Flowers

Name: Flowers
Director: José Cardoso
Released: 2024
Duration: 29

13 PG V

Flores

An Amazon ethnocide is justified by war in Ukraine. All streamed on-line under the gaze of the filmmaker, he leaves the screen and meets his 3-year-old son who marvels at the flowers in the garden.

Awards

Sheffield DocFest (2024) – Winner: International Short Film Competition

Oscars, Academy Awards (2025) – Nominated: Preliminary round selection for Best Short Documentary

13 PG V

Short

International

African Premiere

Award Winning

SHORTS BLOCK

Fragments of a Forgotten Land

Director(s):

José Cardoso

Country:

Ecuador | South Africa

Year:

2024

Duration:

29 min

Language(s):

English | Portuguese | Russian | Zhuang | Chuang

RATING:

13 PG V

Official Poster: Flores Poster — Film Poster

Navigating the barrage of online news inundating our screens each day, filmmaker José Cardoso explores a world oversaturated with digital noise, transforming the chaos of online media into a personal reflection on collective responsibility. Through dreamlike juxtapositions, Cardoso links an Amazonian community under threat from Brazil’s far-right leadership to the distant echoes of war in Ukraine. Amidst a global crisis, José internalises Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh’s teachings on compassion, seeing these roots of innocence in his three-year-old son, who marvels at frogs and flowers in their garden. Oscillating between discordant synthesisers and pensive silences, Flowers/Flores stages a complex inquiry into humanity’s desensitisation to digital media, global political violence, and environmental destruction, insisting on solidarity to preserve our world for the future generations that will inherit it.