Short Films from Umeå: Longing, Love and Other Troubles

These five short films, all with strong ties to Umeå, portray people searching for connection in a world full of noise – through dating apps, social media, television screens and unexpected encounters. Stories of loneliness, desire and the need to be seen, where humour and absurdity meet darkness.

Boy with the Flower Pot by Patrik Silverljus (9 min)
A young man lives alone in a remote cabin. His life changes when he discovers a fragile sunflower in the forest. He begins to care for it, and as the flower slowly recovers, his emotional attachment grows into an all-consuming obsession. When the sunflower suddenly begins to wither, his care takes a desperate and dark turn.

Rået by Tesla Storm, Willma Lundberg Linde, Isabelle Johansson, Disa Avelin, Alice Lindahl and Linnéa Bylund (5 min)
A young lesbian is tired of everything ordinary. Her job sucks, and she longs for something supernatural. One day, she encounters exactly what she has been yearning for.

Blockera avblockera by Polly Blag (15 min)
An emotional and psychological portrait of Eva, a teenage girl struggling with complicated feelings and relationships in the digital world. The film explores unrequited love and how young people navigate the often tangled landscape of relationships on social media.

Brus by Nikolina Riselius (12 min)
A young woman struggles to shut out the constant demands on her attention. With the help of television noise, she discovers a way to enter a meditative state in which her thoughts seem to quieten. But this method comes with unexpected side effects.

Potted Plants by Georgios Lazaridis (19 min)
Emily is a university researcher in Umeå with a dry wit and a desire to find a long-term partner. Inspired by her grandfather’s words of wisdom that plants belong in the ground, not in pots, she uses this philosophy as a subtle test for her dating app matches. The film follows Emily through five very different first dates.

Running time: 1 h