Growing Stones, Flying Papers
A 12-minute animated short that doesn't feel short. Co-directors Roozbeh Gezerseh and Soraya Shamsi made their graduation project from Filmuniversität Babelsberg count — premiering at Cannes 2026 in the La Cinéf competition (May 20), the film tracks two parallel lives in a city under dictatorship: a writer documenting everything from his apartment, and his neighbor who's taken to the streets at night to resist. When she vanishes, he becomes the only witness. And then it gets complicated.
The setup: Two people, one choice
The film doesn't rush toward its moral moment. It earns it. What's striking is how much gets built in such tight space — the writer's apartment functions almost like a character itself, all those stacks of documentation and a window framing the street below. Outside, the resistance feels vast and distorted, like a memory of something dangerous. Hard to say if that's intentional visual metaphor or just what emerged during production, but it works.
The neighbor — voiced by Viktoria Schreiber — doesn't get a redemption arc or a hero's framing. She just acts. The voice cast (Schreiber, Sina Genschel, Karl Seibt, Max Mühlhoff) stays understated in a way that suits animation. Nobody's performing for the back row. And when the choice arrives — stay silent or act — the film lets it sit there, heavy and unresolved, the way real moral choices do.
What's rare here is that Gezerseh and Shamsi don't flatten their dictatorship into abstraction. The threat feels specific and contemporary — probably why the film landed in La Cinéf instead of staying in the student-festival circuit. That lack of editorializing takes guts for a 12-minute film. It trusts you.
How two directors built this at a German film school
Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf has a reputation for producing Europe's most distinctive animation and documentary work. Growing Stones, Flying Papers is an MA graduation project, written and directed by Gezerseh and Shamsi as a collaboration — and you can feel that duality on screen. The interiority of the writer and the exteriority of the resistance feel like they were built by two people who genuinely see the world differently and decided to put that tension on the screen rather resolve it.
According to the official Cannes Film Festival page, the film represents Germany in the La Cinéf competition under Cinéma de Demain, Programme 3 — the festival's dedicated lineup for student and emerging filmmakers from accredited film schools worldwide. The screening schedule places it within a program running approximately 1 hour and 17 minutes, with the film itself clocking in at a tight 12 minutes. France is listed as the first release territory, and May 20, 2026 marks the initial public screening date — effectively a world premiere.
Where to actually watch it (and when)
Right now? You can't stream it yet. Growing Stones, Flying Papers is making its festival circuit run. No commercial theatrical release, VOD window, or OTT platform has been announced — which is typical for La Cinéf selections still working through the festival season before distribution conversations begin.
The IMDb page doesn't yet list any streaming availability. If you're tracking where it lands, Movie OTT's where-to-watch widget pulls live data from major platforms in real time, so it'll surface there first when distribution gets announced. Distribution deals, when they happen, tend to come after the full festival run — so check back as the 2026 festival season progresses.
What makes this 12-minute film stand out
Here's the thing: short animation often sacrifices character for concept, or vice versa. Growing Stones, Flying Papers manages all three at once. The writer's apartment reflects his psychology — not through exposition, but through visual language. Stillness can look like cowardice from one angle and like strategy from another. The animation style plays with scale too — the writer appears small inside his own apartment while the street scenes feel vast and slightly distorted.
I keep coming back to the voice work. It's what sells the moral weight. Schreiber doesn't inflate the neighbor into a symbol — she's just someone who decided that's who she is. That restraint in a 12-minute format is harder than it sounds.
The film isn't based on a specific documented event, but its premise — a writer hiding under a rising dictatorship while a neighbor joins street resistance — draws on recognizable political realities that many countries have faced. The specificity of the storytelling suggests the filmmakers were working from something felt rather than invented.
FAQ
Q: Who directed this?
Roozbeh Gezerseh and Soraya Shamsi co-wrote and co-directed. It's their MA graduation project from Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in Germany.
Q: How long is it?
12 minutes. It screened as part of Cannes La Cinéf Programme 3, which totals about 1 hour and 17 minutes across multiple shorts.
Q: Is it family-friendly?
The film deals with political repression and disappearance under a dictatorship. It's not graphic, but it's not light either. Probably best for viewers 14+.
Q: Can I watch it now?
Not yet. As of May 2026, it's premiering at Cannes La Cinéf. Movie OTT tracks streaming availability as platforms announce it — that's where to check back first.
Q: What's the rating?
There's no commercial rating yet. Festival selections typically get rated after theatrical or streaming releases.
Bottom line
Twelve minutes. That's it. And it's enough — more than enough — because Gezerseh and Shamsi know exactly what they're doing. This is the kind of short that makes a case for the format itself, not as a stepping stone to something longer, but as the right container for this particular story. It stays with you after the program ends.
The Cannes La Cinéf selection confirms what the film itself suggests: these are filmmakers worth watching closely. Keep it on your radar, and let Movie OTT do the tracking when it hits streaming. Based on how it's built, it'll find an audience once it clears the festival circuit.