KROK International Animated Film Festival celebrated its 20th birthday this year and oh what a nine-day birthday party it was! Breaking with the usual festival tradition of showing the first competition program at a theatre followed by a welcome dinner on the ship on opening night, we were taken to a beach club overlooking the Black Sea in Odessa. From the moment we arrived at the opening ceremony at the beautiful Otrada Beach Club, I knew that it was going to be a special year.
There were welcome speeches and a special salute by Yuri Norshtein to Edward Nazarov, Russian president of the festival who was sadly unable to sail with us this year. Then came a live demonstration of the unique art of Hungarian sand animator Ferenc Cako, a member of the jury this year. This was followed by a screening of the French feature film The Day of the Crows directed by Jean-Christopher Dessaint, and a sumptuous feast served under the stars on the club’s lawn.
KROK was not the only one celebrating a birthday this year. The renowned Pilot Studio, the first independent Soviet Film Studio, is 25 years old this year. The retrospective screening “Pilot Studio is 25 Years Old --- A story of success, struggle, and creation . . .” paid tribute to the legion of films that the studio has produced and the man whose vision and stubborn determination created this great studio again all odds, Alexander Tatarsky.
Alexander brought together a group of talented, like-minded animators to create Pilot’s first film Lift 1 as well as Igor Kovalev’s classic Kafkaesque Hen His Wife. Working in a dilapidated church under very difficult conditions, the studio fostered young talent and built up a stunning body of post-perestroika films.
Tatarsky’s greatest legacy is The Pile of Gems project, a series of short animations based on fairy tales from all of the former Soviet Union’s many diverse regions. Launched in 2004 the films are made in different styles by various top Russian and Ukrainian animators. To date Pilot has released more than 60 of these delightful films that continue to win awards at festivals around the world.
Sadly, Alexander Tatarsky is not here to see the success of his beloved Pile of Gems project because he unexpectedly passed away in 2007, but his spirit and love of life lives on in the films that Pilot Studio continues to create. Tatarsky was known for his immense sense of humor and each year since his passing, the KROK festival presents The Plasticine Crow trophy in his honor to the most humorous film at the festival. The trophy is names after Alexander’s classic 1981 animation The Plasticine Crow, which won numerous awards.
Following the screening of a selection of Pilot short animation’s, film historian Natalia Lukinykh’s moving 2008 documentary Alexander Tatarsky --- How to Embrace the Immense was shown. Natalia’s film is part of her The Restless Talents documentary series. Last but not least a group of past and present Pilot studio creators came to the front to say a few words.
For the last two decades the Shar Studio has earned the reputation as the strongest Russian school of animation. The school grew out of the workshop for scriptwriters and directors conducted by such well known animators as Edward Nazarov, Yuriy Norstein, Fedor Khitruk, and Andrey Khrzhanovsky. Current leaders of Russian animation such as Alexander Petrov, Ivan Maximov, and Mikhail Aldashin received their training at the workshop. In the early ‘90’s Shar school-studio was born on the premise of parallel production of new films by experienced professionals and student’s works created during the 2 year course. In the last 2 decades, Shar Studio has earned the reputation as the most important Russian national school of animation and their faculty and students’ films have won more than 50 awards world-wide. One of my favourite films Caution, the Doors Are Opening was created at the school in 2005 by Anastasia Zhuravleva when she was a student of Ivan Maximov, and was included in the school’s retrospective screening. This clever film was made using ordinary things that are found in every home’s sewing basket such as buttons, safety pins and a thimble to tell the story of 24 hours in a Moscow subway station. The 12 films screened were made between 1995 and 2011, and included A Mermaid made in 1996 by Alexander Petrov.
Animated propaganda films have always fascinated me, and I was really looking forward to the Animated Propaganda program of early Ukrainian/Soviet animation. Early avant-garde animated films of the 1920’s were influenced by constructivism and technological experimentation and covered such timely topics as disarmament, social construction, and bureaucracy. Beginning in 1927, animation advertisements, as they were called, were screened prior to a feature film and were often animated in the style of a newsreel, as in The Tale of General Disarmament. The Post paid homage to the organization and perseverance of the Soviet postal service to deliver a letter no matter what obstacles stood in the way and to the valour of the men who delivered the mail.
