Sundance to host Iranian short animation ‘The Fourth Wall’

Iranian short animation ‘The Fourth Wall’ has been selected to compete at the 2022 edition of the Sundance Film Festival in the US.

Written and made by Mahboubeh Kalaee and produced by the Documentary and Experimental Film Center in Tehran, the director has mixed animated objects with hand-painted illustrations and filmed them using a roving camera. The result is an innovative method that brilliantly blurs the lines between fiction and reality.

In ‘The Fourth Wall’, home and family, relationships, desires, wishes and everything are summarized in a kitchen. A stuttering boy is alone playing with his imaginations.

“A stuttering boy transforms an Iranian kitchen into a fantastic cosmos.  The father’s body becomes a refrigerator, the mother’s belly a washing machine whose spin cycle gives birth to a screaming baby. Even birds on tiles and detergents have a surprising life of their own. This exuberant animation, dotted with real-life elements – fried eggs, broken plates, chess pieces – develops a subtle wit, ironizing ingrained family patterns,” a synopsis for the animation reads.

The 10-minute animation won the “Zlatko Grgić Award” at the World Festival of Animated Film Animafest Zagreb in Croatia, the best film award at the International Fantoche Animation Festival in Switzerland, “Mephisto 97.6 Award” at the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (DOK Leipzig) in Germany, and an honorable mention at the Leeds International Film Festival in the UK.

Also set to vie at the London Short Film Festival in the UK, ‘The Fourth Wall’ was screened at several global events, including the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, the BFI London Film Festival in the UK, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, and the Animest International Animation Film Festival in Romania.

The upcoming edition of the Sundance Film Festival will be held online and in person and hosts films from around the world.

The 2022 edition of the event will be held on January 20-30.

Iranian short flick ‘Exam’ won the Special Jury Award for Best Actor at the 2020 edition of the Sundance Film Festival.

Read more:

Iranian animation ‘The Fourth Wall’ releases trailer

German fest’s awards goes to Iranian ‘Fourth Wall’

Iranian animation ‘The Fourth Wall’ wins in Croatia

Leeds filmfest honors Iranian animation ‘The Fourth Wall’

Sundance fest to host Iranian short ‘Orthodontics’

‘Exam’ wins award at Sundance Film Festival

MG/AG