Leeds filmfest honors ‘The Fourth Wall’

The Leeds International Film Festival in the UK has honored Iranian animation ‘The Fourth Wall’.

Written and made by Mahboubeh Kalaee, the 10-minute animation received an honorable mention at the 35th edition of the Leeds event.

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.

Currently vying at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, ‘The Fourth Wall’ was screened at several global events, including 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.

It 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, and “Mephisto 97.6 Award” at the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (DOK Leipzig) in Germany.

Winners of the Leeds filmfest were announced last week as ‘Love Is Just a Death Away’ by Bara Anna Stejskalova from the Czech Republic won the best animation award.

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

MG/MG