Athens ANIMFEST to host ‘The Fourth Wall’

Iranian short animation ‘The Fourth Wall’ has been set to go on screen at the 2022 edition of the Athens ANIMFEST in Greece.

Written and made by Mahboubeh Kalaee, the 10-minute award-winning animated piece will be shown at the main competition section of the 17th edition of the Greek 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.

The ‘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.

The Athens ANIMFEST is an annual international animation film festival in Greece. The event aims to give chance to Greek and foreign artists to show their talent and restless spirit.

This year’s edition of the fest is slated for March 17-20.

AA/MG