Final Girls Berlin Film Festival - Short Film Block: Social Horror

Barlebas
Directed by Malu Janssen, The Netherlands, 2024
This black and white Dutch short opens and closes with witch burnings. It’s a powerful and tragic tale of misogyny, cruelty and defiance as three women are accused so witchcraft, tortured and burned. Their fate however inspires a younger girl to leave the village and defy church and its beliefs. Powerful visuals like the ash from the fires in the air underline the horror of the subject. (4/5)

Take Care
Directed by Brittany Ashley, United States, 2025
This is a blackly comic curious tale of an already badly injured woman who mutilates herself with a kitchen knife so that she can go to the hospital and be attended by doctor she likes. Childlike she asks for the Dr to kiss the injury better, then gets upset that she can’t stay the night which in turn leads her to more drastic actions. Is it a crush or loneliness? Up to the viewer but the latter certainly has some resonance in a society that is becoming ever more atomised with loneliness and poor mental health becoming an ever-growing issue (3/5)

Civil Service
Written and directed by Tiffany Kimmel, USA, 2025
Very much inspired by Brazil Civil Service has a corrupt, uptight official who when his ex comes asking about government assistance he refuses. He also carries his dead mother with him and has his secretary in desk draw. Psychologically intense there’s not much to latch on to here narratively the bleak set does most of the work. (2/5)

Absolved
Directed by Malindi Kindrachuk, Canada, 2025
A grim Japanese story that starts with a grandfather telling a story to his granddaughter that efficiently and effectively reveals generational abuse of the women down the generations. And at some point, it has to be stopped (3/5)

Tea With Friends
Written and directed by Farah Halime Hope, UK, 2025
This disquieting story of a mother and her baby who as the film opens is clearly suffering from anxiety. Her regular park catch up with other mothers only leads to her being gossiped about that leads to snooping and revelations. The latter isn’t that much of a surprise but that doesn’t lessen the impact or take away from what was a horrific trauma and how the mother struggles to cope on a number of levels. (3/5)

(Tokum Ama Yerim) I'm Full but I'll Eat Anyway
Written, directed and produced by Bilge Olcay yilmaz, Turkey, 2025
A short, strange filler as at traditional get together for tea and cakes ends with mouthfuls of blood, skin and very confused. The victim and centre of abuse is the 17-year-old daughter tormented for her body shape. (2/5)

Nothing Personal, Daddy
Written and directed by Tamara Pavicevic, Montenegro, 2025
A family meal is disrupted when the father leaves and goes for a walk. He’s followed by his daughter who see’s him apply a tourniquet and then the sordid ritual that follows. It’s a small village and father’s habit is the gossip. His daughter then decides that action has to be taken. A story of true love that sees no other way out or plain disgust. (2/5)

PALPITO (Hunch)
Directed by Marisa Crespo & Moisés Romera, Spain
Opening in a bar, cops are interviewing Marcella (Cristina Fernández Pintado) about an incident with a person called Cristobal (Àngel Fígols) for whom she read a tarot. He dismissed the reading. But Marcella had a bad feeling and begins to hound him and his wife. She becomes ever more convinced of the validity of her hunch. In some ways the tarot element is little more than a McGuffin to highlight an issue, which the filmmakers clearly feel passionately about judging by the end credits. (2/5)

Bear
Directed by Rebecca Parker, Australia, 2025
Set in Australia, Bear is a dog that is the main company for a widow. But after attacking one of her grandchildren, her daughter had placed a ban on visits. The only appears to be for Bear to be put down. At the vets Bev meets Sherrie with her chicken. They all know why they are there and Sherrie takes an aggressive line against Bev’s decision. However there’s more than meets the eye as Sherrie know Bev’s past and then there is Bear himself. A clever story that casts some light on domestic abuse and the contradictory emotions that the victims suffer. (3/5)