Jury Programme
Oče in hči / Father and Daughter
A father says goodbye to his young daughter and leaves. As the wide Dutch landscapes live through their seasons so the girl lives through hers. She becomes a young woman, has a family and in time she becomes old, yet within her there is always a deep longing for her father.
The beautiful, minimalistic water colour painting style of this film is one aspect that attracts me to Father and Daughter. But what is incredibly smart and special about this film is that without any close-ups or dialogues, the director is still able to make us feel so much emotion that each time I watch it, it brings tears to my eyes. I love the way in which Michaël Dudok de Wit shows the passing of time and the never-ending love between a daughter and a father.
Zgodba o zgodbi / Skazka skazok / Tale of Tales
A reflection of Russian history and memory. Norstein creates a visual emotional response to a changing Russia, followed in the eyes of the Little Grey Wolf spying on various people's lives, and giving an insight on Russian culture in the 20th Century.
Tale of Tales, the masterpiece of Yuri Norstein, is a visual poem, a nostalgia for the past which reaches an emotional depth that is never forgotten. With it's beautiful scenery, the haunting lullaby and the little grey wolf, it is full of melancholy, wonder and memories of the childhood. It is like a dream; nothing makes sense but everything is felt very intensely. Personally, having lived through 8 years of war in my country, I relate to scenes of this film on a very emotional level.
Mož s čudovitimi očmi / The Man With the Beautiful Eyes
A collaboration with illustrator Jonny Hannah based on a poem by Charles Bukowski. A gang of kids find a strange house with an overgrown garden where they play. Only once do they meet the man who lives there, a dead-beat alcoholic with a free and easy spirit who welcomes them. The children see him as a romantic character in stark contrast to their neurotically house proud parents.
Charles Bukovski’s poem read by the deep voiced Peter Blegvad, along with the naive drawings of John Hannah, beautifully directed by Jonathan Hodgson create a compelling narrative, a mix of drawings and words never created before. What attracts me the most to this film is the very intelligent, beautiful and poetic transitions. It is a touching but haunting story about the meaning of life. An unforgettable film in every sense.
Danski pesnik / The Danish Poet
This Oscar®-winning short animation follows Kasper, a poet whose creative well has run dry, on a holiday to Norway to meet the famous writer Sigrid Undset. Kasper attempts to answer some pretty big questions: Can we trace the chain of events that leads to our own birth? Is our existence just coincidence? Do little things matter? As Kasper's quest for inspiration unfolds, it appears that a spell of bad weather, an angry dog, slippery barn planks, a careless postman, hungry goats and other seemingly unrelated factors might play important roles in the big scheme of things after all.
This Scandinavian based love story is so touching, because it shows the effect that coincidence and chance can have on one’s life. Its simplistic, easy style with the warmth and humour of Liv Ullmann’s voice, creates a cosy beautiful fairytale you’d want to watch over and over again.
Flux
A whimsical animated piece about life, entropy and the inexorable march of time that plays with the mundane interactions and significant events of two generations of a family and the natural order. A film without words.
Flux is a film about the cycle of life with an exceptionally original design and exuberant energy. I love how creative the style of the animation of this film is,and it reminds me each time how fun and fantastic animation can be. With its bold treatment of space, it is also proof that animation can be much more than cinema.
Ko je maček doma / Quand le chat est là… / When the cat is not away…
When a cat is left alone at home one evening, he suddenly finds himself in a funny situation.
This is maybe my first film for children and it is my first time trying cut-out animation (probably deriving from my love for Norstein films). It is sort of a funny revenge story. I made this film in La Poudrière school of animation as my graduation film, where the challenge was to tell a story in a 3-minute film.
Bouge!
A woman is stuck in traffic in the streets of Tehran.
This little film was our first year assignment in La Poudrière School of animation. A one-minute challenge. The theme was “bicycle”.
Šlogarica / Fortune-Telling with Coffee
Two women drink Turkish coffee. One starts reading the cup to the other. The little boy standing by the table playing suddenly sees an eye blinking at him from inside one of the cups!
I grew up in a country with lots of superstitions. Women I knew would go to cup readings or do it for each other, sometimes it was more like an excuse to talk about deeper issues they had in their personal lives; some sort of therapy in a society where going to a shrink was not considered normal. I always found those sessions fascinating and full of imagination, each person could find a different thing in the coffee marks inside the cup. I started drawing what I saw in those cups. Fortune-telling with Coffee was my graduation film in Iran twelve years ago and it was my first attempt ever at making animation. I did almost everything myself and that is why it is very basic.
Beach Flags
Vida is a young Iranian lifeguard. Popular on her team, she is determined to fight in order to be the one to participate in an international competition in Australia. However, when Sareh who is as fast and talented as her, joins the team, Vida will have to face an unexpected situation.
When I got interested in making a film about Iranian women swimmers, I already knew they could not participate in international competitions, but I still wanted to talk to them and hear what they had to say about it. What they told me about their hopeless situation was no surprise, but they told me about Beach Flags, the only international game women swimmers and lifeguards were able to compete in. When they explained the game to me, I immediately got this ironic image in my head: swimmers running on the beach by the sea, but not having the right to go into the water, it really drove me to write a story about it. Because it was about the strength of these women who do not give up no matter what situation they are in. Animation was also the perfect vehicle for making Beach Flags into a film; it enabled me to go to places where the camera is not allowed – the women’s swimming pool and the women’s beach. Animation gave me the freedom to tell a story without any obstacles.