Oscar Nominated Live Action Short Films offer diverse stories

The Oscar nominated live action short films offer diverse stories, most with a clever twist. With five to consider, I’ll get right to it. Norway’s “Night Ride,” finds Ebba, a midget, can’t wait for the conductor to return from his break on a frigid, late evening. Quite accidentally, Ebba engages the tram, initiating a courageous intervention.

Based on a true story, director Eirik Tveiten describes this as “a story about taking a stand and trying to live up to the responsibility you have as a human being towards other human beings who are being harassed,” in this instance a trans person. Uplifting, amusing, and marvelously acted by Sigrid Husjord as Ebba, “Night Ride” advocates doing the right thing.

Equally compassionate, Denmark’s “Ivalu” makes a strong statement about sexual victimization in a quiet, tender way. Based on a graphic novel, in remote Greenland, young Pipaluk follows a raven as she searches for her sister Ivalu. With flashbacks to earlier joyful experiences, mythology factors in with Rasmus Heise’s gorgeous cinematography bringing the landscape to vivid life in this tragic tale.

Also touchingly restrained albeit heartbreaking, “The Red Suitcase” focuses on sixteen-year-old Ariane who travels from Tehran to the Luxembourg airport where she will meet the man her father Jafar has arranged for her to marry. Terrified to leave the baggage area, Ariane removes her hijab and attempts to escape recognition. Luxembourg based, Iranian director Cyrus Neshvad writes, “The aim of my film is to abolish women’s oppression all over the world.” “The Red Suitcase” makes a strong statement for that equality.  

The sweeter, gentler “Le Pupille” also champions freedom through a Christmas Eve event. Set in a WWII Italian girls’ orphanage, spunky Serafina resists conforming to the overbearing nuns’ rules. A surprise arrives via a wealthy woman beseeching prayers in exchange for a sumptuous cake, with a pleasing payoff. Similarly, “An Irish Goodbye” advocates compassion through the reunion of estranged brothers in rural Northern Ireland. After their mother’s death, Lorcan and Turlough clash over selling their family farm. The mother’s one hundred item bucket list postpones the sale with humorous activities that establish bonding between this previously contentious pair. The five Oscar nominated narrative short films screen at several venues, among them the Hi-Pointe and Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac. You may want to check for other listings.