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BEST ASIAN SHORT FILMS - 2

Despite its being in the Eurovision Song Contest I have Israel down as being in Asia. Below are some of the best shorts from Israel, India, Japan and Iran.


Strangers by Eraz Tadmor & Guy Nattiv (2003) (Israel) (7m) *

Ezra, a filmmaker from Tel Aviv, suggested I add one of his short films and I am happy to oblige. Strangers is a vignette from his feature film of the same name, but it works very well as a stand alone short and won several awards on the short film festival circuit. Two male strangers exchange glances on the Tel Aviv underground but are then joined by an unwanted mob. The tension rises as they approach the next station... can they escape the situation?


Printed Rainbow by Gitanjali Rao (2006) (India) (15m) *

Indian animator Gitanjali Rao won the Kodak Short Film Award, Small Golden Rail and the Young Critics Award with Printed Rainbow at Cannes in 2006. It is a beautiful and touching film that switches between drab and vivid colours as it tells the story of a lonely woman (and her cat) who lives in the dreary city but dreams of an exotic, Indian adventure when prompted by the pictures on matchboxes.


Two Solutions For One Problem by Kiarostami (1975) (Iran) (4m)

Abbas Kiarostami is Iran's most illustrious filmmaker (though his competition is limited), and now concentrates on feature films (such as the 2010 Certified Copy). He wrote and directed a whole heap of short films in the 1970s and 1980s, starting at the Centre for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. Two Solutions For One Problem is a simple story of right and wrong that still resonates today (perhaps Ahmadinejad should watch it).


Bean Cake by David Greenspan (2001) (Japan) (14m)

Filmmaker David Greenspan spent a year of his University of Southern California degree in Japan. It was there that he made this simple Palm d'Or winning tale about a young boy's indoctrination into both the Japanese Empire and the world of girls. It has a porposefully old-fashioned feel to it (consider Yasujirô Ozu's perfect Tokyo Story) that suits the story of a young boy battling to hold on to the one truth he knows to be real: that he loves his mother's bean cakes.