The Nordic Shorts are about a world not yet touched by the global pandemic, but nonetheless rife with conflicts. Both experienced filmmakers and newcomers use a critical eye to look at balances of power, to understand the perspective of marginalised people, or to spoof archaic societal structures.
One thing the Nordic Shorts agree on is that the role model of the old, white males has outlived its usefulness. In two of the other short films, a female protagonist talks about how men have made her life more difficult. But in the end, the game designers are forced to admit that freedom of travel is not necessarily available to everyone.
It addresses the issue of whether homophobia is in play when two young men making out in a field and hear passers-by laughing. The filmmakers use an experimental collage of observations of everyday life and commentary by citizens to put into perspective the exuberant feelings of happiness of their fellow citizens, between sporting triumphs and consumer frenzy.
While the parents are busy arguing, they lose sight of their small daughter, who disappears unnoticed from the water and the frame. Two policemen try to question a man who is suspected of fleeing the scene of an accident.
But the passionate swimmer categorically refuses to get out of the pool. It tells a tale in song of two lovers who are spending their last 24 hours together — with sex, eating and drinking, and intimate conversation. After years of never seeing each other, they try a rapprochement, but are unable to establish an emotional connection.
