Nine Nation Animation

This virtuoso anthology of nine recent shorts from around the world offers visionary, grown-up (i.e., sometimes enigmatic) animation in various permutations and moods. The collection is bracketed by two Scandinavian entries: Norway's mordant opening, Deconstruction Workers, by Kajsa Naess, uses a computer-assisted style of photo-collage to eavesdrop on two laborers discussing job and life issues, oblivious to a violent revolution/apocalypse besieging their worksite; and the Swedish closer from Jonas Odell, Never Like the First Time!, employs different techniques (all computer-assisted) in four segments with various narrators reflecting on their first sexual experiences, good and bad. In between those bookends, Turkey's Average 40 Matches, from Burkay Dogan, draws on photography and stop-motion techniques to depict matchsticks satisfying their craving for cigarettes. France's astounding Bamiyan, by Patrick Pleutin, uses a multimedia stop-motion swirl of paints, powders, sand, stone, and organic material to link a seventh-century Chinese Buddhist monk with the doleful history of Taliban-dominated Afghanistan. In Please Say Something, Ireland's David O'Reilly employs a style resembling early computer graphics to present a futuristic tale about a cat and a mouse. Belgium's Flatlife, a constant four-panel nonverbal comedy by Jonas Geirnaert set inside an apartment complex, is probably the nearest this compilation gets to traditional hand-drawn cartooning (and it's still fairly unorthodox). From Croatia, Veljko Popovic's She Who Measures offers a surreal take on American consumerism, while the U.K.'s Home Road Movies, by Robert Bradbrook, occupies a netherworld between live-action footage and photo-realistic digital backgrounds and props for its bittersweet reminiscence about a late father's penchant for road trips. And from South Africa's Blackheart Gang, The Tale of How pairs an operatic score with wobbly camerawork to portray a mythical kingdom of birds. DVD extras include a bonus short, The Runt, from Germany's Andreas Hykade. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)