Apr 11, 2013

Trailer and clips from "Gloria Victoria" by Theodore Ushev

The National Film Board of Canada has released a trailer and clips from Theodore Ushev's new film, Gloria Victoria, which will be screened in Annecy in June:

Combining elements of Surrealism and Cubism, this animated short film by Theodore Ushev It focuses on the relationship between art and war. Driven by the exuberant "invasion" theme of Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony (No. 7), it presents images of battlefronts and massacres from Dresden to Guernica, the Spanish Civil War to Star Wars. It is at the same time a symphony that serves the war machine and stirs the masses, an art that mourns the dead, expresses anger, and calls for peace.

Ushev draws on the rich history of modern art in Gloria Victoria and turns it into an intuitive and original animated experience. I saw the workprint last fall, and it is an enthralling art lover's delight, if not obvious from these previews.