Late Night Sci-Fi

Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

Has this very text that you’re reading at this very moment actually been written by a human? That instead of someone of thinking about these very words – dog happily snoring besides them as they think of the next sentence to add – this is all conjured up within the code of an AI utilising complex algorithms to find just the right words to say. I could deny it all of course. Remind you that I am human typing these very words you will be reading soon. But that’s what an AI would do. Can we ever be sure of the line divides the person from the machine?
This selection of films takes a look at just what it means to be a human. With objects gaining sentience and the notions of reality continually braking down, these films speak of a world in which all that we know is constantly changing and information becomes one of the biggest commodities that we have. These future shocks seem both very far away yet eminently recognisable.

Screenings

Hall Electric Cinema, Tartu
Screening064203 / Late Night Sci-Fi
Screening duration
Hall 2 Kino Artis
Screening082203 / Late Night Sci-Fi
Q&A duration
Screening duration
Hall 1 Kino Artis
Screening122101 / Late Night Sci-Fi
Screening duration
Trailer

Films

International premiere

Limo

Local title
Limusiin
Original title
Limo
Director
Tīna Zariņa
Country
Latvia
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

The film tells a story about Arturs, a limousine driver who lives and works in a futuristic Riga. His every action and emotion is monitored by the limousine's artificial intelligence, which has also developed a jealousy of anyone who distracts Arturs from the limousine.

Director
Tīna Zariņa
Runtime
Language
Latvian
Subtitles
English

Estonian premiere

Signals

Local title
Signaalid
Original title
Signals
Director
Filip Martinovic
Country
Estonia
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

Penny the robot begins to make connections between the objects in it's mysterious basement dwelling. The secret to the basement and the skeleton within promises to be on a videotape.

Director
Filip Martinovic
Runtime
Trailer

Baltic premiere

4°C

Local title
4°C
Original title
4°C
Director
Matas Vildžius
Country
Lithuania
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

Artificial intelligence is born in a new body, after learning that he is only a refrigerator, the Fridge tries to establish a human connection with its creator. Eventually the Fridge realizes that Creator and life are inaccessible, which leads to the question: statistically, is it worth to live?

Director
Matas Vildžius
Runtime
Language
Lithuanian
Subtitles
English

Baltic premiere

E6-D7

Local title
E6-D7
Original title
E6-D7
Director
Eno Swinnen
Country
Belgium
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Alternatives
Genre
experimental film

E6-D7 is a science fiction drama about a lonely machine who finds a kind of love in his advanced android successor. Can he handle loving someone who makes him obsolete?

Director
Eno Swinnen
Runtime
Language
English
Trailer

Baltic premiere

DATÆTERNA

Local title
DATÆTERNA
Original title
DATÆTERNA
Director
Axel Chemin
Country
France
Year
2022
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

In the near future, a micro-worker performs tasks that are suggested to her. Between data center maintenance and data processing, she hesitantly searches for ways to feel emotions. Devoid of social links, this world is saturated with data.

Director
Axel Chemin
Runtime
Language
English, French
Subtitles
English
Trailer

Baltic premiere

Memory Mule

Local title
Mälumuul
Original title
Memory Mule
Director
Luis Adam Garcia
Country
United Kingdom
Year
2023
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Alternatives

In the near future, the drug of choice is memories, or MEMS. Groomed to deal people’s memories, Mel pushes back against her almost-like-family dealer, Hippo, who pressures her to sell the last good mems she has of her absent mother. And as she travels to the deal, memories of her mother invade her thoughts, confronting her with the very real possibility of losing her mum for good.

Director
Luis Adam Garcia
Runtime
Language
English

Baltic premiere

Phonorama

Local title
Fonoraam
Original title
Phonorama
Director
Alex Rey
Country
Spain
Year
2022
Festival
PÖFF Shorts 2023
Programme
Shorts Alternatives
Genre
comedy

José Antonio is about to enjoy a pleasant afternoon of reading, confined to his wheelchair, in his apartment in Manhattan. But a dark and terrible force is about to turn his world upside down. And it is that no one can escape the destructive power of Phonorama…

Director
Alex Rey
Runtime
Language
Spanish
Subtitles
English
Trailer