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Isle of Flowers
Isle of Flowers (Jorge Furtado, 1989)

    Isle of Flowers

    Ilha das Flores
    Jorge Furtado, Brazil, 1989, 13’

    Isle of Flowers shows the cycles of modern life: a tomato is harvested in Porto Alegre by Mr. Suzuk, is then the object of exchange and monetary transactions, ends up in the kitchen of Dona Anete, and finally in the dumping ground that gives the film its title. But this ‘flower island’ does not host flowers. On the contrary, it becomes evident that there is something rotten in the capitalist system at large.

    The film is ultimately a flow of images that masterfully appropriates the style of an informative film and has lost none of its visual significance or topicality since its debut. 

    Bio Jorge Furtado

    Jorge Furtado (Porto Alegre, 1959), a partially self-taught Brazilian filmmaker, studied medicine, psychology, journalism, and plastic arts, but did not complete any of these. After working in television in the 1980s, he founded the film company Luz Producciones and directed his first two shorts. In 1987, he was co-founder of the Porto Alegre Film House. Among his works, Isle of Flowers stands out. It has received numerous national and international awards, including Best Short Film at the Berlinale.

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    “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025

    02.02.2026

    As a collective love letter to the art of short-form moving image, yanco and Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, together with Talking Shorts, invited filmmakers, curators, critics, and scholars worldwide to participate in a first-ever poll of its kind. Invitees were asked to nominate ten audiovisual works under sixty minutes that they personally consider the “greatest” of all time. Through this non-academic approach to canon-building, this has led to an inspiring list of 105 titles.

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    • This film was #22 in the “Greatest” Short Films of All Time 2025
      voted by Jaime Grijalba, Pedro Gonçalves Ribeiro, Inge Coolsaet, Jose Cabrera, Per Fikse, Miguel Dias, Carlos Segundo, Leonardo Martinelli, Axel Behrens
    documentary politics satire

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    Magic, a portrait of Joris

    Chloë Delanghe, Belgium, 2018, 15’

    In Magic, a portrait of Joris, images sourced from different periods in time are glued together. Worn-out VHS footage filmed by the artist’s father is placed beside 8mm images she filmed herself. Both have the same subject: one boy, both a son and a brother. Connecting images of then and now, a new narrative of remembering opens up.

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    Pirate Boys

    Pol Merchan, Germany, 2018, 13’

    Punk author Kathy Acker’s work is the starting point for a conversation about gender identity and body transformation and is linked to the punk movement of the 1970s and 1980s.

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    Eight thousand five hundred kilometres lie between the Amazon and the Ardennes. In his home country of Brazil, filmmaker Diego looks at the inaccessible forest from the outside. Its Belgian counterpiece, however, is easier to explore.

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    Paradise

    Laura Vandewynckel, Belgium, 2014, 6’

    People are heading for a better place on either side of the ocean. Although their paths do cross at times, they never really seem to meet. Paradise is a light-hearted yet critical reflection on the ethics of tourism.

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    Gestes du repas

    Luc de Heusch, Belgium, 1958, 23’

    This satirical ethnographic film shows eating Belgians in diverse contexts. Dinner scenes at weddings, funerals, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve portray a country: loneliness and community alternate, just as wealth and poverty.

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    Devotion

    Cynthia Madansky, Turkey, 2003, 34’

    A sparing and minimal travelogue of Istanbul. A foreigner meditates on the unraveling of a relationship while moving from hotel room to hotel room. In a city simultaneously devoted to Islam and secular nationalism, she finds refuge in the frailty and severity of rituals.

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    The Jungle Knows You Better Than You Do

    Juanita Onzaga, Belgium, Colombia, 2017, 20’

    Two siblings roam the mystical landscapes of Colombia, searching for their dead father's spirit. Their journey takes them from the city of Bogotá to the jungle, through realms of thought and deep into their haunted dreams.

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    The Stopover

    Collectif Faire-part, Belgium, DR Congo, 2022, 14’

    Filmmakers Paul Shemisi and Nizar Saleh embark on a journey from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Germany to screen their latest film. However, during a layover in Angola, their trip takes a harrowing turn when airport authorities question the authenticity of their documents.

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