Highlights from The Longest Revolution

While the film industry has faced a reckoning over its treatment of women over the past few years, it still has major steps to take in terms of giving female filmmakers the space to tell their stories and impart the impact of their experiences as women. If the art of filmmaking to progress in any meaningful way, the status quo must shift to allow these kinds of stories to be told. Leeds International Film Festival’s short film strand The Longest Revolution: International Short Film Competition 4 is a provocative step in that right direction, sharing stories that serve as a global showcase for the strengths of female-led cinema.

The highlights of the programme tell very different stories of womanhood that nevertheless come together to paint a cohesive portrait of the female experience. Morad Mostafa’s Henet Ward (Egypt, 23 mins.) is a nail-bitingly tense, eye-opening look at clashing cultures in Egypt, following the encounter between a Sudanese henna painter, her seven-year-old daughter, and the young Egyptian bride she is painting for her wedding day. Mostafa’s sharp, observational style brings us up close and personal with the women at the film’s center, whose bonds over the difficulties of their experiences quickly erode in the face of racial and class divides. The short is a timely look at the universality of the plight faced by refugees around the world, showing how even an immigrant from the same continent can face judgement and discrimination. Mostafa shows that liberation of women cannot come without also fully addressing the structural and social inequalities that specifically affect women based on their class and ethnicity

Strikingly shot and emotionally resonant, Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir’s Mountain Cat (Mongolia/UK, 14 mins.) follows a troubled, repressed girl whose true spirit is revealed when she confronts a local shaman hired to heal her spirit. The brilliance of the short lies in its questioning of tradition, showing how blind faith in beliefs that uphold patriarchal structures undercut any chance at emotional freedom. As a result, the film serves as a cathartic release of sorts, openly challenging the silencing of women with biting critiques of male opportunism. While simple on its face, Purev-Ochir’s film is bound to resonant with anyone who has felt the sting of oppression and has longed to confront it head-on.

Similarly interested in uprooting convention, Kerli Kirch Schneider’s darkly comedicVirago (Estonia, 15 mins.) comes packed with a heady premise: after the men of an Estonian community ran from the Second World War, all their male descendents are cursed to die before they turn 40. The curse has created a matriarchal society where women largely uphold the duties of the community in order to try and protect the men from fatal accidents, forging a new social hierarchy. The short highlights the resilience of female-led communities whilst handily poking fun at the vulnerabilities of men, creating its own peculiar world to craft a scathing, hilarious portrait at the relationships between men and women.

The Longest Revolution programme can be accessed via the Leeds International Film Festival’s viewing platform Leeds Film Player. All of the festival’s shorts programmes and features are available to rent via the player until November 19th.

Leeds International Film Festival: Highlights from The Longest Revolution