Watch Spotted Yellow, by Baran Sarmad
The Locarno Shorts Weeks have long necks. One such neck belongs to Baran Sarmad’s Spotted Yellow, the winning short of the fourth edition of the Locarno Film Festival’s off-season, on-demand event. Roya and her giraffe won over the thousands of viewers who spent February in the Festival’s virtual cinema, granting Spotted Yellow, the most voted for movie, an average of 4.9 out of 5.
From Camila Kater’s Brazil, which won the 2021 edition with Carne, the Locarno Shorts Weeks Audience Award, offered by Swiss Life, travels to Iran, the home and set of Baran, and once again rewards a young woman behind the camera. She won over the audience with a suspended, delicately photographed atmosphere, with yellow tints bridging the human and animal universe, that then becomes a journey dealing with self-acceptance. Moreover, that magical, silent, and lighthearted path includes a surreal yellow parallelepiped, a huge origami with a long neck, a bizarre roommate in Roya’s existence, played by Shadi Karamroudi.
Did you miss it? Don’t worry: Spotted Yellow, produced by Mohammadreza Mayghani and Baran Sarmad, will be back for 24 hours in our on-demand theater, to celebrate the winner of the fourth edition of the Locarno Shorts Weeks.
The edition ended with thousands of viewers connected from 170 countries, practically the whole world. And once again, like last year, a lot of the online love came from India, the United States and Switzerland, alongside Pakistan and Italy. Also significant is the age of the Locarno Shorts Weeks’ most loyal viewers: 50% of the clicks came from people aged 18-34, confirming that the short film universe is particularly appealing to new generations.
Iran is also getting two of the three prizes aimed at the public: Rahmani Hesam (Iran), Chow Nathalie (Malaysia) and Vahabi Sepideh (Iran) are the winners of an exclusive package to experience Locarno75 (August 3-13).
