For the fourth time, the Landshut Short Film Festival invites you to the Lokalrunde. This audience award, which carries a prize of €500, is specifically aimed at filmmakers from Bavaria and puts regional talent in the spotlight. This time, seven films produced in Bavaria take us on a journey: we hop onto our bicycles to see where the path leads.

The journey begins IN THE GREEN, where the relationship between a father and daughter reaches its breaking point, ironically set within the creative idyll of a drawing lesson. We continue on a TANDEM. This vehicle dictates its own rhythm: one person sits at the front and steers, while the other pedals away at the back. Without a shared goal, you won’t get far, as no one can strike out on their own path on this machine.

A cycle courier speeds through the hectic streets of Berlin until, in LITTLE DOVE, he is reluctantly stopped by a young girl. She is looking for her sister, who also works for the delivery service. Her question pierces the wall of the anonymous gig economy and demands a real exchange between strangers; one person’s search becomes a shared concern. We enter a completely different space in SOLO MISSION: an industrial complex bathed in red light, where a lone warrior fights his way forward. Yet even he is not alone and must, sooner or later, face either an ally or an adversary.

Following the longest day of the year, the sun sets in DARKER – a daily ending, a “little death.” It is almost unbearable to watch it die every evening; perhaps one should simply switch it off so it never fades again. Indeed, death is a constant companion, often portrayed in Bavaria as the fallible Boandlkramer (Bone Merchant), who in WITH LOVE, DEATH walks beside us almost humanly, guiding us to the end. Finally, at the end of the road, all that remains is the look back. In BLIND, grief for a friend transforms into helpless anger at those who allowed themselves to be distracted by trivialities – things that, in the moment, seemed more important than nurturing a friendship.