Scorched Earth | Locarno Film Festival Short Film

🎬 SUBMIT YOUR FILM ➔ https://shortverse.com/submit In between the insufferable summer heat, a thesis that won’t write itself, and her loud neighbors’ quarrels, Stela witnesses a terrible crime. _Scorched Earth_ Dir. Markela Kontaratou https://www.instagram.com/witch_king__/ In March 2020, during the first month of COVID-19 lockdowns, Greece’s SOS Line 15900 - a national service supporting those affected by gender-based violence - recorded 325 calls, a 370% increase from the 69 calls received in the same month the previous year. Confronted by this sharp rise in violence in her home country, Greek writer-director Markela Kontaratou turned to filmmaking as a means of processing and expressing her response. The result is Scorched Earth, a London Film School graduation project that went on to screen at the Locarno Film Festival - S/W Curator, Rob Munday FULL REVIEW: https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2026/03/23/scorched-earth/ *CREDITS* Cast: Danae Ntemou, Vangelis Evangelinos, Marialena Ilia, Aphrodite Katsarou Writer/Director: Markela Kontaratou Producers: Kyriaki Kontaratou, Jaina Liu Director of Photography: Tamás Apor Méder Editor: Mengyao Zhang Art director: Eleni Poulopoulou Sound Recordist: Longhua Yang Sound editor/ mixer: Mario Gennari Color: Alex Grigoras Music: Lefteris Papadopoulos, Christos Nikolopoulos, Stratos Dionysiou, Nektarios Kouvaras, Konstantinos Alexiou Production: London Film School, Coda Films Reproduced on this channel with the permission of the filmmakers.