Vesper :: International Film Festival

[Thaumantica]

V
VESPER
:: International Film Festival ::
Held from January 9th through January 13th
Open to All Filmmakers & Cinema Ministries

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Mission Statement: to expose and promote cinematic experiences to the Cantigian audience and the European world. Vesper international film festival values free speech & art; we are obligated not to censor, edit, or otherwise alter official entries.

Award Categories: Voyage Award (Best Picture) ; Feature Documentary ; Feature Animation ; Feature Short Film ; Public Opinion Prize ; Best Actor ; Best Actress


Entry Submission Template:

FEATURE TITLE
The Sacrament

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Bernard Larson

FEATURE CAST
Melanie Cromwell, Charles Bishop

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
In pre-war Solaren a 23 Year Old Nun struggles with her shaken faith to her Pope, God, and Country as a World War breaks out.
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[Thaumantica]

Film submissions from the Covenant of Cantignia:

FEATURE TITLE
The Sacrament

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Bernard Larson

FEATURE CAST
Melanie Cromwell, Charles Bishop

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
In pre-war

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a 23 Year Old Nun struggles with her shaken faith to her Pope, God, and Country as a World War breaks out.

FEATURE TITLE
The Dark Saint

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Wander Stephens

FEATURE CAST
Benjamin Dark

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
This Documentary follows Benjamin Dark as he becomes the first dark-skinned Elder in The Church of Oceanic States (Mormon) despite verbal and physical attacks in a Race conscious Cantignia.


FEATURE TITLE
Sniff, Growl, Run

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Mitchell Seivers

FEATURE CAST
Carrissa Perry (Voice), Frederick Dalton (Voice)

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
This Animated Feature tells the tale of Paw, a Cantigian Devil Cub (Marsupial), who is separated from his pack during the Pioneer & Frontier Wars (1845) in a family friendly saga of one of natures most endangered creatures.


FEATURE TITLE
Curtsy

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Charlotte Harris

FEATURE CAST
Claire Atherton, Daniel Patterson

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
This Short Film illuminates a vulnerable cocktail waitress in the tobacco smoke filled National Theater in 1950s Vesper.

 

[Natal]

Film Submissions from the Principality of Altai:

Feature Title
Attention, says Altaisk

Feature Director
Teodor Orban

Feature Cast
Maia Morgenstern, Ioana Ana Macaria, Maria Rotaru

Feature Description
Story of partisans during the last stages of the battle of Altaisk in 1957 during the Third Talemantine-Altaic War. The women have to decide what is best to continue to fight for a Socialist regime that they call it illegal or to desert to the Talemantines that were seen by most of the monarchists as the savior. The film was a success in Altai as it presented realistically both sides that fought in the conflict.


Feature Title
The two of us

Feature Director
Claudiu Mitcu

Feature Cast
Mihai Petrov, Adrian Mihaescu, Sorin Matveev

Feature Description
The documentary follows the relations between three gay men and the Christian, Muslim and Diagist communities respectively.

 

[Havenshire]

Film Submissions from the People's Republic of Havenshire

FEATURE TITLE
A Wooden Horse

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Alistair Canning

FEATURE CAST
Mark Hampton, John Evans and Stephanie Wheldrake

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
A stirring epic remake of the 1950s romantic war classic, in which 2 brothers are divided by the Havenshire Civil War, united by their love for a Red Cross Nurse who tends their wounds. Considered a masterpiece of council-communist virtues and the importance of community and fellowship and the price of disunity, the shock ending in which the Nurse is killed in their crossfire is considered by many to be a defining moment of Havenshire cinema. Canning does not disappoint in this vivid remake.


FEATURE TITLE
A Commissar in Breotonia

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Brad Radcliffe

FEATURE CAST
Jason Winstone

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
A popular comedy based on the 1980s cartoon series, this animated remake sees a 1950s socialist realist Havenshire Commissar participate in an Officer Exchange Programme with whacky noir Breotonian Police, with hillarious results. Memorable for its excellent combination of over-the-top animated farcial comedy and clever wordplay between the characters.

Jason Winstone is on top formwith his expressive voice-acting and mastery of droll timing, and the old-fashioned cel-shaded animation adds a distinct charm.


FEATURE TITLE
Railway Crossings

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Teddy Finch

FEATURE CAST
Real People.

