Back and Forth

Director: Alia Syed

Year: 2025

In this South Asian team sport, players repeating ‘kabaddi’ frantically cross boundaries on the court, tagging their opponents before returning. Ka ba Ddi is a high-energy team sport originating in South Asia played between two teams of seven players on a divided court. Players respond to boundaries, bodies think in relation to each other: lines of the court, focal points for players movements. Stretching back into their own territory; a vocabulary of movement that make connections with what is happening in the wider world, in domestic UK politics but also internationally. Territory has never felt so terrifying or so contested. The rules based order of Kabaddi stipulates that one team sends a single "raider" into the opposing team's territory, the aim is to tag/touch as many players as possible from the opposing side before retreating back into your own territory. Rules govern our bodies, we live in a series of ever increasing courts both materially and ideologically. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 - Short Film Competition

Director: Elena Escalante

Year: 2025

A wave of regeneration is hitting London’s working-class neighbourhoods. South of the river, the demolition of Elephant & Castle’s shopping centre has uprooted the community who made it their own. As they navigate an uncertain future, they carry with them the legacy of a place that once felt like home. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 - Short Film Competition - World premiere

Director: Anna Engelhardt, Mark Cinkevich

Year: 2025

Forensic science is scrutinised when a fictional investigator questions procedures and motivations in the politicised 1999 bombings of flats in Russia. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025