(Canada, 7 min.)
Dir. Theodore Ushev
Programme: Short Cuts Canada (Programme 1)
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| Photo taken from the production, courtesy of the NFB |
How does one even begin to describe the work of Theodore
Ushev? The animation king, who won a Genie for The Lipsett Diaries, is a staple at film festivals. Each tour of
the circuit reveals how each of the director’s works provides a unique and
enthralling sensory experience. Ushev’s entry at TIFF 2013, Gloria Victoria, is another of his
ambitious and visually enthralling abstract works. It’s also one of his best.
Gloria Victoria,
the third installment of Ushev’s Twentieth Century trilogy following 2006’s Tower
Bawher and 2008’s Drux Flux, is a moving and thrilling
depiction of the relationship between art and war. Using the “invasion” theme
from Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, Ushev brings the symphony to life using
remarkable visual counterpoints to realize the legacy of war from the earliest
battles of civilization unto the present. From field-tilling peasants to the
oil-gougers behind the never-ending war at the gas pumps, Gloria
Victoria covers
the scope of war. The film uses iconic images that have become powerful symbols
for war and devastation. From a depiction of the Trojan Horse to a movement
whose style invokes the horror of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, Gloria Victoria uses the maddening
crescendo of “invasion” to build the escalating horror of war. As mankind develops, so do
his weapons. The stylishly surreal images connect to create an angry war
machine.
Gloria Victoria builds to a maddening finale. It pumps up the
viewer with the force of heavy metal music, creating a sense agitation and
anger as the bodies rise and become enveloped in an animated storm cloud of
chaotic frenzy—the film is surely to look doubly stunning in its 3D
presentation at the festival. Ushev ends the film on a calm, yet ironic note,
as Gloria Victoria comes to rest in a peace symbol that can hardly sustain itself with
all the shoddy debris with which it’s built. Gloria Victoria calls for peace, but as
peace collapses and the sun sets on humanity, the film leaves the audience wondering
if there is any glimmer of hope of the at the end of the arms race.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Gloria Victoria screens in Short Cuts
Canada Programme 1 on:
-Saturday, September 7,
9:45 pm at TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
-Sunday, September 8,
10:45 am at TIFF Bell Lightbox 4.
Some of the shorts will also be playing online 24 hours after their public screening, so please check http://www.youtube.com/tiff and see if Gloria Victoria is one them!
Some of the shorts will also be playing online 24 hours after their public screening, so please check http://www.youtube.com/tiff and see if Gloria Victoria is one them!
***Gloria Victoria
also screens in Short Competition 5 at the Ottawa International Film Festival
on:
September 20, 9:15 pm – ByTowne Cinema (GALA)
September 22, 11:00 am – ByTowne Cinema
Also reviewed from Short Cuts Canada 1: Subconscious Password