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
A thought provoking documentary which uses a 20km stretch of railway between Walkerton and the Coal Mines in the Antine Mountains to tell the stories of real people's lives. Filmed throughout 2010, the documentary exposes the truth about living conditions for the majority of Havenshire's working and underclasses, and unflinchingly looks at the prevalence of alcoholism and the prevalence of illness amongst Havenshire's Coal Miners. Teddy Finch has been repeatedly criticised for his documentary making methods, however, picking and choosing only the most dramatic and hardhitting images, and using random scenes of mundanity and people talking about trivia to garner his work with an impression of greater realism.

 

[Wieserreich]

FEATURE TITLE
Edelweiss

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Klaus Mozart

FEATURE CAST
Karl Weber, Hannah Schilling

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
Set in the early 1900s in mountainous Mecklenburg, this is the story of a forbidden romance between a soldier and a young nun in an era of prejudice, conservatism and social unrest. Based on the novel of the same name by Marina Eulendorf, the film was a huge success in Wiese and attracted strong criticism from the Catholic Church for its displayed themes.

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FEATURE TITLE
A Soldier's Guide to Warfare

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Peter Klein

FEATURE CAST
Peter Klein

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
"A Soldier's Guide to Warfare" is a comical animated "mockumentary" by Peter Klein, addressing both Wieser as well as foreign militarism and hypothesised military tactics. It features the narrator (Peter Klein), an anthropomorphic sponge named "SchwammFranz Lichtenhosen" and his Cthulhu-inspired sidekick-in-a-tuxedo, "Amadeus C. Tentakel" and the imaginary countries of "Leopardzweireich" (similar to Wiese), "Kommissariat" (seemingly inspired from several RDTO countries), "Panzerreich" (inspired from Kyiv) and "Westlibertarische Geldland" (a Gallian-themed city-state obsessed with profit). SchwammFranz and Amadeus are used to illustrate each environment they visit, with their rival Epicus Maximus, The Paragon Of Epicosity (a giant flying shark with rockets and lasers, carrying a giant tyrranosaurus named And A T-Rex on his back, who is mounted by a zombie cheerleader) being the primary antagonist in each country visited. The cartoon is in the Reichswehr's list of "strongly not recommended" films for its permanent personnel.

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FEATURE TITLE
2012

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Albertina Schwarz

FEATURE CAST
Real people

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
2012 is a short film/documentary illustrating the social conditions in three major European countries before and during the August Catastrophe. Among the countries featured are Wiese, Engellex and Lorraine.

 

[Potenza]

FEATURE TITLE
Tiburan Title: Scrivere
English Title: To Write

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Jacopo Argento

FEATURE CAST
Marcello Mastroianni, Luisa Anselmi

FEATURE DESCRIPTION
A comedy centered around a journalist attempting to write a scathing piece on local government, only to find that those in the media are just as inane.


FEATURE TITLE
Tiburan Title: L'amore di Cinema
English Title: The Love of Film

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Daria Pisu

FEATURE CAST
Carla Milo

FEATURE DESCRIPTION
A dark comedy and satire of the film industry. The film is about a young woman who is sexually frustrated, but soon begins to study at a film school when she finds herself aroused by the various aspects of filmmaking, from the length of widescreen format to the knowledge given by certain film critics.



FEATURE TITLE
Tiburan Title: Gli Uomini Cattivi dal Cielo
English Title: The Bad Men from the Sky

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Angelo Santino

FEATURE CAST
Miguel Bose (voice), Flavio Bucci (voice)

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
An animated film set in an unknown country in a pseudo-1930's/1940's world, a five-year old boy grows up with a single father who works as a fireman. His nation is being bombed from the air by an enemy his father refers to only as "the bad men from the sky." Although he works out in the country, the father is called to the nearby city, which is particularly being targeted and requires greater support fighting the fires. The boy is left alone for a day and fears for his father, and so ventures out to the city by himself. There he is caught in the midst of the bombing, and the aircraft used to bomb the city descend, seen by the boy and act as large, gargantuan-like monsters. The film is meant to be a look at war from the mind of a child, with the war scenes of the city taking on a strange, dream-like atmosphere.

 

[Breotonia]

Film submissions from the Kingdom of Breotonia:

FEATURE TITLE
Shadow of Intent

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Melisa Hubbert

FEATURE CAST
Dan Nilson, Rick Dicken, Shanna Morita

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
Filmed in the Cinematic Renaissance of 1951, this silent film noir classic illustrates mystery in an entangling web of relationships amd intrigue.

