These are our twenty recommended short films from the Jakarta Film Week, which will take place from October 23 – 27, 2024 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

21-Weeks Later by Nasrin Mohammadpour – Iran | 2024 – 14 minutes

A young woman decides to have an abortion in pursuit of her women’s rights regarding the right time for pregnancy. While her husband disagrees and threatens her, she has made her decision and illegally aborts her fetus after twenty-one weeks of pregnancy. She wants to bury the fetus to diminish her own guilty feeling, so she wanders around the city looking for a suitable burial place. She faces some problems and finally loses her purse and the hidden fetus inside it due to the theft of her bag. (JakartaFW 2024)

A Night at the Rest Area by Saki Muramoto – Japan | 2024 – 11 minutes

At a midnight highway rest area, the weary travelers each quietly relax their minds. A brief moment spent with complete strangers is lonely yet somehow comforting. (JakartaFW 2024)

Trailer:

A Short Film About Kids by Ibrahim Handal – Palestine | 2024 – 10 minutes

Four kids from the refugee camp in Bethlehem decide to visit the sea for the first time in their life. (JakartaFW 2024)

An Orphanage of Memories by Rayit Hashmat Qazi – India | 2024 – 21 minutes

In a small village of Kashmir, Farah, the caretaker of a small piece of land has lost her husband under tragic, unexplained circumstances. Feeling overwhelmed with grief, Farah clings onto her late husband’s memories. Under threat of her home being uprooted by the prospect of a new buyer, Farah finds a new lease of life when she discovers the saplings her husband brought to their kitchen garden. Just as she is done planting them, she discovers small rat droppings around the garden. With this Farah dives deep into a point of no return as she dedicates her life towards protecting the saplings at the cost of affecting her sanity. (JakartaFW 2024)

Chloe by Yu Chuan Shih – Taiwan | 2023 – 10 minutes

The heartbroken Chloe made a promise to eliminate every hypocritical scumbag in the world. On this day, Chloe met with her online friend Wei at a laundromat, and a bloody cleansing ritual began… (JakartaFW 2024)

Circle by Yumi Joung – South Korea | 2024 – 7 minutes

The girl draws a circle on the ground. Passersby step into it, one by one. Soon the circle is full of people, struggling to stay within. Once the girl returns and erases the circle, people start heading their way. (JakartaFW 2024)

Trailer:

Cross My Heart and Hope to Die by Sam Manacsa – Philippines | 2023 – 17 minutes

Mila struggles as she remains unpaid at work and a love interest becomes a source of comfort through his constant phone calls. But a promise of hope may also lead to tragedy and sad love songs. (JakartaFW 2024)

Trailer:

Dying Echoes of the Sea by Hendro Ariwibowo – Indonesia | 2023 – 16 minutes

After the fish bomb tragedy, UKI (14) a traumatic teenager is still frequently haunted-in dream by her late father who always taught about fish bombs. Meanwhile she has to help her mother’s eye operation by secretly making and selling illegal fish bombs that can take her life anytime. (JakartaFW 2024)

Improvement Cycle by Hiroki Yamaguchi – Japan | 2024 – 6 minutes

The theme of this film is ‘our responsibilities and hope for the future.’ Improvement Cycle was created by using generative AI technologies. Created images by Midjourney and then Runway Gen2 generated videos from these images. Music was also created by generative AI, Suno, and then lyrics generation was created by ChatGPT. ElevenLabs generated voices which include the narration for the trailer and dialogues. (Yamaguchi Hiroki)

Lie With Me by Melvin Mak – Malaysia, Singapore | 2023 – 13 minutes

As three guests arrive separately in a young woman’s desolate apartment, we watch her life slowly unfold. Tantalising fragments, seemingly disconnected at first, begin to fall into place as we try piece together her mysterious story. Infused with sensual longing and layered with unspoken desire, “Lie With Me” is a haunting story about the search for love, truth and identity. (JakartaFW 2024)

To see the second part of this article please go HERE
For more information, please visit: https://jakartafilmweek.com/en/