HIEROPHANY
POLISH TITLE: HIEROFANIA
Nothingness bursts, and lets out something. From a dark, tarry mass beings emerge — genderless, looped and alone in repetitive, aimless motions. Everything changes, when one of them discovers in itself s o m e t h i n g. It extracts a red ball from within itself. Immediately, the ball starts getting bigger, shifting its shape and hypnotising all of the beings. They all unite in an ecstatic, ritualistic dance — because of an idea, a community is formed. The beings lose themselves and are engulfed by the abyss of the substance which resembles volcanic lava. From the cultivated object of a vaginal shape, a new life is born, a life different from the one that existed before — a colourful, diverse and gendered life.
The author shows hierophany in a symbolic way in the film — the manifestation of holiness in the world, described by the historian and philosopher of religion Mircea Eliade. The author presents an oneiric vision bordering on waking, dreaming and psychedelic experiences, using a language of intense colour and pulsating shapes. The animation is, at the same time, an expression of fascination by the work of cultural anthropologists and the life of traditional societies. On the other hand, it is an expression of a fascination by the life of simple organisms, observed as if through a microscope in a laboratory. "Hierophany" is a fantasy about the beginning — the beginning of the world? human? myth? religion? culture? — a journey into an imaginary world that does not require an unambiguous interpretation.
- GENRE:
- animation
- COUNTRY:
- Polska
- RUNNING TIME:
- 4'
- YEAR:
- 2021
- COLOUR:
- colour
- DIRECTING:
- Maria Nitek
- SCRIPT:
- Maria Nitek
- EDITOR:
- Maria Nitek
- MUSIC:
- Antonina Nowacka, Bogumiła Nowacka
- SOUND:
- Lucyna Wielopolska-Lorenc
- ANIMATION:
- Maria Nitek
- PRODUCTION:
- PWSFTviT (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna)
Maria Nitek »
Born in 1996 in Warsaw. In 2018, she graduated Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Currently student of the Animated Film and Special Effects at the Polish National Film, Television and Theater School in Lodz.- Sydney Film Festival, Australia, 2022 (screening)
- Fete de l'Anim' 2022, France, 2022 (screening)
- 35 FILMFEST DRESDEN International Short Film Festival, Germany, 2023 (screening)
- 35th Aguilar Film Festival, Spain, 2023 (screening)
- 19th Indielisboa International Film Festival, Portugal, 2022 (competition)
- World Festival of Animated Film - Animafest Zagreb 2022, Croatia, 2022 (competition)
- Annecy International Animation Film Festival, France, 2022 (competition)
- 15th International Animation Festival Fest Anča, Slovakia, 2022 (competition)
- CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival, Hungary, 2022 (competition)
- Festival International du Court Metrages Lille, France, 2022 (competition)
- 10th Primanima World Festival of First Animations, Hungary, 2022 (competition)
- Riga International Film Festival 2022, Latvia, 2022 (competition)
- ZINEBI 64 - International Festival of Documentary and Short Film of Bilbao, 2022, Spain, 2022 (competition)
- 41st Film School Fest Munich, Germany, 2022 (competition)
- Animateka International Animated Film Festival 2022, Slovenia, 2022 (competition)
- Animakom Fest 2022, Spain, 2022 (competition)
- Slamdance Film Festival 2023, USA, 2023 (competition)
- Tricky Women/Tricky Realities Festival 2023, Austria, 2023 (competition)
- 30th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS), Germany, 2023 (competition)
- Melbourne International Animation Festival 2023, Australia, 2023 (competition)
- 6th Drunken Film Fest Oakland, USA, 2023 (competition)
- 28th Canberra Short Film Festival, Australia, 2023 (competition)