Maria

Maria opens with a raucous varicoloured squabbling, a blast of noise and shade and conflict, a single room filled with Mar- and Dan- names, all being added to a family tree for a project. Paper, and glue, and blood thicker than water.

Populous too, and growing. In just a few minutes, indeed, from its opening shot at an unusual angle, Jaime Habac Jr's film is immediately evocative, enthralling.

A family drama unfolds, but containing as it does so many elements it feels almost wasteful to try to list them. A recipe does not taste the same as soup, and this is a rich mixture. There are gender, religious, and familial politics, but even as large themes are thrown around there are smaller details of movement and interaction that illuminate as clearly as the brightness and noise of Habac's film.

Selected for special mention by the International Award Jury at 2017's Glasgow Short Film Festival, it's visually striking, with excellent work in sound. The threads of familial tension are woven into something that reveals as it unfurls.