Source: cineuropa.org
Publish Date: June 12, 2019

“This, right here, is the ultimate ground zero. When you’re not anything anymore. A speck on the pavement, without a name, a past or a future. If no-one else has any better ideas, I’m going to take a moment to watch-back the film of my life. I’ve heard that that’s what happens when you die.” A car has just hit a dog, whose body is picked up and held by a grieving young girl in the middle of the road. It is into the life of this animal, as it flashes before all of our eyes, that Anca Damian’s Marona’s Fantastic Tale [+] plunges the viewer, a film of superb delicacy which world-premiered in competition at the 43rd Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

In her first incursion into the world of family animation following the decidedly adult titles Cruclic – The Path To Beyond [+] (Annecy’s champion in 2012) and The Magic Mountain [+] (likewise discovered in competition in the Savoyard city in 2015), the eclectic Romanian filmmaker (also the director of three live-action feature films) hasn’t lost a drop of her seductive, creative singularity. Visually exquisite and peppered with vertiginous, sparkling, surrealist sequences, Marona’s Fantastic Tale imparts a profound life philosophy on the question of identity, the search for happiness, the bonds which form between beings and the human condition as seen through the animal’s eyes, all wrapped up in a very simple and moving story which is accessible to the very youngest of audiences.

Read full article on: cineuropa.org