I was fascinated by Dripreistan, a 1927 propaganda film about the building of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station. The film used animation to show the flooding of the towns behind the dam when it was built. The flooding resulted in the building of a massive set of three chambered locks almost 2 kilometers long, which made navigation by large boats on the river possible. Our boat passed through these locks on our way up the river and it was a very impressive sight indeed.
This year the festival selection committee did an exceptional job, and there were so many wonderful films to watch that I can’t possibly write about them all. One of my favorites was My Mum Is an Aeroplane, by Russian animator Julia Aronova. The colourful hand drawn celebration of the diversity of mothers is very humorous and touching at the same time. The narrative is told in poetic form and Julia told me that the poem was written by Sasha Nochin, a strolling musician with the band Pakava It, based on a story which Julia wrote. I often find the voice of a very young child narrating a film to be annoying, but the voice of the 5 year old boy who narrates this film fits perfectly. I understand that a different child’s voice was used on the US version and I hope it has the same magic quality that the original voice has. My Mum Is an Aeroplane was awarded the Tatarsky Plasticine Crow award for its original humor.
Dutch animator Kris Genijn’s History of Pets is a black humoured trip down memory lane as the narrator recalls all the childhood pets who met their end under most curious circumstances. The film brought back memories to me of the many four legged and reptilian members in my household that I have known and loved over the years.
One of the things that I appreciate about KROK is the opportunity to see not only Russian and Ukrainian animation but films from countries that are not screened often at other festivals such as Moldova, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. DIJ Death Fails created at Simpals Studio in Moldova by Dmitry Voloshin is about a truck driver who falls asleep at the wheel and ends up in the hospital. The grim reaper arrives immediately but as the computer animated film shows, being the Angel of Death isn’t always easy. The film is a pilot for a planned series.
Ukrainian animator Vladimir Goncharov’s Lita Moi took me into the world of renowned Ukrainian folk artist Maria Primachenko. Maria spent her entire life in a very small village but she transformed her world into a colourful fantasy of naive art. Lita Moi, based on Maria’s vivid images, brought life to her paintings, which I saw several years ago in Kiev at the National Museum of Ukranian Folk Art.
In Sherlock Holmes and the Little Chimney Sweeps Ukraine animator Aleklsandr Boubnov has brought the familiar characters of the great detective, his devoted companion Dr Watson and the whole crew that frequented 221B Baker Street to life in a new case that begins with a mysterious explosion of the Admiralty Office fireplace and the theft of classified documents from the safe. I think that it is always chancy when you try to bring really iconic characters that everyone knows to life and I was a bit sceptical about the 34 minute film, but I ended up being totally charmed by it. The cut out animation gave the characters a unique look rather than trying to make them look lifelike and the story was original and charming. A friend who worked on the project told me that Aleksandr made the film as a pilot for a TV series and I think it would definitely be an entertaining show.
I was enthralled by Youri Tcherenkov’s Father Frismas (Le Pere Frimas). Pere Frimas lives on the very top of the highest mountain in the Alps and he controls when and how much snow will fall. Every year he makes sure that the snow covers everything and then suddenly one year nothing happened as usual. The drawn animation is full of delightful characters, two and four legged, and the intricate back ground art was the perfect touch. The 26 minute film was made for French television and at KROK it won the top award in the Films for Children category.
When we weren’t watching films there were plenty of other programs taking place. Coffee Chats with the directors gave everyone a chance to listen to the creators talk about their film and to ask them questions. The 2 hours I spent in the creative presentation by US producer and script writer Charles Swenson titled “US/International Storytelling for Animated Film and Television” was time well spent. Charles who has received an Oscar nomination and won an Emmy for The Rugrats certainly knows what he is talking about when it comes to scriptwriting. He has the added distinction to have not only worked in Hollywood, but also at Pilot Studio where he was the writer and producer of Bookashkis. The 2002 film, directed by Mikhail Aldashin, won numerous awards internationally. Charles is now primarily spending his time painting and when he showed me photos of a number of his canvases, I was quite impressed. You can check out his paintings on this website: charlesgswenson.com
It was great to spend time with my old friends Marcy Page and Normand Roger. Marcy, a Senior producer at the National Film Board of Canada, has been responsible for so many award winning films such as The Danish Poet, Madam Tutli-Putli, and Ryan to name just a few, so I welcomed the opportunity to hear her presentation “Stories From The NFB: Confessions of a Producer”. Being quite the lady, Marcy didn’t have any really scandalous confessions, but she did tell some amusing stories about her adventures at NFB and showed us some wonderful films. Normand gave a Composer’s Masterclass focusing on sound and music in animation.
