Ben Apolloni: Student Competition I

“Nobody Hear”

A movie built like a filmic run, where the character wakes up, gets ready for work, goes to work, gets bored, finishes work, goes to the bar, and in the evening returns to his apartment, alone, tired from the routine. A story full of references from movies that have left their mark on the history of cinema, such as “Red Desert”, “Modern Times”, “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Her”, etc. A short story, but full of ideas, that highlights the routine of a contemporary man and his loneliness.

“Protocole Sandwich”

A story that provokes foreseeability. While watching this movie, it seems like it was produced at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, where human is afraid of human, where a human or a group of people pose a danger to another human or another group of people. A relevant topic in terms of actuality and a short film realized quite well, both in terms of ideology and in terms of form.

“The Shadow of the Sun”

A docuanimation built on the stories of characters, on the basis of which the main character’s disposition is built. Therefore, this movie tells us what others tell about someone, or in other words; this movie shows us that we, in fact, are nothing but how others see us. A story with a slow pace, but one that grabs your attention, thanks to imagery built with exquisite taste.

“Ovule”

The first and last scenes of this movie are black. Between these two scenes, we have other colors but black and white dominate, clashing with each other, almost in a battle to dominate. The story of this movie from a house, where a woman and a man live, where the man goes out and takes the road for who knows where and the hands of the woman who sometimes seems to want to stop him, and sometimes as if they want to protect him, leads us to the Garden of Eden, with color and with an Eve and a male (Adam or the devil) making love. Love is the blood that gives life to a love affair, without it, life is achromatic.

“The Bear Hunter”

The bear in the hunt for food, the man in the hunt for the bear. This movie seems to remind us of Darwin’s theory, the relationship between species where each is the potential food of the other. Nevertheless, this movie can also be seen as a fairy tale, whose moral is: do not kill because you will be killed. An animated movie, in three colors: white, black, and red, where red is both the color of life and death. Whereas, white and black, make up the gray part of life.

“Gravedead”

Man is part of nature and his state of mind depends a lot on nature, on the weather. This movie takes us to a Latin place (in South America or the countries of the Iberian Peninsula), and not only through spoken language, but also through music, noise, the scorching sun, which create the idea of the location of the event. But even though in most of us, Latin countries can be places where the sun always shines, which means that people are always happy, this movie shows us that people and nature, in all parts of our planet have sunny days and cloudy ones.

“Cante”

A man confined between four walls, who looks at nature through the window while working on a computer, but dreams of a reunion with Earth, with what feeds and nourishes us, whom we owe and who owes us. Crafted in a spirit reminiscent of Van Gogh’s brush, “Cante” is a hymn to man’s broken relationship with nature. But it seems easy to reconnect. It is enough to open the window (or door) and jump into the embrace of nature, where there is a song, where body and soul are free.

“Nobody Speak”

In this film where no one speaks, the film itself speaks, through very meaningful images and shows us how man is under constant surveillance (the soldiers on the beach, the smartphone controlling us), and the situation has deteriorated so much so that today even when we dream, we see that we are under surveillance, we are surrounded by soldiers (by security, even the prime minister himself “takes care” and circles around us). And us, together with the dreams, have fallen into the water and we can no longer even speak there at the bottom of the sea because the water will take our breath away. This film reminds us of the biblical saying, “there is no new thing under the sun.” Just as the life of the man of our time has become.

Ben Apolloni: Biography

 Ben Apolloni has a bachelor degree in theater directing and completed a master’s degree in film directing at the University of Prishtina. In addition to being a director, he writes reviews about film, theater and in general writes reviews about cultural phenomena, which he has published in various magazines and newspapers in Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia and Switzerland. He has made several short films as a director and screenwriter, which have been awarded various national and international awards and has created several performances in various theaters in Kosovo and Macedonia.