Congratulations to the Grand Prix winner of the ITFS! The animated short Impossible Figures and Other Stories II truly deserved it.
I had the great pleasure to watch this animated short the second time last week. (First, I’d seen it at the tricky women in Vienna, some weeks ago.) Furthermore, I visited the interviews afterward with the filmmaker Marta Pajek.
Feminist perspective and other interpretations
There are some special moments in Marta Pajek’s animated short, that reminds me of the old short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Marta said at the interview in Stuttgart, that she hadn’t had a feminist topic in mind, though. But she appreciated it, that people interpret so much into her film.
Influences and the process of writing
Marta also mentioned, that her first step of making a film is writing. Only when she’s done with the writing and the concept is clear, she began with the drawing. She said that this process of drawing then is far more fun to do – as it is easier for her.
Metaphors
There are so many metaphors Marta Pajek used. I’d love to find out more about it. How did she create the female main character, for example? Marta said, that she saw the movie Julia from Erick Zonca. Tilda Swinton’s performance is exactly that, what she had in mind for her character.
Also, I wonder about the impossible creature in the egg. It’s truly an outstanding figure in the short, because of its 3-dimensionality and its darkness. Sawing the scene when it comes out of the egg, I interpreted it as ‘the loss of fertility’.
Currently, I’m writing a paper of the ‘Female Figure’ in Marta Pajek’s animated short. The second part of the tryptich Impossible Figures and Other Stories gives me an exciting topic I love to write about. Also, I’m looking forward to see the other two parts in the future.