Everything Between Us (Short) | BFI Flare 2026
A sweet short in which masculinity lingers in its absence as two girls grow closer, despite an avoidable gulf.
Here at OBSCURAE, we've always championed short storytelling as the hunting ground for your next favourite filmmaker – and encouraged you not to skip the shorts programme! Welcome back to our Short Film Review Series, Sweet and Short.
Of the six shorts in the All These Liberations collection, Everything Between Us was certainly the most straightforward, and that made it stand out in a good way. It's a simple story about two Turkish girls reaching out for each other across a pond.
What's most interesting about this story is that it's almost impossible to point to anything in particular that makes it queer, and yet it totally is. Azra, the protagonist, is a tomboy at every opportunity outside her mother's home – a moody rebel teenager basking in self-isolation. Ceren, the girl across the pond, is more straight-laced and conformist, but both are clearly drawn to each other by something they can't name.
The conservative pressures of Turkish society mean that the two girls have to be careful – and, as stated by director Ilgin Korugan in their introduction to the film, so did the production. More is implied than is said, and that restraint prompts some very charming and endearing moments, such as Azra lying to her mother to get an Ursula K. Le Guin (good choice) novel “for school”. There's a core of feminine love at the heart of the film, including some very touching scenes between Azra and her sister – and yet the spectre of masculinity lingers at all times...
On a technical level, it's a nicely shot film. I tend to think that super wide aspect ratios are usually kind of gimmicky – they often pop up in short films, but are rarely justified. In Everything Between Us, it works brilliantly. The format really highlights the distances between the characters, and makes the moments of closeness feel like oases in a terrifying world.
This is a great little film, full of subtlety and punctuated by humour – but not one without an edge of darkness, despite the warmth of its world and the charm of its characters.
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