genocide through a lyrical script, innovative camera techniques which explore the human form in close detail, a haunting soundscape and visuals from lush and devastating extraction from both countries and bodies.

Director: Campbell X
Writer: Campbell X
Country: United Kingdom, 2025
Language: English, Roma, Zulu, Hijra Farsi, Māori, isiZulu
Subtitle: English
Duration:  7:40 min

Cairo Streets

January 2007. I am back to Cairo. For work. You have changed your phone number, Omar. I must find you. I love you… Abdellah.

Director: Abdellah Taïa
Writer: Abdellah Taïa
Country: France, 2025
Language: Arabic / French
Subtitle: English
Duration:  19 min

Taxi Moto

Prevented from making his film, a director reinvents its images elsewhere, with another actor. As they search for each other, cinema becomes an act of love and intimate poetic resistance.

Director: Gael Kamilindi
Writer: Gael Kamilindi
Country: Switzerland, France, 2026
Language: French
Subtitle: English
Duration:  20:50 min

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