As always at the festival there were several dogs and children on board. The young people were kept busy at their own workshop where, with the assistance of professional animators, the future animators created a film which was screened at the closing night ceremony.
Of course KROK is not all about watching film. There is plenty of time for fun, dancing on the top deck, and just watching the world go by from a deck chair as we drifted up the river. Late at night the action was on the top deck where there was music, dancing and lots of drink. One of the nicest customs at KROK is the tradition of bringing out food to share with everyone late at night, which is important because I have learned that when drinking vodka you need to eat a bite or two after each drink. One night the Swiss contingent threw a fondue party on the top deck complete with fondue pot. Some nights the screening room was turned into the Re-Animation Club where different people performed and every night you could find groups of people gathered in the public areas inside playing music, singing and talking.
When you begin to see groups of people with their heads together and they stop talking when anyone approaches you know that Carnival night is getting near. Carnival is a high point of the social life on the boat when everyone dresses up and performs for each other. Right after dinner on the appointed night people start to scurry all over searching for props and costume material and strange noises come from behind cabin doors as acts are rehearsed. I was a part of a six person group along with Karin Vandenrydt, programmer at Anima Brussels, Noemie Marsily and Carl Roosens from Brussels who were at KROK with their lovely film Around the Lake, Dutch animator Kris Genijn, whose History of Pets made me smile, and Mukund Bhalkeghare from Studio Eeksaurus in India. This year the carnival theme was Noah’s Ark and we brought Noah’s Ark Restaurant to life parading the regulations posted outside our shipboard restaurant such as “No outside beverages in the dining room” and the “do not change your table” rule. Mukund skilfully played a waiter and the rest of us were various unruly animals. To add to the effect the ship’s restaurant kindly loaned us table clothes and plates and the restaurant staff who came to Carnival got a hearty laugh out of our performance. Performances at Carnival are always one of those “you had to be there to see it” events. The audience and Carnival jury thought that we were quite funny and we were lucky enough to win a very fitting prize of a whole watermelon, dried fish, and cans of beer which we took to the top deck to share with everyone later that night.
There were group excursions at various ports of call but since I have been on this trip several times I opted for my own adventures. KROK means step in Russian and this year our boat, the MS Dnieper, left from Odessa as we began our steps up to Kiev. No matter how many times I have been there I always have my picture taken on the 192 stairs of the Odessa Steps which Eisenstein made famous in his classic film Battleship Potemkin.
Odessa more than deserves its nickname of The Pearl of the Black Sea. The wide boulevards are lined with sycamore and chestnut trees and the beautiful classic architecture make an elegant impression. Odessa has a massive outdoor market full of all sorts of unexpected treasurers. On every visit I get a pair of thick woollen socks made by the Bubas who sit in their stalls knitting which I use inside my winter slippers. All through the cold months I think of sunny Odessa as I put on my slippers. I was also glad to see that our favorite Mexican restaurant was still there because they make some of the best Mexican food I have eaten in Europe.
Sailing into Sebastopol’s elegant harbour is always breath taking. During the Soviet era Sebastopol, home to the Soviet navy, was closed to non-residents who had to apply to the authorities for temporary visitor’s permits to enter the city. Now it is a prime holiday destination and as you stroll the broad main street, you hear a wide variety of languages spoken.
Once again this year I took the local bus out to the old Greek ruins where my favourite beach is located. As I walk through the ruins of Chersones it always amazes me to realize that the tile work I am walking over is more than 2,500 years old. This year the weather was cool and windy but I did brave the elements for a quick dip in the Black Sea.
Visits to ports are fun but I enjoy it even more when our boat sails out of Sebastopol and we leave the Black Sea to sail up the Dnieper River. The stops at ports are fewer and shorter so we are all together creating our own fun every evening.
Sailing into Kiev was a bittersweet moment. As the giant titanium Motherland statue followed by the golden domes of the Kiev Perchersk Lavra came into view, it meant that another year of KROK was almost over; but a day in the beautiful city of Kiev lay ahead before the closing ceremony that evening. The ceremony was held at the House of Cinema where the Ukrainian office of KROK is located.
