What a feature film is to the novel, the short film can be for the poem. A burst of ideas distilled into something almost indefinable, but rife with life and meaning. Drawing from such source material, animator Theodore Ushev transforms Romance Sonambulo by Federico García Lorca, one of Spain’s most important twentieth-century poets, into a surrealist-inspired exploration of a sleepwalker’s dreams in his short “Sonambulo / The Sleepwalker.” In translating the poem to pictures, Ushev drew heavily upon Joan Miró, another Spanish artist, for his signature biomorphic forms, geometric shapes, and semi-abstracted objects. Using a similar color palette, he juxtaposes surrealist shapes with simple, more recognizable ones like chickens, people, the moon, and more. Like Miró, the short film balances that feeling of spontaneity and stream of consciousness with precision and strong compositions, teeming with life while ebbing and flowing like waves upon the shore. Whatever narrative may exist is abstract and obscured by the complex shapes that bounce in and out of the frame only to bend, morph, and repeat. As the short builds to its crescendo, the art lovers out there must be sure to keep their eyes peeled for Ushev’s other influences (and even little homages) from all over the art world including Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Wassily Kandinsky and many more. The result is an irresistibly playful and gorgeous romp which will have you pausing, rewinding and screenshotting when you’re not tapping your toe to the endlessly catchy “Opa Hey!” musical composition by Bulgarian artist Kottarashky. If you’re hoping for more Lorca and Miró inspired pieces from Ushev, I’m afraid he’s not the type to stick with a style, but rather finds different ones to fit his films. His newest short “Blind Vaysha,” produced by the NFB of Canada and currently shortlisted for an Academy Award, utilizes a color-separated woodblock technique and is in the form of a fable.
Check out the interview with Theodore below for more information on “The Sleepwalker” and a tidbit on his upcoming, epic short created with a never-before used animation technique. Also, remember to keep an eye out for news about “Blind Vaysha” possibly being nominated for an Academy Award on January 24th! Vimeo: “The Sleepwalker” was inspired by Romance Sonámbulo, a Federico García Lorca poem. What about that poem spurred you to make this film? Theodore Ushev: Lorca was one of the leading surrealist writers. The poem itself has the notion of subconscious stream of images, which was the jolt for my inspiration from the beginning. To make an animated, almost abstract film over a poem, without any spoken word seemed a promising challenge for me and that poem just got into my guts. How does one translate a poem into images, set to music? Did you have any specific goals or ideas you wanted to achieve? That was the question. Aside from being a “wink” to the surrealist movement, I wanted to create a joyful film, that makes the public happy – inexplicably happy. The surrealist movement was a play, a game itself. I often start my masterclasses with the quotation, “The life is a dream (and everything is a game).” It is a modified version of the romantic belief of another Spanish writer – Pedro Calderón de la Barca. This little film can be seen as such – an allegory over the joy and mystery of life.
The style of “The Sleepwalker” and “Blind Vaysha” couldn’t be more different from each other. Do you feel you have a signature style or do you adapt it to fit the story you’re telling? Absolutely adapt! The only common thread between the two films is the desire to put philosophically important themes into very simply structured films. What connects them, is the impact they have on children. You have to see the reaction that kids have to “The Sleepwalker” – they go crazy, jumping, clapping, dancing! At the same time, the film was presented into several very important, serious contemporary art museum collections – next to the Miro paintings! And Blind Vaysha – it is a film for kids 9 to 99. The film is winning both adult and kids jury awards. The style or how a film is done, or the animation technique, is not relevant for me. First, it is the concept, the story. It is the feelings that it brings to the public that matters. If the spectator jumps in front of the screen while watching “The Sleepwalker,” I will be the happiest man in the world. If the spectator closes his eyes at the end of “Blind Vaysha” – mission completed! What are you working on now? On a very ambitious 30 minute project, musing over a book from the same writer I worked with on “Blind Vaysha” – Georgi Gospodinov. The film is called “The Physique of Sadness.” It uses a technique, that has never been used in animation before, but it is too early to talk about it… NFB did a documentary on it already, so it will appear on Vimeo, when the time is right.
