Animator against War

Animator against War (76′)

5.12.2024, 18:00
Sokółka/Sokólski Ośrodek Kultury, Plac Kościuszki 24
admission free

The Army must leave the barracks from time to time, or too many boys are born. Do such superstitions explain our fascination with war? The sombre allure of destruction captivates us because art has taught us to revere it. Chilling images: bombed-out ruins, suffering, mutilation. It’s hard to admit to an unhealthy fascination. Children’s games of soldiers, admiration for weapons, fighter planes, tanks – these are seemingly meant to evoke noble feelings: courage, honour, brotherhood, but in reality, they give vent to the basest human instincts. Those who have experienced war firsthand speak of it differently. “Vae victis” – woe to the vanquished, yet it is in the hands of the survivors that the duty to pass on the stories remains.

Such stories will be revealed in the programme of films from the largest animation festival in Poland, held in Poznań, which will celebrate its 18th birthday in July 2025. After the screening, we will discuss war.

Are we always to be prepared? To act as though war could break out at any moment? “Oh, how lovely it is on the battlefield,” we sing, before everything is lost. Carl von Clausewitz wrote of “the continuation of politics by other means” – an abstract notion until it becomes an individual horror. What about a version of the world where the seizing of resources, taking control, and intimidating citizens happen without armed conflict? Or where we simply live in peace. War distorts our imagination and alters future scenarios. We learn to live with it as though nothing happened, while trauma embeds itself in our DNA, passed down through generations. Which war do we envision when imagining the next one? How do we speak of what has happened? These are the questions answered by animators from different countries.

Programme:
W lesie są ludzie/There are people in the forest, Szymon Ruczyński, Poland 2023, 9’53”
Souvenir, souvenir, Bastien Dubois, France 2020, 15′
Family Name in The Pocket, Stepan Koval, Ukraine 2019, 13’16”
When War is Over, Simone Massi, Italy 2022, 5’
Under The Endless Sky, Alexandra Dzhiganskaya, Ukraine 2022, 4’
The Wind Whistles , Alessandro Dordoni, UK 2021, 15’
Wargame, Blayne Fitzpatrick, UK 2020, 4’10”
Merciful Angel, Bettina Szremkó, Serbia 2021, 9’39”