FEATURE TITLE
Tick-Tock Goes the Clock

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Lester Demott

FEATURE CAST
Lester Demott, Hector Kyles, Marvin Tobey

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
A renegade Breotish admiral sets in motion the beginning of a nuclear attack on Havenshire with the intention of forcing a final confrontation between the states which must now work together to avert Armageddon. A piece of political satire which is as funny as it is frightening, it gained a great amount of attention as not only did the Breotish Royal Navy work with filmmakers to provide shots of warships in action but so did the People's Navy of Havenshire. During a time of cold relations and the threat of war the exchange was considered a monumental move towards better relations.

FEATURE TITLE
Forbidden Fruit

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Ernest Ames

FEATURE CAST
Philip Worrell, Yūko Asano

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
In a time when racial and class prejudice were still the norm, a Breotish nobleman seeking to expand his mercantine empire falls hopelessly in love with a local woman in 19th Century Touzen.

Billed as a historical romance the film's well reviewed acting and intricate and accurate portrayal of 19th century Touzen won it several national awards and cemented its place in Breotish film history.

 

[Clarenthia]

Submissions from the Second Jurzani Republic

FEATURE TITLE
Our Life

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Arsalan Sajadi

FEATURE CAST
numerous

FEATURE DESCRIPTION
One day takes hundreds of different video clips filmed by Jurzani people and combines them to form a two hour movie called "Our Life." The movie shows scenes from some of the most violent times in Jurzan such as the carpet bombing of Tetri Tsqaro, clips of Talemantine forces, clips of the destruction, clips of Nadarejshvili and Khayrat, clips of Mujahideen troops, clips of reconstruction projects and refugee camps. At some parts, the movie is heartwarming, others, it's chilling. All clips are uncut, because of certain images, it was originally rated R, but the decision was overturned as it was named the National Movie.

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FEATURE TITLE
Two Brothers

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Arsalan Sajadi

FEATURE CAST
Atal Bacha and Atsak Kohistani

FEATURE DESCRIPTION
The movie follows the story of two soldiers during the Jurzani-Talemantine War. As opposed to "Our Life" almost all scenes are recreated. The film ends with both brothers dying during the siege of Asyut.

 

[Khemia]

Film submissions from the Republic of Yujin:

FEATURE TITLE
The Line

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Hu Baotian

FEATURE CAST
Wu Daozi, Sun Jingmei

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
Set in the bloodiest battle of history, the Battle of Zhenjing, this tragic epic reanalyzes the ability of tragic hero to appeal to an audience. Wu Daozi plays Sergeant Ming, a man drafted into the National Revolutionary Army at the climax of the Great War in Yujin. While millions of people are dying and bodies litter the streets with the Republic fighting for its survival, Private Ming encounters a frightened child Ying Weili, played by Sun Jingmei. Becoming the father figure to the girl, Ming must make the decision between saving the young girl Weili and holding his position on the front lines against the Oikawan onslaught. With an unprecedented level of detail and funding, critics have called this film overly nationalistic and too grand in scope.



FEATURE TITLE
Last Ammunition

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Yu Guodong

FEATURE CAST
He Xingyun, Gregory McCarthy, Benjamin Knight

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
Filmed in both Yujin and German, this spy thriller and martial arts flick features Yujin Intelligence Agent Xiao Qinshu, played by renowned martial artist He Xingyun, operating in Siyang to uncover a plot by an insidious Danziger corporation threatening to set off nuclear war in the Seoran peninsula.



FEATURE TITLE
Beyond Europa

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Chen Chongxian

FEATURE CAST
Song Shikai, Lo Suyuan

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
This romantic space opera follows the Captain-turned-Admiral Sheng Daoli of the United Euro Fleet as he copes with unfolding events that lead to the destruction of Europe and the end of humanity. Admiral Sheng must save his wife and the human race and set out to find a new world while struggling to keep his marriage together after the end of the world. Combines stunning CGI and 3D film technology.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

FEATURE TITLE
Wolves of Haemia

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Ema Zupan

FEATURE CAST
Luka Novak, Nik Toplak, Manca Jereb

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
It's the late 20s in Carentania and the 8 year old Roman gets caught in the horror of the Talemantine invasion, his family pursuing the sole goal of surviving the war together as they flee from the southern Vrbas. Filmed entirely through the point of view of the 8 year old Roman, the viewer watches the war through the eyes of a child and has to witness him losing his house, his friends, his family as he wanders aimlessly through the warzone in search of safety. The defining moment of the movie comes, when Roman is deafened by an explosion halfways through the film and, consequently, the movie itself becomes silent for the rest of its showing.

