On the Line (Auf der Strecke) German-Switzerland 30min Director: Reto Caffi Writers: Philippe Zweifel, Reto Caffi

This German-Swiss co-production is the longest of the ten features, with sharp dialogue and involving characters. A department store security guard who has no mercy when dealing with shoplifters, spies a cutie who works in a bookstore. He is able to zoom in on her activity shelving books and is known by her because they ride the train home together. For several weeks or months, they just smile at each other. When the woman's brother is beaten to death by thuggish youths after she walks away from him in a huff, she feels guilty that she left him figuring, rightly so, that had she remained with him, he'd still be alive. When the principal character comforts her, seeing an opportunity for a relationship, we in the audience may place bets on his potential. A final shock, a long close-up of the woman in the bookshop, recalls what the security guard says: that you can people's thoughts by looking into their eyes. A fine feature that could be extended into a full-length film.

The Pig (Grisen) Denmark 22min Director: Dorte Hogh Writers: Anders August, Dorte Hogh

A serio-comedy about an elderly, obese Dane in a hospital. He falls in love with a painting of a pig on the wall, considering the animal to be his guardian angel, one who might protect him should a colonoscopy reveal that his abscess is malignant. When the family of his roommate, who are Muslims and are offended by the porcine painting, remove it from the wall, hell breaks loose as the elderly man puts his attorney daughter into the role of his attack dog. This could be a plea for tolerance on both sides, bearing just the right balance of comedy and moralizing. One does wonder why a hospital needs to give a chap a colonoscopy and then, finding polyps, instead of removing them keeps him in its care for several days, taking care of the cutting only a day or so after the examination. Involving and entertaining.

Manon on the Asphalt (Sur Le Bitume) France 15min Writer/Directors: Elizabeth Marre, Olivier Pont

When a woman on a bike on the way to her boyfriend hits a bump and is seriously, even critically hurt, she casts an eye on the blur of people surrounding her as she lay in the street and ponders what she might have done to make the lives of her significant others more loving. This is yet another comment on the idea of living one's life as though each day were your last. In addition to the lack of originality in the notion, the film is marred by being narrated by the woman in voiceover.

New Boy Ireland 11min Writer/Director: Steph Green

New Boy, about a Irish lad who is having trouble with a couple of the white kids in an Irish elementary school, bears a concept that is a ripoff of Doubt. The lad compares his troublesome days at his seat with daydreaming of his better life in an African village where he is taught by a loving instructor until the teacher is carried away by rebels. The teacher spends as much time on discipline as do her counterparts in many American schools, while the African education system, at least in the boy's mind, is more pleasant for students and teachers alike—except for the fact that some holders of the chalk may be shot if they're from the wrong clan. The comedy comes from the scary looks by the Irish teacher and by her habit of forcing her charges to raise their arms as though being searched at an airport security area. At eleven minutes, this cannot be compared to the current favorite teacher movie The Class, but each moment is absorbing.

Toyland (Spielzeugland) Germany 14min Director: Jochen Alexander Freydank Writers: Johann A. Bunners, Jochen Alexander Freydank

This one rips off the theme of the excellent full-length feature The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which should have received Oscar nominations, though perhaps the Academy is tired of Holocaust dramas. Toyland, giving us scenes from a German town in the early forties, describes two young lads, one Jewish, the other "Aryan," who take piano lessons together and make nice progress in their duets. When the Gentile fellow disappears from his house, a frantic mother is at first thought by the Nazi guards to be Jewish (which shows that there really is little or no difference between Jews and "Aryans" in appearance). We know right away what is happening to the two boys, separated by stormtrooping idiots, and we are in suspense about whether the ending is to emulate that of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. A winner.