Reflective Encounters
“Anastazja Naumenko’s film displays some wonderfully tender storytelling. Shots are allowed the space and time to linger (most effective in a fantastically drawn-out moment of jam sliding down a slice of toast). In these brief moments, we feel the character’s painfully slow pace of life. It’s an existence which feels constantly exposed and observed. Wide-open spaces like airports express an anxious feeling of exposure. None of this would be possible without a truly attentive soundtrack, giving a sense of uncomfortable realism to these stylised environments. It’s a sound design which also allows us entry to the character’s emotional world: a person hyper-fixated on the small details of life.
The use of digital aesthetics resembles the experiments of early CG animators like James Duesing. Like Naumenko, these directors fully embraced the texture-less, geometric qualities of computer-generated imagery. Beyond its appeal, the visual design serves to explore the character’s fracturing identity. As their reality unravels through daydreams their body itself begins to fragment. This leads to a touchingly strange final image that uses experimental techniques to find the fragility of this family unit. These are people who feel more inflated than solid, balloon-like in their sounds and movements.”
— Chris Childs
Filmmaker Bio
Anastazja Naumenko - animator and director of animated and experimental films. She was studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and at KASK in Belgium.
Her works have been exhibited in Kraków, Wrocław and Gent.