Day Dreaming is the new instalment in NQV Media’s short film collection Upon Her Lips, continuing their anthology of lesbian shorts from around the world. This collection has gathered four diverse films from Spain, Mexico & France; take a look at each below.
THIRST (Spain)
Starring: Angela Echaniz Oyarzabal, Izaro Nieto
Director: Maider Oleaga
Izaro and Clara are seventeen and both work at a summer camp for children. In the heady height of this summer life, the girls become exceptionally close, sharing all their free time together, having fun in the sun. But when Clara becomes interested in one of the male instructors, Izaro inserts herself right into the centre of their tryst with a bold self-assuredness that she is actually what Clara wants. This is a short about Gen Z’s sexual ambiguity and the blurring of likes between friendship and sex. Intense and sexy, this is the kind of friendship that can only be experienced by a teenager.
APRIL'S LAST MEMORIES (Mexico)
Starring: Victoria White, Ari Albarrán. Director: Nancy Cruz Orozco.
April and Camila are childhood friends about to be separated, with April soon to be moving to the big city with her parents. As the pair prepare to be parted, Camila realises that this is going to be the only moment she has to express the way her feelings have developed, now that they are teenagers. A short filled with the long looks of adolescent longing, it is crammed with sexual tension and the sad reticence of unfulfilled fantasy. Played out against the stifling summer heat, the pair’s connection is set to soon reach boiling point, drenched in the vibrant hues of the dying light of summer.
ENLIGHTENED (France)
Starring: Zoé Adjani, Clémence Boisnard, Christophe Grundmann, Romain Guillermic
Director: Nina Bouchaud-Cheval
Teenage Zoe finds escape from her painful life by spending her life with a traveller community. When her father dies, a rebellious young Romani decides to take her under her wing, take her out on the road and organise a traditional traveller-style wake for him. In this journey through mourning, Zoe becomes closer to her new friend, finding renewal in both her welcoming arms and the life that’s so different from her own. As the lines between passion and grief blur, she has found an outlet for the outpouring of feeling that she needs. Virulent and visceral, this short adeptly captures the wild exoticism of rebirth in the wake of loss.
ANDY AND THE OTHER WOMEN (Spain)
Starring: Alba Brunet, Raquel Ferri, Sara Diego, Betsy Túrnez
Director: Cintia Ballbé
Andy has several girlfriends, engaged in several open relationships with women who all know about each other. Across one Saturday night, she must navigate the needs of all her partners, especially as one decides that it’s time to meet the others. A comedic farce about worlds colliding, this distinctly twenty-first century story is a whistlestop whirlwind through Andy’s undeniably messy sex life. Silly, fun and disorientating, the complexity of Andy is offset by the hilarity of the world around her that cannot cope with the progressiveness of her private life.
With sapphic stories from a trio of countries, these sparkling nuggets of cinema capture the vim of youthful exuberance. From back-breaking grief to the excitement of new love, these bite-size slices of film depict compelling moments of emotional purity expertly captured by a handful of talented directors.
UK RELEASE: 30th October 2023 on VOD, released by NQV Media
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