The Shift

What happens when a bartender on a mission to find her cheating boyfriend gets stuck driving a drunk high-schooler home? Trans Am, emergency room, strip club, showdown, vomit, sunrise. Yeah.

A spirited teenager tricks her older sister into joining her on a deceptively simple outing.

A story about a young man who has an argument with his friend so chooses to take a walk to clear his deteriorating mind.

A college student heads to the forest to exchange an item for a special item he desires. But once he arrives, the deal changes which leads to violence.

Playing hooky from school, Tony, a student/chorister at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, spends the afternoon at Central Park's Sailboat lake and retrieves a remote control device left behind by a pair of sailboat racers. Back in the schoolyard, Tony pretends that he has a car to go with the remote control. When another boy tries to take the control from him, it falls on the ground and a red remote-control sports car miraculously appears. The car "dances" to rap music and even brings Tony a can of soda. One day, a sinister-looking man with a briefcase steals the car and flees into the subway. Tony and his classmates pursue the thief to the Wall Street area and ask to inspect the briefcases of passing businessmen. Eluding the students, the crook hails a taxi and hurls the briefcase from the window. Next morning, Tony hears the sound of a sports car during a church service. Returning to its rightful owner, the magical car mysteriously reappears at the end of the processional.

When Eva (14) goes to the lake with her older brother and his friends, she finds herself under her body’s control, of which she is still ashamed at her age.

A man from communist Czechoslovakia unexpectedly meets his childhood love on a flight to Cuba. When they stop over in Canada, he has a plan… but can he trust her?

A suffering man enters a bizarre, dreamlike world where he's forced to confront the life he's considering leaving behind.

Poutníci

Luisa from Argentina and Fred from Germany are confronted with their social roles at their wedding. The German tradition of kidnapping the bride shakes the couple’s equality. There is no room for love in this role-play of marriage.

Matys is an outsider who moved from Ukraine to Czechia with his sister in search of a better life. It turns out the situation there is not ideal either. A glimpse of hope comes when Matys manages to get a job in a cottage located in the heart of a splendid forest.

Two mismatched friends, students, each in their own way troubled by life, travel one day to a nearby beach, invoking a sort of playful innocence long believed spent along with their childhoods, in the hopes that doing so will restore both of their happiness. Alas, life seldom works out that way.

On a desolate farm, a couple's prayers are answered after a visitor offers them a sinister deal. Blinded by their joy, they struggle to realize that what they once desired may lead to their own unraveling.

Three separate short stories by Jan Drda from the collection The Dumb Barricade: The Dynamite Watchman, Hatred and Traces.

Tres Leches" unfolds the poignant story of a family at the brink of collapse. Daniel, a devoted single father in his 40s, grapples with the weight of caring for his father, Alejandro, who battles Alzheimer's. The narrative unfolds on a pivotal day – his daughter's 18th birthday. Daniel, yearning for perfection, experiences fleeting validation when his father briefly reconnects with his past. However, the cruel nature of Alzheimer's becomes evident as a panic attack ensues, leading to an unfortunate incident. As tensions rise, Daniel and Vanessa embark on a frantic search when Alejandro goes missing. Amid the chaos, Vanessa's heart-to-heart conversation with Daniel becomes a pivotal moment of realization. Ultimately, when they locate Alejandro, Daniel faces the dreaded decision as his father's final memories slip away.

José, a street performer who dreams about becoming a telenovela star, is recruited by a talent manager who promises him great success, but soon realizes the job is actually dancing in a gay strip club. Away from his home and enjoying the newfound fame he has acquired with his new job in the city, José starts wondering if turning his back on his family and himself is worth it now that he's the club's biggest star, nicknamed "El Pistolero."

Wall Street business executives Bowers and his assistant Lisa get stuck in an elevator where the lingo of commerce is transformed into the language of love.

In pursuit of happiness, a young woman fantasises about killing her boyfriend

An extremely introverted college student is forced out of seclusion by his extroverted imaginary friend, sparking a chain of events and sending him on an adventure to stop an upcoming drug-related disaster, which he tries desperately to get out of.

An aspiring director wants to submit his own short film to his school's media festival. With less than a month left to participate, he has yet to begin production on the film. His procrastination leads him to decide between making the project he's most excited for, or coming up with something else for the meantime.