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FEATURE TITLE
Bed Whispers

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Tadej Hren

FEATURE CAST
Tilen Rozman, Ana Zorko

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
Perhaps the most exotic entry into the Film Festival, Bed Whispers has been defined a groundbreaking porn movie in Carentania. The married couple Eva and Anej are caught in a dying relationship dominated by mistrust and silence. Each lives a seperate live, distanced from the other - only in bed can they share some form of closeness and open up to each other emotionally. As circumstances force these nights to become rarer and rarer, the couple drifts apart into their respective affairs with co-workers and strangers, until they realize that change is needed if they are to survive emotionally.

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FEATURE TITLE
Bread, Cheese, Tomatoes

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Tim Kobal

FEATURE CAST
Tim Kobal

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
With an eye for details and a sharp tongue, Tim Kobal travels through the various nations of the "Pizza Belt", from Potenza through Solaren and Carentania to Talemantros. Despite doing little more than portraying the various Pizza bakers in the four countries, his documentary is about anything but a world famous dish. Hidden amongst each countries claim to be the home of this simple dish is the history of the Long Sea region, the madness of Nationalism and the mutual contempt of competing ideological systems.

 

[Touzen]

Film submissions from the Constitutional State of Touzen:

FEATURE TITLE
Party

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Kasai Ariake

FEATURE CAST
Enomoto Hidechi, Nakamura Yuji

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
The latest movie by artist multi-talent Kasai Ariake. Brothers Kentaro and Takeshi are invited over to a party at a friend's house. At first, they seem to be enjoying themselves, but as the evening continues, cracks in the relationship between the guests become evident. When Kentaro intervenes in a brawl between two guests, a faction quickly forms around him and they begin to enforce their visions of a 'proper' party on the other guests, becoming increasingly authoritarian and violent in their behavior. When a young girl is drowned in the swimming pool, Takeshi rallies a group of other guests to overthrow the violent rule of 'the party'. In this work, Kasai deals with the Post-Delegationist notion of party tyranny by translating its concepts to a literal party. The surreal lightning and memorable soundtrack create the typical atmosphere Kasai's works are known for.

FEATURE TITLE
And Yet I Pray

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Watanabe Makoto

FEATURE CAST
Suzuki Yukiko

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
Haruka is a shrine maiden at her unspecified small town's only shrine. Set during the Great War, Haruka is distraught when she hears news of the assassination of the Imperial family. Trying to cope with the more and more paranoid behavior of the totalitarian government that is fortifying its grip on the dying Empire, Haruka doesn't stop attending to the shrine even after it is destroyed in an enemy bombing run, killing all other clergy. Trying to attend to the ruins while also coping with her school work and an authoritarian father burning with fiery zeal for the party, the young girl rapidly has to grow up as the world she knew until now collapses, with the ruin of the shrine becoming the firm center of the new world she begins to create for herself.

FEATURE TITLE
Yamagata

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Fujiwara Masao

FEATURE CAST
-

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
Cartoon feature by Studio Sunset. Yamagata follows the life of Yamagata Tarō, the mastermind behind the creation of the Constitutional State, through the perspective of five different individuals that met him at various stages during his life. The film ends as a new Lord Protector Yamagata proclaims the victory of the Touzen Revolution. Noted for its brilliant orchestral score.



FEATURE TITLE
The Room

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Kai Keisuke

FEATURE CAST
Ono Katsumi, Ochiro Daichi, George Burning

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
Two unnamed Touzen business travelers find themselves in a Dulwich hotel one night. As they settle down for the night,they notice strange lights coming from a room in a high-rise building on the other side of the street. Over the next 3 hours of screen time, a psychological thriller begins to captivate the viewer's mind - involving a Franken snake oil seller, a Vangalan prostitute and an unexpected guest from the past.



FEATURE TITLE
Pigeon

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Miyagi Sadako

FEATURE CAST
Hans Koch

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
Debut film by recent Nokanawa Film School graduate Miyagi Sadako. An elder citizen from Eiffelland goes to Touzen for the first time, where he is attacked by the one thing he hates - pigeons. His comic struggle is depicted in this 15-minutes short that skillfully incorporates symbolism and a minimalistic utilization of speech and music to provide a powerful feminist critique of patriarchal structures and third world exploitation. Resulting in an absurd breech of the fourth wall, the film closes with the moving monologue of Paul the pigeon that transforms him into the figurative dove of peace.

