THE BIRTHDAY
Film information
THE BIRTHDAY - Germany, 2014 Genre: Drama, Narrative
Language: Mandarin/English
Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish,Italian
Duration: 16min. 14 sec.
Producer/Director/Screenwriter: Daniela Lucato
Exhibition formats
DCP/ DVD/BLURAY/.MOV/MP4
Online screener
Shooting formats
HD / Colour
Sound: Stereo
Synopses & Screening History Logline
TGLFF, Turin Official Selection - April 2015
Cannes ShortFilm Corner -May 2015
Nominated Best Cinematography ShanghaiPride -June 2015
Frameline Official Selection -June 2015
Cinemadamare Official Selection, Diamante (Italy) -August 2015
Libercine Official Selection (Argentina) -September 2015
MicGenero (Mexico) Official Selection -September 2015
Outwest Film Fest (Usa) Official Selection -October 2015
Bejing Queer Film Festival Official Selection -November 2015
RENCONTRES DES CINEMAS D'EUROPE (France) Screening- November 2015
Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg Official Selection- German Premiere- October 2015
Queer-Streifen Festival (Germany)Official Selection -October 2015
El Lugar sin limites (Ecuador) Official Selection -September 2015
Florence Queer film Festival (Italy) Official Selection 2015
Ljubjana Gay and Lesbian Film Festival(Slovenja) Official Selection-December 2015
Sardinia Queer Festival-December 2015
Ackerstadt Palast (Berlin) Screening-February 2016
Boddinale, Loophole(Berlin)- February 2016
Rio Gender & Sexuality Film Festival Official Selection July 2016
Mix Mexico Official Selection,May 2016
LesBiGayTrans Festival International de Cine Asuncion Paraguay Official Selection July 2016
Femart Festival- Official Selection- Premiere in Kosovo (Pristina)- May 2016
FInalist at CreActive International Film Festival June 2016
Arthub Asia-Listed on Best Films of ShanghaiPride- June 2016
Jahorina Film Festival Official Selection -September 2016
Logline:
Two taiwanese girls, Ron and May, are living in Berlin. As Ron’s birthday approaches, the different love that they feel for each other places them in front of a meaningful change.
Long synopsis
Inspired by the love poem ”A Birthday,” by Christina Rossetti, the film takes place close to the Birthday of Ron, a nineteen-years-old girl who is deeply in love with May, her best friend. A short time after Ron moves from Taipei, May decides to join her in Berlin.The love between them is strong but contrasting: Ron doesn’t openly tell May her feelings but May is conscious of what she represents to her friend.Nevertheless she keeps enjoying her life, taking all she can from Ron until she takes too much. Her choices lead both girls to face who they are and how they might live life to the fullest.
Director's statement
I met the first actress, Vivian Yung Chang, during a theatre workshop in Berlin. I loved her language and her energy and very soon I decided to write something for her. When I wrote the script I was initially just focused on the characters: I didn’t have a concrete plot but I had two characters who were every day clearer in my mind. I could see their habits, the way they were dressing and talking to each other, I had so many images of them that drove me in the story. I felt the characters had already a story to tell and this story came to me quite quickly.;I didn’t hesitate to shoot in mandarin because the language is so rich, dense and beautiful that I was really comfortable with it. From the first rehearsal the actresses were so natural in their own language that I could follow the script easily and I really thought it was the right choice.The title of my movie was inspired of course from the love poem by Christina Rossetti that I read just by chance a short time before writing but it goes through it: a birthday is a new step, it has a meaning, it drives to a mental change, it has a concrete symbolic weight, especially for very young people. In this movie the birthday is like the lighthouse in Virgina Woolfs book. It has to do with with consciousness and unconsciousness, with emotions mostly connected more with the mind that with actions.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/109239318
Website: http://www.daniela-lucato.de/?page=the-birthday-short-film
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebirthdayshortfilm