This year’s Oscar-nominated live-action shorts tackle war crimes, immigration, and existential crises.
A still from "Anuja." (ShortsTV)
A still from “Anuja.” (ShortsTV)
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News

Marred by some weak and knee-jerk selections, the Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live-Action runs the gamut from films featuring endangered children and an undocumented immigrant father (with a young daughter) to dramatizations of two disturbing, real-life events. Don’t expect much sweetness and light in these selections. Directed and written by podcaster, philosopher, and filmmaker Adam J. Graves, Hindi-language “Anuja” tells the story of a pair of sisters in Delhi, young, spunky Anuja (the photogenic Sajda Pathan) and her protective, older sister Palak (Ananya Shanbhag). The two live in an abandoned building and work as child laborers in a sewing factory/sweatshop, where a frankly disgusting bully (Nagesh Bhonsle) rules over the workers with a heavy hand. Anuja is unusually clever with numbers, and a sympathetic local teacher offers her the chance to win a place in a boarding school if she and her sister can raise money to pay the exam fee. Complete with a Kipling-esque anecdote about a brave mongoose, “Anuja” trades in cliches and ends with a cliffhanger.

The ironically titled “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent” is a dramatization of the Strpci Massacre of 1993, when 24 Muslims and one Croat were removed from a train by the Serbian White Eagles and murdered. Written and directed by Nebojsa Slijepcevic and winner of the Palme d’Or for short film at Cannes, “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent” is not about the man you think it is. It has the dark, ironic twist of a work by the Civil War-weary Ambrose Bierce.

“I’m Not a Robot,” the most original of the lot, takes the Philip K. Dick reality in which we live and turns it into a fable for these times. While listening to a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep,” music producer Lara Vermeulen’s computer asks her to complete CAPTCHA tests to prove she is not a robot. She fails repeatedly and is informed she is probably a robot. A much better version of the current release, “Companion,” “I’m Not a Robot,” was written and directed by award-winning Dutch filmmaker Victoria Warmerdam and features a terrific performance by Dutch actor Ellen Parren. It is a comic-existential cri de coeur.

Written and directed by David Cutler-Kreutz and Sam Cutler-Kreutz, the rather too-cleverly titled “A Lien” tells the story of a small family in crisis. Sophia Gomez (Victoria Ratermanis) is a young wife trying desperately to get the citizenship of her husband Oscar (William Martinez) established by getting him a “green card” interview. But when agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, aka ICE, arrive at the government offices, they begin to round up the undocumented, who are inside trying to get documents. The agents even try to take the couple’s toddler daughter, Nina (Koralyn Rivera). The acting and the suspense are intense. But “A Lien” has little new to say about its hot-button topic.

Finally, the South African entry “The Last Ranger” is the story of a little girl named Litha (Liyabona Mroqoza) whose father carves animals such as rhinoceros out of wood, which he sells. On her way to the market, Litha is befriended by a female ranger named Khuselwa (Avulmile Qongqo) in the South African Koriega Game Reserve. Without so much as asking her father’s permission, Khuselwa takes Litha to a potentially dangerous part of the reserve, where they watch a female rhinoceros in an effort to keep her safe from poachers, who are after the animal’s horn. Can you guess what happens next? Directed by Cindy Lee and written by David S. Lee, Darwin Shaw, and Will Hawkes, “The Last Ranger” is based on a true story, which does not make it any less like a “Lion King” knockoff.

How to watch the Oscar-nominated shorts

The Oscar Shorts program opens Feb. 14 at the following theaters:

Plimoth Cinema, 137 Warren Ave., Plymouth

Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston

Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge

Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline

CinemaSalem, 1 E. India Square, Salem 

West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington St., West Newton

Fine Arts Theatre, 21 Summer St., Maynard

The Natick Center for the Arts, 14 Summer St., Natick