The “Quests” collection at Watersprite is made up of four different short films, all about characters on journeys.

The funniest film from the bunch is the German language short THE BLUE SOPHIA (2015) from director Philipp Klinger. Scriptwriters Vasko Scholz and Simon Thummet had the audience giggling in the Palmerston Room at St John’s College. Aside from the comedic set pieces the writing duo created a simple story about Uwe (Michael Stiller) wanting to buy a rare stamp to complete his collection. The only problem is it costs ten to fifteen thousand euros. Uwe turns to his beer guzzling brass band friends for a loan, but gets rejected. So doing everything he can to raise the cash, such as trying to sell both kidneys, he goes on a quest to buy the object of his desire.

“If someone wanted to steal it, they’d have to kill him first.”

RAYISI (2015) is a documentary by Patrick Nsengimana about Rayisi Kwizera, a Rwandan one legged cyclist. The brilliance of this film it that it speaks of the troubled past of Rwanda, the difficulties of being a one legged man, finding a good job and raising a family, but what stands out is the pure enjoyment of seeing a cycling addict. For Rayisi cycling has given him the life the landmine took away. Cycling’s gifted him confidence to go and build a family, earn a living, compete and win race after race on the cycling tour. Rayisi’s passion is so great he keeps his bike in his bedroom, because as he states, “If someone wanted to steal it, they’d have to kill him first.” It is an uplifting watch that makes one think twice before exploding with rage when stuck in the mildest of traffic.

From Israel comes SPARKS, an unusual film about trying to find a higher place both emotionally and spiritually. The film uses all types of techniques to tell the story, such as animation and rotoscoping, which is highly accomplished, and gives the film an eerie and unreal feeling.

A nominee for best screenplay is the Hungarian short DEAL WITH IT (2016) written by Boldizsár Fehér and director Gáspár Fehér. It has some of the same concepts as Peter Howitt’s 1998 film SLIDING DOORS. Here Vilmos (Miklós H. Vecsei) studies in the library for an exam that will launch his working life and make him a success. Missing the train by seconds, it then goes on to tell what happens to Vilmos’s life and the people around him because of that incident…

httpvh://youtu.be/CEFoS_cPJNM