1:10
2024 · 18m · Switzerland
Directed by Sinan Taner
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
An elementary school sports day gets out of hand when a harmless argument between two children ends in death threats between the two fathers.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A sports day descent into paternal death threats is exactly the kind of premise that makes consensus filmmakers uncomfortable—it takes a setting of pure innocence and exposes how quickly masculine ego becomes lethal, which is genuinely subversive genre work masquerading as a thriller.
Taner's control of escalation recalls the measured intensity of social realist cinema, where a single argument becomes a formal study in how institutions fail to contain human volatility; the contemplative tonal register suggests he's aware he's working in conversation with films about collective shame.
The key move here is probably the decision to keep the children peripheral rather than central—by making this about the fathers' rhetoric and posturing, Taner forces the camera to do almost invisible work in revealing what the kids actually understand, which is the economy that makes this land.
Festivals
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Selection
- Locarno Film Festival, Selection
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Future Frames selection
- Palm Springs International ShortFest, Selection
- HollyShorts Film Festival, Best Student Film
- Swiss Film Awards 2026, Best Graduation Film (Nominee)