 

[Caelia]

FEATURE TITLE
214 Days

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Ruslana Sierka

FEATURE CAST
Bohomir Sharipov, Fredek Kalyna, Miron Becue

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
Set in an alternate 1970's the crew of Mars mission struggles with isolation and despair after their spacecraft suffers a catastrophic system failure millions of kilometers from home.​

FEATURE TITLE
The Last Countdown

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Eduard Baikov

FEATURE CAST
Adalbrecht Zieff, Vladislav Psysar, Izrail Mikhalchenkp

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
A Kyivan nuclear submarine is mysteriously transported to the opening days of the Great War where the crew is forced to decide if and how they will change history.​

FEATURE TITLE
Song of the Sky

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Lev Tamazov

FEATURE CAST
Nadiaya Doronenko, Kateryna Romanych, Zhanna Galkin

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
Animated feature, set in a bleak future after Europa has been devastated by an apocalyptic war three sisters struggle to survive after they are kidnapped and drafted into a mad warlords army.​

 

[Great Engellex]

Film submissions from the Empire of Great Engellex:

FEATURE TITLE
Tea with Revolution

FEATURE DIRECTOR
Harold Fellowes

FEATURE CAST
Jude Fiennes, Charlotte Rampling, Alistair Petrie

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
It is the Greater Sarmatian Civil War. Sforza House is the magnificent Engellexic embassy in Stary Hrodino to which Earl Talbot-Radnor, the ambassador, made home with his wife (the Countess Talbot-Radnor) and their seven year old son (Viscount Royston). As the family adjust within the gilded drawing rooms of their new home, the diplomatic staff swell the ranks in the embassy in anticipation of the political turmoil that surrounds them. But all is not as it should have been; neither amongst the bejeweled family and guests dining at the ambassadors leisure, nor the hundreds of diplomatic and security staff below was the horrors to unfold foreseen. The film is a moving portrait of events through the eyes of the young Viscount Royston, who witnessed the collapse of the Engellexic System of class, sex and rank as the Ambassador and His Few Hundred struggled to prevent and then delay their bloody massacre.



FEATURE TITLE
Harryo

FEATURE DIRECTOR
William Ellice

FEATURE CAST
Suzanne Borne

FEATURE DESCRIPTION:
Set in the coal mining village of Larkrise, Harryo is a theatrical adaption to the true story of the life of Harriet Brown (Harryo) that gripped the Engellexic people in 2008. Portrayed by award winning child actress Suzanna Borne, the film follows the life of a blind orphaned nine year old girl who is forced down the coal mines of Larkrise to support herself and her younger brother. The film illustrates the dark world of child labour in Engellex where an estimated twelve thousand children are believed to be enslaved to industry.



((Will add more.))

 

[Danmark]

Love in the Verdigris

DIRECTOR
Thorsten Yelling

CAST
Maximilian von Sjørring, Lisa Mellet, Helle Rige

DESCRIPTION

From renowned art-house film director, Thorsten Yelling, Love in the Verdigris is a bitter-sweet romance set in a copper factory in which a world-weary communist trade union leader feeling trapped in his loveless marriage to his domineering and controlling wife, has a chance encounter with a young and firey office worker, diametrically opposite in her politics to him, but to whom he turns to for solace and affection which leads him on a journey of self-discovery and re-evaluation.


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Vinlandia!

DIRECTOR
Per Strom

CAST
Edvard Rønne, Clara Schmidt, Wilhelm Klumpenpfeffer

DESCRIPTION

In Danish and German, a bawdy comedy set in the vineyards of the Danish Rhineland, where the employees seem to spend more time drinking the produce of the vineyard, indulging in sexual frolics, and fighting each other than actually working.

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Gud Beware Danmark!

DIRECTOR
Lars Gravlax

CAST
Olov Tye, Magnus Hjorring, Kristian Tennet

DESCRIPTION

Historical epic re-telling the struggle against the Holy Germanian Empire to gain Danish freedom in the seventeenth century.

 

[Thaumantica]

V
VESPER
:: International Film Festival ::

The Vesper International Film Festival has closed for further submissions. Prizes will be awarded on 13 January, and Popular Opinion Voting has officially begun.

To cast your votes, go here:

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Each nation is permitted three votes to cast.
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