Mait Laas’ Generatio is a complex, visually dazzling allegory about history, culture, freedom and the cycles of life. Laas’ innovative use of mixed-media techniques is refreshing. All images © Nukufilm.

The synopsis of Estonian animator Mait Laas’s new film, Generatio (2005) sounds straightforward: “An architect tries to help his wife as she gives birth to their child. As he does he slips into a fantastic journey and experiences all manner of wondrous things between the stars and the sea.” As you might expect from the Estonians, things aren’t exactly as simple as they appear to be.

Generatio is actually a complex, visually dazzling allegory about history, culture, freedom and the cycles of life. While Laas’ innovative use of mixed-media techniques is a refreshing blast of fresh air on the Estonian animation landscape, his philosophical and ecological concerns follow in the footsteps of his predecessors, notably Estonian animators Heino Pars and Mati Kutt.

Generatio was made for a German-produced feature film called, Lost and Found. Laas was one of six Eastern European filmmakers invited to contribute to the film. “I was invited to a meeting with Nikolaj Nikitin, who is the delegate from Berlinale (the one of the biggest film festivals in Europe),” says Laas. At the meeting he asked me if I would be interested in joining the project and doing the animation part of the feature.”

Laas was excited by the request and jumped at the opportunity. “It was really surprising for me,” says Laas, “that feature film makers were interested in having animation in their world!” Laas was given some guidelines for the project — it had to deal with problems between generations in new societies — but beyond that he was given almost total creative freedom. “The producers and other filmmakers have trusted me,” adds Laas, “and I had the possibility to do basically what I had written in my script.”