Love is not always a gentle comfort; sometimes it is suffocating, uncomfortable, and harmful. It slithers like a cold snake across the skin, triggering shivers and resistance; it acts like a poison, disguised as "for your own good," seeping into the body and leaving scars. Under the lens of contemporary cinema, we no longer avoid these distorted images, no longer run from the abyss of trauma and self-contradiction. The female body is no longer merely a vessel of beauty; in the midst of ugliness, oddities, and gloom, the body can fully expose its discomfort and provoke unease.

In this specially curated short film strand, filmmakers from various backgrounds present their manifestos on "imperfection" through diverse cinematic forms. Using bizarre forms or Lynchian imagery, they mirror another kind of reality, and we, in turn, learn to face the horrors embedded within the body, embracing our true selves in the cracks and fragments (programme notes by MINT CFF’s Co-curator, Simyun Li).

Swipe left to explore the film line-up