Best Drama Short 2018 Winner

Clearing

Gust, an imaginative ten-year-old boy goes to meet his stepmother’s family for the first time. He is the only child other than his baby brother, who gets all the attention whilst Gust gets left behind to occupy himself with his imagination. At the family meeting Gust meets his aunt Vera. Just like Gust, Vera experiences the meeting from a distance and soon it becomes clear that she doesn’t function like the rest of the family. Though she tries hard to be accepted in the same way as her younger and more successful sister Nathalie. The adults treat Vera like a child but with his fanciful and unprejudiced view, Gust gets interested and fascinated by her. When Vera desperately runs away after yet another incident, Gust decides to follow her into the woods, where he finds her standing in a lake. They become aware of each other and the connection they share and decide to wait in the woods together as the family party carries on without them.