Aella

Director: Vasilisa Forbes

Year: 2023

An experimental short about female desire, shame and betrayal. Drawing from a highly personal experience we follow a vulnerable young woman experiencing a breakdown via a collision of conflicting relationships and gender power struggles. Using physicality, haunting sound design and immersive camera work as vessels for intimate, multi-layered and unerringly contemporary story telling. Our lead finds herself on a repeating loop, the end is the start as she oscillates between what was and what is. Is she unable to escape her trauma and her psychological suffocation or patterning? The movement echoes the work of Pina Bausch, and in doing so draws links to the expression of the feminist landscape of emotion and conflict that we continue to work through.

Director: Vasilisa Forbes

Year: 2021

DELPHYNE (meaning ‘womb’) discusses the stigma around menstruation. Addressing shame and acceptance, taboos around menstrual blood are told through a fabric-themed metaphor, and the conflict between a mother-daughter relationship. The script is stylised in a theatrical form, taking the works of Russian writer Ludmilla Petrushevskaya as a background and filmed in rural Suffolk. The tone draws on Petrushevskaya’s depictions of intense female-driven, claustrophobic family relationships particularly between generations of women who pull at each other in close quarters. Both a folk and fairy-tale element exists to the progress of the film, relating to the directors own heritage. The film is shot in East Anglia, Suffolk.

Director: Ka Ki Wong

Year: 2026

In present-day Taipei, Tao develops unexplainable affectionate feelings for Shin, an indifferent guy. Desperate to create lasting memories, she sends people to beat him up, using pain as a twisted form of connection. Meanwhile, Melih, having left Istanbul for Taipei, owns a noodle shop. One night, he receives an unexpected flower from the perpetually drunk Ping. Melih begins to stare into the flower from time to time, experiencing the tale of Tao and Shin and revealing his own unspoken desire and failed attempts to connect with Ping. As Melih digs deeper into the tale, he confronts his struggles to form meaningful relationships. His struggle gradually mirrors Tao’s struggle with Shin. As Tao grows closer to Shin, Shin vanishes, leaving Tao to realize that these recollections, retained only by her, might be mere figments of imagination. Tao’s tale then makes Melih question if it’s better to forget everything, as he contemplates whether letting go of solitary memories might finally bring him peace. Official selection CPH:DOX Copenhagen International Documentary Festival 2026 - Next:Wave Competition (World Premiere)