Let us introduce you to the Hungarian director Luca Tóth, who is participating in this year’s Berlinale Shorts competition.
Born in Hungary in 1989, she studied animation at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) in Budapest. Her graduation film, A kíváncsiság kora (The Age of Curious), won an award at Annecy in 2013; her first self-produced film, the Hungarian, Czech and Slovakian co-production Superbia, premiered in the Semaine de la Critique at Cannes where it was the sole animated film in the competition.
The nipple is the power button that gets the ‘cinema of the mind’ rolling – or is it in fact a reality? An X-ray reveals it quite clearly: a little man nestled between the rib bones. There he lies and sleeps. The male’s host goes crazy, but it doesn’t help, he falls asleep exhausted. When he wakes up the next morning, he finds a wound where his nipple used to be, and footprints on the floor. The search begins. But the little man refuses to be intimidated or annoyed or fooled. He confidently sets off to find his place in this gay universe. Who actually loves whom here? Surrealistic and absurd settings come up against a real, everyday world. Unfathomable, inexplicable, sensual, feisty, peculiar.
What is your ambition in the film
In this particular film I wanted to show a character that only knows how to love somebody but doesn’t have the tools to understand how he should be loved.
What do you like about the short form?
I always find it degrading when people only look at the short format as a stepping stone to feature length films. A short film can fill you with questions in a matter of minutes – that would be a challange to answer for days afterwards.
What are your future plans?
After making a film I find it hard to start with a new one for a very long time. That‘ s why I’m so excited to start teaching at university for the first time soon.
24 films from 17 countries will be competing for the Golden and Silver Bear, the Audi Short Film Award, endowed with 20,000 euros, and a nomination as “Berlin Short Film Candidate for the European Film Awards 2019”.
Berlinale Shorts 