UK Asian Film Festival Long Shorts

UKAFF presents a series of long shorts from and about South Asian experiences while addressing the 2025 festival theme ‘Longing and Belonging’. In every corner of the world, people wrestle with feelings of longing – a yearning for love, home, acceptance, or meaning – and the deep desire to find a place where they truly belong. Delving into these emotional landscapes, the films in this programme explore identity, self-acceptance, and reconciliation with the past alongside queries around cultural displacement, its effects on family dynamics, and the associated search for home.

Tickets £14, concs £12:20 (Members pay £2.50 less)

Short films programme

Cuppa Chai
UK 2024. Director Amit Kaur. 10 min. English, Punjabi, Hindi with English subtitles
After the death of her Nani Ji, eighteen-year-old Mira arrives back in her hometown and is confronted by the fact that she knows very little about the woman who passed away. She must learn more about her grandmother's life the only way she knows how, through the perfect cup of tea and halwa.

A Little Bit of Glitter
UK 2024. Director Siddharth Menon. 23min. English and Hindi with English subtitles
When Vidya, a 62 year old recently-widowed Indian woman, sublets a room in her house to a 19 year old black gay man, she rediscovers her sense of self and her love for make up despite complications from the family.

The Send Off
Pakistan 2024. Director Amina Imran. 11min. English and Urdu with English subtitles
An incident places an estranged pair of mother and daughter in the same room together for the first time in years.

Don’t Be Late, Myra
Pakistan 2024. Director Afia Serena Nathaniel. 15min. Urdu with English subtitles
Inspired by true events in Lahore, 10-year-old Myra must find her way home after missing her school van. The short thriller takes a dark turn as she has to dodge men harassing her on the streets.

Jamie’s Wager
UK 2024. Director Sean Kardar. 16min.
After his father's sudden death, Jamie is caught between his Muslim uncle Hafiz and his father's new-age girlfriend Alicia at the funeral director's office.

Ravi
UK 2023. Director Darshan Gajjar. 5min
Ravi is inspired by true events from a British-born South Asian growing up in Grantham, one of the least diverse areas in the UK. At its core, Ravi explores the internalized resentment that can develop when cultural heritage is met with prejudice, but also the journey toward self-acceptance and reconnection with one's roots.

If
Pakistan 2024. Director Tathagata Ghosh. 25min. Bengali with English subtitles
An arranged marriage tears a lesbian couple apart, but with a mother's love, perhaps another future is possible.

Loner
India 2025. Director Rupam Mishra. 8min. Silent
A woman shares her experiences of empowerment, which often come with a price. This film delves into the patterns of a woman willing to the pay the price, leaving you to ponder: is she a loner, or a self-sufficient, independent woman?

Suryafool
India 2024. Director Shashank Acharya. 7min. Hindi and Marathi with English subtitles
A young child conspires with God to play cupid for her mother and a secret admirer.