Woman strokes fish. Fish squelshes. Man strokes fish. Fish squelshes. Woman strokes man. Woman strokes knife. Man strokes fish…. and so it goes on. I may reveal myself as an animation dunce when I say I had no previous knowledge of Pritt Parn’s work before attending the screening of his feature film Life Without Gabriella Ferri last night at the London Animation Festival.
It’s hard to say what the film is about, and perhaps it’s completely unnecessary. Life without Gabriella Ferri, fittingly, only briefly references Gabriella herself. There’s a one legged chicken, an impassible runner, a wandering spider, a thief, and a number of creepy ophthalmologists. While the drawings are scratchy and messy, there’s a precise, almost choreographed fluidity to the movements of the characters. The 44 minutes of the film are no easy watch. I experienced growing anxiety. Everything here, from the unrelenting soundscape to the neglected child with the bandaged hand, feeds a sense of unease, a clear message that something is wrong. And yet the film cultivates its own internal, inexorable logic, a weird structure in the chaos.
Yup, that’s Estonian animation for you. Tomorrow, light relief in the form of sexy zebras and clumsy undertakers when I review the LIAF programme of Siggraph Asia shorts.
Have you seen Pritt Parn’s work? I’d be interested to hear what you made of it.
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