Human Nature [Sverre Fredriksen] **½
In this
two-minute animated short, director Sverre Fredriksen uses a simple premise for
a couple of funny moments, but without any real structure. In the style of
Wallace & Gromit and Shaun The Sheep, Fredriksen shows us a world in which
humans take the place of livestock and pets and their caretakers are animals. Witty,
but there’s not much substance.
The Walking Fish [Thessa Meijer] ***
Beautifully
shot, but somewhat aloof drama takes the analogy of the Walking Fish, also
known as an axolotl, to tell the story of a young girl and a young adult. The
young girl is physically handicapped and struggles to learn how to walk, the adult
woman is an outstanding swimmer, but when she decides to quit swimming she
literally starts to feel like a fish out of water. Through a series of
interviews we find out how the stories are linked, but I found it hard to
accept that link as the actresses do not resemble one another at all. Well
acted, but it just doesn’t quite work.
Wavy Tales [Sunjoo Lee] ****
Crudely,
sometimes even clumsily shot documentary in which director Sunjoo Lee questions
people from different countries, ages and backgrounds about the microwave. The questions
aren’t particularly brilliant, but it’s the answer that help make this quite
entertaining as the interviewees come up with totally different, sometimes
downright outrageous theories as to how the microwave works, as well as to how
and why the microwave was developed. Lee sums it all up in a wonderfully edited
series of animations that show us how people seem to think this very ordinary,
yet very complicated kitchen tool actually works. In doing so, she challenges
the audience to question our relationship with machinery in general. Judging by
the Arthur C Clarke-quote she added to the film, she appreciates the magic of
machinery, but this raises many more questions which are very much worth debating
Our Song To War [Juanita Onzage] **
Set in the
Colombian jungle, director Juanita Onzage links the story of so-called
Crocodile Men to a group of youngsters, at least one of whom claims to have had
an encounter with a creature who may have been one of them. The title suggests
that it is somehow related to an ongoing war, but I didn’t get that at all. In
spite of some decent cinematography, I found this to be a little bit
frustrating.
Driving Dinosaurs [Emma Catherine Piper-Burket]
***½
Director Emma Catherine Piper-Burket
reminisces about the time when she travelled through the US across a long,
desolate road where every petrol station was part of the Sinclair-franchise,
which uses a dinosaur as its logo. For a long time it was suggested that the
fuel for our motorised vehicles came from dinosaurs, and that was used to
somehow romanticise the idea of driving. But the world has changed: not only do
we know this was a myth, but also that the use of gasoline is one of the main
causes of climate change. Piper-Burket makes clever use of movie clips,
probably from the silent version of The Lost World with special effects by the
legendary Willis O’Brien, but it is a bit preachy.
Ben and Mimi – Mimi and Ben ***
Good
cinematography in this fairytale in which a woman, whose stuck in the marriage
to her physically disabled husband of whom she has to take care, which leaves
him very much dependent on her but which has also changed their relationship.
Her passions are rekindled when she is visited by a beautiful caterpillar, as
it moves up her hand. The sense of physical contact gives her a feeling of
being alive that she hasn’t experienced in a while. To be honest, I wasn’t
quite able to connect all the dots and had to resort to an interview with adirector Eva Cragg, but in hindsight it makes sense. Well shot and acted, but
perhaps a bit far-fetched.
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