The ceremony began with the screening of the young people’s film. Then came a documentary of our 9 day adventure made by videographer Igor Koziyanchuk. Igor seemed to be everywhere on board, catching everything with his camera and it was delightful to relive our adventure there on the screen. The film will be shown again next year at the Opening Ceremony of KROK 2014. Hungarian sand artist Ferenc Cako also gave us another live demonstration of his fascinating art of sand animation.
Finally it was time for the jury to take the stage to announce their decisions to the audience full of animators and dignitaries. This year’s jury was composed of Evgueni Delioussine, Russian born director who now lives in the United States; Ukrainian director Stepan Koval; Maria Mouat, Russian Director; Estonian cameraman and scriptwriter Janno Poldma; and Hungarian animator and sand animation master Ferenc Cako. The 2013 Grand Prix was awarded to Feral by Daniel Sousa from the United States. A complete list of all of the winning films is at the end of this article.
Following the ceremony we returned to the boat for our farewell feast. Amidst all of the delicacies we were served, including the eating of the traditional Chicken Kiev in Kiev and copious amounts of vodka and wine, we partied the night away with no one wanting to remember that it would be our last night together.
It is said that the friends that you make at KROK are your friends for life and after many years sailing on the KROK boat I know that this is very true. I never think of it as goodbye to everyone but just see you soon, and I am already looking forward to KROK 2014 which will be the student year sailing in Russia. You can learn more about KROK International Animation Festival on their website: www.krokfestival.com
Jury Awards
The International Jury Committee consisting of Ferenc Cako (Hungary) – The Head of the Jury Committee, Janno Põldma (Estonia), Maria Mouat (Russia), Stepan Koval (Ukraine), Evgueni Delioussine (USA)
The Awards:
In the category “Films up to 5 minutes”:
- Diploma “For the tragic comedy in 3D” – to “Dji. Death Fails”, director Dmitry Voloshin (Moldova);
- Diploma “For the daintiness of the style” to “Choir Tour”, director Edmunds Jansons (Latvia;
- Diploma “For proving that the size doesn’t matter” to “A Different Perspective”, director Chris O’Hara (Ireland);
- Prize in the category – to “I Saw Mice Burying a Cat”, director Dmitry Geller (Russia, China).
In the category “Films of 5 – 10 minutes”:
- Diploma “For the exquisite attention towards the Most Intimate” to “Lay Bare”, director Paul Bush (Great Britain);
- Diploma “For having created her own “Taj Mahal”” to “Chinti”, director Nataliya Mirzoyan (Russia);
- Prize in the category – to “Borderline”, director Dustin Rees (Switzerland).
In the category “Films of 10 – 50 minutes”:
- Diploma “For a new approach to the interpretation of a classical detective story” to “Sherlock Holmes and Little Chimney Sweeps”, director Aleksandr Bubnov (Ukraine);
- Diploma for “For the artistic and airy presentation of the sombre topic” to “One for the Road”, director Lander Ceuppens (Belgium);
- Prize in the category – to “Mother and Son”, director Andrey Ushakov (Russia).
In the category “Films for Children”:
- Diploma “For the non-boring education” to “The Old Piano Fairy-Tails. Bach”, director Elena Petkevich (Russia, Belarus);
- Prize in the category and $4000 - to “Father Frismas”, director Youri Tcherenkov (France).
In the category “Applied and commissioned animation”:
- Diploma “For the ironic look at the contemporary art” to “The Erarta Museum Advertising”, director Dmitriy Vysotskiy (Russia);
- Diploma “For the best presentation of the folk song… “Once when I served my landlord”” to “Once When I Served My Dear Landlord”, director Mikhail Tumelya (Belarus);
- Prize in the category – to “Shape”, directors Katarzyna Kijek, Przemyslaw Adamski (Poland, Japan).
- Special jury prize “For the expressiveness of the cinematic style” to “Palmipedarium”, director Jeremy Clapin (France);
- Special jury prize “For the streetcar called “Desire”” to “Tram”, director Michaela Pavlatova (France);
- Special jury prize “For the First Professional Film” and 5000$ to “To Santiago”, director Mauro Carraro (Switzerland);
- Special Alexander Tatarskiy prize “The Plasticine Crow” – “Virtuoso Pilot” and 8000$ to “My Mum Is an Aeroplane”, director Julia Aronova (Russia).
- Grand Prix and $10,000 to “Feral”, director Daniel Sousa (USA).
