In cinema, parent-child relationships drift hand-in-hand with arthouse head-scratchers and Hollywood franchise-hatchers alike. They form some of the most relatable thematic material available. It is unlikely, however, that many will identify with the strange bonds present in Watersprite’s Sunday afternoon “Wild Things” screenings, which bring together the weirdest and most wonderful from Germany, New Zealand and Spain.

Pascal Floerks’ BÄR at first appears an ordinary documentary. A narrator tells the history of his grandfather illustrated by photographic stills: his ancestor’s passions, his early life, his traumatic experiences of the World War Two. It’s run-of-the-mill … except that his grandfather is replaced by a bear. Through wildly proficient editing, an eight-foot grizzly stands astride lawn-mowers and speedboats, or in the narrow confines of a Luftwaffe cargo hold. It sounds laughable, but the surreal presence of the hulking mass delivers an added tenderness. BÄR’s already nostalgic ode takes on a heartfelt poignancy – enough to draw most into its teeth and claws.

Fur is replaced with feathers for the New Zealand production BIRDSONG. Peter McKenzie plays the frustrated son to a disturbingly eccentric father. Obsessed with birds and their brainwaves, the deluded parent has constructed a device to download animals’ brain-matter. It’s all pretty odd – particularly the film’s lurid plumage – but as comedy turns to tragedy, the unusual experiments provide some hard-sought solace, for both Peter Mackenzie and the audience.

HORSEFACE provides another, not quite so adorable animagus protagonist. A boy (or is he a man?) wakes up on his birthday … and puts on a horse mask. He celebrates with his grandma and receives a birthday message from his parents. As the plot unfolds, however, the lies that surround the fabric of our equine hero’s existence begin to topple. Shot in scratchy black-and-white 4:3, HORSEFACE is certainly the weirdest short of the collection. At times it creates an engrossing paranoia, but is mainly pleasant for its unrelenting oddity – who knew you could get a Terminator cookie jar?

Equally odd, but infinitely more charming is the final short STOCKHOLM. A girl relates her father’s career as a supervisor of “active product” to her nonplussed class. It quickly becomes clear, however, that this is liberal wording. She and her parent partake in some light-hearted kidnapping and blackmail with a little cooper scrounging thrown in on the side. Taking the child’s point of view is now a well-worn trope, but STOCKHOLM uses it to spawn a mischievous wit from supposed innocence. The audience is enveloped in a criminal playground with the swings replaced by hostages and hacksaws, not seesaws.

Watersprite’s Afternoon Screenings begin on 7 March at 2.30 pm. Click here for further information.

Bär – Trailer – 2014 from Visor66 on Vimeo.