''Asad'' is a 2012 South African-American

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

directed by Bryan Buckley. The film was nominated for the

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Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Produced in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

by Mino Jarjoura of

Hungry Man Productions Hungry Man Productions is an international commercial marketing and production company. The organization has been voted by Creativity Online to be one of the top five commercial production companies in the world. It is also the only production co ...

, the cast is made up of Somali refugees living in

, none of whom had any acting experience prior to production. After being nominated for an Oscar, the film was released along with all the other 15 Oscar-nominated short films in theaters by ShortsHD.

Plot

Asad is a fisher boy in Somalia. His friends, led by Laban, are pirates; Asad feels as if he is suited for the pirate life. An old fisherman named Erasto would rather he stick to an honest fishing life as opposed to piracy. Asad has never been able to catch anything on his fishing trips and is beginning to give up hope. Erasto tries to lift his spirits with his largest catch of the day. When Asad is taking home the fish with his friend various people on the street ask if he has caught it and he angrily tells them that he has not. His friend suggests that he should lie but Asad says that if he does he will be cursed forever and won't catch anything. As they are talking they run into a group of Somali rebels that ask where all the beautiful women in their town are. When Asad's friend says he does not know they threaten to kill him; Asad offers them the fish to save his friend's life. The next day Asad goes out to the sea to meet with Erasto for a fishing trip and sees the old man injured by the boat. Since Asad had mentioned where the fish came from, the Somali rebels had come for him. Erasto's arm was so badly injured that he could not fish. He tells Asad that the boy's luck will change today and he will finally catch something. Asad feels the tug of a fish when out at sea and tries to pull it in, but it instead pulls his boat out farther into the sea, where he spies a luxury boat similar to the one that Laban and his friends were going to hold for ransom. Asad goes to see what happened and finds Laban, his friends, and the woman who had the boat all dead. He begins to inspect another room and finds a

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

cat, which he brings back to Erasto. Neither of them know what a cat is, but they say that it looks like a white lion. Erasto marks that Asad's name means "lion". Asad names the cat Lionfish and takes it back to his village to take care of, his luck changed.

Awards

Festival Selections

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

* Seattle International Film Festival *

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

Palm Springs International Film Festival Palm Springs International Film Festival (sometimes stylized shortly as PSIFF) is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. Originally promoted by Mayor Sonny Bono and then sponsored by Nortel,here for Table of Contents it started in 1989 ...

* Traverse City Film Festival *

Rhode Island Film Festival Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state. History Started in 1997, the Festival is produced by Flickers, the ...

HollyShorts Film Festival The HollyShorts Film Festival is an annual Academy Award®-qualifying independent short film festival located in Hollywood, California. History Founded in 2005, the yearly festival programmes feature an eclectic mixture of short films of various g ...

* One Lens Film Festival *

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF; french: le Festival des Films du Monde) was one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF (although the Toronto Internat ...

* Telluride Film Festival *

1 Reel Film Festival 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

* Atlantic Film Festival * Raindance Film Festival * Hamptons International Film Festival * Mill Valley Film Festival * New Orleans Film Festival *

Austin Film Festival Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the ...

* Ellensburg Film Festival * San Jose International Film Festival *

Foyle Film Festival Foyle Film Festival is an annual film festival based in Derry, Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the isla ...

* Denver Film Festival * Evolution Film Festival *

Santa Fe Film Festival The Santa Fe Film Festival is a non-profit organization which presents important world cinema that represents aesthetic, critical, and entertainment standards highlighting New Mexican film. The organization partners with educational groups, schools, ...

* Ashbury Shorts Film Festival * Irvine Film Festival * Boulder International Film Festival * Mainly British Film Festival *

Sedona Film Festival The Sedona International Film Festival (SIFF) is an annual, eight-day film festival in Sedona, Arizona. The festival was founded in 1994. The Sedona Film Festival screens feature films, documentary films, short films, animated films, and student ...

San Diego Film Critics Society The San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS) is an organization of film reviewers from San Diego-based publications that was founded in 1997. Overview The San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS) is composed of print, television, radio and digital ...

* Boulder International Film Festival

References

External links

* {{Italic title 2012 films 2012 short films 2010s short films